Well, so OK, life was normal, but now I have just been to Australia again, to Melbourne and to Gisborne again.
It was great ! I stayed with an Airbnb host the first 5 nights, then I went to Gisborne to stay with Tim and Marie and then the last weekend with Jos and Rachel.

I saw a paddock full of kangaroos. That to me was special! The next paddock over had also heaps of them.

We also saw sand sculptures. This is one of them.

I'm not a very good blogger, obviously. I haven't written in ages. I guess it means I'm back to " normal" life.
But my " normal" life is still a very good life.
Since coming home from Australia, we went back to Australia for Joe and Rachel's wedding. We met our granddaughter there again with Aaron and Alice who came all the way from Holland for the wedding.
Mike came from Korea, and that was a bit of a mission. Long way and he had been very sick. It really was a miracle that he made it.

He has food poisoning or a stomach infection and had been dismissed from hospital a couple of day prior to him coming to Australia. But he gained strength with each day.

After that everyone came home for Christmas, except Mike, who had to go back teaching in Korea.

It was a busy time over Christmas, but great to have Violet with us and enjoy the beach, the pool and the river and just being together. Aunty Jan Haworth and me with Violet in Melbourne. Dec 2016.

In March we had house sitters for our 4 week Campervan trip, but instead, we had to wait for the weather to clear up and managed to go for 1 week around the East-cape. The Taranaki week ended up happening in June.

This was our place in Gisborne.
And now it's July, and time is marching on. We have had Mike back since middle of May and he has done a paint job in the old backpackers and now it looks like new and it has been upgraded to Airbnb. So now we charge $135- per night for 2 people including breakfast or $100- per night for 2 without.

Above, our newly renovated Airbnb.
Inn the meantime, I am already planning the next trip. This is to Holland, to visit Violet, in August. Mike is applying for a job in Chine, in Shen Zhen, 1 hour inland from Hong Kong. That means we could visit him on the way to Holland in July 2018. Stay with him for 1 week.
Then on to Holland and stay with Aaron and Alice and Violet, but as to not overstay our welcome, we will do some side trips to Belgium, to Ghent, Brugge, and Antwerp, and also Amsterdam, Giethoorn and other places.

After the 1st week of September, we will fly with Transavia to TelAviv and pick up a car from there and drive North to visit Yael and Allan, and also go up to the Carmel mountain range, see Haifa, visit Liat, stay for a couple of days in Kiryat Tivon, and then travel to the Sea of Galilee and stay with a nice Airbnb host that have a Farmstay like ours with horses, so hopefully do a horsetrek with views of the Sea of Galilee, and a day trip to the shores of the sea of Galilee and for for a ride on the " Faith Boat" that has a singer with songs of worship songs while we ride on the sea of Galilee. Also a visit to the Mount of Beatitudes is on the list.
And swimming in the sea of Galilee of course.
From there we hope to drive to Gan Hashlosha and Beit She'An and explore more there.
Anyway, I won't tell you the whole itinerary as it's too early for now, but we hope to stay 3 1/2 week to 4 weeks in Israel and join the IECJ in Jerusalem for their 7 day land package tour of their Feast of Tabernacles.
After that 7 day land tour, we will go from telAviv with Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong back to Auckland. So Israel is on the way back. So why not stop there and do the things we didn't do on our last trip to Israel.
As for now, well, it's July 2017. One year will go fast enough.
Plenty of things to do here.
In August( next month) I am booked to visit Joe and Rachel in Melbourne, and I'll be away for 12 days, 2 weekends with Joe and Rachel and in the middle of the week I am visiting Tim and Marie, the couple with 2 kids we met while I am living in Gisborne, Australia, with Robert Craig.
In the meantime I have been doing my usual riding. I got my Cheyenne back, a miracle story of a very loved horse that I was able to purchase back to myself .

Watch this space for more updates. Subscribe and get notifications.

Time for an update,

I have been in Australia now for 1 1/2 weeks. The first half was hard, as we had no car. Robert has been great. He is good company and we have good chats.

I have to realise that his chats sometimes make sense and at other times he jabbers on and on about something. And you loose track and he also loses track of what he is talking about.

He has early Alzheimers and now that he is back on the coconut oil, he is actually doing so much better. His recall is better too.

We had hitched twice into town, it is 3 1/2 KM to town, downhill all the way and walking back is uphill all the way. A bit like home.

But once we had done that and then caught a ride after hitchhiking, we decided that hiring a car is a much better option.

So on Monday afternoon we got a nice Hyundai car , 6 speed, manual.

We have it for 9 days.

I am very happy with it and have already driven it on the roads here and on the motorway.

It has  GSP in it( Navman) and it has taken me today to Castlemaine and Kyneton . On Wednesday we went to the top of Mount Macedon and the town of Woodend and Macedon town. You blink your eyes and you are through that town.

Sometimes we laugh at the absurdity of the situation.

We are neighbours at home. Robert owns the forest and we have been riding there for years. Sharran needed me to look after Robert for the days she is in Malaysia. So sometimes we just laugh that we s are now " stuck" with each other for these 3 weeks. At least the first 2 weeks are already almost gone. Next week is my last here. Not that it's super hard but it is emotionally draining at times.

And we started with the one room cottage where I slept int he lounge on a bed with an inner sprung mattress that was shaped like a hammock. So I woke up with a sore back every morning. Then we moved to the 2 bedroom cottage across the road where I have my own room and he has his own room and bathroom and toilet in between.

But we have to move back to the 1bed room cottage again on each weekend.

But that's better than the whole time there.

Anyway, I have been cooking some good meals. 

I also got to see my son Joe and his fiancee Rachel, which was awesome. We had a nice dinner out at the Baringo restaurant.
So I managed to get one afternoon off where Robert's son took him for an afternoon out, and I drove to a little town called Milton. I went for a swim in an over roofed swimming pool and met some refugees from Iraq Mossoul. They are christians. They told me a bit about their lives. That made me thankful for where we live .
The following week, I drove with Robert to Ballarat wildlife park, an hours drive from Gisborne. We also had made friends with Tim and Marie and 2 kids.
Ballarat was great.
I also drove to Bendigo on an other day and we explored the city centre and went into the talking tram.
We went to Daylesford market and took a diesel train for a sightseeing venture.
Because I had the car, time went much faster and even though there were a couple of times I thought I was going to go crazy, I survived. On the Saturday before I finished my time, I was able to go by train into Melbourne city and Joe and Rachel were there to pick me up and we went to the Aquarium. Did some other things like shopping etc, we enjoyed ourselves and I could relax more.
The next day Marie and Tim took us to the Gisborne market which is huge, long streets of market stalls of all kinds of things.  In the afternoon Joe came to pick me up and take me to his place and Robert's daughter-in-law stayed with Robert till Sharryn came home later that evening.
All went well but it took a toll on my health, I slept in long at Joe's and I ended up with a cold and seborrheic dermatitis on the scalp.
I met Rachael's family that week and enjoyed the visit immensely.
The trip was 3 1/2 weeks including the 1/2 week at Joe's.
It was a good experience but also very exhausting. But worthwhile.
But I won't do it again.
I was back in Melbourne in just over a month for Joe and Rachel's wedding. There we also met up with Aaron and Alice and baby Violet and Dave, and Michael who came from Korea. The wedding was great. It was the greek big fat wedding .
We came back 1 week before Christmas and everyone came here too.
We had a busy summer with all the family here.
I had also finished my 15th flight that year.( 2016)