happy new year!

I kind of feel like my blog posts always start a bit like this: “Wow, it’s been a while!…we’ve been super busy bla bla bla…!”

But seriously, it’s been a while - last time I posted was in August, just at the end of winter. I have to say, we really loved winter in NZ, and I think that wintery cosy feeling of being here will hold a special place in our memories. I’d like to say summer’s come around over here, but honestly, it hasn’t yet. We’re not complaining though, and enjoying the cool compared to our families back in Aus who are sweltering up near the 40s. Most New Zealanders think us ‘Aussies’ are the ones struggling, but really, we’re Tasmanian, so we’re used to it and are actually loving it (although, I do miss those Sydney beach trips).

Anyways, happy new year! I haven’t updated much on here, mainly because life has been ticking on as usual and we were both absolutely hanging out for the Christmas break. The struggle for motivation near the end was SO REAL, especially for me working from home. We made it to the end though and celebrated the last day of work by going out for a fancy dinner at Bessie, where we had 60-day dry-aged beef (what!).

Emile’s parents came to visit us over the break. It was a lovely time spent with them, and definitely a holiday with lots of sleep-ins, slow days exploring and evenings playing Phase 10. We managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook which was incredible. We can’t believe how lucky we got with the weather to be able to see the area and the mountain in such clear view - we were all awestruck the whole time. It was nice to be able to share that with Emile’s parents too who had never been to New Zealand before.

Here are a couple of pics from their visit. I was a little bit lazy with getting the camera out, so a few of these are phone pics.