amisonsabbatical: New Zealand: Was and Will Always Be "SWEET AS"...

Reflecting back on the last four and a half months, I can say without a doubt our NZ experience has been one of the best things we've ever done. We had a great start thanks to Ben and Lisa - having a home away from home and their generous help settling into a new country obviously helped a great deal. You could say we were ahead of the game before we'd even landed!

Our entire family found it very easy to embrace life amongst the kiwis on that 'day to day' basis. Their love of the outdoors, appreciation of the environment and all that's native to NZ and relaxed kiwi personality (just the general overall NZ culture) was an easy fit. The kids' experiences with sports, sea cubs/ratpak and at school ended up being the overall highlight. They were able to be true kiwi kids with scraped knees, bare feet and a bit of freedom to run around the neighbourhood! It reminded me of my own childhood where walking to/from school, playing with friends before school and during lunch hour and cruising the neighbourhood on my bike (without parental supervision) was the norm. For Jake and Sofia to experience this even for a short time has been, to coin my favourite New Zealand saying, "SWEET AS"!

We had a small party before we left to celebrate the wonderful friendships we have made. It helped a great deal to have that to look forward to since it was all packing up and cleaning afterwards. The furniture was out of the house by Sunday night, so we spent the night with our "landlords", now good friends, Chris, Glenda, Cameron and Max the dog. Cameron and Jake certainly formed a strong friendship as did Sofia and Max the dog. We will miss them a great deal. I was fortunate enough to enjoy one final flat white at Mon Bichon cafe with John. And true to form, Ben and Lisa provided a delicious traditional lamb roast dinner on our final night.

Anticipating our departure was surprisingly hard, but as one of our friends said to me Saturday night at the party, being sad about it is a lot better than the alternative! What fun we've had and now our adventures in Australia and England await, and they're sure to be "SWEET AS"...