Staying Not Leaving

Would you believe we’re halfway through July and soon, not too soon hopefully, the weather will start changing- the evening will cool down, the breeze will be a tad chillier- and then it’ll be fall?

We’re in a huff over the prospect of moving. When you live from season to season, you smell the changes before anyone else and you take heed, because being late at recognizing it’s time to pack and get going may cost you a job opportunity, a new travel, a different experience. Yes, we’re already planning our getaway.

As much as we fancy ourselves migratory, we seem to have no compass at all to lay our course by. Work dictates our destination and at the moment we seem to be tossing our lines pretty close to home: we’ve always said we’d fancy seeing more of our surroundings before undertaking another year abroad and that’ll be the year we see South America.

So there, to all of you who’ve been asking me when we’ll next be in Asia- not too soon i fear. And to those who asked us to stay closer, there you go- we’ll only be a short flight away.

Click on images for source

If it flied by, it must have been good

Yeeeeees!

Internet works again! I’ve been forgiven by Vodafone (they’d put brakes on the internet speed last month because of … ahem… download-overkill) so here’s the catch up to what’s happened over the last couple of weeks.

• Visited Venice and Murano on a rainy Tuesday:

• We’ve been hit by World Cup fever, so we’ve been mindlessly preoccupied by the goings-on in South Africa by our favourite teams. Is it us or does this WC smell off??
• Last week two dear friends, Walter and Selina, came over for a visit; we spent hours playing Risiko and Yatzee!

• Walter had a kite with him and now Jelle’s thinking it might just be his new summer sport! (I personally think my arms would break like twigs)

• Hail the return of Malibu Rum for summer! Visit Radio MaliBoom Boom for summer’s hottest tracks, streamed and selected by DJs.
• Summer 2010 in a picture: roll-up shorts, animal prints, fringe bags and flat top wayfarers:

And voila’!

Comacchio, the Little Venice

 

Some days you just want to roll up your sleeves and go. So pull out the walking shoes; dust off the bike; pack the car trunk and lock the house. It’s time you went, saw and conquered those places you’d put aside for ‘another day’.

So today we made a trip to Comacchio and this is what we spied:

Week 1

What a week!

We left Franz Josef last Monday heading south to Wanaka.

All the roads seem to be flanked by lakes and impeccably lush scenery, so although reaching ‘the next town’ takes hours and hours of driving, we can’t complain!

This is Lake Wanaka.

The colours out here are always fresh and vibrant, carrying the promise of unspoilt life.

We took a cruise out into Milford Sound and saw fur seals, sea lions and dusky dolphins.

Jelle did the bungy jump off the Nevis in Queenstown- 134m. I couldn’t go because it was too expensive and i didn’t need it after the skydive.

Jelle has fallen in love with these flowers. We’re taking some seeds home to plant in our future garden!

These red tussocks line the highway and are part of the national reserve.

The Brown Trout Fishing Capital of the world

And to complete the week, we met up with Marie, Glenn, Sophie and baby Isaac to go fishing at sea in Jackson Bay. At night we built a fire and roasted marshmallows by the shore.

2,200KMs in 7 days. 9 cities, countless little towns in between and maybe 50 cars on the road the whole week. Hahah!