Welly Christmas from Karl and Bonnie 2017

Posted on Dec 24, 2017 in Karl & Bonnie, Wellies South Coast | 1 comment

At last the holidays are here and time to reflect on the year passed. We hope you are all enjoying the festive season and holiday time with friends and family.

2017 has been a good year here in Wellington and the recent stretch of spring and summer days of glorious sunshine has been amazing and unheard of for Wellington! (actually all of NZ) – great for the outdoors but a worry for our water supplies – we are officially in a drought and it not even the new year yet!

We started the year off with a fun summer holiday in Waipatiki Beach, just north of Napier in a lovely camp site. It has a small fresh water estuary which the girls loved to play in, great beaches for surf and beautiful bush walks with Nikau palms and other natives..

A highlight for Bonnie and the girls was a trip to Disneyworld in Florida in late January, where the girls discovered a love of rollercoasters and other fun rides. It was also a nice opportunity to reunite with family friends and enjoy some warm weather.

Molly has a good year at Owhiro Bay school – she is at year 5 and has done well across reading and art. Molly’s passion continues to be horse riding and she is a regular attendee at the pony club in Ohario valley. She has attained a D level certificate for horse care and training and is progressed to jumping. She has a caring nature and loves to spend time taking care of the horses.

Lilly-Anne attended year 4 at school and is continuing to do well in reading and writing and maths. She has discovered a love of science and performing experiment, Much to Bonnie’s dismay she regularly pulls apart the baking drawer with her experiments ;-).Lilly-Anne was successful in representing Owhiro Bay School at cross country running at the Southern Zone.

Rose was at her last year at Owhiro Bay Kindergarten and has shown a keen interest in learning to read and write with a reading buddy and discovering all things fun indoors and outside. Her favourite activity has been drawing and social fun with kindy friends. She has started to learn the piano and will go progress to music lesson next year.

Both Molly and Lilly-Anne have continued to enjoy their regular music lessons every week during term time. Lilly-Anne took up violin which she has enjoyed and will continue next year. Molly continued with learning and playing the recorder which has been good for her.

Bonnie has had another busy year at the Capital eye Specialists eye clinic, managing clinical trials for international glaucoma research. She’s enjoyed continuing to work under Professor Tony Wells and will take on new surgical responsibilities next year.

Bonnie continues to enjoy her passion of teaching and practising yoga at Te Aro Astanga. Waking weekday mornings at 5am to have some quiet yoga time as well as catch up with fellow teachers before coming home to get the girls ready for school.

Karl started of the year working with IR on the launch of the first phase of their business transformation (BT) project with the successful delivery of the online registration service for new workers and businesses. He has them moved to a new project with WorkSafe where he assisted in the launch of their new digital platform and will continue with them for additional online services in the new year.

Karl has continued to enjoy yoga and Boxfit sessions – both have assisted him to keep fit as well as regular mountain biking to work and in the hills. He started a new passion in learning to kiteboard which has given him a whole new understanding in harnessing the wind in Wellington!

We enjoyed out trips to visit John, Maz and the boys up in sunny Cairns in June exploring the region with Mum and Dad. Our trips to Auckland to spend time Mum and Dad have been enjoyable and it’s been great to see Dad’s health progress and having time with their grandchildren.

We have also appreciated the help that Pearl (Bonnie’s Mum) has provided over the year with our girls – she enjoys the interaction and has been a great teacher for the girls in reading, writing and maths.