Welly Christmas from Karl and Bonnie 2018
We hope you are all enjoying the festive season and holiday time with friends and family.
We have had an enjoyable 2018 – it started off with the best summer to remember in a long time here in Wellington – we had plenty of golden days and great sunsets!
For our summer holidays we ventured south to the mainland, taking the ferry across to spend some time in Mapua, Nelson and Golden Bay. We had plenty of fun times in the water especially at Pohara and adventures in the Able Tasman park – it’s a great place to visit and just relax. Off course a day at the cricket was great fun too!
It was great to spend time in Auckland with Mum and Dad, Annemarie, Kevin and John and Clare – which was a first in a while for us all being together and to celebrate and catch up with each other.
This year was a milestone for the girls as they were all at school together, Rose has finally grown up enough to be with her sisters! They all went to St Francis De Sales School in Island Bay and have really enjoyed themselves there.
Molly had a good year at year 6 and has done well across writing, reading and her favourite subject art. Of course Molly’s passion continues to be horse riding and she is a regular attendee at the pony club in Ohario valley. She also did well in athletics again this year representing her school in the Wellington regional cross country champs and started playing netball as well which she enjoyed with some of her friends.
Unfortunately she broke her arm in an accident after netball so couldn’t finish the season with them or attend the Wellington South athletics champs, but was able to go on holiday with us to Raratonga with her cast off just before we left!
She seems to inherited Karl’s sporryness which also comes with bring accident prone… as not long after coming back from holiday in Rarotonga Molly fractured her right arm again in the same place! This time it was a lot more serious a break and she had to have two operations and a plate put in her arm ,,, she gets the cast off next week so will be looking forward to a full recovery early in the new year.
Lilly-Anne attended year 5 at school and is a keen little scientist. She loves experimenting so we got her some lab kits and finally nailed how to make slime after quite a few messy attempts 🙂 She enjoys writing and math, but loves reading (much like her Mum and Grammy!,
Lilly-Anne continued to learn violin this year and has progressed a lot with her music which is great to see. Both Lilly-Anne and Molly also started going to Scout’s this year and have refused learning outdoor and self reliance skills. Our neighbour Rob has been great as a scout leader.
Rose really enjoyed her first year at school, making new friends and progressing well in reading and writing – we have been impressed in the short stories she is writing. She enjoys spending time with her best friend Harper who is a neighbour and has started learning to ride her bike confidently. She attended music classes this year and has continued her enjoyment of piano. Karl took Rose on a fun ski trip this year which was great for her to learn get up on her own skis.
We enjoyed out trip to Rarotonga which was a highlight for the year – it is such a relaxed place to visit – the reefs are literally at your feet when you walk in the water and the clarity of the reef and fishes is superb! Hours of fun was had either at our swimming pool, at the beach or sampling local cuisine. The freshness of the fish was also something to be savoured. We had great entertainment on a reef lagoon cruise, cultural dance evening and Karl also enjoyed dives and kiteboarding on the lagoon
Bonnie has had good year at the Capital Eye Specialists taking on the senior role at the clinic with patient surgical care and continuing to manage clinical trials for international glaucoma research. She’s enjoyed continuing to work under Professor Tony Wells.
Bonnie has also enjoyed her passion of teaching and practising yoga at Te Aro Astanga. Her early mornings yoga time has kept here busy and fit!
Karl started off the year working with WorkSafe supportting and delivering online services for their new digital platform and then in April he started back at IR on phase 3 of their business transformation (BT) project with the successful delivery and ongoing support of web services and a developer portal for software providers who integrate with IR’s products and services.
Karl has continued to enjoying learning the art of kiteboarding in Wellington, mostly up the Kapiti coast when the wind was blowing! He continues to enjoy keeping fit by biking to work, and doing yoga and boxfit sessions.
Wishing you all the best for the holiday season and a prosperous and happy 2019.
Merry Christmas,
Karl, Bonnie, Molly, Lilly-Anne and Rose