1st of November 2009 First day at school and work

 Finn and Luca with Matthis waiting for the door to open on their first day at Borktun skole.
This is Phil on the way to work at NOFIMA.
The photo was taken at about 8.00 am with a beautiful sunrise over the mainland in the background.
Before Phil went to his work we all took Finn and Luca to Borktun skole for their first day of school.
Luca and Finn had a great first day and Phil was made very welcome at his new work.

Our new home in Tromsdalen

This is the view from our house. What you see is the city centre on the island of Tromso. We live on the mainland and either get into town via a tunnel under the sea or over the big beautiful bridge you see in the distance. It takes a very short bus ride into town or an easy 25 to 30 min. walk over the bridge. The view from the bridge is beautiful and you can see towards the fijords in the distance in both directions. There are also some big fishing boats and one can look straight into the boat  from above the bridge. Matthis loves to look into the boats and his imagination produces some wonderful stories.
Please notice the daylight on the photos.When we first arrived we still had proper day time and night time. I will show you some photos of the twilight, we are experiencing now, later on.

First week in Tromso - continued

The next few days were consumed by organisational matters such as going to the police to register our arrival and applying for our national numbers which is the most important thing when living in norway. " All applications will be processed in the next couple of month", we were told and considered ourselves lucky. If we would have applied for permits from outside the country the processing time would have been 6 months!

We realised that things were not going to be happening fast but Phil at least got his temporary work permit which enabled him to start working the next week.

New beginnings are always hard and all in all we managed to get a few balls rolling during that first week and  felt relatively good about it. The week passed very fast and on Sunday we moved to our final destination at  number 15, Norselveien in Tromsdalen. We took a Taxi to our new home and I think the whole neighbourhood saw us arriving. Soon there were a number of children mingeling in front of our house, hoping to get a glimpse of us and those new children from New Zealand.

We met Knut and Hilde, our neighbours and they came over for a cup of coffee the same afternoon. Finn, Luca and Matthis went outside and met the children from the neighbourhood. We were amazed how well they all spoke english, even the relatively young children. The kids played football all afternoon and we received some first hand information about living in Tromso from our neighbours.

First week in Tromso

We were unable to move into our rented house in Tromsdalen for the first week and stayed in an appartment type hotel right in the middle of the city until we were able to move.
We enjoyed the european breakfast and the freshly baked bread in the morning before heading off into town to do things such as getting registered and dealing with all sorts of  other beaucratic issues.

Sunday, 25.10.2009 Arrival in Tromso - Norway

We left Thailand after midnight and managed to have some sleep on the way. After a short stopover in Oslo we arrived in Tromso at about midday.
We could not help but feel excited when we saw the snow covered mountains around Tromso from above in the plane.We were also wondering what the future might hold for us for the next two years and were happy to have arrived safe and sound after a most enjoyable journey from New Zealand.
 After landing we had a short walk from the plane to the Airport lounge and noticed the icy ground which was very slippery. It was of course cold, but not as cold as I had expected it and the air felt fresh and clean. We did not expect to be greeted by anyone at the airport but got a nice surprise on arrival.

Kerstin, an ex work colleque of Phil from New Zealand was waiting for us with a batch of freshly baked muffins. What a lovely surprise that was! A few minutes later we also met Phils norwegian colleque Sten, who is  the person Phil has been working with for the last 7 years. It was a wonderful and warm welcome and such a nice beginning.

Last few days on Koh Chang

As the days went on our holiday was coming to an end. Luca got her hair braided and enjoyed the attention she received from the ladies in the salon while Matthis and Finn went for another swim.
We can recommend Thailand to anyone in need for a nice family holiday. The food was wonderful and there was a lot to do for people with children. I am sure we will visit again some time.

Snorkeling at the coral reef

A few days later we went on a speedboat which took us out on the ocean to a coral reef where we all went snorkeling.
There were hundreds of  colourful little and some not so little fish around us. We also saw a big sea spider and mama swam straight back to the boat when she saw the spider.Funny that!

At the end of our jungle tour we drank some fresh coconut milk and ate pineapples.

We went to the BAN KWAN elephant camp which is an initiative by the asian elephant foundation. The elephants there used to be used for all kinds of work and lost their importance when cars and other inventions took over.To provide the elephant with a natural environment and a meaningful existence the foundation created two elephant camps on Koh Chang where the elephants have become a major tourist attraction.

Not only were we able to ride on the elephants through the jungle, we were also able to wash them at the a river nearby. Finn, Luca, Matthis and Phil went into the water with the elephants and I took some photos and watched that green poisoness snake which was sitting on a branch on the other side of the riverbed.

Elephant riding in Koh Chang

We went on a few excursions and had time to relax in the sun.
The best adventure however was when we went elphant riding in the jungle.

The kids had a great time in the pool and spend most of the day in or around the water.

Penny's Resort Koh Chang Thailand

12 hours later we arrived in Bankok where it was hot and muggy. The next day we were picked up by a shuttle which took us to the island of  Koh Chang. We stayed at Penny's Resort and Bungalow, a small family run place away from the main tourist resorts and had a wonderful time.

R and R on the way to Thailand

Here are Phil, Luca and Finn enjoying a snack on the way

Wellington farewell

Dear Nana, Jetta,Jon, Rosa,Sofia,Norbert Jan,the team from Mahanga Bay and Robert ( not in picture).

Thank you very much for coming  to the airport to say good bye to us. We will miss you too.
Sending you our love
Phil, Meta and Matthis,Luca, Finn

A hectic Wellington farewell

The days leading up to to our farewell were full of last minute organisations.
 Finn and Luca' s school  finished two weeks earlier and we had a beautiful farewell gathering with class 5 and 1  and some people from the kindergarten, at our house. We are excited about our new life in norway but  feel sadness about leaving. Our school and the Steiner community has been such an important part in our family life and saying good bye was quite emotional
Packing up the house seemed to be an endless task and I never knew we had so much stuff! We finally finished the task at 4 am the morning we were leaving and  promptly slept in. Neither of us heard the alarm go off and when we woke up everything happened in  a mad rush. It was a grey morning and we were meant to have an elaborate farewell breakfast at Jon and Jettas house in Island Bay. Well, that did not happen and we were lucky to beat the traffic into Wellington. We managed to have a quick cup of coffe and a bite to eat and left Jon and Jettas house in time for check in at the airport.We met Jan and handed him the Odessey which was sold to him, met some dear friends who came to say good bye at the airport, a quick photo at the gate, a few tears too I might add and we were off to Thailand with 135 kg luggage on board.
The flight was great and Phil and I did get to drink that glass of bubbly we had promised each other, during the flight. The kids were glued to the movie screen of course and we all enjoyed our first overseas flight with the whole family.

Spring in Belmont

This is my first entry and it is a bit of an experiment. I just managed to download my first picture for this blog and am rather chuffed with my progress. Not bad for a computer novice. We have only 10 days to go before our big adventure in norway and I thought it would be nice if all of the James family could keep in contact via a blog. I don't know whether the idea appeals but here it is. Please feel free to sign in and start blogging.