Sunday 11 November 2018

Christmas Kiwi Greetings from Richard and Jen 2018


Early seasons greetings to you… we hope your year has been one of happiness and prosperity.

From our end, we have been somewhat remiss in our correspondence over the last year (if not 2!), however, we can reassure you we are alive and well and continue to live life to the max!

Our travels over 2017 and 2018 saw us continue our sailing journey aboard “Our Rose” from the East Coast of Australia, up to Thursday Island, across Indonesia Archipelagos, and up the west coast of Malaysia and Thailand.

Highlights of these areas were:
*New Years and Australia Day on Sydney Harbor
*5 week land trip to New Zealand (1st time in 5 years)
*Helping with stricken monohull s/v Balikcil across the Indonesia Islands, involving 7 boats (amazing comradeship!)
*A month’s scuba diving in the amazing Komodo Marine Park (world class)
*Exploring the Hongs in Thailand (huge natural Island Caves)
*Enjoying the Islands of Koh Phayam (Hippyville) and the Similan & Surin Islands for more diving
*Having Julie & Martin, then Anne and Neil join us on Our Rose, and meeting up with Hils and Doug in Malaysia and meeting up with Matt and Jono in KL.

We also enjoying quite a bit of land travel during the Monsoon season (March – November), Hanoi, Siem Reap, Cameron Highlands, Penang, KL and Jen did a trip to Port Douglas to spend some time with our dear friends Julie and Martin.

The Future???  well, we have been invited to help with a Boutique Ski Lodge in Madarao Japan over the coming winter season.  As we have not seen a winter for 6 years and love skiing, we decided to say Yes!  So we will be in the best snow area of Japan (10 – 13 meters average snow fall) from December to March.  Look up http://firsttracksmadarao.lodgify.com

As for “Our Rose”, she is in the capable hands of a broker and yacht care company in Rebak Marina during this time.  As much as we love and will miss her, we hope she sells so we can continue our land travel journey in 2019.

The Boys… as mentioned, we met Matt and Jono in KL during the year.  Matt was on his way from New Zealand to Scotland, utilizing the opportunity to work in the UK  for Kiwis under age of 31.  He is now working at a science museum in Glasgow and also continues to enjoy his passion of swing and blues dancing.  Jono has been travelling and working in Vietnam since early 2017 and has qualified with TEFL as a foreign language (English) teacher and is now based in Bangkok.  We are very proud of them both.

So, that’s it from us.  We hope you have an amazing Christmas and New Year.  Maybe see you in Japan!  Keep in touch; love to hear all your news

A few pics of Our Journey in 2017/2018 (in no particular order)…


























A Very Merry Christmas from us to you…