Season Greeting
Sydney Fireworks NYE 2016
While snow pictures are dominating social media pages and songs about winter wonderland are playing on the radio, we find ourselves surviving a heatwave in Sydney Australia with Kirsten’s brother and his family. We welcomed 2017 with views to Sydney Harbour bridge fireworks, and now we look back at 2016 as one of those years with big changes to our lives.
2016 started in England by celebrating 20 years of marriage on New Year’s day, and we are constantly amazed at how long we have been married, still having fun and still enjoying life together.
January 2016 saw Kirsten start pastoring in 2 wonderful churches in Hemel Hempstead and St 
Albans, and she enjoyed fully being back in the work she loves. Little did we suspect that this would be a short time.
Karsten at reading University
Early in January Karsten was invited to the 2nd round for an Academic position at Victoria University of Wellington NZ. Karsten was offered a great job as Senior lecture in March. An offer that came at time where his current University was doing restructuring and he was open to pursue new opportunities elsewhere after 14 years there both as a student and a lecturer.
saying goodbye to London
Having enjoyed a wonderful time pastoring again, Kirsten was sad to leave the two congregations. Still after 10 years with the South England Conference, Kirsten left her work to follow Karsten, to what would be not only an unknown country but also an unknown future. A change to how we have previously moved because of Kirsten’s work.
moving our stuff in a 20ft container
Leaving England after 14 years was not easy as we have many good friends there. We are thankful for the good times and the opportunity to do life with so many great people. Hopefully we will see people again, if not in NZ then on facebook ?
2016 had some good travels for Kirsten with a weekend to Morocco with her sister, Spain with friends, and Sweden for work / friends. Karsten had a quick trip to NZ for a research presentation, and a joint trip to Denmark at Easter for the funeral of Karsten’s grandmother, although a sad occasion, it was lovely to spend time with the family.
view from our house toward the pacific
Coming to New Zealand has been amazing for both of us, while Karsten jumped straight into his work, Kirsten has spent time sorting out life in NZ, and is grateful for the opportunity to rest and recover from years of extreme stress.
We wake up in our new home which is a house 15 min outside of Wellington with a view to the pacific, it’s amazing how much we enjoy the view, and creating a home on a mountaintop. Yes – we have plenty of space for visitors with some of the best views available of the bay of Wellington!
We managed to go to an All Black Rugby match, visit the
All Blacks vs Australia
Geothermal landscape in Roterua
geothermal Roterua, and experiencing great trips around our area. We have also experienced a severe earthquake with tsunami warnings and are learning how to live in a place where the earth literally moves under you. Thankfully we bought a house far from any fault lines and 200 meter above sea level, so no tsunamis here…
We give thanks for wonderful friendships throughout the ages and across the borders and look forward to keep connecting via email/facebook/twitter/skype/whatsapp.
our house
If you rediscover old style letters / postcards please inbox us for our new address.
With all our love and best wishes
Kirsten and Karsten
celebrating our wedding anniversary 1 jan 2017
We miss you guys, but are sure we will meet again!!!! Thanks for sharing your letter with us.