Kiwi Reunions

We recently had two kiwi reunions at our house. The first one was in early October with Matthijn, Nick, Clare, Cynthia, Ben, Matt and Jo; and the second one was in late October with Cynthia, Steve and David.

Kiwi Reunion Number 1
When everyone, except for Ben, had arrived at our house, we set off in three cars to a small town called Bourne End. We walked over a railway bridge and on the other side of the Thames was a pub called "The Bounty", which is only reachable by boat or on foot. We had a couple of drinks and the kids played on the playground. It was just warm enough to sit outside. Ben met us at the pub on his bike.

Matt and Jo had to head back to Bath, but the rest of us enjoyed a warm soup at our house and participated in a chocolate tasting. We did a blind tasting of both milk chocolate and 70% dark chocolate. The winner for the milk chocolate was Lindt, which was surprinsingly the loser in the dark chocolate category. There the winner was Marks & Spencers followed by Tesco Finest.

On the Sunday only Matthijn, Cynthia and Ben were left. Cynthia, Ben and Kerstin went for a bike ride to the Jubilee river, where they met Lindsay, Matthijn and the kids, who had taken the car and brought the kayak with them. While two people got to kayak on the river, the others biked along side. A pizza in our sunny back yard rounded up the weekend.

Kiwi Reunion Number 2
The second reunion took place at Halloween. We didn't really celebrate, but we carved out a pumpkin and made pumpkin soup. Instead of a chocolate tasting, we had a whiskey tasting. And our outing was to Windsor.

Lindsay, Kerstin and the kids took the campervan to the Great park. Steve, Cynthia and David biked and we all managed to eventually meet up after a few misunderstandings. We then walked next to the Long Walk (you are not allowed to bike or PUSH a bike along it!) into Windsor and had a meal in a pub there.