Backing up

There is a bit of a gap between the post Johnny wrote on March 7th stating it was his last day at work for 6 weeks and when he posted on April 30th saying he was in Mexico with work and soooooo much happened within that time period (including some life-changing events for the both of us!) so we thought that we would fill in the gaps. There is quite a lot to tell you but I will try to be brief and in order to make the post seem small we have split it into drop-down sections so just click on the below subjects to read more about them!

New Zealand
On March 11th we left Ireland and flew home to NZ via Taiwan (for an overnight stay) to arrive on Friday 14 March – Bex’s Mum’s birthday.

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Although much of our two and a half weeks there was taken up by wedding preparations, we managed to fit in a bit of socialising as well.

We kicked off our trip with our NZ Hen and Stag parties the day after we arrived. Johnny’s Stag Night consisted of a bit of Go-Kart Racing, some dinner, and a lot of drinks whilst Bex’s was a few games, a dancing lesson, lots of drinks and boogie-ing! Of course both of us were forced to dress up and do crazy challenges too! Of course the rest of the details remain top secret but you can see a few select photos here and here.



As we had a few guests who came from overseas for the wedding, we decided that we would like to show them some of the sights of our beautiful country and set aside a couple of days in the week before the wedding to take them down to the Coromandel Peninsula. This also gave us a great opportunity to relax with some of our friends who we haven’t seen in ages and as you can imagine there was a bit of drinking and fun to be had. We also managed to drag them out to see the lovely Coromandel sights of Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach, finishing up the trip with a game of golf for the guys and a pampering morning for the girls. Photos of our Coromandel trip can be seen here.
The rest of the time in New Zealand was spent catching up with family and friends, enjoying the lovely NZ weather, looking for a house to buy and preparing for our big day! Photos of the rest of our time in NZ can be seen here.



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Our Wedding
On 28 March 2008 we tied the knot and it was a fantastic day! You can read more about it and see some pics on our Wedding Website here.

Our Honeymoon
The Wednesday after the wedding we left New Zealand and headed for Taiwan. After a few days in Taipei seeing the sights with Johnny’s parents, we enjoyed a 5 day tour around the beautiful island of Taiwan.

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First stop was Hualien where we checked out picturesque Taroko Gorge and sampled some local delicacies. That night we were pleasantly surprised by the Promised Land Resort where we got upgraded to the Honeymoon Suite and enjoyed the rest of the evening making the most of the free boat cruise around the resort’s lagoon, enjoying the hot spa pools, and eating the tasty food. The next day (after checking out some cool fighter jets flying over the train station!) we were off to Taitung where we enjoyed the afternoon in the Royal Chipen Hotel taking part in the activities they had to offer and relaxing. Our third day saw us travelling right down to South Taiwan where we stayed at Yoho resort. Having the afternoon free we chose to visit the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium and boy we weren’t disappointed! It was HUGE and soooo interesting with millions of different types of sea life and really fascinating displays.
Having stayed in lots of amazing resorts we didn’t see how our last night would top it but boy did it! After travelling for half of the day we arrived at Sun Moon Lake where we were staying in the LaLu Resort. This resort was once owned by the former President of Taiwan as his private accommodation but once he died it was open to the public. Again we got upgraded to a stunning room and the rest of the time we were there we were just gob-smacked! The views, the food, the facilities but most of all the service was impeccable! We took a boat cruise around the lake, swam in their 60m swimming pool, drank tea in the Tea House, and enjoyed every minute of it! This resort will remain in our memories forever and is one we will definitely go back to at some stage! You can see our photos of our honeymoon tour here.



Back in Taipei we stayed with Johnny’s parents in the apartment he grew up in. On Saturday 12 April we had our Taiwanese Wedding Reception – a lunch to celebrate our marriage with 40 of Johnny’s relatives and close family friends. It was a bit daunting for Bex who had never met any of them before and I suppose also a little for Johnny who hadn’t seen many of them for years but everyone was so nice and welcoming that we had a great time! Johnny’s Dad Tony facilitated the whole thing, making lovely speeches explaining things to the guests while we all ate the yummy 7-course meal. At the end of the meal we went around each table and made toasts to the guests in traditional Taiwanese fashion and then posed for many photos. It was a lovely day and you can see all the photos here.

Of course we also fit in a bit of sight-seeing in Taipei as well – visiting Yanmingshan National Park, the famous night markets and Taipei 101 – the world’s tallest building! You can see photos of our time in Taipei here.


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Buying a House in NZ
Amongst all of the things that we did over our 2 weeks in NZ we also managed to buy a house!

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Yay! Although we squeezed in some viewings of houses during our trip, neither of us really expected to find a house we liked let alone buy one but it seems we struck it lucky as our offer was accepted on a house that we loved! After a bit of paperwork and e-mails the deal was settled on May 16th and we are now proud owners of a 3-bed house in Birkdale! Currently we are looking for tenants so if you know anyone looking for a brilliant house to live in please let us know. You can see photos of our house here.



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Back in Ireland & Our New Place
So now after all that excitement we are slowly settling back down in Dublin again.

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We were lucky enough to find a new place to live on the same day we arrived back in the country and have been kitting out our new pad and getting used to our new location ever since. It is a much larger apartment with 2 double bedrooms so we have a guest bedroom for our visitors (which has already been used by a few people!). The area we live in is lovely too. Although it is now a 15 minute train journey into town, it is worth it as we live across the road from a large park and just up the road from a very pretty beach. We have also treated ourselves to a Nintendo Wii that we now have room to play! Photos of our new place and surrounding area coming soon!

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Our lives have been pretty busy with work trips for Johnny and sport almost every night of the week for Bex as well as catching up with people but we are slowly settling into a routine and there will be more regular posts from now on so keep checking in!