We were very excited to fly back to Norway in time for pre-holiday celebrations in late November and December. It was quite the timing for socializing and seeing friends and family we hadn’t seen for a long time!
A somewhat cold admiral and captain back in Oslo, in front of the royal palace.Welcome home dinner at the admiral’s mom’s apartment in November, 2025. From the left, the admiral, her brother Michael, the captain, her sister Irene, her boyfriend Marius, and the admiral’s mom, Kate.Christmas Eve. the admiral surrounded by the women of her family, all in their Norwegian national costume, bunad. From the left: mom Kate, niece Adina, the admiral, niece Olivia, sister Irene, former sister’s mother-in-law Jorunn, niece Leona.Celebrating the captain’s dad, who turned 92 on December 25th! From the left, the captain, dad Freddy, nephew Nicholas, Nicholas’ girlfriend Sarah, nephew William, William’s girlfriend Agenta, brother Atle.
After city life with friends and family, we retreated to our place in the mountains, Hemsedal, which is where we call home in Norway. Outside of a snafu for the captain with an unplanned neck surgery, we both got to enjoy an amazing skiing season at last.
Not much snow when we first arrived in late November.But soon thereafter, it started snowing, and the the ski slopes were opened. Here’s the view of the slopes from our bedroom.Fog in the valley, all lit up by the lights.First in line on powder days!Randone/split board activities later in the season.Sometimes it is definitely a little windy in the mountains.Spring offpiste snowboarding.
All in all, we had an amazing time back home, which we spent mostly in our mountain lodge. The biggest event was of course what happened just two days before we left… We were fortunate that we got to attend our son Christopher’s wedding to Lorena!
The happy newlyweds ❤️
We left Norway full of impressions, and of course saddened to leave our loved ones. However, we were getting very ready to get back into boatlife after a five month break – the longest we have ever had.
We flew back to New Zealand through Dubai, which felt a little shady, considering there were three conflict areas in between Oslo and Dubai; the Ucraine, Israel, and Iran conflicts.
We definitely made a detour on our way to Dubai.
Flying into Dubai late at night.We stayed at a hotel in Dubai for the night, and left early the next morning.
Finally in the air.Quite relieved as we flew away without any incidents.
We were very happy when we landed safely in Auckland after 34 hours travelling. We went straight to check upon Noxoma, and found that we have some extra repairs to get done before we splash…
Back with Noxoma sitting on the hard at the Norsand boatyard in Whangarei.Turns out our lightning preventer had unscrewed itself during a storm, and fell down from the top of the mast. It definitely did some damage along the way…
