new views

What a week! Firstly, we had visitors last weekend of Michael's cousin from Adelaide, Marion, and her partner, Ray, staying with us. We were the first stop on their 3 month trip around the world. It was nice to meet them and they were very easy house guests. Then on Tuesday we moved house! We had lived in Papamoa for 18 months and were quite happy with the house but the landlord decided to put the property on the market so we decided to move out before we were actually given notice. It seems that the landlord is one of a growing number of New Zealanders who are feeling the bite of the high mortgage interest rates after enjoying a 3 or 5 years of low fixed rates and realising that they just can't afford to pay it.
We found a nice little town house back in Mount Maunganui 2 minutes from the beach, 3 minutes commute to work and 3 minutes from the main street shops. The actual move was quite tiring but pretty painless with the help of a man with a van and Norman and Linda. This is our 4th move since living in New Zealand so we are well practised. This house is smaller than the one we were in but as we don't hoard 'stuff' any more this wasn't a problem. The majority of boxes belonged to Georgia - packing up the Barbie emporium took days! Anyway, we're all sorted now - nice and cosy and homely and it is great to be able to go out for a meal at night just along the street.
Now just to finish off the week we have Easter weekend which is one of the busiest times for us in the pizza shop. Saturday night and tonight were like Christmas time all over again! But it has been a brilliant week weather wise which brings out the crowds.

bbqs

In the UK we were never that keen on BB Q's. It seemed that you spent 6 hours firing the thing up just to blacken a few sausages and burgers, standing out in the rain while everyone else enjoyed the party in the house. It was usually fortunate that it was dark by the time the food was ready so no one could see that the sausages were actually still breathing underneath all the carbon.
But yesterday we decided to try one of the free gas BB Q's provided by the council. There are loads of these things all along the coast and in parks.
Calling in at the supermarket we stocked up with a strange looking fish and some fresh green lipped mussels and completely the ignored sausages and burgers. A couple of baked potatoes, a huge dish of salad and fresh crusty rolls and we were set for a feast. We've never cooked fresh mussels on the BBQ before and we had been told by Norman, just to chuck 'em on and when the shells pop open they're ready. I did feel a bit sorry for them, mind, one minute in the sea, next wondering why it was suddenly so hot but they were delicious!
Well after a good feed we had a great game of beach cricket which came to an abrupt end when Michael scored a six and the ball split in half! Good quality stuff from the $2 Shop!
So we packed everything up and went for a walk to the estuary which, although man- made is very pretty and has some very weird looking geese to feed.
All in all a very enjoyable evening!

Georgia with the ball after Michael's slog!













Michael makes a new friend.

old friends

Way back in December last year I got a phone call from a colleague of mine from my old life in the UK, Jim Williamson. He told me he and his wife, Christine, were coming to New Zealand on holiday in February and would we like to meet up. Well, of course we would! Its been 4 years since we last saw them so we arranged to meet in Bravo cafe in Tauranga on 27th February at 9am. Quite a precise arrangement made from the other side of the world and what do you know - it worked out! It was a beautiful sunny morning and we had a great 'catch up' chat! We also talked about living in the UK compared with New Zealand and it reminded us of the reasons why we made the move.

Jim gave me a photo of the ladies I used to work with. I had worked with some of them for over 10 years and we had become friends as well as work mates. As I studied that photo though, I realised how much I was glad I wasn't there. Everyone looked the same, standing against the back drop of my familiar workplace. The only difference was the lady who took my job was standing with them instead of me. Did I wish I was back there with them? Nah - no way!! When I look back at what we have gone through and achieved over the past 4 years with the move to New Zealand, how much we have all changed and how we have lived through the ups and downs, I know that if I was still in the UK that would be me still standing in that photo, same faces, same background, same comfort zone.

Jim and Christine are well travelled and love New Zealand. They are hopefully coming back next year so I will look forward to meeting up again for a coffee and chat.