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.

day trip

Georgia was at school camp this week so we decided to take full advantage of no school run on our day off and take a trip to Taupo with our friends Norman and Linda.

It was a beautiful bright sunny day so heading to the hills seemed the best option.

Its about a 2 hour drive to Taupo from Tauranga along quiet roads through some stunning scenery.

We stopped on the out skirts of Taupo and viewed the mighty Waikato River Huka Falls. These very impressive raging falls really are the bright turquoise colour you see in the photo. If you painted a picture that colour it would not look real!

Further on we stopped at the bunji jumping centre where thrill seekers can, for a price, jump off a platform high over the river with their ankles tied together suspended on a piece of elastic. Not something I would like to try but each to his own I guess. We saw 3 people jump off - they must be mad!

Taupo itself is dominated by the huge Lake Taupo. It is so vast it could be an ocean, and again it was that beautiful turquoise colour. We inspected the boats on the marina and contemplated the fact that if you had a boat on a lake you couldn't really sail off into the wide blue yonder as you would only be able to go round in circles.

We had a wander around town and had a very decent meal and half of beer in a brilliant Irish bar. We could have stayed there all day! We moved on to the museum but it was closing.

A walk through the park brought us back down to the river where lots of people were relaxing in some natural hot water springs. We dipped our feet in and were amazed at just how hot the water was.

After a play in the park (well, there was no one else there) we headed off home.

We had a brilliant day, saw some beautiful scenery and really appreciated what a lovely country New Zealand is.

easy visas

It seems the British Government want to abolish the rule whereby the New Zealand ancestors of UK residents born in the UK can live and work in the UK for up to four years without any qualifications or work experience.
Well, I say good for them, the British Government, that is.
After the hoops we had to jump through to get our New Zealand residence visas in 2004 why should it be easier for kiwis to go to the UK just because their Grandparents were born there.
If my Grandparents had been born in New Zealand then emigrated to England I would have had no automatic visa rights at all so why should it work the other way?
Its also true to say that the 'returning Kiwis' who have enjoyed earning and stashing away the high UK wages have been a big factor in ensuring house prices in New Zealand continue to be ridiculously inflated.
So there!!

end of season

volley ball match in progress



Georgia looking for sharks



Some of the medalists from the volley ball


The weather has been and still is lovely this year. The Mount has been really busy all through the summer and even though we're coming to the end of the season there is still loads going on. This weekend there was the Tauranga Air show and the kids Weetbix triathlon plus beach volley ball competitions and a yacht race.


The Weetbix triathlon was held in Tauranga this year whereas in previous years it was held at the Mount and the competitors aged 8 to 15 would run and cycle passed our shop after doing the swim bit in the bay.


The Mount Main Beach was the venue for the inter college volley ball championships and was well supported. The boys in the photo were more than willing to line up and have their photos taken to show off their medals!


After watching some of the volley ball we walked up the peninsular which is a popular spot for fishers and divers (divers off the rocks that is, not scuba divers) This has often amazed me as the water they are diving in is popularly known as shark alley but it doesnt seem to put them off.

Back to school

We have been having a play with Google analytics for a couple of months now, and its nice to see that there are on average 400 visitors each week having a read of this blog in over 30 different countries. So hello to everyone!!

We are settling back into our routine now that the mad busy spell is just about over at the Mount. Yesterday was Waitingi Day which is a bank holiday to mark the anniversary of the Maori leaders being coerced into signing the treaty to asign their lands to the British before the French came. The nice weather is holding out this year and so we had a very busy day.

Most of the schools have started their new terms now and Georgia had her big day of starting Intermediate school on Monday. She was a bit nervous and arranged to meet her friend at the gates so they could go in together. As usual though, the best laid plans don't always come off and they were waiting at different gates! After waiting a few minutes Georgia asked if I would go in with her. I was a bit surprised at this as I would have been mortified if my Mam had come with me on my first day at secondary school but of course I was happy to go in with her. We soon saw some friends in the yard from her junior school looking just as nervous so we hung around with them chatting until the bell went. It is on occasions like that that you realise how family orientated New Zealand is. There was no embarassment from the children that their parents were with them and I was quite surprised to see lots of parents standing in the yard with the pupils.

Well, anyway, her first day was a huge success, she loved it and couldnt wait to go back. She said her teacher was old but really cool. Everything is new and exciting with a trip to an adventure park next week then camp for three days at the end of the month. She even doesn't mind the uniform and clumpy school shoes now.!