First unoffical King Sutton visitors

Janet and her boyfriend who live across the road from Si’s parents in Kings Sutton decided to do another whirlwind trip around NZ, and one November day popped into Christchurch for a days visit.

It was great to see them, made me feel quite sad as a little bit of home had come to NZ.

Picking them up from the airport and dropping them off at the hotel was great, followed by a quick tour of Cathedral Square (coffee!), quick walk round the city then off to meet Si who has managed to slope of work early that Friday. On to Sumner to the café down on the waterfront for glass of Sauv and catch up and find out what Janet had been up to on her travels.

That night we went out for dinner in the city, followed by a few beers on The Strip (place in CHCH where all the bars and restaurants are). Had a great night!

Next day, quick blast over the Port Hills doing the touristy thing (pre run through from when the parents Nice visits later in Feb), onto lunch at the She Café in Governers Bay.

Finally, it was time to take them back to the airport, Janet with our Xmas cards for back home. Janet made me realize that sometimes we are lucky to be in NZ when all does not seem like it’s going well. Just taking in the views of the area and everything that’s on our doorstep, does not compare to the likes of Gosport or Pompey!

Lake Ellsmere - Windsurfing

Si looking like he knows what he is doing whilst Windsurfing at a lake near where we live. Yes, again, there is no one else in the photo's as there was no one else around that day!

Kittens/Fat cats update

Just to let everyone know, this our little fat cats, no longer baby, cute kittens, but eating machines (particulary Tubs, the light one) who seems to have gotten much bigger compared to her sister.

How cute were they when we first got them!

how we look on the web cam

Ok, this is us on a typical Sunday night, connecting to the UK to speak to Nicola, Rich and Maisie plus anyone else online (Linda and Nicola).

Please note it is generally late at night, hence lack of make up on my behalf.


















The other photo is of Si on exercise over on the West Coast for a few days, then me pulling an extremely cheesy face!

Christchurch Pics

Hi,

Just a quick note, have just found an amazing website that has lots and lots of pics of NZ and Christchurch, please see www.davidwallphoto.com and got to Christchurch pics.

This weekend is a Bank Holiday so Si and I went into the city last night for dinner for two for a change and stopped the night over in the city.

We mooched around the market and had a quick walk round the city centre before heading back to the house.

Here are some pics of where we went....

Stupid cat, boat and update

We are supposed to have two intelligent, soft cats, but one of the them decided to go and break its leg. We have no idea how, but thought the pic of it with it's bandage on was fairly cute. Good to say now that Crockett is completely healed and running around as normal.

Next bit of news is that Si has finally seen a boat that he wants and has put an offer in subject to a test sale that hopefully he will complete next weekend. Yes, I know it's crazy, we have not got a house yet, but may have a boat.



I, Tracey have decided to pack in the Personal Training business. It was getting to be far too stressful, working stupid long hours, to earn hardly anything after my business expenses and I found that I was just not enjoying it as much for a career wise, and dare I say it am missing the career that I had with the RN.

So its my final week this week, quite sad as I do like some of my clients and have helped them to achieve their fitness goals, but the pay was not enough to potentially help pay a mortgage and enable us to have a good income between us and the lifestyle that we want in NZ. So I'm now about to embark down the looking for a job route, which is quite scary as I have no idea what to actually do now.

Si is away again at the moment, out playing soldiers over on the west coast bushland, screaming at his troops and living in the same pair of underpants for the last 6 days (sorry Si for divulging that but you did tell me)!

On the UK front, Nick and Marie have finally booked their flights and will be out with us in Feb 07, I just hope we have moved by then.

So I'll keep the blog updated some more, and ps, if you have a webcam, get it linked up so we can everyone!


take care

Tracey x x 

Te Awamutu

Ok, apologies to Kathryn, yes it has been ages since we've kept the blog update so here goes.

Si had been away on North Island fo 5 weeks doing his Sgt's course in the depths of Wairouro during September, so I decided to make the most of not seeing him and flew up to Hamilton to meet my old colleague and resident matelot Dave Ardern and his wife Lisa, children Harriett and Melissa who live in a place called TE AWAMUTU, which is on North Island, to then meet Simon for the weekend.

The story goes, that once upon a time, during the firefighting strike, Dave and I were working in Penzance fire station covering the strike with our green goddess fire engines! Whilst usually bored on nights, Dave would spend time on the NZ property site, looking at properties to buy for when he emigrated to NZ the year after. Who would have thought 3 years later, Si and I would be here as well.

So after a great evening residing in Dave's new house (v. nice) and a great dinner, the next day we headed south to a place called Rotorua, which is aka RotoVegas by the locals - unsure why as it is nothing like Las Vegas.

It was a damp, cold day which is unusual, but 30kms out all you could smell is the pong of the thermal pools from the sulphar and volcanic areas.

We had a walk round the Whakarewarewa, the authentic, living thermal village which has been there since 1863.

Set amidst a landscape of erupting geysers, hot thermal springs and bubbling mud pools, is the living village of Whakarewarewa. Here you can experience the unique lifestyle of a natural, Maori village setting. Once walking round you can view view bubbling mud pools and mineral springs where people have bathed for generations. Then from our viewing platform, see the awesome power of the 'Pohutu' and 'Prince of Wales Feathers' geysers.

More pics from TA

Here are some more pics from walking around Rotavegas thermal pools.

The Saturday evening, the adults (inc Si) went out for a few beers and to an excellent local restuarant in TA; it was great to go out with friends and having something to relate to, yep both our moves to NZ and how we are finding things so far in comparison to what we left behind in the UK and also a talking point for Si and Dave on English football.

Sunday was spent just chilling out, enjoying being in great company and spending time in a nice house for a change.

So few more pics of us before we went out on the Saturday evening.

All in all a great weekend!!

Simon prior to ski down

What a poser, prior to my last run of the day, open empty piste, heaven!
I'll be submitting this pic for the next North Face catalogue.
Tracey is now a converted ski bunny and wants to go again asap. It is quite a treat to have these facilities on your doorstep. Well you can sort of see it from the back garden.

Top of Mt Hutt 2075m up!

 

Tracey's Intense look of concentration

Tracey has her first run on a real ski field. Once we dragged her of the nursery slope she went from strength to strength and put some really good runs in. Next to get rid of that sitting on toilet posture. We've all been there at some point!

Mt Hutt Ski Field

 

Tracey & Nic

 

Nelson visit

Hello,

Well just a quick update for goings on over the last few weeks.

Si and I have just got back from a trip to Nelson (top of SI) where we went to look at a boat that Si is interested (note to mothers - looks like we will have a boat before a house).

It's the first time that we have managed to get a weekend away in ages, unfortunately work commitments and some more personal training courses for me has stopped us getting away as much as we wanted so we decided that last weekend was either going to be a skiing trip or up north to look at a boat.

So a boat is for sale in Nelson that Si wanted to look at. Car loaded up last Friday, sleet/hail/snow forecast on the trip over Lewis Path, for a 400km, 5-6 hour drive through NI. Much of it in darkness, driving around swerving roads splitting the journey between us, until finally at about 2130 we arrived in a nice little, quaint backpackers for the two nights stay.

We quickly dropped of our bags, then went through a quick bimble through the town centre. Usual Kiwi style, with a hint of bars, boisterous and a hippy vibe to it. Found a bar with leather settee's and a warm fire, so both sat there with a glass of Pinot Noir and saying how much we like Nelson!

Saturday, with an early start, we hit the road to drive a hour NW, to a place called Marahau. It is the gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park and has affectionately been labeled the Abel tasman Village. Marahau is the Maori name given to the village and translates to "Windy Garden" in English. The Bay is known as Sandy Bay and is quite aptly named being the longest golden sand beach in the region.

After looking at the boat, a Gazelle 5 birth one, which needs a bit of work on the trailor, Si was left to dwell on whether to put an offer on for it. We then drove around some of the little bays before hitting back to Nelson for an afternoon of chilling out and debating where to go for dinner that night.

Nice restaurant that night for some local seafood, few glasses of red wine and a chilled out night.

Sunday we started the slow drive back, first taking a brisk walk on the bech that morning, hard to think that it is the equivalent of January here, with crisp, clear sunny days in the Nelson area.
6 hours later, back to Burnham, house was not as cold as expected, cat's did not seemed to have missed us one little bit.

All in all a great weekend, made us appreciate NZ a little bit more with the natural scenery as it has been ages since we had managed to get out and about from Christchurch.

Week ahead, I, Tracey, am off to a NZ Police recruitment evening to see what they have to offer for a career options. I'm not to sure if Personal Training is for me, I nearly quit last week as had enough with all the crap that comes with awkward clients, but my manager has persuaded me to stay for a little bit longer a give it the full 6 months to see if the business can work.

The good side of it, is that is has meant that I have actually made some more friends through clients, to the end that one of the guy's I train is a qualified Ski Instructor from years ago, with Si and I going ski-ing this weekend with them, at last I can learn to ski!

I'll sign off as wood man is here to delivery our next batch of central heating.....

I'm jealous of the heatwave back in the UK!

love Tracey

Lewis Pass & National Park

Quick stop on way back to Christchurch at one of the waterfalls, not quite Victoria Falls in South Africa but a start.

Nelson Beach

Abel Tasman National Park