Thursday, May 24, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Nice Family Visit Part 1
So one bright day in Feb, Si and I made our way to the airport to pick up a first UK visitors, Marie and Nick Nice! Thankfully the weather had changed to glorious sunshine and we kept our fingers crossed that the rest of the weeks ahead would be great and sunny so not to mention Si’s parents that they had actually left England.
The frantic pace of buying the house and getting it sorted in time for our visitors was worthwhile as finally we had a house we could call a Kiwi home. Far better than the depression of Burnham Army Camp.
Si managed to take a couple of days off the first week Nick and Marie were here and showed them the key sights of Christchurch whilst they fought off the jet lag. First night Nick fell asleep at 9pm, Marie was soon to follow with Si and I wondering whether it was our conversation that was sending them too sleep so early!
Trips out to Port Hills, Lyttleton Harbour, Governors Bay, Lincoln Uni (well pie shop), vineyards at Geeson and also a quick visit to the house at Burnham followed. I just wanted Marie to see where we used to live so she could understand how bad the house was. For the first week here we just generally chilled out, stayed local and had a few BBQ’s.
For the second week that Marie and Nick were here, they hired a car, we gave them a map and directions of where to go, and off they they went, via Kaikora (whale watching), Marlborough region through to the bays of Nelson and Abel Tasman park back via Lewis Path and Springs Junction café (the place we told them not to eat at). Believe they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and had lots of photo’s to take.
Once they returned back to Christchurch, we had more BBQ’s before we went off on our road trip to the West Coast of SI. The mistake we made, living here, is that we did not realize that it was peak holiday season, with all accommodation at Frans & Fox Glacier being sold out, with the hoteliers being able to charge extreme prices (tourist prices not Kiwi prices) for a night’s accommodation!
We had one night in Frans Josef resort, had extremely bad experience in a local restaurant that I won’t go into - except for anyone visiting do not go the Blue Note Café!
The next day we paid a visit to Fox Glacier - have attached photo’s. It was about a 20 minute walk to the front of the ‘live’ glacier, feeling the temperature drop and be able to look at the moving (extremely slowly ice). Nick decided that he did not want to walk that far, so Marie and Si made the trek. Very good indeed!
The frantic pace of buying the house and getting it sorted in time for our visitors was worthwhile as finally we had a house we could call a Kiwi home. Far better than the depression of Burnham Army Camp.
Si managed to take a couple of days off the first week Nick and Marie were here and showed them the key sights of Christchurch whilst they fought off the jet lag. First night Nick fell asleep at 9pm, Marie was soon to follow with Si and I wondering whether it was our conversation that was sending them too sleep so early!
Trips out to Port Hills, Lyttleton Harbour, Governors Bay, Lincoln Uni (well pie shop), vineyards at Geeson and also a quick visit to the house at Burnham followed. I just wanted Marie to see where we used to live so she could understand how bad the house was. For the first week here we just generally chilled out, stayed local and had a few BBQ’s.
For the second week that Marie and Nick were here, they hired a car, we gave them a map and directions of where to go, and off they they went, via Kaikora (whale watching), Marlborough region through to the bays of Nelson and Abel Tasman park back via Lewis Path and Springs Junction café (the place we told them not to eat at). Believe they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and had lots of photo’s to take.
Once they returned back to Christchurch, we had more BBQ’s before we went off on our road trip to the West Coast of SI. The mistake we made, living here, is that we did not realize that it was peak holiday season, with all accommodation at Frans & Fox Glacier being sold out, with the hoteliers being able to charge extreme prices (tourist prices not Kiwi prices) for a night’s accommodation!
We had one night in Frans Josef resort, had extremely bad experience in a local restaurant that I won’t go into - except for anyone visiting do not go the Blue Note Café!
The next day we paid a visit to Fox Glacier - have attached photo’s. It was about a 20 minute walk to the front of the ‘live’ glacier, feeling the temperature drop and be able to look at the moving (extremely slowly ice). Nick decided that he did not want to walk that far, so Marie and Si made the trek. Very good indeed!
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
How the time has flown
Greetings from New Zealand, yes we are still here just taken a few months to update the blog.
I’m not too sure where to start as a lot has happened over the last 6 months (is it really that long) since I last updated the site. But consequently all is well here in Christchurch as we are about to embark our second winter here.
The last 6 months have flown by, I Tracey have got a new job, got a new house, still have the cats, still have Si and we have had our first Kiwi Xmas plus first lot of visitors from the UK in Feb and I’m also waiting to here on another career prospect,,,,,
So way back last year we had a v. quiet Xmas and went up to Nelson again (top of South Island) for a week to chill out. Had a great time, visiting different areas and seeing how Kiwi’s celebrate Xmas. Must admit it was a bit quiet with just the two of us. Xmas day was spent on the beach, having brunch and a bottle of champers (Asda cava I do believe!) and we just chilled out whilst there. Did make us remember home and sometimes felt quite sad being on our own out here.
So after a week we came back to the not so sunny Canterbury (believe it was raining) for the remainder of New Year and the holidays before I started my new job - oh yeah I quit the Personal Training at the end of November as I had had enough and was desperate to earn a decent wage.
The job hunting was fairly stressful, as I had probably picked the worst time in the year to look for a job, as when it approaches Xmas, NZ shuts down for about 3-4 weeks for the main summer holidays. After a couple of weeks temping (bored bored bored), I managed to get a permanent job with Solid Energy as the Information Services Administrator starting in January. Solid Energy are the biggest NZ coal company here, and I work in their IT dept doing all sorts of interesting things (said with tongue firmly in cheek) of procument/purchasing/PA duties and pretty easy stuff. Bit different to being in the military is all I can say.
But after landing the job on the Thursday end of December, the next day we put an offer in on a house. Thanks to Dave Ardern for explaining the house buying process over here, which is thankfully a lot easier than the UK. So the house was purchased, contracted signed with a move in date of 26 Jan 07 - yep my 37th birthday. The pressure was indeed on as Si’s mum and dad were about to land for a visit and there was no way in hell I was going to have them stopping at the military house in Burnham.
So moving day arrived, Si decided to disappear for the day looking for a plumbing part, so he did not have to help with the chaos of delivery and sorting out boxes and furniture. After a week, the house was ready for the in-laws arrival and inspection!
I’m not too sure where to start as a lot has happened over the last 6 months (is it really that long) since I last updated the site. But consequently all is well here in Christchurch as we are about to embark our second winter here.
The last 6 months have flown by, I Tracey have got a new job, got a new house, still have the cats, still have Si and we have had our first Kiwi Xmas plus first lot of visitors from the UK in Feb and I’m also waiting to here on another career prospect,,,,,
So way back last year we had a v. quiet Xmas and went up to Nelson again (top of South Island) for a week to chill out. Had a great time, visiting different areas and seeing how Kiwi’s celebrate Xmas. Must admit it was a bit quiet with just the two of us. Xmas day was spent on the beach, having brunch and a bottle of champers (Asda cava I do believe!) and we just chilled out whilst there. Did make us remember home and sometimes felt quite sad being on our own out here.
So after a week we came back to the not so sunny Canterbury (believe it was raining) for the remainder of New Year and the holidays before I started my new job - oh yeah I quit the Personal Training at the end of November as I had had enough and was desperate to earn a decent wage.
The job hunting was fairly stressful, as I had probably picked the worst time in the year to look for a job, as when it approaches Xmas, NZ shuts down for about 3-4 weeks for the main summer holidays. After a couple of weeks temping (bored bored bored), I managed to get a permanent job with Solid Energy as the Information Services Administrator starting in January. Solid Energy are the biggest NZ coal company here, and I work in their IT dept doing all sorts of interesting things (said with tongue firmly in cheek) of procument/purchasing/PA duties and pretty easy stuff. Bit different to being in the military is all I can say.
But after landing the job on the Thursday end of December, the next day we put an offer in on a house. Thanks to Dave Ardern for explaining the house buying process over here, which is thankfully a lot easier than the UK. So the house was purchased, contracted signed with a move in date of 26 Jan 07 - yep my 37th birthday. The pressure was indeed on as Si’s mum and dad were about to land for a visit and there was no way in hell I was going to have them stopping at the military house in Burnham.
So moving day arrived, Si decided to disappear for the day looking for a plumbing part, so he did not have to help with the chaos of delivery and sorting out boxes and furniture. After a week, the house was ready for the in-laws arrival and inspection!
