Another wintry day

We hear that there is something of a heatwave in Britain at the moment. Spring also seems to have come early to NZ, with the locals blaming El Nino. Though it's still August, we had 19oC (68oF) today, so the shorts and t-shirts were out.

We had a lovely day, driving 50 miles out to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. Akaroa was established as a French whaling station and still hangs onto the French influence. The sun shone and the boys had a swim in the harbour (sea loch?) shown in the picture above. We decided to save a trip out to see the dolphins and penguins until another day.

This time next week, we should be in our own house. The container arrived in Christchurch on Wednesday, but it won't be delivered to our's until Tuesday 1st, exactly a month after we arrived. Though it's been lovely staying with people whose generosity knows no bounds, it will be lovely to be in our own place at last.

The big event of the last week was the boys starting school. They have settled in remarkable well, though we had our 'ups and downs' in the evenings as emotional and physical tiredness took their toll. But in hindsight it has been a good week and we are all happy.

Another week... another home

It's sunday evening and we've moved again. After a lovely week staying with Howard & Jill in north Christchurch, we've moved to friends on the south side of the city close to our rental home and school.

The boys' holiday finishes tomorrow as they start at their new school, which is ten minutes walk away. They are fully kitted out with their uniforms and ready to go. The only issue seems to be confusion over which school year they should be entering. Despite conflicting advice from schools, friends and colleagues, all will be revealed tomorrow.

The boys and Ali had a busy week. As you'll see the boys have new bikes, but we've had to borrow helmets as their's are in the the container, which is due to arrive on Wednesday though we won't get our stuff until it has cleared Customs/ MAF and that could be a few days. On Tuesday the boys were climbing at the fantastic Clip'n'Climb centre, while they've also been swimming in the sea at Sumner (remember that it is still winter here!).

We've had quite a sporty week, with all of us going ten-pin bowling with the Beca social club on Tuesday and me (Mike) playing football on Saturday. With immaculate timing, I made my debut for South City Utd Firsts in the championship decider for the Christcurch Christian League. A 6-4 victory delivered the cup... and a few aching limbs.

We get the keys to our house tomorrow, though we're not moving in until the furniture arrives. However, we did have a big spending day yesterday, buying a fridge, freezer, washing machine and TV. That was a shock to the bank account, but the boys (all three!) are looking forward to the three month subscription to Sky Sports that came with the TV.

And finally... Ali had an interview on Friday for a teaching job, which was good experience but she didn't get the post, which was probably a blessing in terms of giving her time to settle the boys into school and sort out the house.

So as we settle into more of a routine here in Christchurch we're starting to feel at home and count our blessings, though we do miss family and friends from in the UK.

Until next time, bye.

Moving on

Sorry, but no photos this time.

It's Saturday night and we've moved out from the apartment in the city centre. It was a great location being close to work and all the central amenities, but we were starting to get a bit of 'cabin fever'. Our rental property at the foot of the Port Hills isn't available until the 24th and our container won't arrive before then anyway, so we have moved in with friends in Parklands on the north-eastern edge of the city. We're looking forward to going to their church tomorrow.

Mike finished his first week at work. It was a relatively gentle introduction and quite a change being back in a big organisation after ten years with Weetwood. Fortunately, there's a good social scene at work, which came into evidence this week with breakfast on Friday at a local restaurant.

Friday nigth saw Ali 'out with the girls' for a drink. The girls in question being friends a lovely lady (Julie) who has been a constant source of information and support over the phone since we were put in contact with her via Beca (Mike's firm) at Christmas. With Ali heading out, Mike and the boys went to the AMI Stadium to see Canterbury thrash Waikato in the Air NZ Cup, the rugby union regional representative competition. The game included a number of All Blacks, including Dan Carter, the local hero.

We now have our own car, having picked up the car on Thursday. This was despite Barclay's best efforts to stop us using our own money! Why do UK banks still insist that it takes 3-5 working days to transfer money, when our NZ bank does it instantly?

The boys have a week left of holiday before they start school on the 24th August. It will be the middle of the third term, so they'll get a two week break in September/October before the final term through to Christmas.

And finally, the weather has broken. After 12 days of glorious winter weather, winter is back with rain and overcast skies. But don't feel too sorry for us as we've been blessed in so many ways since we arrived.

Bye.

Back to work

OK, the fun had to come to an end, so I started work today. The commute is a bit tiring (not) as it takes at least three minutes to walk across the park to the office from our hotel. I was made to feel very welcome, but it was a busy day filling in forms, meeting people and even getting started on a couple of projects. I didn't have time to explore the swimming pool in the office basement!

After skiing on Friday, we had a more local weekend, visiting the beaches at New Brighton (Saturday) and Sumner (Sunday). It was chilly on Saturday, but very pleasant yesterday, so we sat on the beach and had fish and chips for lunch. Matthew even managed a paddle in the Pacific!

We tried our hand at 'sand art' at New Brighton, viewing our efforts from the pier. Our effort doesn't compare to the work of famous local artist Peter Donnelly (http://www.donnellygallery.co.nz/sandart/) whose work was featured on Billy Connolly's tour of NZ

The boys are visiting their new school tomorrow. Hopefully they'll be able to start in a week or so.

If anyone wants to Skype us, then for the next week we will only be online from 9am - 11am UK time due to the cost of internet access in the hotel.

Bye for now.

A busy couple of days

It's been a busy but good couple of days. We've signed up for a house and car. Having thought we'd go for an estate car again, we've ended up buying a Mitsubishi 4x4!! But it's definitely not a 'Chelsea Tractor'. Having taken the smart new hire car up 15km of dirt track to get to Mt Hutt ski area today, I'm glad we've gone for the 4x4 option.

I met my new colleagues at Beca on Thursday morning. They seem a good bunch and a team breakfast is planned for next Friday. The office is just round the corner from the hotel, so I won't have too early a start. It looks as though I'll get to do some travelling in the first few weeks, though it's likely to be limited to the North Island and nowhere more exotic.

We were out for dinner again last night, this time to a lovely couple who we met at church on Sunday. We've been overwhelmed by people's hospitatility and openess. It's so refreshing to be greeted with smiles and enthusiasm in shops and everywhere else. I even liked the car salesmen, as they are friendly but not too pushy. Amazingly, I was sold the car by a former pupil of Copmanthorpe Primary School in York!

Having sorted our jobs out and it being my last day of leave we treated ourselves to a day's skiing. Though the ski area wasn't big by Alping standards, the snow was excellent and we had a great day out less than two hours from home. And as we came of the slopes we were greeted to the sight of five keas (alpine parrots) clearing up the leftovers of someone's lunch.

Life is good.

A sunny place

It's Wednesday evening and the last couple of days have been good. We saw three more houses on Tuesday. One was 'too swanky' (as Matthew described it), while another was OK but not in the right school catchment. The third was a 'Neighbours' style bungalow at the bottom of the hill. Subject to references being OK, we're going for the bungalow, so I won't get my view of the mountains when I wake up! It's a good base for the next 8-12 months until we find that perfect place 'on the hill'.

That all makes the decision sound easy. It wasn't, as we all disagreed about which house we should take. The boys have been gracious in accepting our decision!

I've referred to the hill, which are the slopes of the Port Hills that skirt the southern edge of the city. They are fantastic, with the summit road running along the top of the ridge and criss-crossed by mountain biking and walking trail. Imagine the best Lakeland pass being five minutes from your suburban front door and you'll get the idea.

I went to the airport this morning to collect our parcel of excess baggage. As I drove there, my heart was lifted by the sight of the snow capped peaks of the Southern Alps in the distance. It's the same feeling that I used to get with the first glimpse of Alps when going skiing. I can have that tonic every day!

We have been incredibly lucky with the weather. It's been sunny and clear every day, there's been no wind and the temperature has been pleasant. Imagine the perfect March day in the UK. If the weather holds, we hope to go skiing on Friday to Mt Hutt.

I've been car hunting this afternoon. I think I've found one, so we'll take it for a test drive tomorrow. Being totally unoriginal, I'm going for the same make and model of car as I had in the UK!

And finally to our 'lost and found'... Chester the teddy bear is safely back in the Law household after his adventures with Singapore Airlines. Unfortunately, the iPod is lost. The airline had found another MP3 player near my seat, but it wasn't ours. If we had to get one thing back, I'm glad it was Chester.

Bed of Roses

If life in New Zealand is meant to be a bed of roses, then yesterday we hit the thorns. Emotionally we were very up and down, which can be put down to a number of factors, not least disturbed sleep patterns as we were still recovering from jet lag. I write this post at 10.46am having finally had a good nights sleep and the boys are still well away, so maybe we have finally adjusted to the 11 hour time shift.

Our spirits yesterday were further dampenned by unsuccessful house hunting. We visited three properties. One was OK, but the other two left a lot to be desired. We're visiting more today, so hopefully we'll find somewhere nice.

Our spirits were raised at teatime with a call from Singapore Airlines to say that they had found the iPod that I (and I take full responsibility) had left on the plane following our flight frlom London. Even better news was that they had also found 'Chester', a green and puple teddy bear who's a member of the family and had gone missing on the flight into Christchurch. According to the email from the airline, Chester had been found eating honey sandwiches in the plane's galley!

Today we are going back to the airport to pick up the lost property and also collect our parcel of 'excess baggage' that we sent by air freight. We're also going out for dinner tonight with friends, so it will be good to see familiar faces.

So, here's to a better day. We knew there would be good days and bad, but the sun always follows the rain (eventually). And if the house hunting goes well today, we could be skiing tomorrow!

We're Here

It's Saturday teatime and I write this from our apartment having made it to Christchurch. Unfortunately, jet lag has caught up with us and the boys have given in and gone to bed (we all dozed most of the afternoon). The journey has been long but interesting and remarkably easy from an admin point of view. We cleared NZ immigration and customs very quickly and were delighted to see Howard & Jill Smith (who Ali knew from Woodford) waiting for us in the arrivals hall at the airport. It was a lovely surprise to be greeted.

However, we did have to decline an offer of Sunday lunch from the Smiths, having already accepted an offer from a family that we met at Singapore Airport and then chatted to on the plane. What was the chance of me randomly getting into conversation with someone who's got two sons (aged 8 & 11) that go to one of the schools that we are thinking of for the boys?

Ali's been the star behind the wheel as she's got to grips with driving an automatic for the first time. I always get out of having to drive first in new places on the grounds that I navigate. Having left our bags at the apartment, we went in search of a supermarket to do the shopping. Then while the boys dozed in the car we went for a drive out to the coast at Sumner and through the suburb of Mt Pleasant, from where the attached photograph was taken. I really could wake up to that view every day!

It's been a lovely clear winter's day here, with some high cloud. This meant that we have a great view of the Southern Alps and Canterbury Plains as we flew in this morning on the overnight flight from Singapore. The boys have been fantastic on the flights. The flights were 21.5 hours in total, of which Josh slept for the last hour of the flight into Singapore. Otherwise he dozed for about an hour and watch films and played computer games for the rest! Glancing at the row behind, Ali and Matthew seemed to accumulate a good few hours in the 'land of nod'. I can't sleep on planes, so had Josh for company.

Singapore was excellent. I'm not a fan of big cities but I love Singapore. It's so clean, alive and ordered. We grabbed a cheap and tasty meal at a hawkers market on Thursday evening and grabbed breakfast on the way to Sentosa Island on Friday. In between, the hotel was the plushest that the boys have experienced and located next to Raffles. We all had our photo taken in front of Raffles, to echo the photo that Ali and I have from 1996. Two has become four! The boys particularly enjoyed swimming in the open air pool at the hotel at 9pm on Thursday night.

We spent most of Friday at Sentosa Island, Singapore's holiday resort. Goes on a 600m long luge track and 4D cinema experiences sandwiched and hour on the beach swimming in a luke warm sea with palm trees fringing the sand.

We thank you for your prayers and best wishes for our journey. It seems strange that we are so far away and at the moment it feels like being on holiday, but I'm sure that it will hit us that we are a long way from the UK sometime in the future. But for the moment, we are glad to have arrived safely and are all longing for a good night's sleep and a lie in. God Bless