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.