[Pip]

and no, we haven't dropped off the face of the planet, just been overwhelmed with work, but will come to that later.

So how are we doing ?, Actually pretty well! Despite our plan to rent for six months, we ended up buying within a few weeks and have never regretted it. We went from a two bed flat in Amersham, Bucks and now have a four acre lifestyle block in Ohoka (just North of Christchurch), and love the space and freedom. We even have our own olive oil that we made from our own olive trees back in June.

We've also added to our 'family' and have adopted a black kiwi rescue kitten called Eli, in addition to our UK rescue cat 'Olive' that we brought with us. We've had our first visitor from the UK and throroughly enjoyed showing off our 'new home', touring all round South Island, snowboarding, eating fish and chips on Sumner beach, port hills, wineries, jetboating in Queenstown, Milford Sound, ice climbing at Fox Glacier - the list is endless. (and he's already planning his next trip out)

We really enjoy life here in NZ, and I even own a bicycle for the first time since being a teenager, so we often spend our weekends out in the garden or our on the bikes, rather than wandering round aimlessly round shopping centres as we did in the UK.

I've started wondering about what I'd miss if we went back and here's just a few..

Having a garage and a door into the house. (no more lugging shopping bags from the car to the house in the pouring rain! - do not underestimate this. Those who don't get to park near their house will know what I mean )
Not worrying about making noise/being kept awake by neighbours noise
Not worrying about the cats and traffic and seeing them outside enjoying themselves.
Seeing ducks (and now ducklings) traipsing across the garden. Ditto giant hares which the cats seem to be unable to see - just as well they are twice the size of the cats!)
being able to 'pop' to the beach/winery etc etc, in fact pop anywhere without it taking up the whole day.
having space to finally unpack all our wedding present from 2 yrs ago
having a walk in larder!
having a shorter (and very scenic) commute into work
waking up to snowcapped mountains and having breakfast outside on the patio
NZ winter weather is def preferable to UK winter weather
and probably a whole lot more, but for some reason little things like that, just make my day.

So whats not so good, - money is not as plentiful as when we were in the UK, and we don't have that much left at the end of the month, but we have a good standard of living, eat out several times a month and can pay the bills, but I would like a little more set by for 'emergencies', but we are getting there gradually. We are also going to sell our flat in the UK at the end of its tenancy. Originally, we thought it would be a great safety net, but even if we did go back, we wouldn't live there now. Being an overseas landlord is just not working for us and this will allow us to decrease our NZ mortgage.

workwise, Stu is very settled, but I struggled a little and ended up taking a job which requires long hours and a lot of unpaid out of hours meetings/conferences. As a result, Stu's working hours have also increased as we share a car into CHC so we are both working long hours. After three months of work, I realise that we are actually working the same hours as we were in the UK, just more hours at work with a shorter commute, and a lot of extra evening things on top of that, so I'm working up the courage to resign this week and its back to the job hunting!

overall.. so far so good. We've had some rocky moments since we arrived (who hasn't!), we miss out friends and families, but have made some great new ones, and had a lot of support from forum people like Olivia, Sophia, and Moorf to name but a few! We have definitely achieved our goal of more space, a more outdoorsy lifestyle and if I can find something better suited work wise, and we get back the worklife balance we had before I started work, then we'll have achieved everything we moved here for. Fingers crossed!

Hope some of that helps for all those out there reading this...!

[Belmont Babes]

Pip & Stu

Wow...sounds lovely. I can only dreammm at the minute. Keep the posts coming. Really helps those stuck in Blighty waiting for house sale

[holland]

Pip and Stu,

Thanks for update...hope you get another job soon!! Im sure you will. You sound like your enjoying yourselves...keep us posted

j and G xx

[scott&vicky]

wow thats sounds so cool,i can picture it beening there i glad its all work out for you cant wait for next year to be there

[peebles16]

Brilliant post Pip and Stu it's so good when folks are really honest about their experience. Hope to be joining you in Christchurch soon.
Karen

[Caroline and Dave]

Pip.

Great post,
Will pm you

Kindest regards

Dave and Caroline

[The Hodges]

Hi Pip and Stu

Great post, glad you are settling in, it seems a long time ago that we all met up in the pub in St Albans. We will have to arrange to come and see you guys soon.:yes

Clare and Tony

[thezorbster]

Hi Pip
Wondered where you'd disappeared to but glad to see you're now back on the forum. Lovely post, sounds like you're both now pretty settled. It takes courage on the job front but if the work's getting out of hand then go for it, you need to have time to enjoy the things around you so good luck with the search.
Take care
S

[aberdian]

Nice post. We're coming to have a look around Ohoka and Rangiora in a couple of weeks - any advice wuld be most welcomed (he said trying desperately not to hijack the thread at the same time :) )

[Pip]

Thanks everyone! - always good to hear from you all.. Well I did the deed and handed in my notice yesterday, as I'm just within the three month cut off, so I can leave at the end of the week. I've already got a couple of possibles in the pipeline, so are feeling positive and it was def the right thing to do. Life's too short to be unhappy at work!

Aberdenian - pls PM me if you have any questions and we'll be more than happy to meet up for a coffee when you are here, if we can help with any questions you might have. (except child orientated things like schools - but lots of other people can help out on that one). There's a lot of brits out here, which is nice, as everyone is keen to help anyone new, but walk down Rangiora high street on Sat morn (if only to get a pie from the bakery!) and it feels like there is more british accents than kiwi ones!

There's not too much to the centre of Ohoka (so don't get too excited - the local garage is the hub of activity!), but there's a proposal for a small development with a swimming pool, restaurant and bar and shock horror - a whole four shops! but according to the planning, it will all be things like a saddlery, coffee shop and hairdressers etc.

[Lara Croft]

We are looking at Rangiora too. Where is Ohoka in relation to C/ch and Rangiora?

I was looking at the area on Google Earth last night, and thinking it all looked rather crowded and busy, then I checked the population of Rangiora - around 12000. I was staggered when I looked at my home area to see that there are 38000 live Great Sankey (near Warrington, Cheshire), and that is just a few miles from us....

Any pics of Ohoka to show us yet???

Jane

[Pip]

Ohoka is North of Christchurch and takes about 25 mins from central CHC to Ohoka (prob about 35 in rush hour). Effectively you drive out of CHC on the '1', cross the waimak river, then take the first left turning and onto tram rd. There are various small (villages ? - I use the term loosely!) sitauted off tram rd as you drive down it and Ohoka is one of them , which is about 8k down. others include Clarkville, Mandeville, Swannanoa. Then there are two small towns which are equal differences from Ohoka (about 7/8 min drive), but in different directions, which are Rangiora and Kaiapoi. Rangiora is great on a sat morn with its own bakery, butcher, coffee shops, dept store, everything you need without being too big - we often bump into people we know when we go there, and we don't even know that many people!

I've tried to do a google earth link, but not sure if will work.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ohoka&sll=-43.531637,172.636645&sspn=0.05812,0.144882&ie=UTF8&ll=-43.363004,172.576311&spn=0.007285,0.01811&t=k&z=16&om=1

now did that help or hinder ?!

in terms of questions about kids and school - I have seen them on foot, on bikes and there does seem to be a school bus that picks kids up (no visible stops - just agreed somehow), but as to whether it goes to the local school or further afield. i'm not sure. I think Ohoka is primary and then when they get bigger they go to Rangiora, but others can probably elaborate on that one.

btw - Ohoka makes Rangiora look like a big place!

[Pip]

- just thought I'd add a quick postscript to this. Having resigned last monday, finished last friday, - I went for a job interview with Meridian Energy this morning, who have offered me a job! (starting tomorrow - eek!) So for those of you who are having minor wobbles - hang on in there, it will come right eventually - it just might take a few months, rather than a few days/weeks, for all the pieces to fall into place. :yes

[The Hodges]

Hey, congratulations Pip. Glad to hear it's all working out.

See you soon. Hopefully.