[Smiler]

Well, we’re here, all unpacked & the business is up and running. YAY! (Oh and the homestay is open :laugh) I'd meant to do an update on being in NZ for a year, but can you use this post instead please?

Apart from the horrid expense of 2 moves in 3 months, all went well, 2 wine glasses and a chair strut broken. Conroy’s moved us from Welly & contracted Hooker’s Wanganui to unload us. I‘ve still got my gripes about removal co’s but until I get a kiwi accent, that’s not gonna change.


I left OH sorting out the loading at the old house & drove up here. Our immediate neighbours were on the drive to greet me.

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/2348/onarrival71106ys1.jpg

It was weird coming into the house, the owners had a lot of stuff before, & so the place seemed very empty. We had our 1st lot of mail which included a speeding ticket G got 2 weeks prior in MY car.


I got on with cleaning & G arrived that evening, when I mentioned the ticket, he asked how I knew. I waved the letter in front of him. He then pulled a fresh ticket out of his wallet that he had ‘collected’ on his way up, done by a forward facing cop car. Grrr he makes my blood boil with speeding & his excuse that he was rushing to see me, didn’t wash.


We huddled in bed that night, me listening to every creak, possum wind and peacock screech. Are they loud or what! The farmer moved the sheep from our drive to the paddock next door & the lambs lost their mum’s, so there was frantic baaing all night too. Not a car engine or plane noise at all. Luverly.


Movers arrived the next morning, an hour early but did we care? No! By lunchtime the stuff was in, beds assembled and the furniture plonked down. After lots of careful placing, moving & rearranging of stuff, we fell into bed exhausted.

We managed to run the business on dial up for 10 days until the satellite engineer came. We’re the proud owners of an 84 cm dish on the roof & have shares in a satellite hanging somewhere over Vietnam. We’re paying enough monthly to own it in 3 years! It felt good to be back in the real world, although DU gave us the opportunity to do the basic stuff & get on with exploring the area.


Some ‘neighbours’ popped in to say hi & offer help, well I say neighbours, they are about 5 mins drive away & they’re the nearest! We were invited to happy hour on Fridays. Take a plate & bottle. Everyone made us welcome and it's nice to be part of a community again.


This house is fabulous; it’s old with polished floors, high ceilings & tall stained glass windows. We’ve got an acre of mature garden. We’ve dug one veggie patch & planted herbs, salad stuff, tomatos, beans & peas already, with lots more to go in. G needs no excuse to mow the law or haul stuff round on the quad bike. The pool has been let go over the winter & is slowly being cleaned out. This is the view from the verandah. http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/1907/dunard71106015ep6.jpg

I’ve stocked the freezer incase of bad weather & we’ve got our emergency plans & equipment updated. There was a big flood here 2 years ago & although we’re on a hill, the road was cut off for 10 days. Well not exactly cut off, but swept away.:eek:

We’re 2 weeks in & can think of only 3 downsides. This house is big so is likely to be cold in winter although we’ve got mobile heating & working fireplaces in every room, the postman rings at 6.45 on the mornings when he’s got a letter to be signed for & we have to meet him at the mail box. Oh there’s no rubbish collection out here, we have to take it into town. So we are recycling like mad.

If anyone's passing this way, the kettle's always on. We keep pinching ourselves, we feel so lucky to have found this place after the last lot of hassle. We may be renting it but there’s this feeling inside me that I’ve waited all my life to live here in this house.

[Marie P]

I have 3 words to say ...WOW ,WOW and WOW..........

What a fantastic place ,I hope you are very happy there :cheers

Marie x

PS I got another ticket this week too ........never had one in my life before :exit

[KerryS]

It sounds and looks absolutely idyllic. And you deserve it after your previous nightmare of a rental. Hopefully this one will be for the long-term, and you can sit back and enjoy...

[MB]

Such a lovely place! Congratulations. I can't wait to read more about your settling in here. Love the descriptions and details. Please keep it coming when you can (and if you want to)! :nice1

[Smiler]

Do you know, I could cry at the difference.

Our landlord has just turned up (we did know he was coming) he's driven down from Cambridge, 4 hours, to fix some painting where there was a leak on the day they left.

He's helping G run some cabling for the office, his knowledge of the underside of the house being very useful and he's apparently doing some jobs he didn't have time to do before they left.

He also brought 6 bottles of wine and a crate of beer. :raebanana He said he would stay in town as this was our place now, but I've persuaded him to stay in his own house. :laugh :laugh

[MB]

He also brought 6 bottles of wine and a crate of beer. :raebanana He said he would stay in town as this was our place now, but I've persuaded him to stay in his own house. :laugh :laugh

Smiler - if he's brought all that booze, you can send him over here to our place! Thinking about it, I'll pay for a taxi for the man! :laugh

[Avalon]

Cant wait to see it!

I am so glad you have found your "place". You both deserve it.

{{{HUGS}}}

[Jameelka]

Looks absolutely gorgeous and sounds it too!
Hope you will both be very happy.
:raebanana

[Singel]

That view is great (green with envy :wah )

So glad to know that everything went well and you are happy. It just show that there is a blessing in disguise.


PS I got another ticket this week too ........never had one in my life before :exit
Marie, you are not alone. I also got a speeding ticket this week :o

[sarahw]

Looks fantastic!! Any pics of the house?? Dying to see it!

[katandbob]

Smiler lovely views - wish I had the time to dig a veggie patch - want some chooks????

PS can you PM me with some details of speeds/ price of the Satalite Broadband!

cheers

Kat

[StevieD]

Carol - to paraphrase MarieP - WOW!!!!

That looks absolutely fantastic - once you settled in and get used to the new sounds you are going to be so comfy....

Steve

[Babette & Andy]

Debbie it truly sounds like you and Gary have found a wonderful place, with a great landlord too :cheers You two so deserve this after the past few months. Time to start living the NZ dream, and get friendly with the neighbours and the sheep!! Look forward to hearing how you're getting on.

Thinking of you in your little piece of paradise . . . . :)

Babette & Andy

[jubjub]

It certainly looks a lovely spot you have there...

I definitely think a few chooks are in order, seeing as you have already done the veggie patch!

Wish I could do that fancy photoshop stuff, cos I could put a nice pinky coloured tint on those pics.. or maybe I should just dig out my own RTS...

[Nienke]

And I will say it as well: Wow, Wow and WOW!
That must be one great feeling to finally have found your piece of heaven!

[willsken]

It sounds idyllic. You seem so happy at the new place. :D What lovely views, feeling green! More pics please!

[Lupin]

What a beautiful place to live!!! Really pleased for you that it all worked out :)

[pinkpiggy]

What lovely views you have from your new home. It sounds like you have done such a lot in a short space of time. I wish you both the best and hope you'll be very happy. :cheers

[Caroline and Dave]

What a beautiful place. The best rental I've seen. Do you think you'd ever consider buying it? or is that not an option?

We are extremely pleased for you

Kindest regards

Dave and Caroline

[Hannah]

WOW Deborah and Gary!!!!

Did you say 'if you are in the area and want a cup of tea.....'?

I don't need asking twice. See you early next year! (Will have to take a trip down to Wanganui for yet more swimming competitions with James and i'll be gasping for a cuppa when i get there!)

[Smiler]

Thanks Guys for all your good wishes and PM's etc.

Hannah, Yep kettle's always on and James can do his warm up laps in the pool, if we ever get it habitable.

Dave and Caroline. We'd buy it like a shot if the owners could part with it, if not, we'll enjoy living here and being 'caretakers'.

Nicola, I aim to please but tell me if I get boring. :laugh

I went into town today shopping, on the way out got held up by these guys.

http://img451.imageshack.us/img451/4524/trafficjamom5.jpg

I don't mind driving through sheep slowly but usually make sure it's ok with the famer, rather than steam in kiwi style.

While I was in town it rained very hard and part of our road had slipped.

http://img451.imageshack.us/img451/483/blufflandslipvf5.jpg

It looks flat at the bit where it's been driven over, but believe me it wasn't. On the left is a shear drop into the river. The orchard guys coming the other way had to stop while I drove over gingerly, even in 4WD it was hard. I think we all needed a change of underwear at the end, me from fear and them from laughing. :eek:



Kat, will do.

[KerryS]

Jeez! I wouldn't like to drive that in a 4 wheel drive either.
The perils of countryside living - sheep, road slips, being laughed at by the orchard workers!

[Smiler]

Jeez! I wouldn't like to drive that in a 4 wheel drive either.
The perils of countryside living - sheep, road slips, being laughed at by the orchard workers!

Yep my ears are burning :o I can hear it echoing round the houses "Did ya see the new Pom almost fishtail off the bluff?" :laugh

One guy stood infront of me and kept saying left right, straighten up and waving his arms and the other stood at the back left of my car, on the bank above the river.

I was more petrified of wheelspinning and covering him in mud or knocking him in the river. If they'd left me to it, I'd have probably been ok, yeah right!

[Bruckner]

So happy for you Smiler! What a beautiful place! Keep posting because I love reading about it.

Emily

[Anita & Marco]

It really sounds and looks FAB!!!
Well done and whenever we are in the neighbourhood we will pop by, but you know we hardly ever leave Windy Welly.

All the best,
Anita

[Smiler]

More pics guys ;)

Front of house with verandah in the middle. The main doors are security and fly screened. The few little red pots in front of the house crowded our deck in Welly. We just don't know where to put them now, they seem a bit lost really.

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/3963/house2wt4.jpg

Front again

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/5623/house5ht9.jpg

[Smiler]

Some pics of the garden :D We've got cherry, lemon, grapefruit, lemonade, walnut, fig and mandarin trees. The Gunnera has grown about 3 feet in 2 weeks.

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/162/garden4ob2.jpg


We've got fish and frogs in the ponds, probably the only pets I'm not allergic to. :clap

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/3944/garden1uq9.jpg

[Ana&Steve]

Wow Smiler, your place is a dream! Hope there are a few more left like that! :D
Ana

[Smiler]

with a torch! :D Saw two, although heard some more rustling's which could have been rabbits though.

A sheep coughed seemingly just behind me and I leapt about 40 ft in the air. They're quite silent tonight though, unusual.

The night sky is fantastic tonight, crowded with many bright stars against a deep inky blackness. Heaven. ;)

[StevieD]

Smiler, fantastic looking place. Love the thought of those stars with little if no light pollution to spoil it all. I get the feeling that our telescope will have a permanent place outside when we get there.

[jess]

:raebanana Terrific pics Smiler! I'm beginning to think your pushy ex-landlord was a blessing in disguise, because now you get to live here!!! It looks beautiful. Glad you are getting settled. Love the pond in the yard! Hope you will still be able to make it to another Kapiti Coast meet sometime. :D

[lollypop]

Hey Smiler,

Your new pad looks fabulous, congratulations!

Wishing you all the very best.
Sharon.

[jbharvey]

Smiler, beautiful house. Where is the nearest large city? I didn't get an idea where you guys exactly are....

[Carol]

Smiler, beautiful house. Where is the nearest large city? I didn't get an idea where you guys exactly are....


A LONG way away!
;) :D

[Smiler]

A LONG way away!

Thanks guys :D

Justin - Carol's right, the nearest large city is errrr Melbourne!

No really, Wanganui is the nearest town, about 30 mins or so drive north for us. I chuckle when I go through their CBD, which is the main street. I think CBD is a much abused term here. ;)

Nearest large city (in terms of NZ size to me) is Welly, which is about 2.5 hours drive south from here. Palmerston North is about 45 mins away south east, but to me that's still another town, not a city. No offence to anyone in Palmy but I'm thinking of cities in NZ as Welly, Auckland and CC. :uhoh

So we're north of Welly on the west coast. Does that help, before I dig myself into a huge hole?

[Smiler]

Jess - that's how we're looking at it too. Of course it didn't seem like that at the time, it never does when you're in the situation.

I'll just have to work a little harder to make up for all the moving expenses, but tbh we're both glad it happened or we'd never have moved here or somewhere like this for another couple of years at least. So yes all the pain was worth the gain. :raebanana

StevieD - OH might be getting a telescope from Santa Claus. ;) Any recommendations on those and a decent make of binoculars please?

[Moorf]

Ohhhh, now that's a topic for our budding family astronomer Moorf Junior... :yes - I'll nudge him...

[Moorf Junior]

eh? wha? oh.. [rubs eys and yawns]

Cool, a subject I can offer some advice back to the forum on :)

The best scope bang-per-buck is the Meade ETX-80. Fully computerised and fully auto tracking, a huge range of ETX series accessories and great for astro-photography using the wide range of SLR/digital camera mounts available too. Here in the UK, it costs £250 - but worth every penny :) (http://www.telescopehouse.co.uk/page.aspx?theLang=001lngdef&pointerid=9048F7BBFF524A46B30A81ABBBF01776&action=lnk)

If your looking to go up in price, go for the ETX-90, ETX-105 or ETX-125 (£600, £700 & £900), or down in price, go for a Newtonian type, such as the Bresser Messier N130 Equatorial which is around £150. (http://www.telescopehouse.co.uk/page.aspx?theLang=001lngdef&pointerid=FBF24A26463A43A0A53C20FB3D243EFE&action=lnk)

[Smiler]

Well I hope she didn't wake you up on my account. :D

Thanks for those recommendations MJ. The Meade one looks super cool, I haven't a clue what all the blurb means but I'll investigate. Might be a steep learning curve though and OH might have to wait and have a combined birthday and chrissie pressie. :uhoh

One more question though please? Is this the kinda thing that would travel well, if I had it shipped. Or is it something I should buy in a shop and carry home in cotton wool?

Thanks very much for the help.

D

[Moorf Junior]

Meade's travel fine, they pack them extra well and the quality of the scope is tops too, thats one reason why they cost more, that and the fact you'll see soooo much more on a good scope that you will on a cheaper one. I THINK they are all made in the USA so are up to shipping as long as they are not kicked around or dropped.

One word of advise, is to try and avoid buying second hand, you just dont know how they have been treated, and also look for what they call UHTC coatings on Meades (Ultra-High Transmission Coatings), makes a big difference!

One last pointer, is that the ETX series are desktop/tabletop scopes, I would recommend getting a GOOD telescope scope tripod, NOT A CAMERA TRIPOD, they shake too much, and also get the hard case for storage on those cloudy nights :)

[Bruckner]

StevieD - OH might be getting a telescope from Santa Claus. ;) Any recommendations on those and a decent make of binoculars please?

Oooooh! May I just butt in here and say my brother-in-law, Michael, sells telescopes at Oceanside Photo and Telescope in Southern California. No idea where you're buying it from Smiler but he's a great guy and very helpful. We just bought a digital camera from him and plan on buying a scope to bring with us. I know this comes across like a shameless plug but he's a great guy and very knowledgeable. Link if you're interetested: http://www.optcorp.com/

Emily

[Ana&Steve]

Oooooh! May I just butt in here and say my brother-in-law, Michael, sells telescopes at Oceanside Photo and Telescope in Southern California. No idea where you're buying it from Smiler but he's a great guy and very helpful. We just bought a digital camera from him and plan on buying a scope to bring with us. I know this comes across like a shameless plug but he's a great guy and very knowledgeable. Link if you're interetested: http://www.optcorp.com/

Emily
This shop is only 20min away from where we live, and I know at least one other forumite lives even closer, let me know if there is anything I can do to help!
Ana

[UK Neil]

I have a Meade ETX-90, and its excellent. Not cheap but well worth the money. I have not used anything else in the same price range so i dont have much to compare it to but it is a fantastic telescope and v.easy to use. All computerised, tracks stars, and once you have set it up correctly you can select a star with the handset and open a beer while it goes off and finds it automatically.

[Tate6]

Wow! If that isn't the idyllic NZ homestead??!! So quaint!! Love it!
You are indeed lucky! YEA for you!!

Terry

[Smiler]

Emily & Ana

Thanks, not shameless plugging at all. I'm so out of my depth with telescopes it's untrue, I need all the help I can get. :D

Thanks for the offer of help too. I'd gone with Moorf junior's recommendation of the Meade. A Uk company won't ship outside UK and neither will a US company I contacted. There's only one dealer in NZ and I've emailed them but I've read elsewhere he suffers from slow shipments.

I'll email optcorp and see what Michael says! Thanks guys. :nice1 I'll PM you if I get stuck further. :D

UK Neil. Thanks for the recommendation, looks like Meade is the one to go with. All I need is a scope to pour a glass of pinot gris while it's searching, and I'll be in heaven too.

PS I figured cheap isn't the way to go with these instruments, am I right? (GULP)

[kiwidebs]

Deborah, so pleased to see you both settled in your lovely new place. Wow to all those fruit trees, and super wow to the speed of getting that vegie patch underway. LOL at G and his speeding tickets - how many will he need to convince him to drive granny style??? You get the same threat as Dawn - we'll be popping in for a cuppa when we do our North Island camping tour (long term plan so plenty of time to come up with your excuses....:laugh ). Good luck with the telescope hunt - you'd be in a great place to do loads of star watching (none of those bright city lights to get in the way).


Debs

[willsken]

Yes the house really is wow! Lovely pictures. Thanks. :D

[marcia]

WOW - I'd love to live somewhere like that if we didn't have kids - (we are having problems already trying to find somewhere out of town so we aren't overlooked and have a bit of land, but not too far for Kev to commute to work and within biking distance of other houses for the boys to take themselves to their mates without having to call mum's taxi!!!!)

Looks stunning - you'll have to pm your addy (if you don't mind me and the kids descending on you - we'll be looking for nice places to visit in the summer hols - great gardens for a game of 'hide and we'll never find you!!!!!!!) But make sure their aren't any landslides I'd be too chicken to drive over them :uhoh - we have yet to explore the area around wanganui but have some friends up there from the stockcars.

Look forward to seeing more pics when you get chance!

[Smiler]

Well, the last few months have flown by and we've now been here 3 months next week. Our 1st UK visitors also arrive next week, (the almost) Mr S's Mum and Hubby and they'll be staying for a whole month.

What can I say, apart from we LOVE this house. The space and feel of the house and garden really suit us. We managed to get some jobs done at christmas and it really felt like home when we hung our pictures on the walls. We didn't have much furniture to suit the style of the house, so I've enjoyed furnishing the place on the cheap with Trade Me bargains.

The garden is looking good too. It's been fun to see what's come up and I've always been able to pick flowers for the house. The fav's at the mo are mop head size hydrangeas in shades of blue and purple. The owner had let the garden 'evolve' and we will need to cut back some shrubs and trees hard when the time is right, specially as some of the shrubs are blocking the light outside our bedroom window.

Possum control is better now OH has his gun license and most nights there are a few more notches on his belt. We've also got traps and bait out but that didn't stop them completely stripping one lemon tree in 2 nights flat.

My veggie patch is coming along well, even though we were pretty late with the planting and tonight we had the first pick of courgettes for dinner. I'm busy saving all my bottles and jars and trying to find interesting recipes for tomatoes, pears, apples and figs etc (if the pesky possums leave any for us)

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/6797/saladstrawbsleekscourgenb3.th.jpg (http://img95.imageshack.us/my.php?image=saladstrawbsleekscourgenb3.jpg)


We managed to go exploring recently as I wanted to see places from a book I'm reading on the area. This is a bridge up river from us that was damaged in the 2004 flood. The warning sign is a bit of an understatement.

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/7397/bridgesignme9.th.jpg (http://img220.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bridgesignme9.jpg)

This is the bridge

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/4572/collapsedbridge2xo8.th.jpg (http://img220.imageshack.us/my.php?image=collapsedbridge2xo8.jpg)

Sorry they are a bit small.

[Smiler]

This was a spiders web spun round an Echima (I think)

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/8219/spiderswebindew2ng9.th.jpg (http://img207.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spiderswebindew2ng9.jpg)

and a view of the garden around the pool.
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/1887/dahlaisdyingoffon6.th.jpg (http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dahlaisdyingoffon6.jpg)


Anyway, we've had lots of visitors, something I was afraid wouldn't happen as we are so far off the beaten track. But lots of friends have been to stay or for the day. Carol, Kenny and kids have even been twice in a month! Their eldest 2 love mowing the lawn and just generally helping out and Chloe is usually in the pool by 9am.
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/594/poolmaidct2.th.jpg (http://img522.imageshack.us/my.php?image=poolmaidct2.jpg)


Ken has been a great help to Gary, providing a much need pair of hands on some aerial projects and Craig climbed a very high tree to dangle some wire up it. (I'm sure thats not the technical term but it'll have to do!) Scott did sterling work with the chainsaw and axe and added to the pile of wood that's going to be invaluable this winter. While they're busy, Carol and I keep them supplied with food and drink, inbetween running ourselves ragged sitting on the verandah.

We've also been 'given' some trees that need felling and so far OH and I have chopped down one and got it back to the house in the car. It's not good work for your back, but it's not going to get here any other way. We're waiting on a trailer too, which will be a much better way of getting it back to the house.

Our satellite BB is still up and running and working much better than OH expected it would, so we continue to work from home which is great.

Lastly, our new neighbours have made us so welcome, we feel like we've been here for years. Every Friday without fail there's happy hour, usually at the deer farmers house, but couple of times it's been here. It's a riot and I usually wake up on Saturdays with my sides hurting where we've laughed so much. Every takes a plate to share and whatever they drink. If you have friends or family staying they are also welcome and MIL has been told to come with OH's baby photo's and tales of his childhood, height of embarassment for him. YAY!

So I guess thats about it for now, except to say it you are ever up this way just email for directions, the jugs always on!

P.S OH did get his telescope from Santa and was thrilled.

[Nienke]

Wow, that garden looks fantastic! I'm so jealous!!

[Avalon]

P.S OH did get his telescope from Santa and was thrilled.

OH is wishing his wife was called Smiler at this point :laugh

[Trigirl]

you sounds very settled and happy :) and the photos are very fab indeed. i love the spiders web one!

[pinkpiggy]

Smiler, that looks fabulous. You seem to have found your own little bit of 'paradise'. Your neighbours sound great. :cheers

[StevieD]

So a telescope and radio kit, your oh is sounding more interesting by the day.... :)

And an unhealthy fascination with the Titanic - cool!!!!

See pm Debs...

[Moorf]

Life looks swweeeeeeet in the boonies hon, I'm getting the cozzie ready :nice1 - fabby pics!

[Nathan]

Are the stars there as big as I imagine?
What a beautiful place. ... and lemon trees! :)
I think it might be heaven if there are a couple pickers or fiddlers in the neighborhood!

[Smiler]

OH is wishing his wife was called Smiler at this point

Poor bloke wouldn't last 30 seconds! :laugh :laugh :laugh

Nathan, I can almost hear the sound of duelling banjo's as I type. I'm lovin it!

Moorf, pool's ready, jump in!

Steve, will answer now. :D

[Juniper]

Wish I could do that fancy photoshop stuff, cos I could put a nice pinky coloured tint on those pics.. or maybe I should just dig out my own RTS...

Lemme!

wow, what a dream house!

http://www.spacetacos.com/juniper/images/rose-specs.jpg
http://http://www.spacetacos.com/juniper/images/rose-specs.jpg

[Smiler]

I fell off my chair laughing. :laugh

Thanks juniper, that is just the best pic! :nice1

[Juniper]

I know, silly silly :-P But you're living the dream life! Hubby and I have this vision of working from home out in the boonies, in an awesome house that costs a fraction of our mortgage, with cute animals in the driveway lol (well maybe not possums)...

We work from home in the kinda-sorta boonies in California, but the cost of living is outrageous, we're a bit too close to civilization perhaps, and it's not New Zealand!

[Babette & Andy]

Thanks for the update Deborah, and the wonderful pictures. We WILL come and visit you, hopefully this year. But before then . . . . there's the SMILER meet in Auckland :raebanana :raebanana See you & Gary & family really soon.

Hugs
Babette & Andy

[Angie and Mick]

Hi Smiler

What a beautiful home, I am so jealous.

We visited that area when we were on holiday, sister in Law has some friends up there. They made us very welcome not sure if they are any where near you, they are called Trisha and Peter.

:)

[KD17]

Just seen the pics of your new home, A-Maze-Ing - what a lifestyle...

Hope to catch up with you when we arrive and look forward to seeing you and your fantastic home.

Debby & Keith

[Smiler]

Hi everyone

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been in NZ 2 years today and been living in deepest Wanganui for almost a year; I guess it’s time to update this thread.

We’ve just received our passports back with our indefinite RRV’s so we’re stopping! We’re very happy renting this beautiful house and have just agreed a new rolling contract. This is a small rural community and the neighbours are a great bunch of people.

Being another ‘Brit in the boonies’ J suits us down to the ground. I’m surrogate Mum to 86 lambs in the paddocks (and one dead cow ATM!) I helped our neighbour with the delivery of a couple of sets of twin lambs and I sat and held a wee one for 2 hours when he was dying. Toooooo soft for words, but the farmer was happy to humour a townie. (OH just sees warm lamb salad!) I’m on the lookout for our first LSB animals and would love to start with chooks, so if anyone knows of some that need to be re-homed, please get in touch - 2 palatial chook houses, 18 free ranging acres plus forest at the ready!

Geek warning! Anorak on! Since living here, OH has a decent radio shack for the first time in many years with plenty of room for aerials and lumpy bits of radio gear etc and was chuffed to obtain a record score in an Oceania contest recently. Unfortunately, I’m single handedly responsible for driving over expensive bits of equipment in the paddock (Well, fancy leaving them in the long grass!) or (Sorry Kenny) mangling the ride-on mower blades in thick wire aerial mats, because I had the blade set too low, whoops. On the upside he’s getting to be a crack shot at possums and peacocks and there is a reduction in possum numbers around the house (for now) The .22 is waiting if they start heading for the citrus trees again though. That’s it! Anorak off!

There was a great crop of fruit and veggies all last summer, except for fejoa and tomatoes But the fejoa bushes were cut back too hard last year and all the toms got black rot/spot. The pantry is full of preserves, chutneys, jams and I’ve found 1001 things to do with courgettes. Right now the veg patch is being filled with beet, courgettes, carrots, onions, squash, potatoes, chillies, peas and gherkins. Soon to go in is salad and spinach etc. The fig, walnut, cherry, nashi pear, apple and plum trees are looking fantastic in bloom and the lemon and grapefruit trees are already heaving, hopefully the olive trees will fruit this year too yum, yum.

As some of you know, MIL & Hubby came out for a month in Feb and we had a great time showing them NZ North and South and we were all sorry to say goodbye again. But it has made talking to them about our life here so much easier now they’ve seen our lifestyle and met some of our friends, although MIL now misses us more than ever. My parents may (and it’s a big may) come out next year, if Mum can get over her fear of flying in time for her 70th. This would be their BIG OE.

see next post

[Smiler]

Continued from post above:



No wedding date set yet, so sorry to all of you desperate for a new outfit! But we’re hoping to sort that out when Ma and Pa come over, so watch this space. ;)

We’ve done some travelling this year too, for business and pleasure. We’ve been to Rarotonga, Singapore, seen a lot of the NI and not enough of the South. There’s a whisper we may be going to Canada later in 07, Manila and KL in early 08 and to the UK in 09 for my parents 50th when I’ll meet my new niece for the 1st time. I miss our families so, so much.

Our business is doing really, really well. Since coming here we’ve trebled our customer numbers and have just signed up our 1st NZ one with more on the way. YAY!!! We do work long hours but working from home means we can nip out for a break on the farm bike or stretch our legs and do some weeding at tea break. Our commute is arduous at 60 ft along the hall.

The only downside to this year is that I’ve been quite poorly, hence being AWOL from here. I’ve finally been to see the doctor and she’s been great, and she is from Wales. I’ve had lots of tests etc and everything is coming under control. She has even signed me up for a scheme which means I pay reduced rates as I’m there so often, not that there’s a price on health, but it was getting expensive! I’m starting to feel better but it’s been a long haul.

For the future we’ve made the decision to buy our very own home, or plot to build on, after years of renting here and in UK. I’m hoping our landlord will eventually want to sell this house, if not there lots of fun looking and I’m glued to TM and agents websites. We’ve seen one house with 62 acres, but it’s not the one. There’s plenty of time though……..

So that’s where we’re up to now! I’ve been away from ENZ for over six months so a big hello to all the ENZ oldies and welcome to all the newbies! :)

[Marie P]

Welcome back hon :cheers

Lovely post and it was great catching up with you and Av last month over a coffee.

Take care,

Marie x

Ps Congrats on your RRV ,I must look into that ,2 months to go for us .

[Lupin]

O YAY! The return of Smiler :)

Was wondering where you'd got to, welcome back :) :)

[zardell]

:raebanana :raebanana :raebanana


Welcome back - you've been missed loads.

S'pose this means we're back to sharing the Pic'n Mix eh??.....:laugh

You take care and keep well.

Love,

Julie

xx

[Myrkk]

nice to see some of the ahem"old" regulars back. Glad all is going well and hope you are feeling tip top soon.

Hope Avalon is doing well too. Miss her posts on here.

[willsken]

Great to see you back.... you really have been missed, it just wasn't the same without you! Glad to see life is still going well for you. :raebanana :raebanana :raebanana :raebanana

[The Hodges]

Thanks for the update, it's great to hear how you've been getting on.

Glad to read that all's well.

All the best

[Tia Maria]

Ha Ha! I wondered who had resurrected this thread - turns out it was you!

Its a lovely post, sounds like things have been really hectic, interesting, but really hectic!

Out of interest what did you do in the UK before? Has coming to NZ been a big lifestyle change?

Reading your thread and seeing your photos it seems that your emigration story, like Moorf's, is very much how I imagined the traditional move to NZ would be. As a complete city girl myself I love reading these threads from the 'boonies', they evoke lovely images and I'm sure make many desperate to head to NZ quicker! :)

Anymore photos?!

Cheers

Tia

[pinkpiggy]

Great to you have you back :clap i've missed your posts. Good to hear all is well with the veggie patch etc. Look forward to hearing more about your exploits in the boonies!:yes

[Timbo]

Hello Deborah and Gary. Great to hear from you again, and fantastic news on the business front. Well done.
Sarah says Hi!