Jim & Karen

Things are getting a bit hectic at the moment.

We have now had an offer on a house accepted. Have a look in the photo gallery to see some pictures of the new Leiper establishment. It is much easier to buy a house in NZ, nothing like the delay ridden and expensive method back in the UK. If all goes according to plan we should move in on the 22nd of Feb.

We will have no furniture but at least we will have our own roof over our heads !!

Still having to trek in to the Internet Cafe, so more later…….

Just quickly uploaded all the pictures taken so far

Go via the Photo Gallery link at the right of the screen, and the pictures are under the “New Zealand” gallery.

More soon….

We have moved.

We are now in the flat at Whaka Terrace. The motel (Gothic Heights) did very nicely – especially since it was paid for by Christchurch Hospital. However it was a bit awkward living in one room and having to sit on the bed. The flat is an improvement as we now have a separate bedroom, so Karen can go to bed when she likes without me disturbing her by having the light on and tapping away at the laptop keyboard.

The views over the city from the house are fantastic, in the evening the lights are quite impressive. Joanne has provided all the essentials and it is perfect for us while we look at where we are going on the next step of the adventure.

On Wednesday we went to look at a rental in Corsair Bay, which is round the coast a bit from Governors Bay. It was in a lovely location, but being a rental was a bit rough round the edges. We were only looking for a 6 months rental but the couple who were renting it were looking for tenants for 12 months, so we missed out there.

However, the cost of rentals here is quite high, and the state of the properties on offer, has made us think that this is maybe not the way to go. We have had a chat with our personal advisor at the ABS Bank and it would cost us the same (or even less) to get a small mortgage and buy a superb property with ocean views at Governors Bay. So we are arranging viewings over the next few days to see if we can find something that ticks all the boxes.

We have been enjoying the “World Buskers Festival” that has been taking place in Christchurch, the quality of the performers has been superb and the atmosphere has been wonderful. Every time we walk into town we can see a different “turn” and each of them has been most entertaining.

I have been for an interview, for the position of IT Infrastructure Manager at a big Civil Engineering firm, now waiting to see if I get asked back for a second interview. I have also put in an application for a teaching position at Christchurch Polytechnic so will have to wait and see what happens.

Updates will be a bit hit & miss at the moment as we do not have internet access at the flat, we have to drive into town to check emails and update the blog.

More soon…..

On Thursday evening we decided to go up to the Able Tasman National Park for a “mini” holiday. Karen rang up and booked us a double room in a backpackers block at Marahau. Well, I seriously underestimated the amount of time it would take to get there, and it ended up taking about 8 hours – including stops. The journey was made more interesting by stopping, literally at the side of the road, and meeting this handsome chap and many of his friends.

We arrived at the site at about 6pm and Karen got a bit of a shock when she realised what a Backpackers lodge really meant. It was clean but very, very basic, and the bed was completely unusable. Luckily I had put our self-inflating camping mats in the car, as well as the sleeping bags, so we ended up sleeping on the floor!!

However, it was quite comfortable and well worth it as on Sat morning we got a water taxi up the coast to Torrent Bay and then had a 9 mile walk back along part of the Able Tasman National Park Walk. We started at this beach..

And passed scenery that looked like this….

We were quite tired when we finished, so the cafe and the cold beer at the end of the trail were most welcome.

An early start on Sunday to get back to Christchurch. We were going to try and get to a meet of people from the ENZ forum but the journey time meant we got there late and it had already broken up. Better luck next time Still, to make up for it we went and had “Fush & Chups” on the sea front at Sumner – very nice.

The new car took us 1000k to the Tasman and back with no problems but it’s looking a bit dusty now so it might get a wash tomorrow. I am writing this on Sunday Eve and Karen is flaked out asleep on the bed – no change there then!!

More soon

The temperature today got up to 32 degrees!!

Anyway, yesterday (felt warm and it was “only” 26 degrees) morning we had another walk in to the bank to do a bit more sorting things out. We had a bit more info to give in for the credit card application, and while we were there we had another look round the city centre. We are still working out where things are.

We had a sandwich by the Avon river for lunch and then walked back to the Motel to get the car and go out for a drive. We wanted to go over the hill to Governors Bay to see how far it was and what it looked like in real life. Google Earth can only give an indication, it does not give a flavour of the real thing. Well it’s really nice as you can see.

Not only is the place really nice but Karen found a Cafe that does “Real Chocolate”, and to prove it she had a posh Hot Chocolate.

We then had a drive around the summit of the port hills, ending up at Sumner for some fish & chips on the sea front for tea, yummy.

Today morning, Karen went in to the Hospital for an informal look round and intro session. She did not emerge screaming, so that was OK. Seriously, she seems to think that it is not too bad and even if she does not think she will stop on the ward, at least it is a “foot in the door” so she can look around and see what else is on offer.

We then drove out to New Brighton to have a look at the Pier and have a bit of lunch. As I mentioned at the top of this, it was flippin hot. It was also quite windy. We had a lovely lunch at the cafe overlooking the pier.

We then had a bit of a walk about and watched the surfers trying to catch the waves.

We then had an appointment to go to Ben & Clares who had kindly agreed to let me print some CV’s on their printer. Oh yes, reality has now crept into the equation and I am applying for ( shock, horror) a job. Will give more details if it amounts to anything.

Tomorrow we are going to drive up to the Abel Tasman national park for a couple days of “real” holiday, so will continue this when we get back.

More soon….

After sorting out our Bank accounts yesterday morning we started looking at cars in the afternoon. Just down the road from out Motel is the local equivalent of “Canal Road” in Bradford ie. “Used Car Heaven”. On the first pass down the road we spotted a few suitable types, finally liking the look of some Honda CR-V’s. After much discussion we decided to have another look at the newest one we had seen. It was 8 years old but only had 24k miles on the clock and was in almost showroom condition.Karen had misgivings as it was an automatic, but that seems to be the norm over here. It is very rare to find a manual.

We went back this morning and went for a test drive. After letting Karen drive it round a car park to get the hang of the automatic, we decided that we would go ahead and buy it. This meant getting insurance and a Cheque from the bank, but only two hours later – we drove our car away !!!!

Here is Karen with our new wheels.

Having wheels, of course the first thing we had to do was go out for a drive. We went for a 15 min run out to Sumner on the coast, very nice as you can see..

More soon…

Well, we have been here four days now.

The weather has been really great, hot and sunny everyday. The first two days (Thu & Fri) were pretty jetlagged and do not really count. I managed to walk to the Supermarket on Friday and get a bit of shopping but Karen was really zonked. We felt a bit better on Saturday morning and went for a 30 minute jog in Hagley Park. That got the blood moving around a bit and made us feel a bit better. We then went into town for a coffee and a look at the shops. Karen is happier now that she has seen that there are some “real” shops so she will be OK for shoes and clothes!!

We had been invited out to a Barbecue on Sat Evening by Ben & Clare who we know through the “Emigrate New Zealand” Internet forum so while we were in town we purchased a really nice flower arrangement for clare as a thank you gift, and of course some Beer for Ben.

We had a really great evening at the BBQ, Ben & Clare had invited two other couples Steve & Julie and Gareth & Ruth) who had also emigrated and they all made us feel very welcome. None of them had regretted the move even though, as you would expect there were good things and bad things to consider.Ben & Clare had asked us to stop the night to avoid messing about with taxis and the following morning (Sun) took us for a drive to the Port Hills and then we stopped off for a Pizza lunch in Sumner which looked like a very nice place.

Karen & I really like the look of the Port Hills area as a place to live so we will probably be searching around there shortly to see what it is going in the rental market.

Tomorrow we are off to the Bank to sort out our Bank account and then we are going to start looking at Cars as we really need to get mobile as soon as possible.

So far, so good…..

Well, we made it.

We are in our Motel room with the door wide open letting in the fresh air and sunshine, Karen is (of course) laid out on the bed while I am typing this. The flights were OK – just long and boring. We arrived at 9:30 am on Thursday – having missed wednesday altogether due to crosssing the date line.

As it was too early to check into our room – we went and had some breakfast in the town centre – sat outside a cafe and had bacon and eggs in the sunshine – smashing. After a bit of a stroll about we checked in and then were able to have a shower – which was a relief to all after two days travelling. Temps of 26 degrees forcasted for the weekend – yipeee.

For info Stuart (and anyone else), yes you can add coments to the Website. Under each section as I add it there is the option to add a comment – but beware – the comment can be seen by the whole world, it is not private like an email.

We went to Oxford Terrace to have a meal in the evening. Karen had Salmon and I had a Steak, both meals were very nice. Afterwards we walked back to the Motel and cracked open a bottle of Champagne that we had bought from Duty-Free at Chtistchurch Airport – very nice.

Then being completely shattered, off to bed.

More soon.

This really is it.

We are at the Holiday Inn at Heathrow ready to fly out tomorrow.

I left home early to go and pick up the hire car for the drive down to London. When I got back we had a mini crisis. The nerves took over for a while and all the last minute doubts flooded in. We talked things over for a while and rationalised that if we didn’t give it a try we would regret it.

Very quiet on the drive down to London but got back to normal during the Evening and are now having the second panic due to the bags being to heavy…..

To cap it all off I have finally succumbed to the cold that everyone around me has had for the last month or so which is making me feel rather rough at the moment, so looking forward to a bit of sunshine when we arrive.

Here we go………………

It’s really getting close now…..

We are sitting here surrounded by “stuff” as the packers are in tomorrow morning. We have spent all day sorting out the things that we can get in suitcases to take with us next Tuesday, everything else has to get packed tomorrow.

Karen has been worried that she might have to survive with less than 10 pairs of shoes for a while, and I’m going to miss my PC and have to make do with the Laptop.

We have done most of the goodbye’s now and it has been a pretty tough time. Doing it over Christmas and the New Year meant that we got to see a lot of people and the goodbyes were mixed with the festive spirit which helped.

This might be the last post till after we get to Christchurch as I am going to disconnect the ADSL modem and firewall stuff when I finish this post. I have a dial-up number to try so we will see how we get on.

Happy New Year to you all.

Cheers for now….