Over Crowded New Zealand Beaches!

Monday 22nd Oct was Labor day, (correct spelling!) a Bank Holiday across the whole of NZ. So we took a picnic and drove North out of Taradale and headed down Highway 2 !! Which you would think Highway, 3 lanes, fast traffic! Nope just like a A road in the UK! Anyway heading north we arrived at Waipatiki population 113! As you can see from the pics the beach is lovely..! There are rock pools to explore and at the far side there is a river which meets the sea! There is also coastal walkway around the cliffs which we started but then decided to turn back and do the whole walk another day.

Visitor!!

Woke up one morning last week to see that we had a visitor...

School Uniforms!

Taradale Intermediate and Taradale High School..!

Pics from the Beach..!

Pics from the Beach

1st Month Update

We've (the kids and I) been here about a month now and things don't seem so strange any more! The rental that we are in is looking more like home now that we've got homes for most things. There are still some items of furniture that we haven't unwrapped from when they were shipped over as we don't have room for them. We shipped all our white goods over only
to find that it's standard for rentals to come with basic kitchen items and we have our dishwasher in the garage as there is one all ready installed.

We're all registered with the Doctors here. Only you have to pay to see them $28 each visit, and if they ask to see you back in a few weeks you still have to pay! Good thing! prescriptions are only $3.

We live in Taradale which is a district within the town of Napier, which is in the Hawkes Bay area of NZ. Right now we are heading into summer and it's getting quite warm. The temperature is in the low 20's most days. Dan has taken (well, really given!) the role of 'pool boy'! he has to remove the leaves from the pool! Not his most enjoyable task. It involves using a net on a long pole to fish the leaves out. The other day when he came back in the house he had red feet where the sun reflecting from the pool and sun-burnt them! Now he goes out in socks! In our garden we have a lemon tree and an orange tree. Really handy just to pick your own fruit!

The kids have just spent their first week at school. Louise starts at 08:30 and ends at 14:50, while Dan starts at 08:50 and ends at 15:20. They have both been moved up nearly a whole year. Dan is in the last term of Year 10 here and is the youngest as the other kids in his year are already 15, Dan won't be until March 2008. Louise is in the same situation and is in Year 7. They break up for their summer holidays (again!) around 20th December and start back beginning of Feb. Where they will be in Year's 11 and 8. In Dan's school (Taradale High School) they stream them for all core subjects at class level. So he stays with the class for English, Maths etc etc and then for his option subjects he mixes with those kids that have chosen the same as him. This is slightly different from the UK. He's accepted his uniform of shorts and long pale blue socks as in a crowd no one sticks out. I still smile when I see these huge boys wandering around in shorts...! What's even scarier is while I'm waiting to collect him at the end of the day, to see kids in school uniform, unlock a car, get in, and drive off!!

Louise attends Taradale Intermediate School which is Years 7 and 8, then she will move to the High. She's already joined the Choir and school Orchestra. We've been back down to the shoe shop and at her request bought her some Black Roman Sandals (look up on Google!) First impressions before she started school were 'not in a million years am I going to wear those!' 3 days at school a request for some! All the girls wear them! And if they don't wear them then it is perfectly acceptable at school to wear no shoes! So you know when your kid is settled when they come out of school with no shoes!

The nearest swimming beach is about 30 mins away. Ocean Beach, and I've attached a pic. The other pic is when we were house hunting and came across this house which had been moved forward on the plot of land!

Talking about house hunting, we've seen some really awful houses, and some lovely ones. We've put an offer in on one which has been accepted!! Will update on the buying process!

So we just have to wait for the Building Survey and all the various Council reports to come back. Hopefully if nothing comes up then we should take ownership 16th Nov. There are a few things that need updating, new bathroom etc and we hope that we can do these while we're still in the rental. So I'll let you know how the house situation goes!

Tony has already attracted the attention of the local police and received a speeding fine in the post a few weeks ago!! So glad it happened to him first!! and not me! They are really, really strict on the speed limits here. 50k around town and 100k outside! Normally they will let you go approx 6k over before they get you, but not if it's near a school. Outside a school if you go 4k over the speed limit then they have you! and this is what happened to him. But no points, just a fine of $30.

Shopping is ok here, Napier has lots of shops, Departmental, Warehouse type, lots of boutique types, Surf shops, Skater shops...etc etc. The kids are quite at home with all the shops and have manged to get Tony to buy them 'a few must have T-shirts and hoodies'! The Supermarkets range in size nothing like the huge Tesco's back in the UK but they are well stocked. Heinz over here is Watties! So we have Watties beans, Soup, Tomato Sauce etc etc. Some Heinz stuff but that comes from Aus. Haven't been able to find some nice sausages yet and no Oxo Gravy Grans !! But of course since I'm not working I've been spending my time baking!! and creating lovely home cooked meals!.

Apparently last week there was a important Rugby match! oh dear! Every day on the TV, the news, sports programs they go on about what happened or didn't! They blame some pommie ref! And now they want France to win against England and Argentina to win against South Africa. For a France Vs Argentina Final! I don't understand I just type what I know!

Lots and Lots of Sheeps here..! and lots of cattle. Even have adverts on the TV for worming your sheep!

That's about it! Will write again soon!

So...our Journey so far...

So...our Journey so far...

Flights - We travelled with Air New Zealand in their Business Class, as they have the flat beds in this class. It's truly amazing to at the push of a button watch your seat turn into a flat bed. Then you place a mattress base and pillow down and then a single duvet is provided for your comfort! The idea of turning right when boarding a plane horrifies me now! The flight out to HongKong was good. By the time they had served all 5 courses!! on china plates with proper knifes and forks it was past midnight! There was a fault with Louise's seat and it wouldn't fold flat so I swapped with her and they found me a spare seat downstairs (we were travelling on the upper deck of a jumbo!) The kids watched various in flight movies on the 10" screen that pivots out from the seat. The seats on Air NZ are set at an angle so you almost have your back to the windows. Those in the other classes must set their seats in the upright position etc etc for landing and take off. However, in business you choose your own seat position as the seats recline to what ever position you want..!! Anyway I slept for a few hours and then we were served breakfast just before landing in HongKong. Here we transited in the Business lounge where I had a shower and the kids found the games room with a Nintendo Wii and a PS3 and Xbox. The benefits of Business class travel is that you are fast tracked thru all the queues. When we were called to board the plane for the next leg to Auckland there was no waiting at the gate for seat rows to be called we just strode on board where the Champagne was waiting! They fixed the problem of the flat bed not reclining in HK, then we were off again. This leg was another night flight! all thought we thought it was our daytime. I didn't sleep much on this leg. We arrived in Auckland about 08:30 on Saturday (your Friday eve.)

Auckland - We had to go thru various checks with immigration as we were arriving with our Residence Visa's for the first time. They asked me a few questions about where we were headed, Had I schools for the kids and was anyone meeting me! Then we had to go thru BIO Security to make sure we hadn't bought any apples, furs, bamboo etc in. Oh... Forgot to say at Heathrow we had to take our shoes off and the x-rayed them for Foot and mouth! So we had to stand in a queue with our shoes off!
In Auckland Airport they had dogs with their handlers running around the arrivals hall / baggage reclaim sniffing all the cases etc. If you had a ruck sac they asked you to place it on the ground so that the dogs could sniff it. Phew... The kids hadn't snuck and fruit or veg..! As if!! now chocolate that would be a different matter! Once all our cases and hand luggage had successfully been x-rayed we were off thru the Green channel looking for Antony thru the sea of faces! Louise spotted him and it was hugs all round!

Auckand Hotel - We stayed Saturday in Hotel near the airport.. By 2pm the kids and I couldn't keep our eyes open any longer so we had a few hours sleep.. But by the time it was dinner time Saturday we were all wide awake again! Sunday we went back to Auckland to the Domestic Terminal to catch a flight to Napier.

Sunday - The flight from Auckland to Napier was on a little prop plane. Approx 50 seats and it took about 45 mins. Napier Airport is nothing to get excited about. It's the tiniest airport I've ever been too. When the luggage is taken off the plane and loaded onto the luggage trailer this is driven into the airport and you unload from the trailer! Antony then drove us to our home / rental. On the way the kids were hungry as it was lunch time so guess where we stopped !!!.... Mac Donalds drive thru... Quarter pounder combo! Meal times 2..!

Since Monday we've been unpacking and sorting the rental. It's the little things that are missing 'pegs' to hang the washing out! Antony must have bought loads of plastic storage boxes as we don't have the storage here that we had in our house in St Albans. We spent the first few days sorting the kids rooms out. Making sure that the computer, Playstations, Stero's etc all work. And going to the shops to get things that we forgot or didn't take. The other thing that we've bought loads of is hangers!

Schools - Louise is registered to attend Taradale Intermediate School. She will start on 8th October and will go in to the end of Year 7. They have 4 terms here, term 3 finishes the end of this week. They they have a 2 week break and start back in October and then the school year ends for her on 21st December. In Feb she will then go into Year 8. They are very strict on there school uniforms, and they all seem to wear different colours of tartan. Louise's school is red. She's happy to wear the skirt but she's not too happy with the white knee lenght socks she has to wear. Shoes have to be lace up, no ballet type! Dan is registered to attend Taradale High!. His uniform is blue, BUT, he's not too happy with the fact that he has to wear shorts (navy!) with knee lenght baby blue socks!! But when you see all the kids wearing the uniform it doesn't seem that bad! But then I'm not having to wear it. It does look strange when you see these huge boys all in shorts and long socks!!

Me... Antony has bought a 4x4 and it's an automatic..! I've never driven an automatic and so far have resisted the offer of 'its your turn to drive!".. Food some things appear to be more expensive but I'm not to sure yet as we've been buying food mainly on a daily basis as I haven't got into a routine yet! Fresh veg and fruit and meat seem cheaper. We had fillet steak the other day at least 1 kilo and it was $17. It's hard to keep converting back to £ so I guess we should stop doing this. Some things are the same / similar price to the UK only it's marked in Dollars here. Everyone uses EFTPOS (I think!) like a credit / debit card. Hardly ever use cash! It's taken me longer to get over the jet lag. I wake a various times in the night and then it takes some times hours to drop off again. The kids have adjusted really quickly, I'd even go as far to say that it appears not to have affected them apart from the Saturday when we first arrived. There is rush to get on the computers first thing in the morning as then it's the previous days evening back in the UK and most of their friends will be on-line! Now that we have the house mostly sorted we will spend a few days touring before they start school in just over 2 weeks! And I will send a few photo's. Also we will get some kind of Blog / Web page set up where we can make updates and you can check when you want!!

Weather - It's rained a couple of days but it's strange as it's warm when it rains. We have also had some really sunny days! But its still to cold to use the pool. Although Dan did say to Antony that for $10 he would swim a width! We think he's got his currencies mixed up as $10 is roughly £4!! But we havn't let on!!!

Things I've learnt so far....

1. You don't have to have car insurance... Yep it's true!! Scary!!
2. I drink a flat white coffee
3. If you are turning left and someone is turning right from the opposite carriage way you, give way to them!!! Scary!!
4. There is no amber in the traffic light sequence from stop to go!!
5. In March 2008 Dan can apply for his provisional driving licence!! V.Scary!
6. You write with pins!
7. Woolworth's is a Supermarket!
8. Only 2 mobile providers Telecom and Vodaphone! I can route my mobile to the house a/c so no worries about running out of credit!
9. It costs $9 to go to the household rubbish dump!
10. Antony prefers to drive every where!! I wonder why!