The last 'cribbed' email from my sent box for a long time!
Well life is settling down to a steadier pace now, but there are still not enough hours in the day. The weather has turned a little cooler since Tuesday and we have had 24 hours of most welcome rain. Monday was so hot I had to abort gardening at midday and retreat to the cool of the deck with a cold drink. And this is equivalent to the northern hemisphere's October!
I'm actually on night duty at present and looking after a 3 year old with ahead injury. He fell asleep at 7.30 pm and I have had hardly anything to do since. If it stays like this I would have caught up on all my correspondence by morning!
I think when I last wrote we were on the verge of collecting pigs. Well when we went to collect them, with the intention of keeping them behind electric fencing, it was obvious that they were going to need something more substantial to keep them in.They were bigger than we had anticipated and VERY skitty. We agreed to get them the following w/e and returned home to address the fencing issue. I asked Claire (our neighbour off whom we bought our house) if she knew anybody locally who did fencing and she promptly told that Ian did! He came 2 days later and put in the big stakes and Eric then finished off the job. We really didn't mind the 2 trips up to collect the pigs as the drive was beautiful. On turning off the main road we basically drove over a small mountain on unmade road. All hairpin bends through gorgeous bush. Quite lovely, definitely a 4x4 affair! Anyway Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy (which will make sense to those of you familiar with Harry Potter - if your not you should be. The HP stories are BRILLIANT), are now settled in their new home. The job of worming them was interesting! They were still not happy with being approached and I cannot guarantee that they all got their full dose but they got something (via jabs) anyway.
My next project was planting the trees we bought several weeks earlier. We put electric fencing up to stop the cows getting in to the soon-to-be orchard and Eric constructed some sheep protection out of half sheets of concrete reinforcing metal mesh so the sheep could graze around the trees. Next problem, no sheep and grass that would grow. We looked in the Loot and Eric found a small flock of 17 near Hamilton. They were the pets really, of a woman who was returning to the UK. 2 white and 15 black, including 2 older lambs. Eric looked at them and had to do 3 1hr 20min round trips to collect them all in the stock trailer. At the other end the seller was not at home but her elderly parents tried to help and just got in Eric's way. He was slightly(!) frazzled and exhausted by the end of the day. I went to bed in the morning and got up the satisfying sight of seeing some of OUR stock grazing the front paddock. The bonus came a few weeks later when a fat sheep gave birth to twins!! One was rather pathetic looking and although not prepared to hand-rear him I took occasional bottle down to the paddock and 'topped him up'. We were really unsure if we were doing the right thing and sought the advice of Alan, a retired farmer and neighbour who has really been helpful to us. He checked the little feller over and gave him the thumbs-up. Frank now leaps around the paddock full of the joys of spring (well autumn), and although he will never be as big as his sister Nancy, he'll do.
We were almost there, just needing cows now. We were determined not to rush this, and the jersey's grazing our fields are there until 1 May. We were looking at Herefords, and indeed that is our aim, but Mandy and David, our friends who emigrated out here 4 years ago, had decided to sell up their stock and turn their land over to avocados. They had several cows for sale so we bought 4 x 8 month calves and 3 x 18 month heifers. They are Angus x (with what I'm not sure) and now grace our land as well. We are planning to have about 12 cows eventually plus the 2 we've agreed to graze for the PTA's stock scheme. When I'm no longer working so many hours, ie when Eric joins the ranks of working people (as opposed to being a student) we plan to have a house cow. I must brush up on my cheese making skills!!!!!!
So the foundations are laid now and we just have to wait for our investments to bear fruit (hopefully not as long as M and D will have to!). The veg garden that I cobbled together has started to produce. We have had salad veg, runner beans, coriander and parsley and one courgette! Another few weeks and we will have leeks and carrots. I am getting lots of brassica's in for the winter/spring. I picked a Satsuma the other day. It was small, orange and bitter but it was ours and I grew it!!! Our lemons are growing and remain dark green. Not a fruit to be rushed obviously!
Eric did a brilliant job, in consultation with the planning officer(Frank), on the plans for the pool and the small extension to Alice's room. 5 days after submission Frank phoned to say they had been approved. Eric had planned on doing both jobs himself but he was so snowed under that we got a quote for the extension. Dave also built the flat and our dining room for Claire and Ian so we knew he would do a good job. The quote was good so that job is now underway. Eric has spent much of the last few days down the big hole that now occupies the area to the side-ish of the carport, and the carport is now full of boxes and tubing. I am assured that this will all come together to form a pool one day! I hope so as this whole area is currently reminiscent of Steptoe's yard! What with that at the back of the house and the building at the front, the garden is not looking it's best at present! Eric recently passed a casual, joking comment, when I was moaning about the size of the kitchen, about extending the kitchen to where the deck currently is. I thought this a brilliant idea and promptly engaged Dave in lengthy conversation as to the logistics and cost of the project!! Eric was none too impressed when Dave said it was a good idea and would cost less than we had thought (I think Eric was hoping he'd give lots of reasons why we should NOT do it). I am not prepared to loose the deck so as well as the kitchen we need to build another deck. We hope (well I hope) to eventually join this to the deck that I want to put in the corner outside Alice's room and then continue around to our and Harriette's bedrooms. If the structure of the building allows we want to put french windows or ranch sliders (patio doors) in both bedrooms. So, just a few little projects to keep things ticking over!
We have had a few UK visitors lately. First Eddie and Alan spent a few nights with us. They had tagged NZ on to a months holiday in Australia and stopped by on their travels. I think it is fair to say that they were very impressed with NZ, so much so that they left planning a return trip. It was great to see them. Next Juliet's parents were over for, I think, 6 weeks and stayed overnight with us on 3 occasions en route to and from various places. On 2 of those occasions we also had Juliet, Kev, Emma, Hannah and their 2 labs here so it was a full house! Hectic but good fun! I was also thrilled to get a phone call out the blue from my Auntie Joan in Aus. telling me she had never been to NZ but was doing a coach touring holiday and would be in Rotorua in a week or 2. With some juggling of off-duty we were able to go down and spend an evening with her at the hotel. I hope she also makes a return visit when Mom and Daddy are here. What a disaster about the rugby world cup!! That has scuppered the plans of several friends to visit.Some of Eric's mates from school and Uni. were planning on coming to NZ for that. NZ behaved appallingly over the whole affair as far as we can see. I dread to think how much revenue they have lost.
Harriette and Alice are fine. Harri continues to well at school and Alice continues to resist the valiant efforts of her teacher to push her! I have started to do my parent bit at school and have gone it to help with reading and publishing. I really enjoy it. I am also devoting next Monday to the PTA selling tea/coffee at a 'clearing sale' an auction at a local dairy farm The PTA has the 'contract' to sell refreshments and gets to keep the profits. As well as that they bill the auctioneers for their troubles - sounds a good scam to me!
As the puppies are fully vaccinated we can now get out. On Sunday we went to the bottom of the Coromandel. We stopped at Wahi Beach and thought this must be one of the best beaches in the world, then drove up the coast and found a better one at Whangamata! The girls swam at Wahi for ages so we didn't get as far up the coast as we had planned, but who cares we had a lovely day. Whangamata has a beautiful little harbour and the sea is both safe and has excellent surfing. The water is clear as you can imagine and the scenery beautiful. We are determined to take the boat up there and fish. Next time we will go further up the peninsula to Cathedral Cove and the hot water beaches. The puppies had there first experience of the sea and ran scared. Call themselves Labradors!!
Inca has found his bark but isn't quite sure what to do with it. I took them with me when I moved the cows last Monday, under duress, Inca got a fright a few weeks ago. He was following us down the drive and had not noticed a calf right up by the fence. He jumped out of his skin when she mooed. Anyway I decided they had to get used to the cows and managed to get them in then the field with me. They were very brave when I was no further than 2 foot away and ran scared if I moved away! Inca was trying to muscle up to a cow that stepped towards him. He barked and I don't know what scared him more, the cow or his own bark!! They are getting big now and have the shiniest coats possible. Mind you the cost of their food, they should be.
Well I think that is about all our news. We love hearing all the news from home, and elsewhere so do let us know how things are going.
Lots of love to you all.
Michelle, Eric, Harriette and Alice
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Saturday, April 27, 2002
Tuesday, March 05, 2002
The aquisition of livestock. March 2002.
A general update.
We moved into our house properly when our container arrived, I have started work and the girls started school. We owned the house from 20 Dec and stayed on odd nights here until 6th Jan.We borrowed airbeds and bed linen and as we had to equip the flat anyway we bought crockery, cutlery and general kitchen stuff etc. After one (awful!) night on the airbed we decided that as we needed to get a double bed for the flat we may as well get it straight away and get the use of it ourselves. We bought a complete kit, ie bed, mattress, duvet, pillows and bedlinen and the store was just about to do a delivery to Hinuera (where we live). The
bed therefore arrived 15 mins after we got back from shopping!! And, Boy,was that comfortable!!
I started work on 7th Jan and, Sods Law, that was the day our containers were delivered!! I was not impressed, even less so when I got to the hospital and found out that the hospital orientation programme was put off for one week and I was just working in ICU that week. If they
had told me that earlier I would have delayed my start date for a week and got organized at home first. Anyway, I have finished my months orientation, the one week on the hospital programme (all classroom stuff) and 3 weeks being preceptored in ICU. and I'm really enjoying it.When I first went to look round I left terrified, convinced that I had forgotten everything but most of it came flooding back once I got started. I think they are quite relieved at having someone new who has some experience. Mark (my preceptor, a very knowledgeable Brummie) said mine was the easiest orientation he had ever done - which is reassuring! They complain here that they have a nursing shortage but the nursing service is well supported. For example; there are 2 ICU's staffed by the same crowd, so we come on and take report on all the patients, then get allocated. ICU 1 has 4 'cardiac' beds ie post CABG's, valve replacements etc. ( they usually do 2 cases/day and it would be unusual to have more than 3 pts. in there) and 3 paediatric beds (though often that's empty) and ICU 2 has 8 beds (including 2 side-rooms) and is nearly always full. There are 5 CNL's (clinical nurse leaders ie senior sisters), a f/t research nurse, a nurse aide (24/7), a f/t nurse educator and an orderly (porter) also 24/7. Each shift has a nurse co-ordinator, a staff nurse who actually manages the shift and does not have a patient. I'm not actually sure what the CNL's do yet!!! With regards to the patients it's basically everything, lots of trauma, and lots of helicopter retrievals from other hospitals. I hope to join the transport team in about 6 months. One good way to get to explore NZ!!!!
The biggest worry for us was the girls starting school. Although my head told me they'd be fine in my heart I was worried and Harri's tearful, anxious outbursts as the day (30th Jan) approached didn't help! We took them in on their first morning and met their teachers who seemed very nice. They got the school bus home in the afternoon and we waited anxiously at the end of the drive for them. As they got off, Harriette was bursting with enthusiasm and couldn't tell us quickly enough all her news. Alice however was in tears! It all boiled down to her lunchbox! Her drink bottle had leaked so she had lemon barley flavoured cheese sandwiches for lunch and it had soaked her stationary list (ie stuff we have to buy) and her spelling test list. When I examined the offending bottle it turned out it was my fault, I had put the squash bottle lid on her drinks bottle!!! Hence the leak. However, once this major drama had been dealt with we found out she had also had a great day. The school has about 150 pupils and quite large classes (about 30) but it is very middle-class and seems to lack the 'yob factor'. The teachers are great, mainly young and everyone, apart from the kids, use their first names. In fact that goes for the whole of NZ! The girls have a long day. School, which is 7kms away, is 9-3 but the bus collects them at 7.45am and drops them back at 3.45pm. Alice has asked that we don't meet them from school as she likes to have that time (walking up the drive) to "discuss my day with Harriette"!!!! They have swimming lessons everyday at school in the summer. After 3 days Harri was moved up to the next class and is now with mainly 9 year olds (she's 8) and has the gorgeous Dean Mac. as her teacher. As well as being a hunk (which I don't think Harri seems to appreciate, and Alice is mortified that I should express this opinion in front of Eric!!), he is a hoot and a brilliant teacher by all accounts! A friends son is in Harri's class and they came for a B-B-Q last night. Kent said "Harri knows the answers to all the questions, even the ones no one else knows"!! The good thing about Harri is she is so modest (unlike her mother!) so does not come across as a smart arse. I saw Dean the other day and he said Harri has settled in brilliantly and is a pleasure to teach! Mind you with daily swimming lessons, school swimming gala, interschool swimming and school camp, by the teachers own admission they do hardly any teaching this term. It is certainly much more relaxed and all the kids LOVE school. The classes are large 29-30 pupils and hardly any classroom assistants but there seems to be no problem keeping order. I went in Alice's classroom the other day and there was not a sound. 25 children heads down working and about 5 on the floor at Gails feet (the teacher). There is a lot of discontent in the teaching profession with all but primary teachers staging strikes.
We are really happy with our house/block. A lifestyle block is a block of 2-15 acres where people have a house and raise a few bits of livestock as an alternative to town living. Usually some small income can be gained from the block but the owners would have some kind of paid employment. Go above 15 acres and that would be considered a farm. We have a small income already in that a local farmer grazes what was 30, and this week went up to 55, jersey heifers on our land. They are eating our grass until 1 May so we will delay buying our own livestock until then. We bought our 12 acres off Claire and Ian who had 28 acres which they sub-divided into 2. They are now in rented accommodation while they build their new home on the hill next to us.They will be slightly higher than us but have taken great care with tree planting etc. so they don't overlook us. The jerseys grazed the 28 acres so they still do and we divide the income with Claire and Ian. We don't do anything at all, just grow the grass for them. The farmer comes up every 3rd day to rotate them round the paddocks.
We have this week started on our 2 and 4 legged acquisitions. We have bought 10 pullets (chooks not quite old enough to be laying) of 4 different breeds, including a rooster(!). Eric converted a playhouse into a chookhouse (it looks very professional) The next items pigs, we got sorted and will pick up 3 weaner boars next weekend, Durlocks x with wild boar! That will just leave sheep and steers to sort.
Our most joyous acquisition has been Ben and Inca our Labrador pups! We collected them at 7 weeks last w/e and needless to say, they are gorgeous!!! They have settled in well with Pepsi the black cat that came with the house! Pepsi disappeared from Claire and Ian's when they moved and moved back here. Hopefully he can be encouraged up the hill when C and I move in.
Our pool arrived this week and we have had a quote for digging the hole. Eric just needs to get the planning application in and we can start digging. The decision comes back in about a week but we have already been told we can do the work.
The rain finally stopped and summer has arrived. And when it's hot, Boy is it hot!!! NZ has had the wettest summer on record. It rained almost everyday for 2 months after we arrived, and when I say rain I mean torrential stuff that goes on for hours!! The mossies are less of a problem now though Feb. was a bad month for flys. We were invaded by the dam things for 3 days but then they seemed to go.
We have just about unpacked everything now. We still need to put up some shelves and get the last of the pictures put up. We also had to put new plugs on everything. There is a very frustrating lack of sockets in this house so we have started to get quotes for extra ones and replacing the mains board. Getting workman out here is an art that we have yet to get to grips with. We went through 3 plumbers before we got one out to do the dishwasher and that took nearly 2 months. It was fitted on a Friday and I could have kissed the guy as he left. My sink is piddly compared to my old butler sink and I was dreading washing up for 12 after a B-B-Q that night.What is so frustrating is that Eric could have easily done it but is not allowed to. If you have any work done you have to have a permit issued to say it's up to standard and only qualified people can issue these permits. Not having one is not a problem until you come to sell the house when the buyers can ask to see them. I suppose that when we get a bit more in the know we can do work ourselves and get someone to do the permit but until then we will just have to stick to the rules. Anyway I am very pleased with my new, 2 drawer, dishwasher, and they don't put salt in them out here!
We suffered some damage in the move and are in the process of making an insurance claim (another chasing saga). The biggest pain though has been Eric's Range Rover. Now I guess it's a man thing but Eric has an unhealthy attachment to this vehicle!! Gerald gave it a good going over prior to leaving the UK and did quite a lot of work on it. On inspection here they will not grant it a licence without $8 - 10,000 work on it!! Eric refuses to do this as some of this work includes redoing the work that our friend Gerald did because there is no standard mark on the part (it comes on the box in Europe), or the part is made of the wrong material (in some cases what is on the RR is superior but that doesn't matter it's not what they say it should be). As you cannot drive anything on the roads here that does not have an NZ registration plate we are stuffed. In the interim we have bought a 1990 Nissan Safari ( a 4x4) with a winch and a towbar and will try and deal with the licensing people here in Matamata (as opposed to Auckland) and see if we can get round this somehow. What is so annoying is that you could replace these parts for the licensing authority drive down the road, swap them back again and still pass your WoF (NZ's MOT)!!!! We had the RR shipped down to us and at present it does what the quad bike we were about to buy would have done!
We went on a bit of a shopping spree recently and bought another bookcase (for the small dining room off the kitchen), some rattan furniture for the flat (got a real bargain there!) and actually found a coffee table that we liked (we've only been looking for about 10 years).
I have a veg plot underway. I commandeered a bit of one of the paddocks and we hired a rotavator for a half day to get it started. It is a bit late in the season for lots of things but I've got most of the usual stuff in as well as outdoor tomatoes and cucumbers and watermelons. Juliet told me she has just produced 2 from her garden. I also have bought olive, tangerine, plum, pear, grapefruit and lemon trees but am waiting for the summer to end before I plant them on the slope in the paddock at the front of the house. I'm aiming for 40-60 trees there. I have a lemon and lime in pots on the deck. The lemon has 10 or so fruit on (small and green at present) and the second lot of blossom coming through - it smells divine!!
We had our friends Eddy and Alan here from the UK over the weekend. They have had a month in Auz. and were doing NZ in a week. They realise now that that was impossible and have decided that NZ is so brilliant it deserves another visit and plan to come back next year! It rained heavily on Sat ( for the 1st time in weeks!!!) but managed to dry up enough for us to walk round Mt. Maunganui and swim in the hot pools, both in Tauranga.
Well I feel like I've written a book - sorry.
Coming to NZ was definitely the right thing for us but we do miss our friends terribly. Write soon!
Love Michelle, Eric, Harri and Alice
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We moved into our house properly when our container arrived, I have started work and the girls started school. We owned the house from 20 Dec and stayed on odd nights here until 6th Jan.We borrowed airbeds and bed linen and as we had to equip the flat anyway we bought crockery, cutlery and general kitchen stuff etc. After one (awful!) night on the airbed we decided that as we needed to get a double bed for the flat we may as well get it straight away and get the use of it ourselves. We bought a complete kit, ie bed, mattress, duvet, pillows and bedlinen and the store was just about to do a delivery to Hinuera (where we live). The
bed therefore arrived 15 mins after we got back from shopping!! And, Boy,was that comfortable!!
I started work on 7th Jan and, Sods Law, that was the day our containers were delivered!! I was not impressed, even less so when I got to the hospital and found out that the hospital orientation programme was put off for one week and I was just working in ICU that week. If they
had told me that earlier I would have delayed my start date for a week and got organized at home first. Anyway, I have finished my months orientation, the one week on the hospital programme (all classroom stuff) and 3 weeks being preceptored in ICU. and I'm really enjoying it.When I first went to look round I left terrified, convinced that I had forgotten everything but most of it came flooding back once I got started. I think they are quite relieved at having someone new who has some experience. Mark (my preceptor, a very knowledgeable Brummie) said mine was the easiest orientation he had ever done - which is reassuring! They complain here that they have a nursing shortage but the nursing service is well supported. For example; there are 2 ICU's staffed by the same crowd, so we come on and take report on all the patients, then get allocated. ICU 1 has 4 'cardiac' beds ie post CABG's, valve replacements etc. ( they usually do 2 cases/day and it would be unusual to have more than 3 pts. in there) and 3 paediatric beds (though often that's empty) and ICU 2 has 8 beds (including 2 side-rooms) and is nearly always full. There are 5 CNL's (clinical nurse leaders ie senior sisters), a f/t research nurse, a nurse aide (24/7), a f/t nurse educator and an orderly (porter) also 24/7. Each shift has a nurse co-ordinator, a staff nurse who actually manages the shift and does not have a patient. I'm not actually sure what the CNL's do yet!!! With regards to the patients it's basically everything, lots of trauma, and lots of helicopter retrievals from other hospitals. I hope to join the transport team in about 6 months. One good way to get to explore NZ!!!!
The biggest worry for us was the girls starting school. Although my head told me they'd be fine in my heart I was worried and Harri's tearful, anxious outbursts as the day (30th Jan) approached didn't help! We took them in on their first morning and met their teachers who seemed very nice. They got the school bus home in the afternoon and we waited anxiously at the end of the drive for them. As they got off, Harriette was bursting with enthusiasm and couldn't tell us quickly enough all her news. Alice however was in tears! It all boiled down to her lunchbox! Her drink bottle had leaked so she had lemon barley flavoured cheese sandwiches for lunch and it had soaked her stationary list (ie stuff we have to buy) and her spelling test list. When I examined the offending bottle it turned out it was my fault, I had put the squash bottle lid on her drinks bottle!!! Hence the leak. However, once this major drama had been dealt with we found out she had also had a great day. The school has about 150 pupils and quite large classes (about 30) but it is very middle-class and seems to lack the 'yob factor'. The teachers are great, mainly young and everyone, apart from the kids, use their first names. In fact that goes for the whole of NZ! The girls have a long day. School, which is 7kms away, is 9-3 but the bus collects them at 7.45am and drops them back at 3.45pm. Alice has asked that we don't meet them from school as she likes to have that time (walking up the drive) to "discuss my day with Harriette"!!!! They have swimming lessons everyday at school in the summer. After 3 days Harri was moved up to the next class and is now with mainly 9 year olds (she's 8) and has the gorgeous Dean Mac. as her teacher. As well as being a hunk (which I don't think Harri seems to appreciate, and Alice is mortified that I should express this opinion in front of Eric!!), he is a hoot and a brilliant teacher by all accounts! A friends son is in Harri's class and they came for a B-B-Q last night. Kent said "Harri knows the answers to all the questions, even the ones no one else knows"!! The good thing about Harri is she is so modest (unlike her mother!) so does not come across as a smart arse. I saw Dean the other day and he said Harri has settled in brilliantly and is a pleasure to teach! Mind you with daily swimming lessons, school swimming gala, interschool swimming and school camp, by the teachers own admission they do hardly any teaching this term. It is certainly much more relaxed and all the kids LOVE school. The classes are large 29-30 pupils and hardly any classroom assistants but there seems to be no problem keeping order. I went in Alice's classroom the other day and there was not a sound. 25 children heads down working and about 5 on the floor at Gails feet (the teacher). There is a lot of discontent in the teaching profession with all but primary teachers staging strikes.
We are really happy with our house/block. A lifestyle block is a block of 2-15 acres where people have a house and raise a few bits of livestock as an alternative to town living. Usually some small income can be gained from the block but the owners would have some kind of paid employment. Go above 15 acres and that would be considered a farm. We have a small income already in that a local farmer grazes what was 30, and this week went up to 55, jersey heifers on our land. They are eating our grass until 1 May so we will delay buying our own livestock until then. We bought our 12 acres off Claire and Ian who had 28 acres which they sub-divided into 2. They are now in rented accommodation while they build their new home on the hill next to us.They will be slightly higher than us but have taken great care with tree planting etc. so they don't overlook us. The jerseys grazed the 28 acres so they still do and we divide the income with Claire and Ian. We don't do anything at all, just grow the grass for them. The farmer comes up every 3rd day to rotate them round the paddocks.
We have this week started on our 2 and 4 legged acquisitions. We have bought 10 pullets (chooks not quite old enough to be laying) of 4 different breeds, including a rooster(!). Eric converted a playhouse into a chookhouse (it looks very professional) The next items pigs, we got sorted and will pick up 3 weaner boars next weekend, Durlocks x with wild boar! That will just leave sheep and steers to sort.
Our most joyous acquisition has been Ben and Inca our Labrador pups! We collected them at 7 weeks last w/e and needless to say, they are gorgeous!!! They have settled in well with Pepsi the black cat that came with the house! Pepsi disappeared from Claire and Ian's when they moved and moved back here. Hopefully he can be encouraged up the hill when C and I move in.
Our pool arrived this week and we have had a quote for digging the hole. Eric just needs to get the planning application in and we can start digging. The decision comes back in about a week but we have already been told we can do the work.
The rain finally stopped and summer has arrived. And when it's hot, Boy is it hot!!! NZ has had the wettest summer on record. It rained almost everyday for 2 months after we arrived, and when I say rain I mean torrential stuff that goes on for hours!! The mossies are less of a problem now though Feb. was a bad month for flys. We were invaded by the dam things for 3 days but then they seemed to go.
We have just about unpacked everything now. We still need to put up some shelves and get the last of the pictures put up. We also had to put new plugs on everything. There is a very frustrating lack of sockets in this house so we have started to get quotes for extra ones and replacing the mains board. Getting workman out here is an art that we have yet to get to grips with. We went through 3 plumbers before we got one out to do the dishwasher and that took nearly 2 months. It was fitted on a Friday and I could have kissed the guy as he left. My sink is piddly compared to my old butler sink and I was dreading washing up for 12 after a B-B-Q that night.What is so frustrating is that Eric could have easily done it but is not allowed to. If you have any work done you have to have a permit issued to say it's up to standard and only qualified people can issue these permits. Not having one is not a problem until you come to sell the house when the buyers can ask to see them. I suppose that when we get a bit more in the know we can do work ourselves and get someone to do the permit but until then we will just have to stick to the rules. Anyway I am very pleased with my new, 2 drawer, dishwasher, and they don't put salt in them out here!
We suffered some damage in the move and are in the process of making an insurance claim (another chasing saga). The biggest pain though has been Eric's Range Rover. Now I guess it's a man thing but Eric has an unhealthy attachment to this vehicle!! Gerald gave it a good going over prior to leaving the UK and did quite a lot of work on it. On inspection here they will not grant it a licence without $8 - 10,000 work on it!! Eric refuses to do this as some of this work includes redoing the work that our friend Gerald did because there is no standard mark on the part (it comes on the box in Europe), or the part is made of the wrong material (in some cases what is on the RR is superior but that doesn't matter it's not what they say it should be). As you cannot drive anything on the roads here that does not have an NZ registration plate we are stuffed. In the interim we have bought a 1990 Nissan Safari ( a 4x4) with a winch and a towbar and will try and deal with the licensing people here in Matamata (as opposed to Auckland) and see if we can get round this somehow. What is so annoying is that you could replace these parts for the licensing authority drive down the road, swap them back again and still pass your WoF (NZ's MOT)!!!! We had the RR shipped down to us and at present it does what the quad bike we were about to buy would have done!
We went on a bit of a shopping spree recently and bought another bookcase (for the small dining room off the kitchen), some rattan furniture for the flat (got a real bargain there!) and actually found a coffee table that we liked (we've only been looking for about 10 years).
I have a veg plot underway. I commandeered a bit of one of the paddocks and we hired a rotavator for a half day to get it started. It is a bit late in the season for lots of things but I've got most of the usual stuff in as well as outdoor tomatoes and cucumbers and watermelons. Juliet told me she has just produced 2 from her garden. I also have bought olive, tangerine, plum, pear, grapefruit and lemon trees but am waiting for the summer to end before I plant them on the slope in the paddock at the front of the house. I'm aiming for 40-60 trees there. I have a lemon and lime in pots on the deck. The lemon has 10 or so fruit on (small and green at present) and the second lot of blossom coming through - it smells divine!!
We had our friends Eddy and Alan here from the UK over the weekend. They have had a month in Auz. and were doing NZ in a week. They realise now that that was impossible and have decided that NZ is so brilliant it deserves another visit and plan to come back next year! It rained heavily on Sat ( for the 1st time in weeks!!!) but managed to dry up enough for us to walk round Mt. Maunganui and swim in the hot pools, both in Tauranga.
Well I feel like I've written a book - sorry.
Coming to NZ was definitely the right thing for us but we do miss our friends terribly. Write soon!
Love Michelle, Eric, Harri and Alice
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Monday, February 18, 2002
Chooks. February 2002.
We have chooks! Eric got 10 last week: 2 light Sussex, 2 leghorns, 3 black rocks, 2 Rhode Island Reds and an Andalusian rooster. They are 5 months old so it will be a few weeks before they start laying. Juliet and Kev stayed Fri. night and on Sat. we took them to Maxine (the lady we bought them off) because they also want some (more) chooks and Harri and Alice ended up buying a bantam each out of their pocket money.
As well as J,K,E and H here on Fri. night we had Sam, Margaret and their 2 boys (also at Hinuera School). Margaret is the real estate agent who sold us the house. They are a lovely family and we had a great evening. Margaret has lived in Matamata all her life and knows everyone so is a great contact for us. She has been so friendly and helpful. They know the house well as she is friendly with Clare (whom we bought off) (are you keeping up with this!). I was worried that the boys would be bored with 4 girls around but they all got on like a house on fire. They disappeared off to one of Clare and Ian's fields and played for hours on hay bales there.We sat on the deck watching them in the distance and I had another one of those 'this is what we came to NZ for' moments. Sam and Margaret left about 1am which I was most impressed with as Sam was milking his brothers cows the next morning! NZ's tend to have early nights so I thought they'd be gone by 9.30pm!
I'm on my 5th day off today then on Tue-Thurs days.
2 major developments here
a. we have finally managed to get Radio 4 online!!! The download took nearly 2 hours and got stuck 2 mins from the end the first time we tried to do it but I managed it yesterday. We couldn't stay awake until 12.15am to listen to the Archers omnibus but did listen to the morning news. Real news. Such a treat! And,
b. I have a dishwasher!!!! It's only taken 2 months but it's in and wonderful!!
Life is good!
As well as J,K,E and H here on Fri. night we had Sam, Margaret and their 2 boys (also at Hinuera School). Margaret is the real estate agent who sold us the house. They are a lovely family and we had a great evening. Margaret has lived in Matamata all her life and knows everyone so is a great contact for us. She has been so friendly and helpful. They know the house well as she is friendly with Clare (whom we bought off) (are you keeping up with this!). I was worried that the boys would be bored with 4 girls around but they all got on like a house on fire. They disappeared off to one of Clare and Ian's fields and played for hours on hay bales there.We sat on the deck watching them in the distance and I had another one of those 'this is what we came to NZ for' moments. Sam and Margaret left about 1am which I was most impressed with as Sam was milking his brothers cows the next morning! NZ's tend to have early nights so I thought they'd be gone by 9.30pm!
I'm on my 5th day off today then on Tue-Thurs days.
2 major developments here
a. we have finally managed to get Radio 4 online!!! The download took nearly 2 hours and got stuck 2 mins from the end the first time we tried to do it but I managed it yesterday. We couldn't stay awake until 12.15am to listen to the Archers omnibus but did listen to the morning news. Real news. Such a treat! And,
b. I have a dishwasher!!!! It's only taken 2 months but it's in and wonderful!!
Life is good!
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