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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