Life is not measured ....

Our first week in New Zealand

Hi everyone, we disappeared into a bit of black hole for the past couple of weeks but are now sorted in a house and have communications up and running again. Here are our notes from our first week and we look forward to catching up with you all again over the next few days:

We arrived in New Zealand, exactly a week today. We’ve crammed a lot in and done well to sort out a house to rent, found a school for Louise and Daniel and put a deposit on two cars that we’ll pick up next week … but more on all of that later.

This time last week, we were just landing at Christchurch airport. Jan, Ben’s boss and pretty much the only person we know in New Zealand at least on the South Island, comes to meet us. It’s an emotional moment for everyone, all the planning over the last couple of months has now become reality.

We are staying in Lyttelton which is the working port in Christchurch. It is about 15 minutes from the city centre on the other side of the port hills. It is reached by going through a long tunnel, a journey which we are to make many times over the next week and indeed over the coming months as it looks like we will stay here for a while.

Our first thoughts about staying near the coast look to be pretty spot on. Hopefully these maps will give you an idea of the locations in relation to one another of the places we refer to:



(double click to get a bigger picture)

Our base for the first week or so until we find a house is a B&B (Dalcroy House) run by Shonagh O’Hagan and her son Christy. Shonagh and Christy moved here from Wellington about 8 years ago and have been doing the place up recently; it is full of character, very comfortable and has a great view overlooking the port.



Jan decides to throw an impromptu BBQ which is just a short but steep walk up the hill. We meet Helen and Mike, who kindly emailed us even before we got here and invited us to the Easter Egg Hunt that they organise each year, and Erin and Dave who it turns out we will rent a house from. Jan has three children – Eddy (10), Albi (7) and Lilly (5) and there are about 8 other kids there so it doesn’t take Louise and Daniel long to join them on the trampoline in the garden – we don’t see much of them all evening which is a good sign as it means they feel comfortable in their new surroundings. So within 4 hours of arriving we have all met new friends and are made to feel really welcome, we realise that we are very lucky and it will make a huge difference to how we settle here.

It is hard to sum up how we feel in our first week, right from the start we look at everything around us differently, this is not a holiday, it makes us consider things much more critically. The views around us are amazing and we are lucky to have met so many people already that want to help us. We knew it would happen but we still miss our family and friends like mad.

In the first few days we look at a number of houses, there is not much up for rent and the places that are available are generally pretty shabby. The school search goes better and we like both of the schools we see. Towards the end of the week, we hit a bit of good luck when it turns out that Erin and Dave have a house that they were planning to sell but haven’t had the offer they were looking for and so are willing to rent it to us. It is in Lyttelton, has four bedrooms so plenty of space for visitors, lovely deck area and garden plus new kitchen and bathroom. We have agreed to rent their house for 9 months and have also enrolled Louise and Daniel in the local school.

Louise and Daniel will start at Lyttelton Main School after the holidays in 10 days time. The school is about the same size as Longcot and Fernham and has mixed classes; Daniel is fairly straightforward as he will start in the new entrants class but Louise is a bit more tricky as the school year is 6 months displaced so it is not obvious which class she will end up. They don’t have a school uniform which I think will take some getting used to but we will be able to walk to and from school.

There is a street near the centre of the city called Moorhouse Avenue – it is full of garages and we spend many hours traipsing up and down looking for a car. We finally settle on a Toyota Previa, essentially a replacement of our well loved “bus” with 8 seats, again with a view to visitors. Our second car is a bit more fun; a Mitsubishi FTO, a sports car.

So now it’s the end of the week and we’ve done pretty well really to get as much sorted as we have. Over the weekend we get the chance to relax and become tourists again for a few days.

Good Friday is a sunny day so we take a drive down the Banks Peninsula to Le Bons Bay to meet up with Jan and Greg for the day. The drive is stunning, this peninsula has been carved out of old volcano and the result is interesting landscape and plenty of bays.

On Friday night, Louise has her first sleepover at Lauren’s house – she has a great time, apparently they are still giggling well into the night. Daniel finds it really strange not to have his sister sleeping in the same room and it really highlights how close they have become over the last couple of months. This is a big adventure for us all and just as Ben and I share our experiences so do Louise and Daniel in their own ways.

Saturday and we finally make it past Moorhouse avenue and into the city centre. It is more English than Oxford! We walk along the river bank – you can hire a boat and punt down the river … and yes it is the river Avon. On the way down to the Arts Centre we pass Worcester Street, Gloucester Street and Hereford Street. The kids enjoy their first sighting of the tram and we all enjoy wandering round the craft market.

Today, Easter Sunday. This morning we took a long walk and spent the morning on the beach at Corsair Bay. This afternoon we have been round at Helen and Mike’s house for the Easter Egg Hunt.

Ben starts work in two days time at Insite Technology as their Hardware Manager. We were able to go in a visit during the week, it is much smaller than RM but similar environment just on smaller scale so Ben should fit in pretty well.

Next on our list to sort out is moving into the house we have rented. Hopefully that will happen sometime later this week, our container has arrived and is now with customs so once they have cleared us, we’ll get sorted. Bear with us for the next week or so, broadband will be high on our list to get sorted and then we can get in touch properly with you all.

For now, Happy Easter, we hope Spring has started to kick in. Thanks for all your notes on our blog and the emails, it really does mean a lot to hear from you and how you are all getting on.

posted by Sharon, Ben, Louise and Daniel @ 9:48 am