Saturday – We achieved a decent lie-in, me till 11am, Simon
until 2pm! After which I got on with
some unpacking. We have so much space! Even when we were at Simon’s parents’ we
just had our belongings in one room (okay, to be fair there’s a load of our stuff in the
loft too!), so now here we can unload everything for the first time in a long
while and spread out. We’re going to need to buy some more things! When we’ve found out whether we’re here for
two weeks or two years of course.
We eventually braved the outside world to go for a
supermarket shop at Countdown where we spent over an hour and about £300 to set
ourselves up with electric toothbrushes, toiletries and enough food to feed an
army!
Heading back to the cottage we met Trish for the first time
in person. It’s her and Steve’s 25th Wedding Anniversary today so
they were on the way out for a celebratory meal with their two daughters,
Stacey and Caitlin, so we tried not to delay them for too long, whilst also enjoying a beer.
Having stored the shopping, we did some more unpacking and
made our first dinner in the cottage.
Sunday – welcome back nightmare jet lag! We tried going to bed at 11pm and felt tired
but only managed to sleep for an hour or so before being wide awake…. Until
5am!! We did manage to catch up on some ‘Celebrity
Bake Off’ action online though…. (geeks!)
Thinking we should try to at least get a few hours’ sleep we
then passed out and awoke at 1pm! It is surprising
how affected we are considering we have only been away in Thailand for a
month.
A beautiful day outside spurred me into action to get
several loads of washing done and to go and explore the nearest river for a
walk. I need to start getting more fresh
air and exercise again. I discovered the
Les Batkin reserve, not the largest reserve ever, but I managed to walk for
over half an hour there and watched people enjoying the waterway on
stand-up-paddle boards, boats and jet skis. The outdoor life that people here
in NZ enjoy.
 |
| View across the river at the Les Batkin Reserve |
By the time I got
back it was heading towards evening, so I jumped into the shower to freshen
up. I had to jump out again pretty
speedily when Simon shouted to tell me that a bird had got into the house and
didn’t seem to want to leave! The poor fantail was open-beaked breathing
on a light-fitting so was clearly panicked.
 |
| Fantail... with a slightly dented head! |
We opened as many windows and doors as we could to try and invite it to
leave of its own accord, but the darn thing wouldn’t fly downwards from the
ceiling and ended up hurting itself. It was now smearing blood from a head injury
onto the paintwork. We grabbed
the nearest bird rescuing equipment – a bed sheet and a broom – to try and coax
it to fly down and out of a doorway. We
had to be quite mean and not allow it to land in the end. It must have taken us a good 15-20 minutes
before it finally dipped down and out of the front door. Phew!
An adventure to tell his friends about.
And now we need to borrow a step-ladder from our landlords to clean the
blood off the ceiling! (I didn’t want us
to be high maintenance, this isn’t a good start!).
Excitement over for one day, it was time to cook a roast for
the first time since Christmas. Let’s
hope we don’t smoke out our accommodation again…..
I then spent the evening researching where I can offer my
volunteering services and try to save the world. Not too much to ask, I’m sure. I discovered the NZ version of conservationvolunteers.com
is very active in the Auckland area.
This is the website in Australia through which the volunteers at the
turtle sanctuary got involved. There are
regular opportunities around Auckland to help increase the biodiversity in the
local parks. Maybe just by planting the
right kind of plants or maintaining the pathways, but it all works towards the
same goal – stopping the decline of indigenous species under threat by
providing them with a more suitable and safe habitat.
I can’t remember if I mentioned the Jonah
Project that I heard of through Kaikoura Kayaks or not? But you can go on a day
long course (costs about £60) to be trained as a ‘Marine Mammal Medic’ so that
you can be called out to assist when a whale or similar gets stranded. They
have courses in Auckland in April, but they are now all fully booked. I will keep my eyes peeled for new training
dates. Plenty more opportunities are out
there. It is exciting to think of what I
can get involved in soon.
Monday – Simon ended up watching the Australian Grand Prix
at 230am this morning. I think that was
when I finally managed to fall asleep…. Thanks, F1! We had set an alarm for 945am to
stop us laying in too late and so that we could talk to Simon’s parents, late
on a Sunday evening in the UK. The
clocks have sprung forward in the UK so, apparently, it’s summertime
there?! We had a mammoth catch up with
the Newmans, keeping them awake until 1130pm.
But we discussed many important things.
Sadly, Ralph has developed a problem with one of his rear
legs. This has not only limited him to walks on the lead, but they have also
had to retire from the agility classes that both he and Ann enjoy so much. It is really upsetting. He is not even nine years old, but it sounds
like he is barely using the poorly leg now.
The vets have him on a course of pills for three months, but he will
also need hydrotherapy to help him. Poor
Ralphy…
Next important landmark.
I drove Simon to his potential new place of work for an interview which
must have been pretty intense after spending such a long time on the road
unemployed! We had to work on his CV whilst we were in Thailand which was then sent
off and formed the basis of the structured interview. Simon hasn’t had to worry
about having a CV for about 17 years so that took some time I can tell
you. I felt extremely nervous and I was
the one sitting outside in the car!! The
amazing news is that there is no ‘waiting to see’ how it went – he nailed it
apparently and has been offered a job as Contracts Manager! Well I never.
Am I wrong to worry when things seem to go too well to be true?! Are we
doing the right thing? Is Simon going to
hate his new job or really struggle with tackling something new and completely
alien to him? All these questions to be
answered in due course…. Better get started with some Visa Applications. How the heck do you go about that?!
After the formal interview discussion had taken place,
conversation seemed to have moved on rapidly to other important topics – like
the fact that Simon’s brand-new line manager has a Subaru WRX for sale at the
moment! He may do us a good deal on it and has offered us an Easter test-drive
to see if we want to make him an offer.
Our brief experience in Pukekohe so far has told us one thing, it may be
difficult for us to live with one car as we’d hoped. You cannot walk anywhere (shops, gym,
volunteering opportunities) without driving and apparently the public transport
network is very unreliable. If I want to have transport to go anywhere in the
daytime it will mean dropping Simon off at work and collecting him. That’s roughly two hours of my day gone and
the added cost of petrol back and forth.
The other option is running two, cheaper cars, instead of the Subaru. This may have to be the longer-term solution.
I’ll leave Simon to tell his new boss!
Tuesday – A very productive day starting with some amazing
news – Campers Inn have wired me the money for the RV!! I don’t have it yet…. It’s probably somewhere
in the ether over the Atlantic, but it is on its way! This couldn’t have come at a better time,
when we need financial help in setting ourselves up here, while we apply for
our visas and wait to see if we can stay – Simon can’t work or get paid until he
has the authority to do so.
We have our rubbish hire car booked for just another week,
so we need to get moving on buying a car, or cars (like I said, amazing timing
for the RV money!). Simon has been scouring the internet for automobiles. The popular method of car-buying here seems
to be via trade-me.com, the NZ version of e-bay, where you can bag a bargain
apparently. As usual, I am the
conservative one, not wanting to spend a penny if at all possible! But, being realistic, if you buy a cheap car,
that is what you get. It will probably end up costing a fortune in servicing
and repairing faults. We don’t know how
long we are going to be here yet, so we want to get something that will hold
its value for selling on in case we get thrown out of the country after a month!
Simon found a Volkswagen Golf GTI on ‘sale’ this weekend south of Auckland so
off we went to take a look. It was
beautiful and with low mileage. A couple
of issues – it is an import from Japan.
Many cars here are, but it means that the Satnav and radio would make
sense in Japan, but not here. Apart from
that, it will need a special service in 10,000km time and needs registering
here in NZ. Because it was being sold by a trader rather than a member of
public we discussed options for them assisting us with these issues. Maybe we could sort something out? We took the car for a test drive to put it
through its paces. It was very
comfortable and smooth. My main
concern? Simon racking up speeding
points on his not-yet-existent NZ licence!
It goes a bit. Long story short,
we came to an agreement on a price where we will pick up the car next week
serviced, registered and with a newly installed Kiwi radio/Satnav. Ready for the road and, touch wood, reliable
for Simon’s commute when he can start working.
 |
| Si's new wheels.... |
Success, part one! We
returned home (I’ve started calling the cottage that) for a bite of lunch
before the next quest – to find me a gym in Pukekohe (correct pronunciation
appears to be ‘pook-a-coh-ee’ said as rapidly as possible). There were two main candidates in town – one
with a pool but less of a gym class program and the other appearing more like
my old gym, but without a pool. I am
really looking forward to having the opportunity to get back into working out. I went for the best of both. The program of classes at Counties Fitness is
much more comprehensive with my old favourites available and the cost is
comparable with what I used to pay in the UK.
The Franklin leisure centre pool only costs about £2.50 to just turn up
and have a swim, so I can do that if I fancy a change. Done!
I’m not signed up anywhere yet but can’t wait to get started. Success part two!
Success part three – we submitted our applications for
Police checks in the UK. This is an
essential part of the immigration process to check that we are not a couple of wrong-uns
trying to get into New Zealand. It took
a lot of preparation to collect all the necessary documents in the correct file
size and format (thanks must go to Si’s parents in the UK for their help) but
the actual process of completing the online form was not too painful. Let’s wait and see if we get them returned to
us in the designated ten working days.
Like I said, a very productive day!
Wednesday – Even better than yesterday’s start. Now we HAVE the money for the RV. Time to go car shopping again, this time for
me and with a much lower budget and expectations. However, a tidy silver Ford Fiesta Zetec with
only 60k on the dial should last me a while.
It was over an hour’s drive to the dealership where we did some more
haggling over things that needed putting right on the car before we’d do a
deal. Like two badly scuffed alloys, repairs
to some scuffed bodywork, and an agreement where they are paying half of the
money to install a new cambelt, so that I don’t have that worry hanging over my
head. The test drive convinced us that
the engine seemed fine. The only issues
appeared cosmetic, so if I pick up the car looking all shiny and new with
everything we discussed fixed, I’ll be happy with that. A deal was struck between parties and we
await a call to say when we can collect it.
 |
| ..... and MY new wheels! FEJ..... turn it around, what do you get? Jef the Fiesta! |
By this time, it was mid-afternoon but one of the salesmen
suggested we drove just half an hour further on to Piha Beach, so we did! We
were suitably impressed as we approached...
It reminded us why we’re here in NZ – this beach is only an hour and a
half from where we’re staying, the sand was soft and warm between our toes and
the water was fresh but clean. Just wait
until we explore the beaches even closer to us!
We had not prepared for a beach visit so looked a right pair with our
jeans rolled up to our knees as we paddled in the water. We had a brief walk but agreed to return to
fully explore the beach and headlands when time and equipment allowed.
We hadn’t timed it brilliantly, so it took a little longer
to get home through the rush hour traffic, reminding us to factor that in for
the future.
Thursday 29th March –
I had the worst night’s sleep yet. I blame comedian Simon Amstell. I started watching some of his stand up
online and he mentioned an American TV series about teenage angst called ‘My
so-called life’. It was the launch pad
for the careers of Claire Danes (of Romeo and Juliet and more recently Homeland
fame) and Jared Leto (actor, recent Joker in batman and lead singer and
guitarist of ‘30 seconds to Mars’). I
searched it on Youtube and as soon as I saw image of the cast memories came
flooding back of a series that must have been one of my favourites as a teen. So, then I wanted to recall the story-lines and
started watching clips and trying to find full episodes. Half a night lost. In the end I had to stop because my battery
was dying, not that I felt at all sleepy and I remained restless until about
2am.
I made myself get up reasonably
early to reach my potential new gym in Pukekohe by 830am, a little too early
for the 910am pump class but this gave me plenty of time to sign up to a week’s
trial and find all the equipment I would need.
A little before the class
started I heard someone asking someone called Trish what equipment she needed
and, hey presto, there was our new neighbour, Trish, with her gym buddy
Lizzie. Small world. The instructor, Nigel, was apparently nearing
60 but looked about 40 and like he’s lived in a gym for the entire 40
years! He was quite harsh, nagging
people for taking too long with equipment or missing reps. But I guess that makes him effective. Seeing as it was the first gym class I’d done
in six months I intended to take it easy, but you don’t want to look like a
wimp in front of the locals, do you?! It
hurt. But, for some reason it seemed a
clever idea to stay on and do the 30-minute core class straight afterwards as
well. I will be walking strangely by Saturday!
But it felt good to be back having a decent workout.
By the time I’d got back to the
house, showered and grabbed a bite to eat it was time to get a few top-up
groceries before Steve and Trish came over for a catch up. There were still some things about the
cottage we needed to clarify – like how to use the oven without the timer going
‘bing’ every two seconds!
I got an important bit of admin
done this afternoon – working out the final cost of the nine-month trip to
North America! Now that we had received
the monies from the sale of Harvey the RV I could work out exactly what we’d
coughed up for the privilege. Research
had shown us that to rent an RV the same size and style as Harvey would have
cost us £5000 a month, ie £45000 for nine months. Selling the RV has been a worry and a thorn
in our side since last July, however, the amount of money we have lost by
putting 27000 miles on the clock comes in at £25,000. So, yes it’s been painful at times but we
have effectively saved ourselves £20,000!
The cost of the RV aside, we went through an average of £3440 a month,
or £860 a week between the two of us.
That works out at £61.43 each per day!
That’s not too shabby if you’re talking food, accommodation, fuel for
driving miles and miles AND doing tourist stuff. You can’t put a price on the ultimate road
trip. (But I think I just did!)
Bad news about Ralph from home –
his leg is no better. In fact, he is barely using the bad one, so
Simon’s parents had to return to the vets with him. Next Tuesday it’s time for a general
anaesthetic to explore fully what’s going on with the fear being that he has
torn his cruciate ligament. I have no idea what that means in the way of
treatment, recovery and ongoing care for him.
Not good.
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