The Waipa Delta Riverboat

We took a little drive out to the 'new house' on Saturday afternoon to see if we could manage a better photograph of the place for you to see - the one on Google Earth really doesn't do it justice and we were of course also curious as to whether the previous tenants had moved out or not! They had said the house was available from the 14th - we in our vast ingnorance assumed that we could move in on the 14th - evidently, it doesn't work like that at all. The agency which manages the property has to go in to assess, clean and so on (including the carpeting being professionally cleaned) before new tenants can take occupation. For all this, they need 'at least 4 days' which is why we can only get the keys on Wednesday morning.

While we were there, the lady from next door came bounding out with 'Haai julle - ek se toe vir Sam ek KEN hulle dan!' and lo and behold, we met our new neighbours two weeks ago at the ACK church - they are a SA couple a few years younger than us (their last child still at home). Evidently, they had got on really well with their previous neighbours and were hoping that the new tenants would be 'alright' - that, of course, will remain to be seen!

Standing around on the front lawn, Stephanie and Sam said that they were having a house full of friends over for a braai and refused to take no for an answer to the invitation that we join them. So there and then we got to meet a whole lot more people - it turns out, all ex- South Africans who each had their own story about coming over here. Things are all set up now for the move on Wednesday - once we see what we can scrounge in the way of furniture and appliances via Cor and Mariaan, whatever is still lacking, we will be able to rummage around at Sam and Stephanie's to see if they can spare it until our container arrives! I have also been promised the key to their house so that I can use their washing machine and dryer if needs be.

We attended the ACK service on Sunday morning and had a whole lot more people we could say hello to and then came back to the motel (where we have decided to remain until Wednesday after all). We were offered a 'double room' in Sarie and Dan du Toit's grand house - to rent at $50.00 a day but would have had to share a bathroom with a Korean student who has just moved in there. New Zealand has loads of Asian students who come here to improve their English - most of them are finished school and are planning on studying in English so need to hone their language skills - families who 'host' them are paid $190. a week for their keep and so it's a proposition for lots of people to have them. After the service, we loafed about at the motel for a while since we knew that we had booked to go on a sunset cruise on the Waikato river at 6 pm - we have seen the paddleboat moored on the river many times and recently there have been ads on the TV which have mentioned that the boat will be taken out of commission at the end of this summer. We thought it was something that we should do and booked on line on Friday, hoping that the weather would be good on the day! I have attached a couple of photos taken from the boat for you to see - an absolutely fabulous evening - live music ( an old hippy on a guitar with backtracks -our kind of music!) brilliant food - each plate with it's own hot rock for the personal cooking experience - and of course the amazing view of the riverbank from the boat. Evidently the paddleboat will be leaving the Waikato River at the end of March to move to Auckland harbour - so we are really glad that we did the trip before it was too late! The only complaint that we could possibly have about the trip was that it was only two hours long - we could have comfortably spent at least double that amount of time cruising up and down the river! I have discovered that New Zealand claims the pavlova as one of it's national desserts - of course we sampled pavlova for dessert on the paddleboat; a cooler box in this part of the world is referred to as a 'chilly bin' and the black caps (NZ cricket team lost the deciding one day game against Oz by ONE RUN - DAMN) Sorry to my Oz cousins and Aunt and Uncle - but when in NZ do as the kiwis do and support New Zealand -except of course against South Africa when we are full blooded South Africans with the loudest voices and biggest flags on the park!

Thanks to all who have responded to the e-mail address appeal - I am so glad to have heard from you and to be able to connect personally!

That's all!