Hot air balloons, cheesecake and hobbits.

Especially on a Saturday or Sunday morning, if you happen to glance upwards at just the right moment, you are certain to see at least one hot air balloon floating over Hamilton - sometimes the sky really is filled with them. We have seen a couple of spectacular ones - the most amazing shapes - cartoon characters, light bulbs and so on! This weekend is the hot air balloon extravaganza - entitled 'New Zealand's premier ballooning festival' - the advertisement in our 'What's on in Hamilton' reads; A visual spectacle as over 30 magnificent hot air balloons from New Zealand and overseas take to the skies for five days of fun and competition. Amazing new special-shaped balloons and mass ascensions at sunrise entertain and delight spectators of all ages'.
With the special 'Earth Hour' about to happen worldwide, Hamilton has tried to raise awareness for the big 'switch off' on Saturday with a hot air balloon, shaped like a light bulb and with the words 60 EARTH HOUR printed on it - we haven't actually seen this balloon in the sky, but then maybe we just haven't looked skywards at the right time!
There is a pretty good morning show on TV which has a presenter with a very dry, very amusing sense of humour - he says what he thinks and often has to defend his position after irate viewers send e-mails chewing him out! I'm sure you would know that I just love him! The other morning he was once again in the dog box for making a comment to the effect that the Australians are right when they say that New Zealanders are just a bunch of hobbits who don't know how to dress! There were all sorts of people defending the locals and some saying that we have to just accept that we can't please all the people all the time and that since Australia is our nearest neighbour and 'just over the ditch' we should just ignore such negative comments - this presenter said he strongly agreed that indeed New Zealanders really don't know how to dress, but would concede that perhaps the 'hobbits' bit was a bit nasty!
The fact of the matter is that in New Zealand, what you wear, what you drive, where you live and so on REALLY doesn't mean anything to anyone - the kids here don't care about stuff like which cel phone make they have (if they even have one) and labels are just not an issue for most of them - there is a lot of billabong around the beaches where the surfers hang out, but in town that's not the case. We see folks every time we go out, that make us look twice - we still can't believe that they think they look alright to be seen in public - I kid you not, like we always felt when we were on holiday beside the sea and nobody knows you, you could slop into the shop in shorts and barefoot with uncombed hair, and nobody cares - it's like that here in town, all the time! Sure, the guys who are doing business are generally pretty well turned out and the ladies who man the make-up counters at pharmacies and department stores are powdered and painted, but for the average guy and his wife, whatever....
In spite of thinking that we would probably never be so totally slack, it's really very liberating to be able to go wherever you like, looking however you happen to be looking at the time and nobody gives you a second glance!
All of you who know anything about Jo know that he is a 'cheesecake fanatic' - and some of you know that I have experimented many times with trying to find the perfect cheesecake recipe that will get the elusive 'Jo stamp of approval' - secretly, all I want to be able to bake, is a cheesecake that he reckons is BETTER than the one served up at Spur - I mean really people, how hard can it be to improve on some mass produced koek?
Needless to say, since I don't have the means at my disposal right at the moment, to bake cheesecakes, I am off the hook for a while.
There is a chain of Cheesecake SHOPS here - whole shops dedicated to cheesecake (every flavour you can possibly imagine judging by the ad boards on the pavement outside these shops) but we have not ventured into one yet - for a number of reasons, the biggest one being that we could easily become habitual cheesecake chompers and the waistlines are already needing some reduction with all the lovely new things that have had to be sampled - so anyway, I was hoping to make a splash with an excursion to one of these shops one of these days and find that I have been pipped at the post as it were in that Jo got an e-mail from one of the colleagues at work saying that today (Friday) is Cheesecake Tuesday! at 10am - the mail says something like 'duh! it's not Tuesday, it's Friday, but it nevertheless is Cheesecake Tuesday today!'
Maybe it will be so good that we will have to call in at one of the aforementioned shops in the very near future so that I can also sample this apparently ledgendary cheesecake! Here's hoping!
So every time you are in a Spur, order a cheesecake and think of us! (with cream not icecream!)
Dis al!

Autumn is in New Zealand

The pin oak trees in our neighbourhood are starting to look really stunning with their autumn shades of oranges, rusts and reds - although they are young trees, the spectacle which they put on is still impressive - we can only imagine how stunning this area will be years from now when the trees grow to be enormous and then don their colours.
Our evenings and early mornings are chilly most days now and some days - cold. This morning we had our first taste of the mist which we hear is pretty common, but which we hadn't seen before today - not an all-encompassing white blanket, but enough to give the world a sort of silent and mysterious feel about it!
Now we are just nipping out to the Kirby agency to pick up a couple of spares for the second hand (or should I say previously un-loved since it was so filthy) vacuum cleaner - will continue this blog entry later when Jo is busy mowing the lawn which we want to do before they come to collect the wheelie bin tomorrow!

Just a few lines!

I have been given a keyboard to get myself organised on for the selection of music for the Youth Team that is being established at the South African church - clearly, I will spend some time working with suitable music, but for the rest of the time, I can do some 'soul stuff' on the keyboard which is really great.
I also have been handed three huge volumes of stunning music which I can tackle when I feel in the mood for a little sight reading or suchlike. Since we have two guitars leaning against the wall, there is no longer any excuse for not playing a bit of something here and there as the mood takes us.

TV's, Sales and Weeds

We scrounged a really little and really old TV from the garage of things for container-less new immigrants - no remote (0f course) and some buttons missing, but for the most part worked - on some channels - other channels needed to be tuned to each time, but it did the job for the amount of TV that we actually watch. Unfortunately, there is still a deafening silence in our home during the day and so often the TV was on in the background and to keep abreast of the latest in World events and such like. A few days ago, switching the said TV on one morning produced a really wicked humming noise and zero picture - not even snow - ziltch, niks, nothing. Fiddling about with connections, giving the set a hefty thump or switching on and off a few times, did nothing to improve the problem - I think it died in the night - we logged into Trade Me (like e-bay for those of you who haven't been following this blog too closely) and found a plethora of TV's for sale - some of which were so cheap that one wonders what's wrong with them. We decided to bid on a couple and that's eventually exactly what we got - sold as a 'lot' we now have two TV's and paid the princely sum of $50.00 for both. The idea is that we can sell both again once ours arrive, or sell one and donate one to the aforementioned container-less new immigrants garage. While we were at it, naturally browsed around other things that we could do with in the meantime and are now the proud owners of a smallish gas braai (bottle included) - 3 burners with wooden shelving on either side of the grill and the whole caboodle on wheels so we can move it around easily - price? $11.50. Have arranged with the present owner - who is moving to Australia, to collect sometime on Saturday - not too far from Hamilton so another chance to see a different town.
Sales at the shops are exactly that - as far as I can remember, a SALE usually means a big sticker on things but prices don't look THAT much cheaper - so far, as far as we can tell, a sale item is VASTLY cheaper than usual - even we can see that, so it seems that if you can get your finances to co-operate, you can pick up amazing bargains on almost anything from big appliances to furniture to clothing - just a pity there aren't these sorts of sales on property!
Lots of the shops have regular 'get one free' sorts of deals - if not actually get one free, there will be for example, buy three and pay only whatever. Great for things that you use all the time like milk and bread and basic household things like soaps and tea and cooking oil.
I am the proud owner of a 'temporary One card' - (just waiting for the plastic one to arrive) - this gives us discounts on certain items and also works on a sort of points system - basically, when you get to the till with your trolley full of goods, they check everything through and then you swipe your One card and the 'tin brain' (computer) works out how much discount you are entitled to on that lot of stuff - the other day we got almost $5.00 off the total bill - which will obviously go into the 'ticket fund' - I'm not going to do the conversions for you guys anymore - we are trying to get away from doing it ourselves but if you really have to, basically the exchange rate is between R5 and R6 to the dollar!
Our front garden, like almost everyone's here, is open to the street - we have quite a pretty bed along the front of the property with a few standard roses and a couple of other things planted in it - a fair number of succulent 'roses' which I for one am not crazy about, but anyway - in the four weeks that we have been here, the weeds have sprung up in amongst the good stuff, like there's no tomorrow. Since there are no 'odd bods' hanging about looking for weeding jobs, there was nothing for it, but to get out there and do a bit of a clean-up. The dilemma for us, is that here and there, we have no idea whether what we are faced with is actually a weed, or whether it is some exotic variety of grass which has been specially imported into NZ at enormous expense! Years ago, a friend of ours, when faced with the gardening thing, asked his dad how you know if something is a weed or a plant - to which his dad replied - "pull it out - if it comes back, it was a weed, if it doesn't, it wasn't"
Dis al!

Admin!

We have taken some time out to do things that need to get done so that life moves along as smoothly as can be expected under the circumstances - in spite of the technological advances of the day, it is still a fact that you have to 'do stuff' to get stuff to work! For example - the internet banking that I want to have needed me to send signed forms back to the guy at Head Office in Auckland, and also to appear in person at one of the branches of the bank with a photo ID and a proof of physical address. It was of course, also a really good reason to take Jo to work yesterday morning and then have the car for the day! It was a completely deja vu experience to walk into the bank and find the tellers sitting behind beautiful marble counters with their computers to one side of them and not a glass panel in sight - you walk in the front door of the bank, no security gate, guard or door in sight, walk up to the lady behind the counter and can have a decent conversation about what you need to do without having to smooch up to a little round hole in bullet-proof glass and yell all your most personal and private financial affairs out for the entire bank to hear - alongside where I was standing, there was a young Mum with her little girl up on the counter beside her and the bank teller being able to reach out and touch the little poppet's blonde curls!
That all being done, I guess I should have a local bank account within the next few days or so - as things stand at the moment, I can deposit money into the account, but can't take any out (not that there's any to take out at this point!)

We found a wheelie bin on the property at the back of the house - full of garden refuse. This particular one, and there is a choice of about three different companies who do the wheelie bin thing in our street every week - turns out to be one of the more expensive varieties - $12.00 per pick -up so we decided to go for the one our neighbours recommended - $8.00 a pick-up fortnightly - but what to do with the wheelie bin we don't need? Called the company and got, wait for it, an ex South African on the line! From Toti and been here three years - was interesting to get another perspective from a South African in Auckland who is slowly but surely getting all of her family to move over here! She says she won't settle here until all her kids and their families are here too!
The recycling thing is pretty big here - each home was issued with a largish, square open topped bucket a couple of years ago - these are filled with glass and plastic for recycling and put out on the kerbside along with the ordinary refuse on rubbish day - each home therefore has three distinct 'piles' of things on the kerb - big black bag of regular refuse, plastic bucket with glass and plastic and then bags of paper and cardboard parked seperately. On refuse day, there are three different lorries that cruise by - the first collects the black bags only, then later sometime, the plastic bins are emptied and left upside down on the kerb - lastly, the bags of paper and cardboard disappear and the job is done for another week! This of course, is seperate from the wheelie bin thing for garden refuse - different wheelie bin companies on different days of the week, so on any given day, you might see wheelie bins on the kerbside here and there, but all will have yellow lids; another day, the wheelie bins that you might see, all have red lids and so on. All VERY organised!
Our house simply didn't have a bin for recycling, so I went onto the website for recycling here in Hamilton and discovered that the owner of the property must provide a new one if the original one is no longer there and that I need to contact the 'manager' of the property to get him to get the owner to do that! Found that our manager has an e-mail address so mailed him yesterday with the request and will wait and see if we get the desired effect!
If all else fails, I guess we could go and buy a bin from the local authority but they cost $20.00 and we would have to leave it here should we move somewhere else, so are not keen on that route.
I found out yesterday that Hamilton Hairdressing School is always looking for people who are willing to have students cut their hair (under supervision of course) and that the cost is zero - I'm not too sure about it yet, but when I notice that a simple little cut will cost about $50.00 it's worth looking into! (that's R250.00 folks!)
We know that we have to stop thinking in Rand - we will go totally crazy if we keep doing it, it's just that we still don't always know if the dollar price is a good one or not - but we're getting better at it!
Dis al!

Happy Birthday - Jo-anne!

As the title suggests, it is Jo-anne's birthday today - so all of you who done forgot - you hopefully still have time to drop her a quick mail or make a call to wish her a marvellous day! On that note, since I wanted to send a little gift from us, I had the opportunity to try out the NZ postal system and have been really pleasantly surprised - not only is postage not too exorbitantly expensive, but it appears to be really efficient too! Evidently, here in NZ the fastest way to get documents from one place to another locally, is via the dead ordinary postal service - if you post something in town today, it will be delivered to it's destination in NZ tomorrow - quicker than the average courier service - how cool is that! From here to Scotland, ordinary mail, was guaranteed less than 10days, as it turns out, it took 5 which is really great and so has arrived in time!
The only trick involved with the postal service, is the fact that most of them have now moved from being 'independent' stores, to being 'attached' to something else - in our case, the postal service operates from a corner of a video/stationers which is in the little centre about a kilometre from our house. It was a bit of a case of finding out where the nearest one was, but once there, they have all the boxes, envelopes on hand so posting stuff is really easy.
I was really glad about getting some flak about blog posts in Afrikaans - just makes me feel better to know that there really are folks who are interested and who are reading all the bumph that we put up here! It is a case of trying to keep all the folks happy all the time, which is a virtual impossibility - so we are settling for keeping most of the folks happy, most of the time.
We've had a 'stay at home' weekend this past weekend - there were a few things that we wanted to do in town on Saturday and then there was a braai organised for the 'manne' on Saturday afternoon. We ended up strolling around some of the shops that we hadn't yet been into on Saturday morning and buying a whole lot of 'stuff' - the rule of thumb has been to try really hard not to buy anything that closely resembles anything that we know is in the container so that we don't end up with a lot of duplicate things - we have been threatening to buy an outside umbrella for the patio for ever ( since Kroonstad days) so when we found one on special on Sat, we decided to pay the dollars and load it into the car. Our patio area outside our house is really very open to the elements and we are thrilled that we can now sit out there even when the sun is baking hot - it also somehow gives a much more lived-in look to our back garden so we are really chuffed with the new aquisition! We are not shouting too loudly about the fact that this particular umbrella has teeny tiny fairy lights (just a few mind you) along the wooden struts up inside the umbrella, so at the flick of one tiny switch on the main pole, voila, you have kitch personified! Even more spectacular, is the fact that these fairy lights are, wait for it, solar powered - I kid you not - the very top of the brolly pole has the little solar panel to recharge the lights! Who would have ever guessed that someone would dream up something so incredibly technologically advanced and mind blowing - I would really like to know if there is anyone in the whole universe who would actually buy this particular umbrella BECAUSE it has fairy lights?
There is talk of starting a Youth Team at the church - young people aged between about19 and 30 to get a Sunday evening service up and running - in English I might add, and with all the bells and whistles that the more progressive among us have come to sort of expect. This will naturally require that a group of young folk get going on the guitars, keyboards, basses, drums and mikes that go along with a service of this kind and so to cut a long story short, and to the enormous surprise of everyone who knows us - I'm sure - Jo and I appear to be being considered to take a sort of guidance and leadership role with this group of young folk. As a result, there is talk even now of starting to take lessons on at least keyboards and guitars - although our instruments are all still many miles away, we have managed to borrow two classical guitars (which were sitting around gathering dust) and there is talk of a keyboard or two appearing so that I can start to get my act together. I have absolutely no idea what private teachers of music in this part of the world charge for their services, but have put a couple of lasses onto the task of making a few calls to find out - the plan being that I can slot my fees in somewhere in the middle and not put anybody's nose out of joint. The only music teachers I have come across thus far, are attached to a school and so teach from there and are not doing so 'privately' as it were. The minimum wage in NZ has recently been upped to $12 an hour, so hopefully, I will be able to generate a bit more than the minimum - if we can, we want to save a dollar a day at least for the 'ticket fund' and so hopefully, before we know it, we will have amassed a whole lot of money for whoever to come over and see us! So, the sooner I can start earning something, even if the container isn't here yet, the sooner 'whoever' can start packing for a trip to NZ!
For the file on 'things different' - 'wh' here in a Maori word or name is pronounced - F. So Whangerei is pronounced Fangeray. The 'a' in a word like 'car' is pronounced like the 'a' in 'fact' - so 'car park' is 'ca pack' with the 'a' sort of stretched out and longer than usual.Us being the folks we are have Afrikaanerised this weird way of saying an 'a' and extended it to words like 'snaaks' still keeping the kiwi long 'a' as in 'act' - gets a laugh every time!
Dis al!

Die Somer is verby!

Nou die dag, se ek vir Jo dat dit hoog tyd is dat ek weer bietjie op hierdie blog in Afrikaans skryf - ons maatjies en familie dink seker ons het hulle 'gedrop' - dit is nie so nie hoor! Ons het gedink dat ons baie min Afrikaans hier sal praat - weet julle, dit is ook nie so nie - ons bure is mos Afrikaans en ons het al 'n hele paar mense by die kerk ontmoet wat met ons net Afrikaans praat. Voor ons hiernatoe gekom het, het ek 'n klein gedagtetjie gehad dat ons miskien Engels in die huis sal begin praat (om die wat onseker in die taal voel op te knap!) maar, nee, dit werk nie so nie! Ons praat al nege jaar in ons huis Afrikaans (om die wat onseker in die taal voel op te knap!) so daar het julle dit! Partykeer vergeet ons dat mense om ons dit nie verstaan nie, dan moet ons vinnig oorslaan Engels toe dat hulle nie dink ons is ongeskik nie!
Ons was by die rugby verlede Vrydag hier in Hamilton - Chiefs teen Western Force - die ondersteuning vir die tuis span is iets om te beleef! Die hele game was daar 'n outjie buite die veld, in sy 'mandjie op 'n paal', bokant die paweljoen met 'n kettingsaag besig om ons span aan te moedig! 'Wat?' vra julle - rerig, een van daardie lorries wat 'n paal ding het wat kan opstyg om aan straatligte te kan werk ens en daar binne in, is daar hierdie mal ou wat sy kettingsaag afstof en opstart elke keer as daar iets opwindends gebeur. Na die game, toe ons daar verby gestap het, het hy die ding heelwat laat sak en was besig om 'sweeties' vir die kinders in sulke wolke uit te gooi dat hulle almal spring en probeer vang - groot pret!
In hierdie week het ek twee keer saam met Jo werk toe gery in die oggend, dat ek die kar vir die dag kan he - dan kan ek rustig by die biblioteek uitkom en ook bietjie gaan 'browse' by die winkels sonder om te voel hy kan iets oorkom van verveeldgeit - ek was rerig bietjie angstig om alleen in die verkeer te bestuur - julle vra seker hoekom want hulle ry ook hier aan die linker kant van die pad en als, maar dit is anders hoor! Nommer een, is daar 'n paar reels wat anders is en 'n mens moet wakker wees sodat jy nie dom foute maak nie. Die spoed grens in die dorp is 50kmph, effens buite die dorp so 80 en op die ope pad 100kmph - ons het nou die dag onthou hoe Melinda gevra het daardie tyd of die bakkie enigsins vinniger as 100 KAN ry - Sussa, hier MAG ons nie vinniger as dit ry nie! Die groot 'issue' is dat die verkeer mense ry in 'unmarked' karre en so mens weet nooit wie vir jou dophou en wie onskuldige mense nes jy is nie - jy vat nettie 'n kansie! Hulle beboet so gou soos nou, hoor ons, en nog erger, blykbaar kry jy sommer nou 'n blerts op jou bestuursrekord - drie van sulke swart kolle en daar is jou lisensie sommer m$%^&r toe! Ons is nog te nuut om kanse te vat! So ons is baie soet en doen wat op die bordjies se ons moet doen!
Jy kan nie glo hoe heerlik is dit om nie een taxi of soortgelyke ding op die pad te kry nie - almal se karre is padwaardig - rerig - 'n kar ouer as 5 jaar word elke ses maande deur die toets gesit - en almal ry half ordentlik. Hier en daar kry jy 'n outjie wat bietjie wind in sy pype het, maar dit gebeur baie selde.
Ons het nou die dag weer petrol gaan ingooi - toe onthou ek, ek het nooit vir julle almal gese hoe dit hier met petrol werk nie - as jy brandstof nodig het, stop jy eenvoudig by 'n garage, maak jou petrol gorreltjie oop, tel die pomp ding op, sit hom in en begin gooi. As jy klaar is, die tenk vol is, of jou geld in jou beursie op is, loop jy rustig na die 'one stop' tiepe winkeltjie daar en betaal vir die persoon wat agter die till sit, wat jy skuld - hulle het natuurlik 'n idee watter pomp jy gebruik het en so aan so dis mos baie maklik - kan julle net dink hoe lank dit in SA so sal hou??? Jo se vir my die pomp is actually gesluit tot jy die outjie se oog by die till vang, laat hy dit oopsluit, maar nog steeds, dis vir my net totally amazing! Daar is by party winkels 'specials' in die sin dat as jy meer as $40.00 spandeer op jou groceries, kry jy 'n 'voucher' wat onder aan die till slippie geprint is wat vir jou 4 sent per litre brandstof afslag gee - ons het nou die dag so $2.00 gespaar op ons brandstof met een van ons vouchers. Ons het besluit dat ons elke dollar wat ons spaar, nog een gaan bysit en dan sommer altwee in die spaarbussie gooi vir 'tikkette' - 'n kaartjie kos so $2,000 dollar, maar elke dollar help!
Daar is Sondag wat kom, 'n ete na kerk vir die nuwe immigrante - blykbaar is dit eintlik 'n 'kennismaak' ding dat almal wat nuut is mekaar kan ontmoet en dan ook bietjie hoor van alles wat die Afrikaanse Christen Kerk in NZ aanbied in die sin van ondersteuning, 'networking' en bybelstudie groepe ens. Ons verstaan daar is niks 'pressure' nie - baie rustig en vriendlik en ons buurvrou is deel van die 'oues' wat help werk by die geleentheid, so ons sal seker heerlik Sondag saam met almal verkeer. Ons hou baie van die feit dat daar nie nodig is om offisieel by die kerk aan te sluit nie - almal is welkom. Ons neem aan die hele affere is in Afrikaans soos al die Sondag dienste (hier en daar is daar bietjie Engels gepraat of gesing, maar oor die algemeen is dit Afrikaans) so ons voel bietjie baie tuis!
Soos die titel van hierdie pos aandui, is die somer skielik verby - oggende en aande is amper koud nou en ons komkommer dat ons nie genoeg warm klere by ons nou het nie - al ons wintersklere is in die groot boks wat noggie hier issie - gelukkig het ons al 'n paar komberse by vriende geleen vir die bed, so ons kry darem nie koud in die nag nie. Die bome in ons dorp het al begin pragtige herfs kleure vertoon - ons woonbuurt het baie 'pin oaks' - my heel gunsteling boom en die begin nou werklik mooi lyk. Dit reen byna elke dag op een of ander stadium, maar die son skyn ook darem meeste dae vir 'n tydjie - dit is rerig so dat ons 'n paar seisoene elke dag beleef.
Ek het begin dink dat ons Afrikaanse mense vir ons kwaad is dat ons NOOIT OOIT iets in Afrikaans skryf nie en dus stuur julle vir ons niks nie - g'n e-pos, g'n 'comments' op die blog - net mooi boggerol - nou ja - hier is dan 'n bietjie Afrikaans nou, so ons hoop rerig dit gaan help dat ons iets van julle hoor -Toe! 'Ssblief! Ons wil weet hoe dit met julle gaan en hoop ma julle verlang so nou en dan na ons bietjie!
Dis al!

Tauranga - Islands and beaches

On Saturday we took a trip up to Tauranga - North East of Hamilton - to stroll on the beach, indulge in the best Italian Icecream, take loads of photographs and collect the kitchen step-stool which we had purchased on Trade Me in the course of this past week. We were just getting mighty tired of doing all these blogspot posts standing up, since we had nothing to sit on at the kitchen counter where the laptop has to be for the phone/broadband connection! We had done some research and found that new barstools or similar are incredibly expensive - nothing, honestly nothing, under R600.00 which we just thought was a bit much considering that there are three packed safely in our container en-route to New Zealand. Having had to resort to plan B with the whole container saga, we are hoping that at last in this coming week, our box of worldly goods can be loaded onto the first and best ship headed for Auckland and that in about six weeks or so, we will have all our own familiar things around us again!

The step-stool (by the way) is a little bit older than could be called new, but at $26.oo we are very happy to park ourselves on it to do all the things that we are needing to do on the pc.

Tauranga - like everywhere else that we have been to see so far - exceeded all our expectations when it came to scenery - there has yet to be a beach or river or stretch of plain old countryside that isn't really beautiful -everywhere you go and everywhere you look, has the potential for a calendar photograph. To be honest, we realise that we are becoming a little blase with all the wonderful scenery around us and continually try to see places as we saw them in our first couple of days here when we were open-mouthed and wide-eyed at how lovely New Zealand is!

As you can see from the photographs which we took, Tauranga has a couple of beaches sort of alongside one another with a stretch of 'peninsula' between them which we walked along and then up to the top of for the most magnificent views over the Pacific ocean and then back towards the beaches. We hear that Tauranga has the most days per year of sunshine so were not surprised to find that although it was overcast when we arrived, (having left Hamilton in the pouring rain) it cleared up into the most glorious sunshiny day with surfers and sunworshippers everywhere. There is a wooden boardwalk all along the beach - a bona fide boardwalk with it's share of families with kiddies on bikes, old folks with their walking sticks and big sunhats and plenty of the 'beautiful people' taking time to enjoy the beach and holiday atmosphere. We dipped our toes into the ocean and were surprised at how cold the water was considering the huge number of lads and lasses out in the swells waiting for the perfect wave - on closer inspection we did notice that all the surfers had wetsuits on. There were of course also the few really brave souls who were there to go swimming and waded into the waves with just a scrap of lycra to protect them from the cold, but admittedly they were by far in the minority. It was another really good day of sights and sounds of NZ and we rounded it off with a double scoop each of the best Italian icecream bought from the icecream parlour on the beachfront - pure indulgence and worth every forbidden calorie!

The closer we got to Hamilton, the more the weather closed in on us and we travelled through quite a few good rain showers before getting home where the sun was shining again! Much like you guys in Scotland Jo - four seasons in an afternoon!

The NZ folks are really obsessed with things being 'safe' - Jo has a reflective jacket which all the guys don if they are going to be beside or on a road - if the jacket has sleeves attached then the bottom back hem is straight across. BUT if the jacket is of the sleeveless variety, then the bottom back edge slopes downwards like an apron at the back over the bum - apparently, it has to do with the surface area required for maximum visibility! I know why they do it, but it does look quite weird!

The 'white line' in the middle of the road is not white - the line on the roads edge to your left as you drive is white - the solid line in the middle of the road is yellow - if there is a dotted line, that will be white and then if there is an area where there needs to be a solid line as well for one direction, this will be indicated in yellow, beside the dotted white line. In SA, there is an arrow painted onto the dotted lines to warn of an approaching solid white line - here, a solid yellow line approaching is indicated by a dotted yellow line for 5 'dots' before it becomes solid. The signs beside the road are often just a bunch of words like - 'keep left unless passing' which is fine for us brilliant folks who can read - the kiwis were very surprised to hear that in SA they are moving away from words on any of the signs and use (as far as possible) symbols to indicate everything that needs to be indicated, besides the names of places.

We bought a small variety of bulbs to put into the garden (or in our case, pots) to flower in the Spring - not that it means much to most of you, but a couple of you will know that I have wanted to grow my own freesias my whole life - they will be planted in April!

Dis al!

Around the block!

Here are some of the photos that we took on our stroll around our block of the neighbourhood.

These pictures were all taken at around 6.30 in the evening and as you can see, although it is a bit overcast, the shadows are beginning to lengthen and show signs of night approaching. For those of you reading this from SA, we took these on a Sunday evening which meant that you were all probably still abed - the time there being 7.30am Sunday.

We thought you might like to see what the neighbourhood looks like - we have been so amazed at how neat and tidy everything is - not a scrap of litter in sight, no jungle front lawns and no suspicious looking characters lurking anywhere! There are very few houses on our block that have any sort of a fence in the front - most of the homes are open to the street and very often the garage (pronounced garridge here like in the UK) door is open basically all the time! This means that for the most part people just amble in through the garage from the street! The sidewalks all have trees planted - you can see that our area is not that new anymore by the size of the trees - some of the other areas that we contemplated moving to, had no trees established yet and the whole area looked a bit forlorn and sad. There are places where there are islands in the middle of the streets- even in the suburbs and these are always planted with something shrubby and usually pretty!

The pathways are kept very level and safe - the idea is that they are used by kids on their bikes, folks out for a walk and older folk with their electric wheelchair 'cars' - so all the pathways have ramps at the kerbs - makes for a much comfier ride for the tots in their prams too. On one of the photos you will see a netball post beside the road - we assume that it belongs to the people in the house right there and that their kids basically practice in the street - we didn't see a sign that said who may and who may not make use of the post so we assume if you feel like shooting a few hoops, have a ball handy then you can just go for it!

The other day we found there was a stray cat lying in one of our flowerbeds beside the street - when we approached it, it didn't run away - just lay there looking really tragic. Maree, who lives in the house sort of behind us on a panhandle, came out and chatted for a while since she had provided the cat with some milk in a tuppeware dish. Once we had established that the cat did not belong to us and she had ensured that the previous tenant's grey cat had indeed moved with them, she called the SPCA to come and fetch it. It had been lying in the same spot overnight and didn't look to happy about life - although it wouldn't allow us to touch it or pick it up. The SPCA guy duly arrived in his special little van and tried to catch the thing, but of course as is usually the case with such things, it chose that moment to leap into life and fly over the fence next door ! We were duly issued with a special 'trap cage' and two sachets of REALLY fancy cat food so that we could lure the bugger in - on the understanding that we would call them once we had the cat duly subdued and in the cage. The POINT of the story is that there is a functioning SPCA here with guys who go out and pick up stray and sick animals and take care of them etc etc. The chap said that the cat was really old and quite sick so he didn't know if they would find much of a market for him - but at least they would give the poor bugger a chance! When I saw Maree again after the weekend, she said that the cat had disappeared for good and had returned the cage to the SPCA.

Jo has had a different sort of week this week - the guys go out every now and again on a night inspection - makes sense really - they check out if there are any things on the routes that need attention with the view to it being dark - like are all the roadsigns bright and clearly visible at night and are the lines bright and shiny and are there any weird curves in the road which make it difficult to see oncoming vehicles at night and so on - for you in SA, potholes are a rare occurrence and are attended to within 12 hours of them starting to look like they might appear! That is the rule apparently - within 12 hours or major explanations to try to come up with.

Jo and one of his colleagues ( a Pommie who has a broad accent) went out last night from 7.30 to midnight and will do so again this evening - (Thursday - for those of you who haven't quite got the time and day thing difference down yet!) In a way, they kind of do double shifts for two days, but the up side of this is that they get tomorrow off - Friday(!) so we have a long weekend ahead! Our lawn is looking like lions and snakes could attack you should you venture into it - however, since there are neither to be found in NZ, we need to get it mowed so that we don't stand out in the neighbourhood as the slack South Africans who just moved in and whose place looks like a jungle!We have a couple of options lined up in the way of available lawnmowers to borrow, so if it doesn't rain (which it very well could) we will neaten up our little patch.

On Saturday we have planned a little trip up to Tauranga to check out that part of the world - we've heard it's worth seeing so will take the trusty camera with us so you can have a little look too! Tauranga is North East of us in Hamilton and evidently has a little 'mountain' with really spectacular views of the East coast.

For any of you who might be interested - what we call 'slip slops' or 'plakkies' are called jandles here. Pronounced like 'candles' with the 'a' being really flat and almost an 'e'.

'English cucumbers' are known as 'telegraph cucumbers'.The television has loads of ads for various things you can buy - the 'special, that's not all' variety - all sorts of things from gym equipment to special healing type blankets for your bed - it's just weird to us that they NEVER list any sort of a price - 'call right now' and so on, but NO PRICE - I guess they are hoping that once you call they can get you to buy it whatever the price might be! I wonder what it costs to be one of the people who have colour advertisements printed on the back of all the till slips from all the major supermarkets?

Dis al!

A major computer crash!

We have been without our pc for another few days - on Thursday last week, the operating system disappeared and we couldn't retrieve it! So it had to go back to the computer shop in Hamilton where the hard drive was replaced - so finally, we are back 'on line'!

Things are settling into a sort of routine in spite of being in a continual camping situation - we have the basics to sustain life and have made enough new friends to know that if we really needed something urgently, there are people who could help out! The South African contingent in New Zealand is really something quite amazing - it could have something to do with being so far away, but honestly you couldn't wish to find a more supportive group of people who have gone out of their way to make us feel welcome and offer any assistance we could possibly need. There is a 'network' list in Hamilton which is a free service via the internet which connects ex-South Africans - we hear that loads of people go there first when looking for a service like a hairdresser or a car mechanic or someone to take care of their kids. There are also things for sale and property listings - a bit of everything. Of course the connections are all ex-South Africans and although you might not find exactly what you are looking for, someone on that list will be able to point you in the right direction if you take the time to ask!

We have been enjoying the summer weather here - at the moment a cross between Cape Town and Durban - mild summer days with temperatures in the low twenties with high humidity - there is a real damp problem in many of the houses and lots of people have 'de-humidifiers' in their homes to try to stop the curtains from going mouldy!

We have met our first real live kiwi neighbours - Kathy and John live in our street at no 50 and Kathy called in on Friday to see if there was any chance that this house was coming up for rent! They have a daughter and son-in-law who are looking for somewhere in the area to rent and Kathy thought this house could be just the ticket! What a lovely couple - incredibly friendly and interesting - they invited us for drinks on Friday so we spent a couple of hours at their home over wine and snacks - and got to know them a little. Kathy is a librarian at one of the satellite libraries here in Hamilton and is a born and bred kiwi. John is originally from Malaysia I think they said, but is Chinese - apparently makes the absolute best chinese food when he is not at work being a micro biologist. John has been in NZ since 1973 so is really pretty well a kiwi too! We went on a little stroll around our block over the weekend and took a few photographs for you to see. As we walked past their house, John and Kathy waved from their living room so were immediately summoned to pose for a photo for this blog so here it is! Now that the picture has been downloaded onto the blog, it has placed itself at the top of this post, so there you go!

We are really pleased to see that we have another follower on the blog in the form of the van Vuurens from Bloemfontein - Hi julle! So bly om te sien julle het noggie van ons vergeetie! Elize, ek het jou op Facebook gesoek, maar kon jy tussen al die ander nie uitken nie - ek wil graag maatjies met julle wees so nooi my asseblief!

There is a bit of work to do on the photos before we can post them on the blog so for now - dis al!