A photographic trip from Hamilton to Wanganui

Ok so the volcano isn't just outside Hamilton, but this trip takes you from there to Wanganui! The total trip is about 320km and as you can see, the road is pretty narrow and winding with some road works along the way, which makes for some delays! The 'pitiful' load in the back of our little car is all the 'over and above' stuff which we didn't load into the big van on the first trip-the precious freesias a little worse for wear! Hopefully they will recover in time to bloom profusely for August 1st!

Moving house in New Zealand!

Since most of the homes in New Zealand are of the papier mache variety and are covered with 'wood finishes', 'brick effects' and so on, it is really easy (if a little expensive) to check out your neighbourhood, decide you would prefer to live somewhere else, call the owners of the above featured trucks and arrange to have your house moved to a better location. And with that, abracadabra - your home can be loaded onto the aforementioned truck or trucks, and relocated to the suburb or rural area of your choice!
This particular home has arrived from somewhere else and is in the process of being installed beside one of the main routes (called State Highways here) just outside the little town of Huntly.

This 'piece' of the house has been temporarily removed from the main house - probably for ease of loading onto the trucks, and will be re-attached once the house is in it's final position. The whole things is then balanced on the wheels you can see under the structure until the corner posts and support structures have been pounded into the ground and then before you can say 'Jack Robinson' the bits are all put back together again and lowered onto the supports. Wheels removed and gaps filled we assume and there you go! All set up and ready to meet your new neighbours!

We just were so amused to see that although the house is empty of furniture, there are still drapes at the windows - swinging about as they lift and lower and swing the house about until it's in it's final position. That 'final' position is relative I guess - if the new neighbours turn out to be seriously undesirable - no worries - call the moving company and move house again!
Last time we drove past this location, the house was leaning at a very precarious looking angle, but had the bit they had initially removed, stuck back on again - so clearly one of these days, the owners can move back in!

A new home in Wanganui!

There is quite a lot of news in the fact that we have said our goodbyes to lovely Hamilton and all the folks who were so incredibly good to us in the four months that we were there - and have moved into a 'new' home in Wanganui.
This post could become very long-winded with all the gory details - suffice it to say that once again we have found ourselves in the right place at the right time and are safely installed in Parkes Avenue, St John's Hill - more than we hoped we would be able to achieve in the time available to us and given that apparently homes to rent in this area are very hard to come by! The fact that we got this home before it was 'on the books' at the agency, speaks for itself! Things are seldom absolutely perfect and there are of course things that we could improve on with regard to personal preferences with the house, but it has both a double garage and a carport so when all the belongings arrive from Auckland, there will be somewhere to put them all - we are of course referring to all the woodworking and other varied hobby related things that one doesn't necessarily want in your home! An older home with central heating and completely refurbished and renovated kitchen and bathroom - a managable sized and established 'section' (garden) with a couple of fruit trees and a lovely deck running along the length of the house giving the impression that we will be able to entertain in great style and comfort - especially for all the folks from Hamilton who have sworn faithfully that they will be making the just over 300 km journey to come and see us - we will not be expecting anyone in the very near future since winter has arrived and although Wanganui apparently has frost about four or five times in a year, there has been impressive frost twice in the past week! The house is of the Art Deco style - quite popular at one time in Wanganui and we are hoping that we will start to feel at home soon. Although we don't actually have a view of the sea, if we should feel so inclined it is probably about 10 minutes away! Wanganui is evidently known internationally (?) as having one of the top ten most temperate climates in the world, with temperatures varying between lowish single figures and the upper twenties in summer. Yesterday morning the temperature was apparently minus 1 so there it is - whoever makes these sort of sweeping statements clearly wasn't in Wanganui yesterday having all their facts and figures messed up by nature. We were without gas for heating water and running the central heating since the arrangements which we made with such confidence from Hamilton for some unknown reason, failed to materialise and we had to wait until Monday to get the right guys out here! No matter - when you are in the process of an adventure, things like these are just part of the whole experience! The 'gas man' turned out to be an immigrant from Edinburgh Scotland and so we yapped on for a while about Wanganui versus Edinburgh versus South Africa - but with particular reference to the weather and rugby - he left Scotland initially in the eighties for rugby and weather (in that order) and has found himself still in Wanganui after all this time. Frankly, it was all academic since I was really only seriously interested in his ability to get the gas going - warm water for a shower and a cooker top that worked and some central heating to banish the frosty breath in the house! I guess it doesn't hurt to be on goodish terms with someone who can achieve all these things with the flick of a couple of switches and dials and whatnot, when it's cold and damp outside!
We have both had colds over the past couple of weeks - neither of us has been anywhere near as sick as some of the folks we know and clearly both have fierce immune systems, fighting all the dreaded lurgies that are rife here at the moment. So apart from a couple of residual sniffles, we are fine and 'getting on with it' - the container was delayed somewhere between Australia and New Zealand and is expected to reach Auckland harbour in the course of the day today(!) - we are awaiting the call to say that they need the delivery address in Wanganui - hopefully within a week or so.
We attended the Johnny Clegg concert in Auckland last Monday on one of the Queen's Birthdays - for those of you who don't know, Her Majesty celebrates six different Birthdays every year - the one in NZ happened last Monday and gave the whole country a day off - we spent it ambling up to Auckland and thoroughly enjoying the fact that we don't live there! Beautiful city and all that - just not for us unless we absolutely have no choice in the matter! Johnny Clegg was all we hoped he would be and more and we sang at the top of our voices and stomped and cheered with the best of them - a huge dollop of 'home' - Afrikaans being spoken in the audience all around us! It was absolutely fabulous - he did nearly all of the favourites and some new numbers and we just couldn't believe it was over when it was! - always a sign that the show was good! For a man of about our age, Johnny Clegg's energy on stage is still quite incredible and his mastery of 'combination-hybrid' music is brilliant - I was thrilled to see that he's been awarded an honourary doctorate of music from Wits ( I know it's not called that anymore but whatever) - for his contribution to the genre! Good on ya Mate!
We have taken a whole lot more photographs of the trip down to Wanganui to give you an idea of the surrounding countryside and once we have doctored them for the blog, will post them up here for you to see. So watch this space - again!
Work wise, it looks as though the move was indeed the best thing to do since we have found out that since we departed Hamilton, two more guys from that office have been made redundant and a third one north of Auckland (in a similar position to ours) will be returning to the UK even before his container arrives from there. Things here are a whole lot more secure and the prospects are very good - so we don't even think about what could have happened if we had refused to take the transfer offered.
Apologies for the delay in getting some new stuff up on the blog - things have been a bit disorganised and hectic with plenty of very touching farewells in Hamilton and many promises of visitors to come. Once our 'stuff' finally gets here we will not know ourselves! but will be able to entertain anyone who cares to visit!
Our e-mail addresses remain the same and so you can still contact us just as easily as before!
Dis al!

Snippets of nothing really.

On Tuesday morning this week the early morning traffic into Hamilton was beyond anything we could ever have imagined - bumper to bumper from the Flagstaff roundabout all the way into town. Long periods of sitting perfectly still and plenty of 'idiots' with nowhere to go, since the snarl up was going (or rather not going) in both directions. The Waikato radio station eventually filled us in as to the crisis - we had assumed it was some sort of crisis since there had been several police cars and 'unmarked' law enforcement vehicles driving like lunatics between the two lanes of traffic - all flashing lights and wailing sirens and all heading into town.
You have to also remember that the city lies on the 'other side' of the river so although the bridges into town are usually a bit of a snarl up at peak hours, Tuesday was totally beyond belief and once we finally got over the river, traffic was all diverted away from the usual main route.
Apparently, a body had been discovered in the middle of the road, close to one of the bridges and near to the Pizza Hut 'restaurant' at about 2.30am and the powers that be had simply closed off huge sections of the city so the forensics guys could do their jobs and any evidence could be preserved. We saw on the news on telly later that evening that a marquee had been erected around the body and it appeared that at least four blocks in all directions had been closed to traffic for the entire day. Evidently, there had been some sort of altercation in the area late on Monday night, but at this point we only know that this one fellow didn't come out of it alive.
It was just incredible to us to see how much disruption there was to basically the entire city and although we were only an hour or so late, there were people who were delayed even more than that. I would imagine that if you had been planning some sort of illegal activity, Tuesday was definitely the day to do it - it looked like surely every cop or 'almost cop' in Hamilton was involved in one way or another with the whole event and kept him or herself busy in the city centre for the entire day. It did make the national news in the evening, but we still don't know what exactly happened or any of the grisley details.
So, there you go, all is not perfect even in Paradise! ( I am referring here to the fact that my favourite morning chat show host, Paul Henry, signs off with 'have a marvellous day in Paradise')
Speaking of Paul Henry - he has a few real pet hates - one of them being the camper vans that are so prevalent in New Zealand - usually European tourists it seems, who, according to Paul Henry, drive like absolute idiots, hold up all the traffic, break all the rules any decent human being would keep to and so on and so on ad infinitum! He got himself into a bit of trouble the other day for saying on national TV - "bloody campervans - arrrrrses"
We gather that Paul Henry is really quite popular amongst lots of kiwis - although he is certainly controversial - I guess that's what makes for good TV! He was not too sure how to react about a week ago when his dear old Mum, who lives in the "home for the bewildered" in Auckland, decided that at 78, she was going to do the bungy-jump type number which all the madcaps do off the Auckland tower. I kid you not, there was dear old Olive Henry - kitted out in her bright yellow and red jumpsuit, her spectacles firmly on her nose under her grey/white curls and all sorts of strapping and cliphooks and goodymegads attached to her, leaping sedately off the Auckland tower, having downed a large glass of port at 7am! She was quite breathless and giggly when it was all over (not one of those upside down leaps, but a sort of graceful step out into the wild blue yonder whilst being held up by ropes and strapping and such like). Olive said it was "wonderful" and although she had said before she actually did it, that if she chickened out someone should just push her! she didn't need any encouragement and with one ladylike step into nothing, became a local celebrity in that instant. The "home for the bewildered inmates" (as Paul calls the old folks at the home for the elderly) were sort of attractively arranged in the background when dear old Olive did a follow up interview the next day and it looked to me like some of them were just plain pissed off with all the attention that dear old Olive was getting - and all for being just totally daft! So there you go - even if dear old Olive isn't a born and bred kiwi (she hails from the UK originally and still has a really broad English accent) it seems to me that being daft comes either with old age, or living in New Zealand - or, I suspect, a combination of the two! What is clearly apparent to me, is that Paul Henry is a product of a feisty old dame who never worried what anyone thought of her and so it goes without saying that her offspring could well be an outspoken and to-hell -with-all -of -you type of chap!
There were three Maori chaps on the couch in the studio this morning and because I wasn't actually sitting watching the programme, I was not sure what they were talking about when referring to being "Ay bees" - I stood around until the interviewer mentioned the "All Blacks" rugby team - hellooooo!
Dis al!

Spesiaal vir Alta en Sarel!

Nou ja, julle tweetjies! Ons het so lekker gekuier op Skype gister en ek voel nou so skuldig dat Sarel alles in die Ingels moet eers lees en dan vertaal, dat ek nou ekstra spesiaal vir julle twee hierdie blog possie doen! Eintlik is hierdie dan nou spesiaal vir Alta want Sarel is nogal verskriklik oulik met die Ingels saam (dis hoekom hy die vertaal werk altyd moet doen of hoe?)
Vir die in my gesin wat wel hierdie lees - julle moet mooi verstaan dat ek omtrent uitgetrap is oor die feit dat ek blykbaar ALLES net in Engels doen en daar is vele meer Bothas en hulle afhangendes en aangelapdes, wat die blog lees as enige ander. So dit is nou die rede hoekom hierdie in Afrikaans geskryf is!
Ons het gister weer in die kerk 'opgetree' met die musiekgroep saam - baie goed gegaan alhoewel dit 'n bietjie frustrerend was met die klank stelsel - die is eintlik net nie groot genoeg om almal behoorlik te kan hanteer nie en bo en behalwe dit, was die ouens wat gister daar gewerk het, bietjie minder ervare as die outjie wat dit gewoonlik doen. Dit het veroorsaak dat snaakse dinge gebeur het - skielik hard of sag, 'n baie steurende 'hum' met tye ens - maar die ergste van alles was die laaste lied wat dromme nodig gehad het en die is toe nooit 'aangeswitch' nie - wel eintlik, so halfpad deur die liedjie het die dromme skielik BAIE hard gehappen! Die dromme is mos hierdie nuwe elektoniese goed wat baie snaaks lyk so dit help nie dat die drommer slaan en tekere gaan nie - daar gebeur mos boggeroll tot die nou ingeplug is en dan ook aangeswitch is! As mens nie daaroor bietjie kan lag nie het ons rerig groot probleme!
Die groepie is erg bekommerd dat ons Hamilton dalk gaan verlaat, maar weereens - daar het julle dit - dit is nie ons besluit nie en as ons Wanganui toe moet trek, dan sal hulle mos 'n plan sien om aan te gaan as hulle nou rerig wil. Ons is seker dat hulle sal kan regkom - daar is baie ouens wat die ding kan doen en hulle moet net ingespan word.
Ek en Jo het vanoggend met een van die 'koppe' in Hamilton gepraat - dit blyk asof dit vir almal die beste gaan wees as ons wel nou al Wanganui toe trek - daar is baie meer sekuriteit werksgewys daar en ons wil nie te veel moeilikheid soek met ons 'groot prentjie' dinge nie. Die feit bly staan dat ons in NZ is as gevolg van die werk by MWH en ons moet vir ten minste twee jaar by die maatskappy bly. As hulle dit nodig vind om ons te moet verplaas, dan gaan ons dit so doen. As ons eers oor twee jaar iets anders wil doen, kan ons dan kyk - vir nou is ons baie bly om voort te gaan met die 'avontuur' ! Ons ondervindinge in die verlede het ons altwee gewys dat ons redelik maklik aanpas by enige plekkie en ons is nie vol tjol met sulke dinge nie! Wie weet - dalk bly ons verskriklik, vreeslik lekker in Wanganui! Dit is ook, after all, 'n klein dorpie in vergelyking met Hamilton en ons is mos klein dorpies gewoond!
Ons is bietjie bekommerd oor die Jeugmusiek groepie - hulle is rerig baie onervare en het 'n paar mense nodig wat saam met hulle sal kan optree tot hulle self genoeg kan doen - maar dit is nou ook dieselfde situasie - ek is seker daar moet onder die gemeente IEMAND wees wat ons ou werkies kan doen en die spul kan oorvat. Ongelukkig, kan ons nie veel daaromtrent doen nie, so ons het besluit ons gaan nie slaapelose nagte daaroor he nie - hopelik sal dit nie net stop nie, daar is rerig potensiaal onder die kinders.
Verder, soos daar by julle in Suid Afrika, is die winter sterk oppad - die oggende is koud met ryp so nou en dan en deur die loop van die dag word dit so 15 grade rond - nie te woes koud nie, darem nie minus veertien nie, maar genoeg om die verwarmers aan te sit en 'n warm baadjie orals saam te sleep. Die wereld hier is bietjie meer geskik vir die koue - al die winkels is lekker warm en die meeste plekke het outematiese deure ens laat daar nie wawyd oop deure staan wat al die warm lug lat uitglip nie.
Ons is nou druk besig om te dink oor alles wat gereel moet word dat ons ons 'container' afgelaai kan kry waar dit moet gebeur - dit help mos niks as alles hier afgepak is en dan oor 'n week Wanganui toe moet gaan nie. Hopelik sal ons 'n ou plekkie gereel kry voor ons die 'container' afgehandel kry en dan kan hulle dit sommer direk van Auckland na die nuwe huisie toe vat. Vir julle wat noggie gaan kyk het op Google nie, Wanganui is so 250 km van Hamilton af, so dis nie sommer vir kom gou gou soentoe vat nie - veral dinge soos motorfietse en klaviere nie. Die ou dingetjies wat ons hier gekry het, sal ons self moet vat soentoe - 'n waentjie kry of watewwer en self dit sleep. Ons sal ook seker 'n 'terugbesorg' partytjie moet hou - 'n rooster hier en 'n stoel daar en eetgery die kant toe en linne daai kant toe - mense het ons geweldig baie uitgehelp met goeters so die moet alles terug gaan na hulle wettige eienaars toe. Die ou Duitser (dis nou Oom Altzheimer - dommie!) het nie so erg ingetree nie lat ons 'n paar wynglase vir die ou gee wat ons die tuimeldroeer geleen het nie so hopelik sal almal weer hulle eie goed terug kry! Die meeste van die groter goeters moet terug na die kerk se garage vir boemelaars gaan, so dis nou baie maklik - hopelik sal ou Cor net hier opdaag met die lorrietjie en ons sal vinnig alles daarop kan sit en daar gat hy. Elke week is daar mense wat goed nodig kry en ons weet dat van hulle glad nie eers 'n 'container' hettie - hulle is hier met hulle kinders en hulle tassietjies en dis dit - oor en uit. Dit gaan heelwat beter vir hulle as hulle darem 'n ou bedtjie en 'n stoeltjie het as hulle beginne werk soek. Ai - dis vir ons moeilik om te verstaan dat mense rerig dinge so doen, maar nou ja ons het seker nie al die inligting nie.
Ons stuur vir julle almal baie groete - stuur so nou en dan vir ons 'n ou e-possie - ons geniet dit so baie om enigiets van julle kant af te hoor - anders, kan julle rerig 'comments' op hierdie blog sit - net so lekker om te kry. Onthou net, julle moet eers 'n gratis adres he by of Yahoo of so iets dan kan julle volgelaars van ons blog word!
Ons hou heerlik avontuur al is dinge bietjie deurmekaar op die oomblik! Moenie stressie - ons doen nie!
Dis al!

A very welcome letter!

This morning a letter arrived which opens with " Dear Mr Botha. We are pleased to advise that we have received documents from Allied Pickfords (Bloemfontein) covering a shipment of 254 packages of personal effects which are due to arrive at the port of AUCKLAND on or about 30/05/09"
We had no idea that we had as many as 254 packages - it did look like an enormous heap when it left Wolmarasstad in January - luckily, we have an inventory listing each and every one so no doubt we will be able to vouch for all 254 of them - here's hoping they are all in pristine condition and are all there! Four will certainly be very easy to spot - two upright pianos and two motorcycles - that leaves a nice round 250 packages to get from Auckland port to our home - wherever that might be.
We are going to be going to the Johnny Clegg concert in Auckland on the 1st June in any event so could possibly combine that with all the things that need to be signed and seen to with regard to customs and so on while we are in the vicinity.
Today, things are looking really like we will be bidding farewell to lovely Hamilton and heading South to Wanganui.
There is a home for lease right on the sea - on a little cliff overlooking Kai Iwi beach and about 15km out of Wanganui - we have made some enquiries and will keep everyone posted. We haven't seen inside the house apart from the photographs available on the website, but it looks really promising so hold thumbs!
If any of you are feeling so inclined - take a look at Trade Me - real estate - houses to rent - Wanganui - Kai Iwi and you should be able to see the photos of the house and the view!
Dis al!

Wanganui

Wanganui from the Elevator on the hill beside the town.

Castlecliff Beach Wanganui.

There is a distinct possibility that we are going to be transferred to Wanganui - on the West coast of New Zealand and a much smaller and older town than Hamilton. We considered getting iffy about the whole idea since we are just beginning to find our feet (sort of) in Hamilton and have begun to meet people and feel a little at home. On the other hand, the nature of 'adventures' is the fact that you never really know for sure what is around the next corner, so we took a trip down to Wanganui to check the town out and meet a couple of the guys who work for MWH there. We are also well aware of the fact that our container has not yet arrived, we don't have school-going children and give all the appearances of being extremely flexible!

Wnganui is one of the first towns to be established in New Zealand ( I'm talking about the English arriving and doing the 'establishing') so parts of the town are extremely old indeed. At the moment there are few houses to rent - most people preferring to own their properties. There are however, some which come up from time to time apparently and so we are hoping that if we do move there, we will find something suitable.

Wanganui is built around the longest navigable river on the North Island and since it is also right on the coast, has quite a few pretty beaches. This side of the island, does have the black volcanic sand which we don't yet consider to be all that 'pretty' for want of a better word, but that being said, the ocean is still the ocean and the photo which we've included here gives you an idea of the sand and all the driftwood which this particular beach is known for. It was also a very gloomy, windy and cold day, so we admit that we probably didn't get to see Wanganui in her best light.

The elevator is very interesting and was apparently built so that the residential area on the hill behind it could be developed with the added draw card of it being easily accessible to town - by means of the elevator. We took the river and town photos from the lookout at the top of the elevator and these photos give you an idea of the size of the town and it's layout beside the river.

We estimate that Wanganui is probably about the size of one of the bigger towns on the platteland in South Africa - not quite a city, but bigger by far than a dorp!

We'll keep you posted as to the developments!

Dis al.