Scouts

One of the new things I have done in New Zealand is become a scout leader. Last term I ran one of the local troops while the leader was at the international scout jamboree in the UK to celebrate 100 years of scouting. The picture above shows the scouts preparing a hangi (a traditional Maori oven) and cooking salmon, vegetable parcels and roast sweet potatoes. We had roasted banana with maple syrup for pudding.

My thanks go to City Firewood for kindly donating the firewood.

My 40th Birthday

For my 40th birthday I got to fly over Mount Cook in a light aircraft. The flight took off from Tekapo airport and lasted for 60 minutes, during which time we flew around Mout Cook and the glaciers. Great fun!

Time to Build a House

The foundations are in, the wooden frame is up, the roof is on, the windows are in ... just the bricks and the internals to go. Hopefully we will be in by Christmas.

The whole planning process has been a thoroughly refreshing experience! Well done NZ local government!

A Lifestyle Block

One of the dreams we had before we moved out to NZ was to buy a little piece of land. We found our 10 acres of paradise just outside Christchurch complete with mountain views which are covered in snow for 6 months of the year.

Free telephone calls over the Internet

Since arriving in New Zealand we have taken advantage of free telephone calls from http://www.voipcheap.com/ over the internet. For 10 Euros every 90 days we enjoy 300 minutes of free calls every 7 days to just about every country in the world. Calls to UK mobiles are less than 5p per minutes which is very good value. We also have two UK phone numbers which means friends and family can call us here in NZ for the price of a UK call.

All you need to take advantage is a computer, a broadband connection and a normal telephone. I personally prefer to use a special router that has two BT sockets on the back and a normal cordless telephone. Calls are dialed just as normal but the international prefix (i.e. 0044) is required for every call.

Where Petrol & Diesel costs an Arm and a Leg!

With the rising oil price (US$84 per barrel) fuel costs have escallated in New Zealand. Unleaded is now NZ$1.62 per litre and diesel is NZ$1.14 per litre.

So how much is that in UK money I hear you ask?

With the current exchange rate of NZ$2.63 to the UK£1 we are currently paying 61.5p a litre for unleaded and 43.3p a litre for diesel!

Sun Rises to Die For ............

The sun rises from Llama Lookout will stay with me for the rest of my life. Absolutely stunning!

Finding Schools

One of the things that is always important for your children is finding them a good school. We have found both our children a really great school in Christchurch and they are both really happy. Jake & Kirsty are playing hockey for their school teams and Jake is also playing cricket and basketball.

Lookout for Llama's ........

On arriving in Christchurch, we spent a couple of weeks at my cousin's while we got our bearings before we moved to Llama Lookout. Llama Lookout is situated on the Port Hills and over-looks Lyttleton Harbour. Our hosts, Mike and Robyn, have a herd of llama's which added some fun to our stay.

Why New Zealand?

After spending my first 40 years of my life in the UK, I came to a point where I wanted a better lifestyle for my family. I was accutely aware that the UK was changing beyond recognition and I came to the realisation that we would have to something radically different to get the lifestyle I wanted.

Cutting a long story short, we all came to NZ for a months holiday in August 2005. We hired a campervan and 'did the north island'. Three things things struck us:

• the country had some breath-taking scenery - mountains, forests and sea


• with only 4.5 million people in the country the size of the UK there is more than enough space for everybody


• the people are friendly - they stop you in the street and talk to you. When was the last time that happened to you in the UK?

We all rather reluctantly returned home and started living our old and rather boring lives again. We spent a few Sunday's looking at http://www.open2view.com/ and we started dreaming about owning a bit of land in the country - keeping some sheep, cows, pigs, chickens, bees and growing fruit and vegetables. We soon decided as a family that we wanted to live in New Zealand so we started making our plans.

We started to clear out the house - we went to car boot sales to get rid of some of our belongings. We hired 'George' to paint the house to get it ready for market. We found some really good (and in-expensive) emigration consultants (http://www.immigration-new-zealand.com/) who helped us apply for NZ residency (Dec 2005). We received an un-solicited cash offer for our house which we accepted (Mar 2006). I gave up work (thanks Graham for the gardening leave - we would not have got packed in time if you had made me work my notice!). We put all our furniture into storage with Robinson's (http://www.robinsons-intl.com/) and we moved into temporary accommodation (http://www.yellowtopcountry.co.uk/) at Yellow Top Country Park.

In June 2006 we had our farewell party at the Kingfisher in Holme-on-Spalding Moor and said goodbye to friends and family. A few days later we left for our new life in Christchurch New Zealand.