New home...now take a holiday!

7 months after moving into our glorious sunshine house and time to move on once again. We have loved living in the midst of yellow and blue but with the owners due back from their jaunt to France it was time to look for somewhere a little bigger so that we could finally unload our belongings from England. Luckily (for us) some friends of ours are moving to Dubai so we have gladly agreed to rent their home, for a while at least.

So, on a cold, wet Saturday morning a large van arrived at our new home with 170 boxes!!! Where would it all fit???? As you'll see from the photos once the house was full we filled he garage!!!!

Now, 3 weeks later most of the boxes are empty and the place it looking pretty organised! Max's bed is still in pieces as that is a 'sizeable' project for which we haven't had time yet! It is really nice to be in a 'real' house though and I am sure we will enjoy living here once we are settled. We are a bit further away from the centre than we were before but still only 5 minutes walk to the beach. The boys can either cycle or catch the bus (they have a free bus pass) to school and there seems to be lots of their friends around here.

The weekend we moved in here was the start of the 2 week school holidays. The idea was to get organised the first week and then go skiing the second. Unfortunately, we were all attacked by some nasty NZ virus during the first week which laid us all low with temperatures, colds and coughs! Max was also violently sick for a full day...the joys!

Luckily, we were all pretty much recovered in time to ski. The mountains (3 rather large, but not too active!) volcanos are about 3 hours drive from here. We had booked a 2 bedroom apartment in a lodge in a village about 15 minutes drive from the ski fields. We drove down on the Monday, dumped our stuff and headed up the mountain to collect our skis and hit the slopes for an hour or so. We all quickly regained our ski/snowboard legs and came away ready for action the next day!

Our first full day back on the slopes was fantastic! Blue skies, sunshine and lots of fun. We were all soon speeding down the mountain with our usual elegance and flair!!! All except Neil that is who had bought some skis from a friend and soon discovered that although the ultimate 'bargain' they were too long for him. He entertained us with a mutitude of spins, backwards skiing and spectacular falls! What would we do without him?! He lasted 2 days before he finally gave in and opened his wallet to hire some other ones!

Max and Tom were soon speeding off and leaving Neil & I behind. Tom returned from one ski lesson and said 'c'mon mum follow me' and then tried to kill me by taking me off on trecherous paths and leaping off rock faces about 1 metre high. I won't be following him again!!

As you can see the views were spectacular and we had a great couple of days before the weather changed. Then came the cold and wet! Visability was about 15 metres and the clouds closed in. It was much harder getting out of bed in the mornings knowing the weather wasn't too nice but once up on the slopes we still had a great time. The poor weather had scared off those not as hardy as us Northerners so the slopes were quiet. We donned our layers and off we went!

The boys not content with skiing from 8.30am until 4pm would ski back down to the car once the lifts had closed and unload the sledges. Needless to say 12 hours sleep a night just wasn't enough!!!

A great holiday was had by all and we are now planning our next ski trip for the next school holidays in September! The boys are now back in school and we are looking forward to heading down to Taupo this weekend for the Taupo half marathon. Won't that be fun in the rain and wind that is forecast!!!!!

Report of that event coming soon!

HARD AS NAILS US NORTHERNERS!!!

So there I was, just driving along, cruise control on, listening to some 'Rock' on one of the many many rock radio stations (AC/DC are hip here "oh lot of Rosie" and all that!) on State Highway24, which means a total usage per annum of 9 cars, travelling at 100 kms / hr when some bafoon aged about 9 1/2, decided that driving across the road, when he couldn't see due to the evening sun, was the thing to do!...........BANG!!!!!! Luckily, my quick reactions meant I managed to swerve, but just clipped his front end. At this point air bags were everywhere, then I was off the road, crashing into the 'concrete post' (pictured below) BANG!!!!!



Luckily, I suffered not. Quickly out of the car, the young boy was running around like the proverbial 'headless chicken', so having calmed him down, I was quickly onto the emergency services, which arrived in seconds whilst I was still onto them....however, the police, fire brigade and ambulance were not for us, but another accident, 'to wit' I had to point them all down the road to the original accident 1km away!




My faith in 'human nature' still exists...if a little bit tattered, as the second witness to the crash showed his true colours! Announcing himself as a representitive of the enery company, whose 'lamp post' I had 'grazed', he asked me for my business card (not one to miss an opportuinty for a sale!), thinking, he wanted my details to become a major 'witness' he then stated in no uncertain terms, that "someone was going to have to pay for the damage" then buggered off!!!!!


So there you have it....THE CRASH! Some 10 days later, still no injuries / whip lash! Clare thinks I'm a robot.....modelling myself on THE TERMINATOR!!!! As I said, HARD AS NAILS US NORTHERNERS!!!!

The car doesn't look as bad now that the crumpled bonnet is off!

Down to 8 lives now!
More blogs to follow soon. We move house tomorrow!!!!