Kapiti Coast

We have had a good couple of days seeing the area again. Friday was the first nice day of the school holidays so I took the kids to staglands, wildlife centre up in the Akatarawa hills between upper hutt and Kapiti Coast. Today Sunday although the weather was overcast we took a ride up to the Kapiti coast - above is a view looking up the coast to Paraparaumu (the jutty out bit) from the Paekakariki Hill road (just don't ask me to pronounce them!). to the left off camera is Kapiti Island - Possum free paradise! The beach at Raumati was great, loads of shells and drift wood and what look like giant Mesembryanthemum (Livingstone daisy). As usual India got wet!
From there we went to Lindale centre - great farm place - saved for another time. We had lunch out and tried the very scrummy Kapiti Ice creams and have purchased some Kapiti Cheese to try!

Kaitoke Park

A lovely sunny day again and we discovered Kaitoke Park and Rivendell! No Hobbits left or elves! They do have a scary bridge and I braved it! here is the proof. It is fine as long as you don't have a joker jumping behind you - Mr Juniper!!!!!

See photo site for more pics.

Kea

A Kea Scout

Well josh is now officially a Kea Scout.
He was invested as a Kea tonight. In to Silverpine scout group. He is enjoying it and has been proud of his Beaver uniform as Keas don't have a uniform or do badge work here.

I have been swimming again while Saffron was at creche. We are still house hunting - the market is dead.

Holiday booked - we are off to the Boxing day races - Southern TT at Wanganui. We drive up christmas day and have a BBQ on the beach christmas day. Staying 3 nights in Wanganui - big paddle steamer to see too then will travel on to Taranaki and take the kids up a real volcano!

Andy is off till 3rd Jan so plenty of time to sight see. I am looking forward to it!

Sold

Well after 12 very long and stressful weeks the simplest of sales has finally happened. At 3.30pm Friday we finally completed on our house sale.
The money was in our bank account a few hours later and we are now debt free and mortgage free.

We can now look at buying a house outright n New Zealand and looking forward to our new lives in a more financial secure future. YIPPIEEE.

The dream begins.........

2 steps forward 3 steps back

A Weta in case you didn't know!!!!!










Well it has been a hard week, no sleep and lots of calls back to the UK.

Our current buyer failed to meet the 3rd and final exchange date last week and after organising everything was ready to go Monday for exchange and completion this Friday but he is now refusing to exchange over some stupid excuse that is not related to the sale. Enough is Enough he has been told exchange and complete Friday else goodbye house!

Lucky for us we had already started to re-market on the QT after he failed to exchange and it looks like we may have found another buyer. But we have to start again from surveys etc etc. I dread to think how much money we are loosing every month that the house goes unsold. Let alone the huge rent we have here while waiting for the money from the house so we can buy here. I flinch every time I hear the kids banging the doors, running up the stairs dragging some toy or see raspberry kiss marks on the windows!

The good news is I have 2 fab friends I need to hire out as garden SOS workers. They have donated a morning to go and mow the lawn and trim the bushes and tidy it up. I appreciate it load - thanks girls!

Other positive news - I had my first phoenix order as a NZ trader - yippee!!!! The first of many I hope! I have been leaving posters everywhere and doing leaflet drops in the letterboxes on my walk to school.

Saffy had her first session at her school! Cope out really as the swimming pool has a creche and I have booked her in for 1 hour every Thursday while I do some lengths and have a wind down in the spa pool and sauna for 45 mins! It is one of my good days while India is at Kindy and Josh at school I am getting to do some me stuff finally!
And saffy gets to play in the sandpit and on the slide and have lots of fun too.

Right off to get some tea before another round of calls to estate agents!

Oh Josh gets invested as a Kea Scout next thursday - NZ equivalent of a Beaver Cub.

Slugs and Snails, Wetas and Whales

After receiving 'The Dangerous Book for boys' for his birthday he has been making friends in the Road where we currently live and they all disappeared into the bush behind the houses building dens and being boys. Which is one of the reasons why we moved here, he can go off cycling and playing and you feel a little more secure than in the UK.

I am sure it will not be long before he is out catching Wetas and other scary insects.

Anyway Rugby is one and I am off to watch the replay of the AB (ALL BLACKS) game.

Big is Good

New Zealand's Strongest man Levi Vaoga and the front man for the Mitre 10 stores was ding demos on Sunday for the opening of the new Upper Hutt Mitre 10 store. His catch phrase is ' BIG IS GOOD'

Josh was impressed watching him lift the bikes.

We also survived his party that afternoon 6 lads running riot - all good fun!
They had a macdonald's tea treat and plenty of fun. they were even too busy to eat their cake!