My new life in NZ

Hi everyone from rainy Dunedin! We've been here just over a week and I'm just starting to get the hang of this weather.....

We flew out last Saturday and we weren't nervous at all. Plenty of people have been asking how we felt, but I think we both felt excitement, relief and joy, but definitely no nerves or trepidation! Mum and Dad on the other hand....... will probably wonder where all that extra food, money and spare time is coming from now! We landed in Dunedin (direct flight - yeah!) in the afternoon and the weather was about 5 degrees and calm. It wasn't so bad but in hindsight I think we counted out chickens a bit too early. The weather only got colder over the next few days as we rediscovered the magic of electric blankets and thermal underwear. But as soon as Pete started work, the weather seemed to fine up and I was mostly quite happy for the rest of the week and the weekend just gone.... but just as I started to think that this place wasn't so cold after all... a cold front has just swept through this afternoon and up at Macraes where Pete's working, it's snowing hard and they're worried they might be stuck there tonight!

Other than the weather, which seems to take up a substantial part of the news each night, for now-obvious reasons, I've been cruising around the shops in my current role of hausfrau. The supermarkets here are by and large just like supermarkets anywhere else in the world, but I have been very excited by the weekend farmers' markets held on the platform of Dunedin's historic train station. The leeks, the venison, the spuds, and oh, the lamb! All so fresh and delicious. I'm a little hampered at the moment by our sparsely-equipped temporary kitchen but already I've prepared some really yummy meals.

The knives that were initially provided in our kitchen were woefully blunt, so we splashed out $7.99 for a sharper Wiltshire knife at the supermarket. It was certainly sharper, but only enough to lull me into a false sense of security. The other night I nearly sliced the tip of my ring finger off trying to chop potatoes... actually the incident was almost identical to the one in Tom Price where I saw ligaments, a lot of blood and my own bone mometarily! Budget or no budget, I decided the very next day to really splash out on a knife and I came home with a much sharper, much safer Scanpan knife.

As well as trying to amputate my digits, I'm also trying to find work, a house for us to live in, and another car. The details of all of the above are unfortunately closely related and I feel quite overwhelmed at the thought of sorting it all out. Hyphen, the cat-that-won't-die is also coming over here to live once we have a permenant residence, which I suppose provides motivation to get our housing situation sorted out soon.

I've included a couple of photos of our apartment for all to see, it's nothing exciting and it's actually quite grubby, but you can't see that in the photos. The floor needs a good mop but they havne't provided us with one. It's quite small but it does get a nice dose of sunshine throughout the day, on the days when the sun decides to peek out from behind the clouds, of course. That last photo is the view from our front window. We're in a slightly dodgy part of town, but the architecture is still beautiful!


I'm off to prepare some scraps for dinner tonight - big shopping day tomorrow! Pete is on his break as of tomorrow and he can help me carry it all back from town in this antarctic gale! Hope you're all well. x

BIG NEWS! WE'RE MOVING TO NZ!

Hi, it's been a while since I've blogged and so much has happened. We've had a few short trips away to Ballarat and Coolum, but the biggest and best place we have been is on a site visit to Dunedin, New Zealand! And it was successful so in less than a month, we'll be New Zealand residents. So far only Pete has a job, but we're thankful just for one job in such an uncertain economic climate. There will be plenty to do once we arrive too, so it may well be handy if one of us is available for the removalists, bank accounts, picking up the car and finding a house. Pete has accepted an offer as a Mine Geologist at Macraes, a gold mine owned by Oceanagold. It's about an hour north of Dunedin.


Dunedin is a beautiful place, not too big but with all the amenities you might ever need. It even has direct flights in winter to Brisbane! By road it's about five hours to Christchurch and three and a half hours to Queenstown. Pete will be doing an 8/6 roster, and with the long hours, we've decided to live just north of Dunedin so he can be close to work. The beaches in Dunedin are just beautiful (although quite wild, cold and windy) and there is so much to do around the town. There's trout fishing (Pete reckons he's going to learn how to smoke them), awesome bushwalking (or should I say 'tramping'?) on the Otago peninsula, skiing in winter at Queenstown and some mouth-watering farmers' markets each weekend.

I've put some photos below so you can see what it looks like and what we got up in our spare time over there. We're thinking of moving to either Waikouaiti or Karitane, two little beach towns about half an hour north of the city centre. The photos above are of the area around these towns. Below are some photos from Sandfly Bay on the Otago Peninsula. We went there to see yellow-eyed penguins late one afternoon but saw something larger and scarier instead!


On to other things, we have been to quite a few weddings so far this year. Since the last post we've been to Booreen Point for my brother's wedding, Ballarat for Ben and Rhiannon's wedding, and to Coolum last weekend for Boon and Georgie's wedding. All were lovely and we relished the chance to break away from the centrelink-enforced drudgery of continuous job-hunting. It seems however that it must be wedding season, perhaps there's been something in the water? Although I'm thrilled for all our friends that have found happiness in each other, I'll breathe a huge sigh of relief when it's all over later this year. Although as an afterthought I do quite like the excuse to go shopping for new dresses!

Peter and Jasmine's wedding was so lovely, in fact one of the nicest weddings I've been to. Jasmine and Peter both looked so lovely, and the food was good, the music was fun, and the speeches quite funny. It was the first time I'd ever acted as MC at a wedding so I was quite nervous. I had last minute doubts about my dress on the day of the wedding and made mum come with me on a mad dash to Sunshine Plaza to find a new one. I don't have many pics of the day yet, since I can't find the cord to connect my Nikon to the computer. You can see most of the ones I have on facebook already.

Ballarat was lovely, and seeing as neither of us had been there before, we quite enjoyed exploring the region with Dools and Jen. The food was excellent and we even squeezed in a trip to an organic winery at Daylesford. The cheese they had was excellent too, and we would have brought some back home if it didn't stink to high heaven. The stinkier the cheese, the better the taste, I say! We also enjoyed catching up with my friend Meredith for lunch at Southbank in Melbourne on the way through. Ben and Rhiannon's wedding was really lovely, and the ceremony was short but sweet. The reception was also fun and I really loved the speeches. Some of them were really nice, and some of them were so funny! And Rhiannon's shoes were cute! Pink cowgirl boots......


We also had an awesome time at Coolum for Boon and Georgie's wedding. I felt terrible the day after the ceremony but I suppose that means I had a good time the night before. The Saturday of their wedding was the first chance we'd had to celebrate Pete's job since finding out about it so we made sure we partied hard. I was ridiculoulsy happy when the DJ played 'Slice of Heaven'; in all seriousness I'm still so happy that NZ has given us a chance. Pete made sure he partied extra hard again at the recovery party and made things difficult for himself that night. I went out for dinner with everyone while he slept off the champagne! Again, I have more pics on my Nikon, so these few will have to do until I get that sorted.

Well that's enough rambling for now, enjoy the pics and don't hesitate to email if you want to find out more about our move to NZ. It seems everyone has a million questions and I can't think of everything you might need to know right now. JMx

A Week In Sydney..... Finally Some Photos!

Hi Everyone, it's a bit late, but here's some pics from my stay in Sydney on the way back from Broome. I stayed with my Auntie Tina in Kingsford, and although I had grand plans to spend some time with Pete and his family while I was there, it didn't quite work out. To keep busy I tried one of the council's suggested walks. I tackled the 20km stretch from Clovelly to La Perouse and did it easy in about four and a half hours. In fact I probably should have taken less time, but the track definition gets a little sketchy around the golf courses, and it actually disappeared once I got to the southern-most headland.


Tina and Rick took me out and about while I was there too, to a couple of jazz gigs, and to the Souths Leagues club to see the Choirboys' tribute to the Easybeats! We had a great night and had a great time watching the grannies rocking out to the music. I finally met Tina's friend Melinda after a few years of 'you've met Melinda, haven't you?', and totally loved her Ed Hardy dress. I want one... in fact I walked past the store on Edward street only last week. Just wait til I get some money!


Speaking of money, Pete and I have just about run out and we are eight weeks into dealing with Centrelink. In between filling out forms and waiting for phonecalls from them, we've been applying for the few mining jobs still left out there. I have had a few stop-start experiences with Newcrest, who seem a bit unsure about whether or not to hire people at the moment. I had a Dilbert moment with them the other day when I called them back to find out what was happening with a re-application. The poor HR guy said, 'Oh, we haven't called you back because you haven't been unsuccessful yet. You don't need to re-apply for that position.' This was after I'd been told by a different department that I was unsuccessful and my online application status had been changed to 'unsuccessful'. I'm confused.... And to add insult to injury I've been formally turned down for a job at Coles. I'm not sure why but maybe I should have put some spelling mistakes in my CV and left out the bits about a tertiary education? I'm now starting to think about some medium-term alternatives like a barista course, a floristry course (my other not-so-secret ambition) and a Dip Ed.

Pete has a site visit to Cannington Mine on Tuesday this week. We think (with our powers of deduction and a little inside information) that he's down to the last three or four candidates. Family, friends, and certainly my frustrated parents have our fingers crossed that all goes well this week.

We're currently house-sitting for Angie and Kas, who are on a whirlwind tour of Japan. I can't wait to see their photos and hear their stories when they get back: Japan's at the top of my wishlist. Their cats are a scream, between the three of them we might have a few more grey hairs coming our way. Mooks went missing for a few days, then turned up just as we started to panic. And Snowii has been keen to wake us up in the morning for breakfast. And Randy has taken quite a liking to sitting inside, something that the other two abhor.

We are going up to Booreen Point this Thursday for my brother Peter's wedding, which sounds like it will be a lot of fun. No doubt Jasmine will look lovely too. Mum and Dad have booked a big house on the lake-front for us and the rest of the extended family to stay in. Pete and I are taking some sleeping mats because we're anticipating a bed shortage..

Finally, I here are another couple of photos: The first is of Pete with his gorgeous niece Anna on her christening day. She's totally captivated by his stories about the Cameroon Football Team's logo. It was a such a funny trip, Pete was convinced he wouldn't need any good clothes and was shocked when he learned that he might have to go to church! He was invited to a christening after all.. Hence the Cameroon football shirt, the only one he brought with a collar.

I've also put a few photos of our trip to Bald Rock at the end of last year. Dad, Peter, Peter and I went down on a weekday to fill in some time. We got to the top and found ourselves in a ladybird plague. I called mum from the summit (I have a love-hate relationship with Telstra NextG) and she was so thrilled about it! I must say it's a much more pleasant experience that a plague of midgies or flies.

Well, I'm off for an afternoon siesta after a totally excellent breakfast at the Riverbend Cafe. I'd highly recommend it if anyone's out this way. Hope you're all well xox