Blog: 19 November 2009
On Sunday 15th November we celebrated being in New Zealand a year. Wow and what a full on year it's been, abit of a whirlwind to put it mildly!
Deciding where to pitch our tent has been quite a process which was urged along by the fact that Olive starts high school and Ruben intermediate in February so there was a real desire to find somewhere more permanent to live. I found the whole process both exciting and overwhelming at times, something about being in a foreign land with no reference points, where do I start?
To cut a long story short we have ended up just outside Waipu, about five minutes drive from the sea and a couple more minutes from Sandra who used to be married to Knox, Pete's brother, and is very much part of the Grant family. Waipu is south of Whangarei and just an hour and a half north of Auckland. It's population of just over a thousand permanent residents swells enormously during the summer as many people have holiday homes in the area. It is a Scottish settlement and has all sorts of Scottish things going on from bagpipes to highland flings. On New Years day we will be taking Zippy along to the 139th Highland Games, not sure if it will be the weather for Pete to wear his fathers Grant tarten jacket but we'll no doubt be flying the flag somehow.
So we're in the process of getting the house ready to move into in a months time. It's a very simple house but fine for the time being but it's selling point is that it sits on quite a lovely corner of land. Having felt very wobbly about whether or not we were doing the right thing since we've taken possession I finally feel earthed - there's loads of work to do to bring it into shape but it's full of beautiful plants and birds, nature in abundance. I'm so looking forward to sharing it with family and friends....
And the school, Olive and Ruben are enrolled to start Otamatea High School, a country school about 550 kids set in the farmlands of Maungaturoto which is 25 km south of Waipu. The catchment area is quite wide with most of the students arriving by bus. I hope it's the right choice I guess only time will tell but both Olive and I liked the atmosphere when we visited.. They have really enjoyed being at Ngunguru and are alittle loath to start afresh again but it's abit of a natural break anyway because all the children in Olive's year and many in Ruben's are moving on next year. Thankfully Otamatea includes intermediate so no more changes for either of them.
Tomorrow is my last day doing Zippy's Cafe in the layby. Its been a useful learning experience, I can make a good espresso coffee but relying on drive by traffic is not the way to go and bacon rolls are too much hassle. Pete and I can earn more in a few hours at a market than I can in a week sitting in that layby. So come the summer, Boxing Day, we will be parked alongside Langs beach near Waipu selling coffee, real fruit ice creams and delicious homemade goodies. The idea is for Zippy's to become a seasonal operation with just a few events and markets in the winter, much more lucrative and less time consuming. And then I will finally have the time and space to get back to my craniosacral and reflexology, hurray!
So that's us, hope life is good with all you out there. Keep us posted..
Today's Photos
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