Well, we're heading towards the two-month mark in New Zealand and we've been very, very busy!
We bought a house and moved in last weekend. As our container hasn't arrived yet, we have no furniture, no cutlery, crockery, tin-opener - nothing except the four suitcases of clothes we arrived with. So we spent a week bidding on a community site called TradeMe. We managed to upgrade our bed to a Queen - something we've wanted to do for a while. We bought almost everything off TradeMe and spent last weekend driving around Auckland doing pick-ups. We now have an almost new Sealy bed for a ridiculous bargain price. Most of our kitchenware we picked up for R20.00 (including a box of fifty very old mugs, much to K's disgust). Next we are buying a handmower for about $30 (R150) - they are popular here. It's great fun!
The house itself is about 2.4 km out in the bush. We see a liquid gold sunrise each morning over the sea from one entire wall of our glass house; a pink sunset from the other glass wall over the Waitakere ranges, and a huge creek. Our bathroom looks onto a native forest, and the entire wall of bathroom windows can open. I can lie in the bath staring at the forest. That's as close to heaven as it gets for me.
The weather has been gorgeous for the past month. Exceptionally still. The noisy cicadas have passed on to another realm (R.I.P., literally). Some mornings we sit staring at the ferns and palms, waiting for the tiniest of movements to show it isn't a painting we are ogling.
And it rains. It rains and rains and rains. Most days it rains at least three times. The showers are very heavy and last a few minutes, and the rest of the day is sunny and cloudy all mixed up. It is a wet, moody climate - never a dull moment. Very often, the rain won't even bother to wait for some grey clouds, or even a semblance of a rainy setting. It will tip bucket-loads from a sunny blue sky, like millions of silvery diamonds being flung from the heavens.
We have settled almost entirely now, and we feel this place was tailor-made for us. Each week brings its own challenges, and some days I feel quite overwhelmed by all the work. It is very scary for me that we are not earning dollars yet. Rands mean nothing here and we have started dipping into our reserves. Things continue to be exceptionally expensive. I bought some winter clothing last week at a 70% off sale at TNT (like Ackermans); even so, at 70% off, it was more expensive than in SA. The cheapest toilet brush set at Mitre 10 (a flimsy, small white plastic one) is R50.00. I'll rather wait for mine to arrive.
Last week we went to the Auckland botanical gardens. It is so huge we couldn't get to see everything. They recommend four visits a year, because each season brings its own beautiful displays. There is a huge South African section. We gobbled our picnic lunch in a Zulu hut, under an Acacia, staring at succulents. Felt a few pangs of home-sickness.
The native garden plant section for New Zealand itself is tiny and colourless; they admit this, and are so respectful towards all the countries whose plants they have adopted. The garden, to some extent, is categorised by country, to pay homage to the "roots" of each plant.
I am now a reading tutor at Isobella's school and have been working there for the past three weeks. I am keen to get involved in an adult literacy project (also as a volunteer) and maybe even run some contact magazine journalism courses at the library, and at a college. We have also started having play dates; I can see that is the most important way to start connecting with the community here. I tend to clam up at school meetings etc, and have hardly spoken a word to anyone in weeks, apart from my family. Quite a weird feeling, and working from home doesn't help.
Another thing, which I found quite interesting. I went to a school meeting one night last week (out in the bundu!), and the guest speaker spoke about concerns that affect our parenting today. Here's what concern kiwi parents: violent crime, not feeling safe letting kids go to public spaces on their own anymore, increased traffic on the roads, long working hours and increasing materialism, advertising and lack of "truth" out there, 3 - 4 hours of "screen time" for kids on computers or TV, lack of spirituality. I thought, mmm, I could be sitting in SA hearing this. Common concerns the world over.
We bought a house and moved in last weekend. As our container hasn't arrived yet, we have no furniture, no cutlery, crockery, tin-opener - nothing except the four suitcases of clothes we arrived with. So we spent a week bidding on a community site called TradeMe. We managed to upgrade our bed to a Queen - something we've wanted to do for a while. We bought almost everything off TradeMe and spent last weekend driving around Auckland doing pick-ups. We now have an almost new Sealy bed for a ridiculous bargain price. Most of our kitchenware we picked up for R20.00 (including a box of fifty very old mugs, much to K's disgust). Next we are buying a handmower for about $30 (R150) - they are popular here. It's great fun!
The house itself is about 2.4 km out in the bush. We see a liquid gold sunrise each morning over the sea from one entire wall of our glass house; a pink sunset from the other glass wall over the Waitakere ranges, and a huge creek. Our bathroom looks onto a native forest, and the entire wall of bathroom windows can open. I can lie in the bath staring at the forest. That's as close to heaven as it gets for me.
The weather has been gorgeous for the past month. Exceptionally still. The noisy cicadas have passed on to another realm (R.I.P., literally). Some mornings we sit staring at the ferns and palms, waiting for the tiniest of movements to show it isn't a painting we are ogling.
And it rains. It rains and rains and rains. Most days it rains at least three times. The showers are very heavy and last a few minutes, and the rest of the day is sunny and cloudy all mixed up. It is a wet, moody climate - never a dull moment. Very often, the rain won't even bother to wait for some grey clouds, or even a semblance of a rainy setting. It will tip bucket-loads from a sunny blue sky, like millions of silvery diamonds being flung from the heavens.
We have settled almost entirely now, and we feel this place was tailor-made for us. Each week brings its own challenges, and some days I feel quite overwhelmed by all the work. It is very scary for me that we are not earning dollars yet. Rands mean nothing here and we have started dipping into our reserves. Things continue to be exceptionally expensive. I bought some winter clothing last week at a 70% off sale at TNT (like Ackermans); even so, at 70% off, it was more expensive than in SA. The cheapest toilet brush set at Mitre 10 (a flimsy, small white plastic one) is R50.00. I'll rather wait for mine to arrive.
Last week we went to the Auckland botanical gardens. It is so huge we couldn't get to see everything. They recommend four visits a year, because each season brings its own beautiful displays. There is a huge South African section. We gobbled our picnic lunch in a Zulu hut, under an Acacia, staring at succulents. Felt a few pangs of home-sickness.
The native garden plant section for New Zealand itself is tiny and colourless; they admit this, and are so respectful towards all the countries whose plants they have adopted. The garden, to some extent, is categorised by country, to pay homage to the "roots" of each plant.
I am now a reading tutor at Isobella's school and have been working there for the past three weeks. I am keen to get involved in an adult literacy project (also as a volunteer) and maybe even run some contact magazine journalism courses at the library, and at a college. We have also started having play dates; I can see that is the most important way to start connecting with the community here. I tend to clam up at school meetings etc, and have hardly spoken a word to anyone in weeks, apart from my family. Quite a weird feeling, and working from home doesn't help.
Another thing, which I found quite interesting. I went to a school meeting one night last week (out in the bundu!), and the guest speaker spoke about concerns that affect our parenting today. Here's what concern kiwi parents: violent crime, not feeling safe letting kids go to public spaces on their own anymore, increased traffic on the roads, long working hours and increasing materialism, advertising and lack of "truth" out there, 3 - 4 hours of "screen time" for kids on computers or TV, lack of spirituality. I thought, mmm, I could be sitting in SA hearing this. Common concerns the world over.
But being here is no-where near the stress of living in SA. We still feel blessed and exceptionally proud that we made the move, if I can use that word. My little bit of experience here has been that people are investing energy in being kind and happy, in coping with normal problems in a normalish society. We have slept with our doors open a few times by mistake, plus we sometimes go out and leave the windows wide open. That would never have happened in SA.
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