Rusty

Puppytastic!

We have got a lil pup! His name is Rusty and he is a jack russell x west highland terrier. He is unbelievably cute and already quite a character. We got him on Friday (it was my birthday on Sunday and he is the best present ever) from a scary backwater, mullet-infested cow town, called 'Bulls' (no joke) about 2 and a half hours south east of Napier. We had seen the ad for him on Trade Me and thought lets go for it. It's the perfect time at the moment as we are not working so have plenty of time to spend with him. He has his first vaccination and puppy check on saturday and the vet said he is a very healthy little chap. Lots of photos to come!

Another day, another beach..

Discovered an amazing beach today. About 30km north of Napier called Waipataki. The drive to it went really high up into the hills before dropping down to a perfect white sand cove. AJ had a good surf there too whilst I made friends with the locals - wild goats and wild turkeys (neither seemed pleased to see me.)

It's raining!

this wasn't in the brochure!

oh - forgot;

1. We have skype now- it's under Anna and AJ. So download it and give us a call sometime.
2. The new picture at the top of the blog is of the most beautiful place on earth - the Tuki Tuki valley. It's about a 15 minute drive from Napier and is also where all the best vineyards are.
3. Despite having been to all your houses, I don't know your addresses (post codes etc), so please email them to me at anna.astin@yahoo.co.uk.

We made it!

So, we made it. The flight was hell- just so long, especially the first leg - london to singapore 13 hours plus 45 sitting on the runway waiting to take off. The A380 plane is cool though- it's like a flying cruise ship with cheesy pictures on the walls and everything.

We got in to Auckland and AJ's dad picked us up and took us to his nans house about 20mins away. Lots of the Auckland relatives came over to see us - which was just about the last thing we felt like doing (i am not at my most sociable after a 26hr flight) so I'm sure I made a great impression. It was good to catch up with AJ's nan again though who is a super cool 84 year old originally from Manchester.

The next day we drove the 5 hours to Napier. It's a really scenic drive and we stopped for a bit in Lake Taupo to get a pie. Steak and cheese. It was fricking awesome.

Since getting to Napier we've done feck all really- got all our boring 'moving to another country papaerwork' done on the first day. It's weird here- you ring up the banks/tax department/licenseing office and a real person answers the phone and everything. People are very friendly- and trusting;
Here's how the conversation in the mobile phone shop went;

Are you employed? NO
Do you have proof of address? NO
How long have you been at that address? 1 day

..Sure you can have a mobile phone contract. Here's a phone, we'll send you the bill in a month.

Other than that we've been just chilling out on the beach, fishing, eating pies, AJ's been eating his body weight in Green shell mussels. That kinda stuff.

Also I have accessed the situation and you can get cheese here. I even found some proper french stuff in a deli - it was in a weird humidor, locked away like some dangerous contraband. Extreme fromage.

Anna x