Yay! It's summer again

Well we still haven't bought a house but things are definitely a lot cheerier. Not least because it's summer again and Napier is so much a summer town. The weather is about 20-25 degrees with blue skies as far as you can see. It has been far wetter this spring than last year but that seems to have settled now and it is just lovely.

Our friend Polly from Bristol has come to stay with us for the summer months and it is so nice having a such a good friend here. She has come on a working holiday visa and has found some waitressing work in a local restaurant which she is enjoying. It's strange but sometimes it takes having someone to show around to make you realise what a fantastic place you live in.

Polly decided to take the far more complicated, but far more exciting route of travelling to NZ overland (so that's europe, russia, mongolia, asia on a train). It was quite an adventure and she wrote wrote a blog on the way which is well worth a read; http://www.wherepollygone.blogspot.com/. We have also had a few other guests to stay recently - Helen, the daughter of mum and dad's next door neighbour who was having a tour around NZ after finishing uni and Pete and Rachel, two friends of ours from Bristol who have taken a couple years out of life in the UK to travel. They came to us for a couple weeks over my birthday at the end of November and have just arrived back with us today (Dec 23rd) to spend Christmas with us as well.

Talking of my big 30 bithday- it was awesome. I did have a bit of a 'death of my twenties' meltdown, but it turns out it is still very acceptable to be a birthday princess at 30 so all was good. We rented a bach (NZ beach house, think beach hut but bigger!) at Mahia Penninsular, which is about 2hrs north of Napier. It's a beautiful, unspoilt marine paradise. There were seven of us in total - me, AJ, polly, Rach, pete and Charles and Lyndsey some NZ friends.

The big news with AJ is that he has started his own business - we are now Red Stag Gates & Fences Hawkes Bay Ltd. He was given a very good opportunity by his old schoool friend Charles to set up a kind of franchise of Charles own very successful top end gates and fences business Red Stag which he runs up in Hamilton http://www.redstaggates.co.nz/ . Essentially, AJ is now an authorised seller and installer of Red Stag products but we own the business outright and are allowed to use the Red Stag name and brand as long as we are only using their products (which are the best in the country so we are fine with that!). There is an excellent market in Hawkes bay for the products- (fancy fencing and automated gates) and Charles has wanted to have a franchise down here for a while - he just didn't have a contact here until AJ came back!

Our advert came out in the yellow pages just two weeks ago and AJ has already had numerous phonecalls and done 4 quotes so he is hopeful that he is on to a good thing. Until it really kicks off down here he has been working up in Whangamata (on the coromandal coast) for Red Stag Hamilton helping them with a huge job doing all the gates and fencing for the new marina there, so that's been great experience.

My work is still going very well - despite the recession (or maybe because of it) people still want to buy lots of wine from us and we are currently having our best ever trading month which is brilliant in the current climate. My role in buying the wine is increasing as i get to know the market here better which i am really enjoying. I'm also loving all the lovely gifts I've received this Christmas from wine reps desperate for me to say 'yes' to their brand. Of course my decision is based entirely on quality to price ratio.....

Rusty is very well. he has grown into a fine, but kinda funny looking, young dog. He has boundless energy still but is actually pretty well behaved these days - so far he hasn't eaten any of the pressies under the xmas tree.

Talking of Christmas, it still seems uber weird doing Christmas stuff in the sunshine and heat. What's most bizarre is that all the imagery is still about it being cold and snowy - in the TV adverts, it's always snowing. It's the little things which strike you - like how there are no real Christmas lights because it's not dark until 10pm so no-one see them!

Anyway, we are having a non-traditional Christmas feast befitting the climate: local leg of lamb which we will roast on the bbq rotisserie, served with a variety of salads - sugar snap peas and rocket, and roast beetroot, all from the thriving veggie patch, followed by good ol' Kiwi fruit Pavlova (Polly is taking charge of this, it's too much pressure for me to make AJ's all time favourite dessert!). We have Pete and Rach here with us and also Rach's dad, confusingly also called Pete who is visiting them in NZ on holiday. After presents and all that we will be heading down the beach for the traditional (as of last year) xmas day dip in the sea and then home. Sounds good to me. I get 4 stat days off over Christmas which is pretty good so I will enjoy the rest as well.

We are planning a quietish New year in Napier with friends and then all off to the Hastings New Years Day Races which is quiet an event apparently- hats required and everything. After that it will only be 6 weeks until Mum and dad arrive so we are looking for to that.

So, Merry Christmas to all of you - i hear it's a cold one in the UK and despite the perfect climate here i have to say i will be incredibly jealous if you get a white crimbo.

xxx

How to not buy a house.

As most of you will know we have been trying hard to buy a house here in Napier (we've got to have somewhere to put all our impending house guests...) and so far it has just been so full of hilarious mishaps that i thought i'd share it with you as a comic tale of woo.

I'll start from the beginning -you might want to get a cuppa or something this could take a while....

8 weeks ago we found a house that we loved- 34 Morris street . It has some'issues' - namely that it was a corner plot and needed it's outside space sorted , it was only half renovated, oh and it was next door (literally) to Mclean Park stadium which is where a lot of international cricket games are played (AJ seemed to think this was a great plus no surprise) but it had a great feel to to it - a 1910 villa with high ceilings and huge living spaces. It was a tender offer auction so we duely put in our bid and waited for the outcome.

Outwardly we were very pragmatic - it was a project, a good investment but it didn't really matter if we didn't get it we told oursleves. Inwardly i'd already decided where the Christmas tree was going.

We got outbid - it was very disappointing, but we got over it.

Then about a month ago we went to an open home of a house on Mcdonald street -great old villa, that was going to auction. We walked in and just loved it - like the other one it was sort of half renovated, but it was on one of the best streets in Napier and had a much better garden and wasn't next door to a sports stadium. Anyway,on the estate agents leaflet the GV (goverment value) on the house was listed as a good $100k above our budget. So, knowing we couldn't afford it we sort of walked around for a bit, filled out our info and then left discussing how that would be just the sort of house we would buy as a second project when we had made some money. We forgot all about 37 mcdonald street .

Until last Saturday morning. The agent called AJ and asked him if he was going to the auction that afternoon, he said no, explained that it was way over our budget etc, but she said that she thought he should come anyway as the vendors had said they had to sell no matter what price they got and that she thought it could sell well under GV. We figured she was just trying to get people in the room, but AJ went along anyway to see what it went for (I was at work).

There was a phone bidder and one other in the room. After a few opening bids A.J made his bid, and the phone bidder and other bidder both shook their heads. The auctioneer pointed at Aj and said - 'highest bidder'. AJ just about soiled his pants at this point.

The house hadn't made reserve so wasn't sold, but AJ got ushered into a little glass room out the back where he was asked to put in his best price. He did that and then waited. And waited some more. He could see the vendors in another little glass room across the hall. They were clearly having an argument. By this stage i'd almost had a panic attack at work (he had called me during the auction). After a while the (in AJ's words "physho witch') estate agent came back and said the vendors were very upset and insulted by such a low offer when the house was clearly worth much more. AJ sat there in disbelief - he had only gone to the auction because she had told him to!

Anyway, eventually our offer was formally rejected and AJ went home in a fairly traumatised state.


Now by coincidence on that same day, we received an email from the solictors of the vendors of 34 Morris Street (the cricket stadium one we really liked but got outbid on) saying that the house had not been sold and that new offers were to be in by 4pm on Tuesday. So we forgot about the nasty auction experience and were very excited about the first house again.

Then on Monday the Mcdonald street pyscho witch (PW) agent called again and said that if we were to offer another $10,000 then the vendors would probably sell. Oh. My. God. This was potentially the house of our dreams for 90k less than the GV. I phoned my parents and they agreed that we could borrow the extra. Love you Ma and Pa.

So we checked out the house at the council to make sure it wasn't condemned or anything and put in the offer and waited for the response. By now it was tuesday and we only had until 4pm to make an offer on the other house -Morris street - so we told the PW that if we hadn't heard by 3.45pm then we would pull our offer. She snarled a bit but agreed she would get a quick answer.

At 3.50pm the phone rang. Despite the recommendations of the PW, their own lawyers and the bank , the vendors of mcdonald street changed their minds and had refused to sign such a low offer. Don't blame them really. Booo! What a waste of time.

So now we had 10 minutes to get across town to the other estate agents and put in a new offer on Morris street. We just made it. Two days of nail biting and trying not to think about how great my new cornishware tea set would look in the kitchen later we got the call. There was good news -we were the highest bidder, hoorah! And there was very bad news - one of the vendors (the husband of the divorcing couple) had decided he didn't want to sell. Double boo!

So that was my last 10 days in the real estate world. It's been emotional.

In other news, I was on holiday last week and in between failing to buy a house we managed to head down the coast towards Porangahau (about 1.5hrs south) to check out the beaches down there. Despite the crappy weather (the only time it has rained here in the last 3 weeks) it was ace to expore some new places - we went to 4 different beaches and didn't see a single other soul. Just us, Rusty, a flask of coffee and some sarnies. We saw lots of wildlife at the marine reserve area between aramoana and blackhead beaches and I found three huge, perfect paua shells which isn't as good as a buying a house but look very pretty on my windowsill.


xxx

Rusty 'Ronaldo' Gates

Check out our dog's amazing ball control. Offers from all clubs considered.

Lazy sunday winter walks at Ocean beach

Always winter, never Christmas

Yes, that's right folks - we've moved to Narnia. Well, not quite but it certainly is very weird being in the middle of the cold and wet of winter with no Christmas to break it up.



Winter is in full swing here now and it has taken us by surprise how chilly it is been. A few weeks back snow fell on Te Mata peak, which is about 20 minutes away and only 400m high - for the first time in 10 years!



Maybe it's just the contrast of the hot summer making it feel so cold, or more likely the fact that none of the houses seem to have double glazing/central heating/insulation. Essentially we are living in a portacabin in 0 degrees weather. Brrrrr. We do have a wetback log fire in the lounge and have now bought a little heater for our room so things are getting warmer.



Despite the weather we've still been managing to get out and about on the weekends. I love the beaches in winter- they are even emptier and the seas are so dramatic.



Despite the decent swells recently, AJ has not been surfing. He is waiting for an operation on his knee to fix an old injury that has flared up in the last 6 months. He can walk fine but anything more strenuous and he is in agony. The NZ health service is about as slow as the NHS it would seem so he has been waiting for months now. He saw the surgeon today though and should be having the op in the next month. The major downside of course is that he hasn't been able to work hardly at all since April so we hope his recovery time will not be too long.



My job is still going well and actually despite the recession, business is booming for us right now. A bad exchange rate coupled with a huge harvest in 2008 mean that wineries are really struggling to sell all their wines to the usual export markets and as consequence we are being offered incredible deals on premium label wines virtually every day. Great for our customers, good for us, not good for the wineries. I wonder how many will still be afloat when the economy finally picks up again and how they will ever get their prices back up to the pre-recession price points. Ah well, it's a tough old game at the moment but we seem to be surviving.



Not to much else to report really. We are still looking for a house to buy but not much comes up. We found a house that we loved but it sold before we could get our finance oragnised so that has dampened our appetite for the whole process at the moment. Something else will come along eventually i'm sure. I've started to go horseriding once a week which i am really enjoying. I'm having proper lessons so am getting back in to show jumping etc for the first time in about 15 years! As a consequence i am in pain quite a lot of the time, but it's worth it!

Love to everyone. xxx

May/June Kerry's Visit

Lake Taupo with a snowy Mt Ruapehu behind.

The Hidden valley

The west coast

Piccies of our friend Kerry's recent visit. We did a mini roadtrip with her to Taupo, Waitimo (to see the incredible Glow Worm caves), out to the black sand west coast then to Rotorua ( thermal hot springs) and then back to Taupo via the beautiful Hidden Valley geothermal area.

Photos of our Easter hols, in no particular order i'm afraid

Me and AJ in Wellington

Al and Laura in Wellington

Me and a giant moa

Windy Wellington

Sunset in mahia

Mahia

AJ, Al and laura at Mahia

Pipis and Tuatuas

Moko the dolphin with a local

moonlight fishing

Mahia

AJ, Mahia

View from our bach in Mahia

Mahia

Laura and our lunch at Te Mata Cheese factory

Napier Arch

Napier

Napier

Te Mata peak with Napier beyond

Ocean beach at low tide on the volcanic rocks

Me and Laura napier beach

Autumn in the bay

Well, I didn't think it could get any more beautiful, but Autumn has brought a whole new palate of colours to Hawkes Bay and it is just gorgeous here at the moment. It's a little chilly in the mornings and evenings but generally fine and about 15-20 degrees during the days and the orchards and vineyards that dominate the landscape have turned to vivid shades of red, russet and yellow.

We had our friends Alan and Laura here with us for a week over Easter and it was so great to see them even for just a short time. We spent a few days in Napier and Hastings at the beach and in town with me and laura mostly window shopping, lunching and visting wineries and the boys surfing and fishing. It was good to do the art deco 'tourist' thing in Napier with someone as I hadn't really done it yet. It really is a very pretty town (officially it's a city, but with only one decent shoe shop and no where to get a kebab i think it's stretching the term).

For Easter weekend we headed up to Mahia Pennisular which is a couple hours (on a very windy road) north of napier. It has a beautiful, unspoilt 10km white sand beach and is a mecca for all sorts of birds and marine life. We stayed in a bach which is a classic kiwi beach house ( think a bigger version of the beach huts at Lyme regis but with bedrooms) just off the beach. The weather was amazing and we had a fantastic time swimming with a wild dolphin - moko who just hangs around the beach (type mahia moko into youtube!), fishing by the light of the biggest full moon i've ever seen and gathering pipis and tuatuas (think cockles) from the clear shallows of the beach.

We then headed down to Wellington for a night and it was great to get a city fix. We went to the Te Papa national musuem of New Zealand which is totally free and has things like an earthquake simulater and lots of stuffed animals (taxidermy, not bears). We had a night of luxury staying at The Museum Hotel which was where we had the Frizzell wine launch so I get a very good rate and then Al and Laura headed off for ten days camping in the south island and we headed home.

Am a bit blue this week missing them, but have Kerry arriving in 3 weeks to cheer me up!

Mad couple of months

Sorry it's been so long between posts, it's been a pretty busy couple of months for us settling in to working life here in NZ.

I am still very much enjoying life at Advintage. February was taken up with the launch of a new wine brand 'Frizzell Wine'. We had 4 launch parties in the end- Wellington, Christchurch, Auckland and Hawkes Bay, all in the space of a week! It was an exhausting time- flying all over the country and setting up everything, organising guest lists and venues etc but was well worth the effort. the brand is well and truly out there- as an indication a normal new wine label launch (which are pretty common events here in NZ) would get about 25-50 people attending and they would be all be from the trade, where as our launchs had between 150-250 at each party and they were everybody from celebrities to wine journos to art critics to the general public. It has given the brand a lot of publicity and the first 'editions' have pretty much sold out now. Dick (Frizzell) and the gang are working hard to get a new label out in the next few months. The idea will be that each new batch of wine will have a new label so that they become collectable. As well as just being delicious wine. see the link below for some snaps of the Wellington launch.

http://www.snapstar.co.nz/gallery.aspx?eid=124&cid=1 and http://www.frizzellwine.co.nz/ for the brand website.

Anyway after all that excitement it's back to the day job at Advintage which at the moment is focussed on project managing the rebuild of our website. At the moment the site is really just there as a vehicle for people to order from the ebulletins we send out and we get very little new traffic/customers through it so the challenge is to redesign and rebuild to create a site that will become our main source of recruits. I am working with a really excellent web development company called Jericho in Auckland and if we stick to my timeline (which we will- got to think positively!) the new site will be up by the end of August. Watch this space.

This weekend just gone was the Horse of the year show whiich happens every year in Hastings. It's 4 days of Eventing, showjumping, rodeo riding and everything to do with horses you can think of and is the largest equestrain event in the southern hemisphere so is a big deal for little old Hastings town. I had some access all areas passes as Advintage supplies the wine to the bars so we made use of them on Friday evening and went and watched the Jousting (really), scurry cart racing (miniture ponies pulling carts around a course very quickly), acrobats on horses etc. Then on sunday we watched the Olympic cup show jumping - which attracts riders from around the world with $1 million prize money. It was all very good although i was disapointed to learn that my pass didn't mean I got to go backstage and pet all the famous horses in their trailers. Rubbish.

AJ has yet to find permanent work - the building sector is pretty dyer here at the moment, but he is working at Te Mata estate winery as a general cellar hand helping with the 2009 harvest which is happening here at the moment (NOT a good year by the way- lots of rain just before picking). It's hard work but is keeping him busy and he is working with a good bunch of guys. Hopefully he will find something better soon - He is thinking he might have to change direction slightly until the economy picks up for building so is exploring different options.

We have started looking for a house to buy in Napier. Mortgage rates are the lowest they've been here for 20 years so it is a good time to buy. Think it might take a while to find what we are looking for though - we went to six open homes yesterday and only bothered to get out of the car for one! We are not in a major rush so will wait until we find the right one- not ready to make too many comprimises yet!

Rusty is very well. He is 5 months old now and is certainly a little larger than we thought he would be but is very handsome - in my eyes at least! He has calmed down quite a lot and enjoys his daily walks on the beach; chasing seagulls, digging holes in the sand, rolling on/eating dead sea creatures.

In just over two weeks our friends Alan and Laura will be here with us which will be fantastic - can't wait to see them. We have some trips planned for when they are here - we will spend easter weekend at a beach house at Mahia Pennisular (about 2 hours north) and then have a couple days down in Wellington as well before they head down to the south island.

Then in May we have Kerry coming to visit for 3 weeks and then -news just in- our old housemate Polly is coming to stay with us for 6 months! She is planning on working out here for a while and with any luck will also be just in time to help us paint our new house and dig out the veggie patch! We are very excited Pol. My secret plan to relocate my old life in Bristol to Napier is all starting to come together...Mwuhahahaa (evil laugh).

Anyway, will update this again after Al and Laura have been in about a month. Sorry about the lack of photos, I guess I'm becoming less of a tourist and more of a local!

xx

domesticity

Beautiful sunset tonight

Our first capsicums

Gorgeous Tomatos

Aubergines

Rusty

Our new Ute