Six Months in NZ

Let’s be clear. This is a catch-up. I’m talking about the period from the end of October 2016, when we arrived back in NZ after our extended period in the UK and Europe, and our departure at the end of April 2017.
We came home expecting to settle in Nelson. But it turns out we weren’t ready to settle.
That view of the Waimakariri River, out the aircraft window, as we came in to land at Christchurch, probably tugged at my heartstrings more than the view of Christchurch.  I’d lived most of my life in Christchurch, but it was still broken to me (after the earthquakes), but the Waimak was still at the backdoor.  I’ve swum in it, thrown stones in it, crossed it innumerable times in a car, and in its a higher reaches, on foot or floating on a pack.  It’s ever changing and it’s a beauty.

The Waimak

Christchurch

Kerry and the lambs at Francine’s peony farm

We spent a few days in Christchurch, staying with the always welcoming, generous and kind Kerry and Dave – visiting a friend of Kerry’s peony farm, and new lambs, and enjoying a day out and a short walk on the Port Hills with two of our kiddies – Andrew and Izzie.

Lyttelton Harbour from the Port Hills

Nigel, Andrew & Izzie

Vicki & Andrew

Dave kindly lent us his car and we were off to Dunedin where we picked up our boxes of ‘stuff’ that we’d shipped from the UK with Gail and Janos’s things.  We managed a day trip to Lawrence with Nigel’s Mum, Nancy, where Kerry and Dave were camping in their caravan.  We also took the opportunity to check out our Dunedin rental, which had been supporting us while we’d been travelling.
Back in Christchurch we stayed with Glenn and Irene then picked up a couple of rental returns (we weren’t sure that the first would have enough space for us and our growing pile of luggage, so we got a second), and headed to Nelson, where the new luggage joined the pile in the container of goodies we’d left behind in June 2013.
We settled into Mum and Dad’s place, bought a car, and eventually moved in with my sister Julie and her partner. We were looking for jobs, but had time for some fun too.  We enjoyed a wonderful tramp up to the Maitai Caves, but weren’t equipped for going inside.  It was wonderful to be out in the New Zealand bush again. Of course, we made just one or two trips to the Sprig & Fern (pub) – just so we could tell Ann and Alain we’d been! Christmas day we did what we used to do for Christmas – a picnic at Rabbit Island.  Andrew was there too, from wherever it was he was living at the time, and, just like the old days, we wore him out and he had to have a snooze while us oldies went for a walk on the beach!  On yet another sunny day we visited Mapua and Andrew took the opportunity to join the locals jumping off the wharf.

River crossing NZ style

Nigel, Dad & Mum on the way back to the car

at the Sprig & Fern

an after-lunch kip in the sun at Rabbit Island

Dad, Mum & Nigel on the beach at Rabbit Island

on the beach at Rabbit Island

Julie, Nigel and Andrew on the wharf at Mapua

Andrew launching himself from the perfectly safe, stable and dry wharf

Survived!

In January we were lucky to have a visit from one of our wonderful Helpx hosts and friend, Pauline from Italy.  We took her up the Centre of New Zealand for the views!   One of our favourite pastimes involves coffee, cake and magazines and we’re ALWAYS on the hunt for a good cafe.  Nelson has a disproportionate number of great cafes and we did out best to check them all out.  Sublime was one of our favourites, but it was not lonely at the top of our list!

Pauline at the Centre of New Zealand

Coffee and cake at Sublime

In February we took off for a few days on the West Coast with Mum, Dad and their bikes.  We had great weather, stayed in Hokitika, and did some lovely walks and bike rides.

Hokitika Gorge

Driftwood art on Hokitika’s beach

In March I started checking online for sites where you could legally pick free fruit.  I was mainly hunting figs and we found several sites in Stoke, but the best were where we found these huge, syrupy figs.  At the end of March we again took to the bikes with Mum and Dad.  We started at the top of Spooners Rail Tunnel, Nigel and I biked down, then back up and handed the bikes over to Mum and Dad, who biked down and we met them at the bottom.  Julie was with us and walked through to the bottom.

Figs, glorious figs

Nigel & Vicki

Mum & Dad heading into Spooners Rail Tunnel

Now I’ve talked about all the fun things we did that summer, I’ll do another back-track to December. On the job front, we’d almost given up hope when I managed to get a role that sounded like fun, at a car rental place. It was horrible from the first day, but at least I was able to entertain Nigel, Julie and Tony each evening. None of us could believe that a company could be run so poorly and treat its customers so badly, and still be in business. I met some neat people along the way, some monsters (actually, just one monster, many were just rude and most of the time I couldn’t blame them), and some dedicated and hard-working staff who deserved better. I stayed for a couple of months before resigning.
Meanwhile, we were hoping Nigel would be able to get an IT job, but we found they were few and far between in Nelson and we finally realised we’d have to go elsewhere.
I started looking for house-sitting roles in New Zealand so we could test a place out while looking for jobs there. A well-timed conversation with a friend (Jennifer – thank you!) expanded our horizons and I just happened to find a perfect house-sitting opportunity in one of our favourite places.  I applied, hassled the owner a week later when he hadn’t responded, and got it!!
So, in April, we packed up again – one suitcase each and hand luggage – drove to Christchurch, where we left our car with my niece, Katherine, and her husband, Piyush.

Before long we were off, on our next adventure …..