Hello all from a wet and miserable Sunday in New Zealand - today is Wellington at its worst so a good day to spend some time doing another blog. Our best news is that we've finally bought a car so we have a fair bit more mobility and freedom than we've had relying on our feet and public transport for so many months. We got a '96 VW Golf, which has only done 105,000 kms (65,000 mils), which is pretty low for 9 years. It was a private purchase and we spotted the problem with the exhaust when we test drove [View Full Entry]

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Well, hello there.... It's been a while but I now have the time to do this properly as I'm currently off sick from work but more of that later. We had a great weekend down in Christchurch a couple of weeks ago. The excuse was that an old colleague from work at Standard Life, Elaine Ogg, was cat-sitting for her brother in his house for a couple of weeks and we took the opportunity to fly down and keep her company for a weekend. The flight down was fine but we had some trouble getting the hire care that we'd booked [View Full Entry]

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Hi, Trust we're all fine and dandy? We're both fine although I'm still recovering from the news that my 5 years old nephew has joined a local football club in Canada called Halifax Celtic!! Would you Adam and Eve it. Still, I'll cheer for him if he ever scores a goal...as longs as its an own goal. We've finally managed to tidy our place enough to take some decent photos as people have been asking to see what our flat looks likw - well, our folks anyway! So here's some photos - it's over to you Lloyd as we go through [View Full Entry]

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Hi, all! Now, I realise I’ve been going on about a Rugby a bit much in my blogs but with the Lions tour on there’s not much else to talk about! Football is pretty much ignored here and if you don’t like rugby (I’ve only met 2 kiwis so far here who aren’t bothered about the game) then that’s tough because it’s everywhere. However, unlike at home it’s not a perceived upper class game - it’s the people’s game, just like footie is in England or Scotland. So, yes John Robertson I’m a rugger bugger - but better to be a [View Full Entry]

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We went to the Lions v. Wellington game last Wednesday. Such a disappointment as a game after looking forward to it for so long but we enjoyed the party atmosphere in the city before and after the game. The weather was classic Wellington winter - cold and wet with a parky blustery southerly - but luckily the wind was blowing the rain away from us so we stayed dry if a bit cold. Wellington not showing itself at its best for the visitors, unfortunately. The locals were giving the Lions team plenty of abuse for being crap but, amusingly, it was [View Full Entry]

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We went away for the long weekend (Queen's Birthday - one week later than the UK) a couple of weeks ago and it was a great weekend. We hired a car and drove up straight from work on the Friday through to Martinborough Wine Region up to Napier in Hawke's Bay on the east coast of the North Island. The weather forecast was a bit ropey and it's generally very difficult to forecast the weather accurately down here but it turned out to be pretty good. In fact, we were able to sit outside and have breakfast in our t-shirts on [View Full Entry]

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Hello, all - sorry that the blogs have been scarcer than a Scottish player in the Lions team but it took a couple of weeks after our stuff arrived off the ship for us to get broadband up and running at home. But, we’ve made it and I can once again feed my addiction - the Foo Fighters new album is downloading as I write! Since the last blog we’ve been trying to fill our new place with furniture (properties to rent here are generally unfurnished) and we’ve done pretty well. We were lucky in that our moving into the flat [View Full Entry]

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Just a quickie to pass on our new address and phone number - it's easier just stick it on here rather than try to work out who would be interested! Address: 9/28 Hobson Street Thorndon Wellington 6001 New Zealand Phone No: 0064 4 472 4271 Some snaps of the new pad will follow once we have our computer back - I'm doing this 1st thing at work so I have to be swift! Cheers! [View Full Entry]

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At last we’ve managed to get out and some of New Zealand!! After 10 weeks here we decided to hire a car and head north to Lake Taupo which is pretty much in the centre of the North Island. The lake itself was created relatively recently, less than 2,000 years ago in fact. It was born when a massive volcano erupted, spewing 24 cubic kilometres of rock, debris and ash miles into the air - to put that in context, that’s 10 times the amount produced by the huge eruptions of Krakatoa and Mount St. Helens combined! The ash was carried [View Full Entry]

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Just a quick follow-up to the story in my last blog about the jessie who complained of hypothermia in Simon's footie game the other weekend and got the game abandoned.....well he did actually have hypothermia and actually stopped breathing on the way to hospital and nearly died!! Shockeroonie..... See the link below or cut and paste it into your address line if it doesn't show up as a link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3261954a6561,00.html Despite the coach trying to sound concerned for his player in the article, the truth is he told the lad to 'stop being such a girl and get [View Full Entry]

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