Advertisement
Published: August 13th 2009
Monday, August 10th
When the alarm sounded this morning Ferdi just turned it off and we slept late. We spent the day indoors, trying to shake the last remnants of our colds. We researched NZ bank accounts and, being ever interested in property, house prices in the Auckland area. For a bottom of the range house you start at about R2million. To get a mortgage you have to put down a 20%!d(MISSING)eposit. That's R400,000 just for the deposit! No wonder everybody rents over here.
While playing around on the internet Talita came across a pair of Dr Martens. One look at them and an obsession was born. Unfortunately they don't ship to NZ so she had to try and find another way of getting them. Where there's a will, there's a way.
Today's highlights:
1. Lazy day recovering.
Impressions of NZ:
It could take years to save enough before you could even think about buying a house. Tuesday, August 11th
The day dawned lovely and warm and we sat baking in the morning sun streaming through the living room window. Ferdi did research while Talita had her first lesson in playing the guitar. She learned her
first two chords and a bit of strumming. After cutting her nails it became a lot easier to play the notes and she did quite well.
Later she helped Mel clean the house and do a bit of weeding in the garden while Ferdi continued his research. He managed to set up a meeting for Friday morning. We were scheduled to be snowboarding then, but certain things are more important than having fun. We'll just snowboard more on Monday.
After a day and a half inside Talita was getting a bit stir-crazy, but luckily Mel had to go to the bank so we all walked down to the Browns Bay shopping area. After visiting the bank we popped into a couple more stores to get a few things then headed home.
We had home-made burgers for dinner and finished it of with a Tim-Tam each. These lovely little chocolate biscuits have become an obsession with us after Mel and Nicol first introduced us to them. They are the nicest snacks ever!
Today's highlights:
1. Talita's first guitar lesson.
2. Ferdi getting a meeting for Friday.
Wednesday, August 12th
Today Ferdi got his first blister of
our trip. It wasn't from climbing a mountain or hiking in a jungle somewhere. He got it from wearing Crocs while mowing the lawn...
😱
It was a beautiful day and we decided to do some gardening. There's not much we can do to contribute to the Smit household and they've been so kind to us we really wanted to give back a bit. While Ferdi mowed the lawn Talita did some weeding. With it raining so often the soil is soft and sludgy and the lawn can easily turn into a mud pit if you're not careful.
After a shower Talita had her second guitar lesson. Her fingers were a little tender from yesterday, but she pressed on and learned a bunch of new chords. We had sammies for lunch, then went to the mall to get a few things and also to see a movie. The movie was "Public Enemies", the new Johnny Depp movie. We bought our tickets at a self-help machine where we could also order our snacks. We ordered a coke and went to pick it up at the counter, then went into the cinema. It's expensive to go see a movie here (R150
for the two of us), but you do get huge and comfy seats. Talita liked the movie but Ferdi thought it felt technically unfinished. When we left the cinema it felt as if we were back in Asia. It took us a while to shake the weird feeling of deja-vu.
Once at home we enjoyed a delicious dinner accompanied by a few glasses of wine. Nicol went to a coast guard meeting and we joined him at the pub afterwards.
Today's highlights:
1. Going to our first NZ cinema.
2. Draughts at the pub.
Impressions of NZ:
Beer at a pub or restaurant is insanely expensive. The same beer at the grocery store is actually rather cheap. Thursday, August 13th
After our night in the pub we slept late. Just after we got up a bunch of Mel's friends came over for tea and snacks and once again the children almost outnumbered the adults.
By lunch time the house was quiet once more and we went shopping for supplies. Before we could face the shops though, we needed some food so we popped into Subway for lunch. With full bellies we faced the shops. We
got an inverter so that we can charge our laptop and camera batteries on the go. Then we got our supplies, filled up the van with petrol, and drove north to Gulf Harbour. We'd come across some houses for rent/sale in the papers and the prices and quality seemed very good so we wanted to check it out.
It was a 40min drive and we weren't all that impressed with the area. Sure, it's got amazing views but it's a newish area and there are almost no trees. We drove back and on the way passed Manly Beach. We had a giggle at the name and drove through the neighborhood. This was much more our style; an established area with quiet streets and lots of parks and trees.
Today's highlights:
1. Driving around the Gulf Harbour and Manly Beach area.
Impressions of NZ:
Kiwis seem to be really big on boats and trampolines. Almost every second house we've seen has one or the other.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.151s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0871s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Melinda
non-member comment
Klein sonders word dadelik gestraf!
Dit sal jou leer om daai eekie Crock plastick trappers te dra! Talita smeer bietjie jou style aan jou man af! Dr Martin!!! JUMMMMYYYY!!!! Ek LOVE hulle!