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Since we have had a few weeks in our new abode we thought we should put pen to paper so to speak and fill you in on our adventures of late. As we write we are a mere two weeks off the official start to winter. The weather has turned but nothing like the October/ November equivalent of the UK. There is snow on the mountains and the ski season starts in a few weeks but the days are still sunny. It only really gets cold when you come in from the sun.
Enough of the weather... Our new cabin as we like to call it is in the Addington district of ChCh it backs onto the Crusaders Rugby stadium, we could not get any nearer. This is two star accommodation so is cheap but we do find it very homely. There are a total mixture of people staying here from the local who lives here, to locals who have moved here post earth quake while their home is fixed, then there are the campers like us who are travelling around. We've upgraded to a cabin as it is getting cold and we get more space. With a little tender
loving care we have turned it into our home. It amazing how much stuff we managed to fit into that little van.
Every day we get to meet different people from all around the world. There are still lots of Germans passing through, I wonder if any are left in Germany. We get a TV now due to the never ending supply of electricity. Kiwi TV is very similar to what you get at home, wife swap, world strictest parents, American comedy shows - they buy much of it in from UK, Oz and USA. They do have their own shows but again they tend to follow the UK trend. They have this new show that we refuse to watch, I think it's based on TOWIE but it's about the Gold Coast - I know many of you would love it (you know who you are). For the sports fanatic there is a brilliant nightly half hour show called The Crowd Goes Wild which is on at 6:30pm but allows for a kind of narky, sarky round up of the latest sport news so we can still catch up on the events back home like the brilliant finale to
the premiership season and of course Leinster's win in the Heineken Cup (which of course the kiwis here think is all down to Brad Thorn playing for us!). Anyway the show is good value and full of swearing (so Elaine's dad would love it!!
We've managed to settle down to a good routine, job hunting whilst trying to keep sane. Despite all the new building work in ChCh and the major changes that will take place over the next year it is a really friendly, welcoming place to live. The local pub looks a bit rough but they are really friendly we went to watch the rugby a few weeks ago and ended up in a pool competition. Elaine played so well we managed to beat a fair few Kiwi's which went down ok. Anna has become knitter extraordinaire and the blue hat (see photos) went through many stages of development before becoming a ribbed, two bobbles on the top version (I, Elaine, try to walk on the other side of the road when she has it on!!)
We went to another Super 15 rugby match the other week, Crusaders v Reds, which was poor quality but it
was great to go to the converted rugby league stadium and see all the pre match build up complete with 'Knights Templar' on horses. We went with Pete, Kate, their mates and 5 kids so it was a fun day out! We are now very excited about seeing Ireland play the All Blacks here in Christchurch on 16
th June which more than makes up for not seeing what would have been our 7
th Heineken Cup final in a row last weekend!
We have lots of opportunities to hang out with Kate and went for a beautiful walk up the Port Hills which has incredible views over the city, the main divide and Lyttleton Harbour. You wouldn't know there was so much demolition going on in central Christchurch, the vista was that good! The CBD cordon is reducing now so we're hoping to see more of the centre this week and though the demolition makes things look a bit empty, buildings are starting to go up as well which is a good sign. There is still a long way to go and some people are still in limbo with repairs on their houses etc. but hopefully everyone will know their
fate by end of June.
We hope to know more about our own by then too(!) in terms of jobs etc. The job hunt is going better and we hope to have good news soon.......in the meantime we will do more exploring and keep you up to date on all our antics!!
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