The Jennings 3

We finally have our hands on all our household stuff, including bikes, clothes, toys, DVD’s. Everything.

After our last unsuccessful trip to Christchurch to pick up our belongings (thwarted by customs, who wanted money, and the ministry of farming who check, clean and spray anything that might have come into contact with terra firma in the UK) we returned to finally pick up all things on Wednesday.

We took the same route through Arthur’s Pass (stopping off at the Hot Springs again – bliss) and got to the depot early Thursday morning ready for a day of packing. This place was like an Aladdin’s cave of cool imported things from vintage American cars to huge power boats, rally cars and various other racing vehicles of all sizes and shapes. The tamed monkeys they had working there were having the most fun firing up any random vehicle they liked the look of and, in their words, ‘ticking it off the list of vehicles driven’. Looked like fun but we were there for business.

The ‘monkeys’ said there would be no way we would get everything in the car/trailer in one go (which wasn’t an option) so from about 9am and 2pm we accepted the challenge and were involved in a giant game of reverse Jenga. Every inch of space counted as we crammed, squeezed, squashed and manipulated all our stuff into every nook and cranny. And I am delighted to say that it all went in with literally not an inch to spare.

The car was a bit of a handful on the way home, making the once fun twisty mountain route a little torturous to say the least, but the Subaru handled it no problem and we got home at about 8pm.

After a full unload I am delighted to say that everything made it in one piece, unscathed, and the last couple of days have seen Lisa changing clothes every half and hour, Buster burying himself in cars and jigsaws and me building up and polishing all the bikes I managed to sneak past Lisa’s attention when we were packing up (that includes those Yeti forks John – if you want them you’ll find them on e-bay soon).

For those of you following this saga closely you might be wondering ‘what’s happening with the Audi?’ Well, we were actually next to it in the depot all day but it can’t go anywhere until Audi Europe get back to them with data on emissions and frontal impact. I have enlisted the kind help of my brother in law Simon (who has enough on his plate at the moment with his imminent move to Melbourne) and hopefully can fly back down to ChCh next week to pick the old girl up and put an end to our importing woes. I’ll let you know how it goes.

After watching the $-£ exchange rate plummet since Christmas we have finally taken the plunge and turned our pounds into dollars. I found a great service called NZForex that lets you watch the exchange rate in real time – updating every 15 seconds. The fluctuations can be quite significant so it really pays to sit in front of the screen and hit the ‘buy’ button at the right time. Now – the good side of this is more $ for your £, the bad side of it is that it turns it all into a giant gamble game – deal now, wait, rates up, rates down, hang on, jump ship, cash in or have faith?!?! After the best part of three weeks of obsessing, and a full 36hr stint at the end, the shine of ultimate control had definitely worn off. And after all that effort what do I get – NOWT, not a boat or even a PS3, Lisa already has plans for the extra that I am sure she will divulge (to you and me both) in time. Now just need to learn how to sleep again…..

After Busters recent success at the BMX track, and feeling sorry for him having to scamper up all the hills on his run bike, we bought him a new 12" BMX to have a play on.
He has been doing so well on his run bike we decided to do away with the stabilisers immediately and took him out for a spin today at the local park. After a few wobbles and minor tumbles he managed to do a good 30ft on his own before the rain stopped play. He seems to have the pedaling and balancing thing sorted though - so its off to the BMX track tomorrow where I am going to launch him down steep start hill and see how he gets on when he reaches the 20ft double jump.
Like Lisa keeps saying - yes, very good, shame its not golf he is good at.
All Buster cares about is that its red!
I'll get some YouTube video posted once he has a few tricks in the bag.

Hi Everyone.

I have a job Yay!! The money is decent enough by NZ standards and I’ll hopefully be moving up pretty quickly once I’ve got my head round the cultural differences and procedures. I love spending lots of time with Buster but it’ll be good to use my brain again and to earn some money. I now have to apply for a work permit which should take a few weeks and then apply for a Residence permit in a couple of months time. The induction is 6 weeks although it’s done in sections and means going to Christchurch, which is about a 5 hr drive from here. It’s almost as cheap to fly so hopefully that’s what I’ll be doing. They cover a big geographical area from a farming town in the mountains about 1 ½ hrs south of Nelson to the north east coast about 2 hrs away. It’s all beautiful coast and countryside so it’ll be great to get out and about.

We’ve just had an interesting few days (for interesting read bloody frustrating and expensive!) in Christchurch. Our stuff and car have arrived so we trundled off with a borrowed trailer through the Lewis pass stopping at some thermal pools on the way. It was a lovely start to the trip bathing in pools that ranged from 28 to 36 degrees (although listening to the older, larger American ladies moaning and groaning in ecstasy whilst easing themselves in was a bit disconcerting). It was quite a cold and very rainy day, which made you appreciate the warmth all the more. It’s probably unbearable in the summer when it’s roasting. Anyway we got to Christchurch no problem but found we couldn’t get our things because customs wanted to open all our boxes and also said that we had to pay them because we only have visitors permits. Even with work permits we would still have to pay. Apparently they brought in this new law in November, which means anyone who isn’t a resident of NZ has to pay Goods and Services Tax on certain items which are made in NZ. We practically camped in the Customs office and managed to stop them opening all our boxes because that would have taken ages but we had to pay them about £1100 for the pleasure of bringing our old mattresses, bikes etc and the car into the country. To add insult to injury the weather was rubbish. It’s the first thing that has left a bad taste in our mouths and to be honest the fault was probably as much with our shipping company for not knowing or telling us. We’ve had to come back to Nelson empty handed except for a table and chairs we bought on ‘trade me’ (ebay) and will have to go back in about 10 days when everything has been checked for foot and mouth and the car has been registered. Arse is all I can say!

Negatives: Our bank account is noticeably lighter; I’m sick of playing cars; Buster is sick of us and asks 50 times a day to go to nursery; it’s hard to keep the little blighter occupied with few toys and few friends.

Positives: the sun is still shining in Nelson (although it’s chilly at night and in the morning); the flowers are still blooming; winter is coming and there’s a ski field about 1 ½ hrs away so we can learn to snowboard / ski and take Buster sledging; I have a job and am looking forward to being with other adults; we move into our new house on 06/05/08.

On the way back from Christchurch we passed the Buller Gorge swing bridge (longest in NZ apparently) and flying fox. Feeling a bit bored from all the driving, and in need of some fun, we stopped to check it out. We paid up to walk across the bridge then get strapped into the flying fox for our return journey – whizzing back over the Gorge at 70kph+. Only problem was getting over the bridge – I took about 20 steps onto it, it started bouncing and wobbling around, I looked down and noticed the floor was made of mesh and then everything started to blur in and out of focus and I freaked out – NO WAY was I walking across that thing unless my life depended on it. Suffice to say Lisa and Buster strolled across like it was a walk in the park, even shimmying past some guy they met half way!! I went back to the hut, begged for my money back (the indignity) and stayed on terra firma with another guy who had bottled it, consoling ourselves on the fact that we would have done it, just didn’t feel much like it.

I would have liked to do the flying fox bit but was, from that point on, unworthy so sat around getting bitten to death by sand flies whilst the intrepid duo flew back across the Gorge screeming with delight.

Mum – don’t go. Anyone else, including children under 4, I think you would have an ace time, just don’t say I didn’t warn you that it was very very high, wobbly and terrifying.

I was a little bit underwhelmed by Christchurch to be honest – lots of shopping and restaurants but not much else – I think we have been spoiled with Nelson a bit. However, the Gondola ride just outside town was really enjoyable. From the top you could see across the plain to the Southern Alps, out to the sea and also over to Lyttleton and its harbour. We had a good walk around at the top of the mountain, coffee and cake (as per usual) then descended down. Having seen Lyttleton from the top we decided to take the 5min drive there and found some lovely little bays to muck around in, the worlds longest slide for Buster and some beautiful scenery. Click here for all the pics.

For only the second time in his life Buster had his haircut, we couldn’t take the ‘whats her name’ comments anymore. So, we found the most incompetent transvestite hairdresser in Christchurch (Lisa kept calling him her, then correcting herself which only made matters worse). Our transvestite snipper was, we found out half way through, new to the job and made a right meal of things whilst Buster made very effort to wiggle his way to freedom. The end result was nothing like what we asked for and a slightly traumatised Lisa after failing miserably at being politically correct. Why did we choose such a rubbish hairdresser you ask – an ‘all hair cuts $10’ sign was all the convincing I needed.

On our way to Christchurch to pick up our stuff and car from the port (long story but we ended up coming home empty handed and empty walleted – the scars are too fresh to write about just now but I will go into a bit more detail soon) we stopped for the night at Hanmer Springs. About 3hrs drive from Nelson, Hanmer Springs is nestled in the Southern Alps and is famous for its thermally heated outdoor pools and skiing in the winter. After a night of pro mini-golf (check out Flickr for Lisa’s hole in one celebrations) we all felt the need to ease our sore muscles in the mineral pools so paid the princely sum of $12 and headed in. The Springs complex was pretty much brand new, having just had a makeover, and consisted of about 12 different temperature pools ranging from a standard swimming pool at 23 degrees to mineral rock pools that were 42 degrees (bliss) and everything in-between. There was also a great kids area with slides, waterfalls and water canons so that parents could get their own back on any belligerent kids. I could have stayed all day – it was bliss, and there was a stead stream of tourists passing out from the heat in the hot pools and falling into the pools head first after slipping on the wet rocks to keep me entertained indefinitely. The weather was pretty wet and miserable which made the warm pools even more enjoyable – sitting in a super hot outdoor rock pool whilst the rain came down was excellent, apparently when it snows its even more enjoyable. We will definitely be heading back for some skiing in the winter and I’m going to look into life membership of the Springs.

Not much of a 'news' item this one so I will keep it short and sweet. We discovered the Oriental Gardens in Nelson the other day. Built by Nelsons Twin Town in Japan (funny, British towns always seem to be twined with radioactive Russian hamlets or industrial French cities) the gardens were really lovely - lots of carp, water, quiet little places for picnics and a pagoda that inspired us to undertake some Ninja training (Lisa has previous experience of being a baby faced assassin and Buster loves nothing better than practicing his stealth attacks so we did have some prior experience). If your ever in Nelson (I know, its quite a long drive from de-Preston) then I can think of worse places to sit on a sunny afternoon and contemplate your naval.

Lisa fancied a bit of bit of culture (apparently you can have too much of boys burps, farts and fighting!) so we whiskered her off to Nelsons 'WOW' exhibition. This is a permanent exhibition in Nelson celebrating its WOW festival that takes place each year. Basically its artists making clothes instead of pictures (you can see I am gifted with cultural insight) with some pretty wild results. Jem - you would love this place - check out the WOW website for more info. However, WOW also encompasses cars and motorbikes (yep, the gallery certainly knows that 50% of its market will be disinterested males) with some fantastic machines for us motor heads to ogle. These included some very rare Bimota motorbikes, Corvettes, Mustangs, 50s and 60's art eco style cars and even the DeLorian from Back To The Future (flux capacitor and all).