Phone Liz and tell her we are a bit stuck on which of the two houses to choose. She phones the vendors and it turns out one has already gone so that makes our mind up for us. Arrange to meet the owners of the other one that evening and sign our rental agreement so now have somewhere to live – probably the best way round as although it is a bit smaller than the one that had gone, it is in a much better position. It is 2 minutes walk from Lachlan’s school and 10 from Aonghas’s. It has just been done up with new carpets, paint etc. Although it is a little smaller than some we saw, it has a garden with orange and grapefruit trees, a small swimming pool and a gate through to a park with rugby pitch and playground. It is in a green, leafy suburb, local shops at each end of the road with a library, doctor’s surgery take-aways etc. All we need is within walking distance until we get round to buying a car. We move in on Tuesday as soon as the various relatives who are lending us bedding, crockery and general household bits and pieces to tide us over until our stuff arrives can bring it to us. Unfortunately it is a holiday weekend here – a bit like August Bank Holiday – different regions of NZ have “anniversary” holidays and this is Auckland and Waikato’s.

Don’t know how long we will be in this house as the owners are looking to sell it but we have at least 3 months. However it gives us an address to get the boys into schools so that is the next job. They are all closed until Tuesday so visiting starts then.

So we now have a bit of time to explore – the owners of the house we have rented are going to lend us a car for the weekend (how many landlords do that??) so that means we can go a bit further afield. The bus system here is pretty rubbish and the train network is just about non-existent, though at least it doesn’t pretend to be otherwise!