Tag: car

Our first mobile week!

NZ Placesschoolsport

Raglanplaying at RaglanNigel at Raglan Well, as Nigel said in an earlier post we have bought a car which has made managing our busy after school activities a lot easier! The only problem is remembering not to switch the windscreen wipers on when you want to turn left or right! It’s also a bit weird not having a clutch and a gear stick – my left hand and foot seem rather redundant! The “gear” lever is on a stalk on the steering column just above the windscreen wiper stalk so it has been used on countless occasions despite the sunny weather!! Nevertheless I am getting used to it now and it was quite exciting doing my first “big” supermarket shop! How sad is that?

I have started my Maori class – I had wanted to learn Japanese so I could help Lachlan when he starts learning at school but couldn’t find a class on a bus route! So I decided to find out a bit more about the Maori language and culture and have my second class tonight. It was really interesting last week especially looking at the mix of people in the class. Quite a few NZ Europeans who were learning it because they are finding that they are involved with the Maori community as part of their work. A few like me who have moved to NZ from elsewhere and just want to find out more about the culture and language And then several young-ish people of Maori origin who don’t speak Maori. They feel embarrassed that they can’t help their children who are learning Maori at school and are asking them to help them. The teacher is lovely and the lesson is a really good mixture of cultural information and language.

Lachlan competed in his school sports day and despite missing his first race because the school bus was late (!) he went on to come second in both the 80m hurdles and the 2000m steeplechase. That means that he has been selected to go through to the Zone Champs and will compete against the best of all the other kids in the Zone on Wednesday at Porritt Stadium. He seems to be enjoying his athletics at the moment and has been going to Porritt to the Hamilton Hawks training sessions on a Thursday evening which is quite daunting as there are “real” athletes there! He has learnt how to use starting blocks and ran in a 200m race last week and didn’t seem to be fazed at all by the other, very experienced and very fast competitors! Most of them were much older than him – in fact the age range seemed to go from 13 years (Lachlan) up to someone in their mid-40s!

Northern Wattle Moth (Pepe Atua)

The weather has been more unsettled recently but it is still very hot. There has been a bit of rain to moisten the ground but not enough according to the farmers who want another 10cms! Apparently it is needed as all the farmers are losingGisborne cockroach (we think!) money, milk production is down as they are down to one milking a day. And apparently the ewes are ready to tup but are underweight so that will have an impact on lambing! It’s amazing what you learn from Radio NZ! Did you also know that Black Cricket“marble” type sheep poo is much healthier than “ploppy” poo as there is less chance of diseases being passed on across the flock?! I think I need to get out more! Lots of insects about as well – Aonghas is getting better about them and we don’t hear him shrieking quite so often now! We got a “What’s that NZ insect?” book out of the library so are trying to focus his attention on identification to conquer his fears. I was bitten to distraction by some wee voracious biting beasties whilst I was digging up the bindweed from the garden to clear a patch to grow some vegetables. Still itching like mad a week later with large red patches all over my arms and legs – antihistamine seems to have no effect anymore, nor does lavender oil though it does smell nicer! Any suggestions gratefully received!

Any way, after a generally fine and hot week, a wet, rainy Saturday dawned. Great! The kids actually seemed quite happy to play in Aonghas’ den – his bed has finally arrived so he was enjoying creating a den underneath it! However we knew it wouldn’t last so despite the rain we decided to go for a “drive! ” Bit of a standing joke in our house because as children both Nigel and I were subject to “Sunday drives” in the country and hated them!! Well that’s what people did, isn’t it – invisible umbilical cord people – out for a Sunday drive and get the picnic out on the side of the road! Actually, to be fair, my Dad wouldn’t have been seen dead doing that and we did usually go for a walk somewhere. But it’s the fact that you wereRaglan dragged out when you were quite happy just chilling at home! Anyway, we headed off with our cags, a rugby ball and a few snacks to Raglan. Unfortunately we didn’t pack our togs or any towels (had planned to but forgot), and as you might imagine, we got over thereView over Raglan and it stopped raining! In spite of the grey clouds and the breeze, it wasn’t particularly cold and the boys would have quite happily played in the sea! Never mind we played rugby and chucked the whistling ball about, wandered along the beach shell collecting and paddled in the (deceptively warm) Tasman. We also watched the surfers struggle in the waves. Raglan is supposed to have the best “left-hand break” in NZ but the waves seemed a bit broken up on Saturday. The breeze blew the cobwebs away and we had a lovely time, it’s only about 40 minutes away too so I think we shall be spending more time there.

playing in the sea

Sunday saw us at Marist Rugby Union Club to sign Aonghas up. There is a “weigh-in” at all the clubs in the area at the beginning of March wher you sign up for the club and have a “weigh-in”. That is because in NZ the teams are formed not just on age lines but also weight which seemed quite confusing. However being the mother of two smallish boys for their age it also seems quite reassuring that they will be playing against similar sized opponents rather than some of the “huge” lads they played against in England! The clubs, though, only have teams up to U13. When they go to High school they play for the school and then go back to club rugby at U19. The other odd thing here is that, despite being a sport mad nation the kids effectively have to choose either rugby or soccer because everything happens on Saturday morning! Disappointing as our two are used to playing both but it’ll make our lives simpler!! Well an exciting week ahead as we have our first visitors arriving tomorrow and our container with all our furniture and stuff comes on Thursday. Will keep you all posted.

Car

travel

Spent another Saturday searching for a car. Not our favourite activity at all 🙁

Anne had gone round some yards during the week and had found one with a reasonable selection of stuff and a guy running it who seemed OK (well for a car salesman anyway!)

The problem when there is a wide choice is it makes it harder to choose – bit of a paradox really! We had gone with the intention of driving some Mazda MPVs and Honda Odysseys and had done a fair bit of online research as to what years etc to go for. After climbing through various ones, sitting in seats, working how the back seats rearranged themselves, we ended up taking out a Toyota Estima! Fortunately we had also researched this, just hadn’t come across any on our previous weeks foray round the yards. The Estima seemed to have more room all round and a reasonable seating arrangement.

Like lots of the car yards, this one had two other sites within 2 or 3 miles (there are lots of car yards in Hamilton) so we went for a drive over to one of them to see what else might be available. We weren’t too happy with the Estima as it seemed to pull to the side a bit and was a bit ‘used’ inside. At the second yard, however, was another Estima, slightly different model, slightly older but $2000 cheaper. Decided to take that for a spin to compare with the one that we had just driven. This second one was much better, no pulling, tidy inside, even has electric curtains!!

Had a good drive about in this and by the end were happy to sign the dotted line. Most second hand cars go in for an AA service before purchase so ours was booked in for Monday. Main note from the examiner was that the air conditioner fan was a bit noisy! Our new car!This was at the end of Monday when the guy from the yard phoned up. He arranged to come and pick Anne up on Tuesday morning (today), took her to the bank to get a cheque and then to pick the car up. It’s now sitting in the drive so Hooray! we can drive off somewhere this weekend.

..and the wickets came tumbling down!

friendsHamiltonHousesschoolsport

covers on!Yesterday the boys and I went to see the ODI between England and the Black Caps (Nigel stayed at home as he is a Scotsman and good Scotsmen don’t do cricket!!). We set off on the bus after the boys finished school hoping to get the second half of the match but it had rained properly for the first time we got here, and as we approached the ground people were leaving in their droves! Typical! We come all the way to NZ to see a cricket international and it gets rained off!

super spongeEngland battingBut in true Brit style we sat there and watched the groundstaff working on the rain sodden pitch and the sun started to shine. The PA system boomed out all the weather related music it could find – “It’s raining men…”, “Mr Blue sky”, “4 seasons in one day”, “Here comes the sun”, and so on – you can imagine the rest! Play reccommenced at 6pm with England on 85-2 so things looked promising but in true English style 3 wickets fell in very quick succession and England were on the back foot, the Black Caps were merciless and England were soon all out for 158.

Black Caps supporter!

Aonghas by this time had bought a Black Caps flag and was waving it as each wicket fell! Lachlan bumped into two of his new found school friends – another Lachlan and Abraham. Abraham was sporting a daft England hat as his Dad is English but he soon changed allegiance to the winning side too!

kiwi kids cricketAt the interval there was a display of cricket from the Kiwi Kids cricket schools – loads of Primary aged kids playing which was great to see. Aonghas has signed up to play at school now so we’ll see how he gets on. When play resumed we were treated to a magnificent display of batting from the Black Caps and the banter in the crowd increased between the English and NZ supporters, all good natured but by now quite drunken! More opportunities for flag waving for Aonghas. He was amazed by the vociferous group of young men sporting a variety of fancy dress who heckled every English supporter who went past them! He was particularly worried about the young man who, sporting a rather fetching dress and wig of long flowing locks, made a frighteningly good go at being a woman!!

In the fieldmagnificent batting from the Black CapsThe inevitable happened at around 9pm – a bit earlier than scheduled – when the Black Caps made the run target of 164 with the loss of no wickets in 19 overs! I haven’t been to many cricket grounds but Hamilton seems a very pleasant place – mostly grass banking so everyone sits down with picnics etc and with the sun shining it made a great evening’s entertainment.

sunset over Seddon ParkThere is a full test match here in March so we may have another day out then, who knows?

Aonghas’ ready for school in his hat!
Back to school this morning though and we had to wake two rather tired boys! It is Aonghas’ turn now to have a little crisis of confidence. He was so eager to start school and is enjoying the daily swimming lessons and playing in the brilliant play parks every interval (break) but has realised that he doesn’t have all his friends, and is finding it difficult when the others go off and play in their ready made friendship groups. However, the other boys all seem very kind and are good at asking him to play so I think it will be just a matter of time before he forges some new friendships.

We are now starting to get to grips with the money a bit more and learning to compare NZ prices with each other rather than converting to pounds all the time to compare prices between the UK and here. Looking now to buy a car so we can get further afield at the weekends since there are no buses on a Sunday! Still no news on our house sale so if you know anyone out there who wants a nice house in Ingleton…..!

I am still washing all our clothes by hand as our washing machine is still in a container somewhere on the ocean (hopefully still in a ship!) which gives me something to do during the day apart from writing this, dipping in the pool and reading! The library is a five minute walk up the road so that’s really handy. The sound of the cicadas outside is constant and puts me in mind of mediterranean holidays. praying mantisThere is an amazing array of insects too – loads of grasshoppers, some big black/brown beetle type things about 3 cm long, praying mantis, moths, little green bugs, little bright yellow bugs, spotted shiny bugs and lots of spiders with really long legs. We hear a shriek from Aonghas about once every 10 minutes “Mum, come and look at this….aaaagghh!” He is coming to terms with them but we have to do a bedcheck every night before he will go to sleep! I think I’ll have to get a book from the library to find out what they all are.


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