Week 9

Monday 27th June
Went for a swim in the morning, then back to the house to do some job applications (for part-time teaching jobs for term 3).

Tuesday 28th
The day started with sharing the sun with Claire and Susan, as we have a skype call. I say sharing the sun, because as they sat in their kitchen with the setting sun streaming in, we sat in our room with the sun getting higher in the sky. For a while we shared it! I then went for a run before going to the local town to meet with a planning consultant to dicuss a house we might want to buy. After that Lisa and I went to the mall to help promote the Masters Games. We signed up some participants as well as signing up some very willing volunteers. People seem to be so keen to throw themselves into community volunteering. We returned home, briefly before going to a meeting in the village about the new cycle trail which is going to go through the area.
Wednesday 29th
BIG DAY, we opened our emails in the morning to find that our Portrush house had sold and the new owners had moved in. We could now move on. This coincided with notification that our container was arriving into Nelson. When it gets through customs and biosecurity we still cant get it until we have somewhere to put it. Our possessions have gone to Dublin, Rotterdam, Singapore, Auckland and now Nelson, and it arrived exactly on the date we were quoted in April...amazing. We went for a cycle to celebrate !
We went to see the ship in the port (but we didnt see our container....only because there were so many, not because it wasn't there).
I then called in to the two local schools to drop off the applications. When I callled in to Garin College, by coincidence, I met the guy whos classes the job would cover. I then had an impromptu interview/chat.

Thursday 30th
For years this has been a red letter date in my diary...summer holidays. No longer, it is winter and in term 2. The schools here have  4, 10 week terms with one or two weeks off. The new red letter day would be in December.
We went to do some more research on a prospective house at Tasman District Council. Information is very accessible. You can get a file on any property and see all the documents belonging to it.
I then went to Sport Tasman to do some work, while Lisa studied in Richmond Library.

Friday 1st July
Went cycling with the friday group and met some new people, one of the guy's grandfather had come from Coleraine and he had a company named after, Coleraine. He thought it was a small town of a couple of hundred people. He was interested to know it had more than that, as well as a university !
We treated ourselves to a house sale celebration lunch.
Got an email asking me to come in for an informal interview at Garin College, on Monday.


Saturday 2nd
A quiet coffee at the Wharfside. We were sitting there when a kayak with 2 women paddled up to the beach. We had met Belinda for the first time yesterday  and she was delighted to see us as she had paddled up here with a friend to have a coffee, only to realise that she had forgotten her money.  Her house is a couple of miles away(by sea) and she can paddle from the bottom of her garden to the wharf. We sat in the sun and chatted for a while before we went to get ready for cycle race number 2.
The race started and finished at a local pub in the country. The course was shorter than last week but it had a few long hills on it, so would be challenging. Our group split on the first long hill and Lisa cycled off in the lead. I continued in another group and when I got to the finish line I quickly was told that Lisa had won again. If she wins again, she has to move to a higher grade. We all sat around afterwards in the weak winter sunshine and then had the prizegiving....Lisa won a pair of socks, as did the winners of all the other grades. Socks dont pay the rent !


Sunday 3rd
 Enjoyed a bit of a lie in, then  to the wharf for a coffee, where lots of people were enjoying brunch. We stood beside a young boy who was fishing. We asked him had he caught much, he said not much but "it is better than sitting on a couch". That is a what NZ is about. We then helped with some gardening around the property. Lisa then did some businees stuff while I prepared for tomorrows interview.

Another week has just flown by; this one had some big milestones in it.

The news the last few weeks has had nothing to write home about and the found items are a bit boring (but still lots of them).