Hamner Springs

No its not us in the picture - our camera was safe in locker, but you get the general idea!

9 Thermal pools varying from 29 to 40 degrees - lovely! Some were mineral pools full of sulphur, magnesium, calcium etc - very good for the skin but very smelly too. Also family fun pool with flumes to keep the boys happy.

Antartic Centre - click on Nick to view all 5 photos (I hope!)

From Antartic

Home Sweet Home

Here it is - the new abode! Looks smart doesn't it - only 12 months old. Four bedrooms, 2-bath, double garage. But NO central heating! They just don't do it over here (Don't know why cos its pretty nippy in the evenings and would be nice). We only have 2 hot-air heaters (take note Sue Camm!). Tin roof too, with no insulation. Honest - thats the way they build them here.

Rob's news

The most exciting thing that has happened lately, was that after a visit to my new school I found out I'm going to be starting Year 8 when I go back in February! I'll be one of the youngest because the cut-off is July 1st (my birthday is June 3rd). They have an ok uniform. I'll have white polo shirt because I'm a senior, and Nick will have royal blue. But the trousers/shorts/hats are all royal blue too. They don't have a PE kit - you just wear your uniform. Only one year then I'll have to join Joe on the bus to the High School.

I'm going to football training tomorrow night for the first time with the local team. Nick and Joe are going too, but we don't know if Joe is too old. Unfortunately I don't have any football boots. I thought they wouldn't be playing because its summer now, so I dumped mine which were quite old/too small. I hope Father Christmas will sort some out for me.

I've asked for fishing gear for Christmas too because me and Dad want to visit some lakes and rivers. We need to travel about an hour to get to them but they are really impressive. For some, we will stay overnight in a hut and get away from everyone.

This picture is me and Nick watching street entertainer in Christchurch. Christchurch is about half an hour from Rolleston where we live. The Jade Stadium is there. We were going to watch the Black Caps playing Sri Lanka on Monday, but the test finished early. They have loads of top rugby and cricket games there so I hope I'll be going there quite a bit.

Beach Babes !

Here we are on the beach at 'Taylor' s Mistake' on the East coast. It was a fairly chilly day - hence Nick's fleece, but since then we have hit the beach several times in warmer weather. The latest was yesterday, when at Sumner beach the temperature was 30 degrees! BUT it was extremely windy so we didn't stay too long. The sand was whipping across the beach, and stinging our flesh - ouch!!

Yay - we made it!

Arrived in Christchurch very grumpy and tired. The in-flight entertainment on board the Air New Zealand flight was so good Joe and Robert wouldn't go to sleep. Consequently they fell asleep in the departure lounge of Auckland airport. I'm surprised Joe's snoring wasn't heard back in Witley!!

We got settled into a very nice motel (Southern Comfort - highly recommended), hired a car and started house-hunting in earnest. Unfortunately in the area of the school we wanted Joe to go to, the houses (bungalows) were the pits. The kitchens and bathrooms were so dated (1950s at least). Joe looked at one ancient white electric cooker and said "I can't do anything on that!". Obviously if I wanted him to share the cooking we needed to be looking upmarket!

As we kept widening our search, we landed up in Rollerston to the south of Christchurch, billed as "the Town of the future". Its a whole new-build town so our bungalow is a nice 2-year old 4-bed place. Ten minutes walk to Rollerston Primary for Nick and Rob come February. Joe will have to take the school bus from the end of the road - about 20 minutes ride to Lincoln High School. Both schools are rated 9/10, so the boys should be ok there. We have a visit arranged at the Primary School on Thursday to meet the Principal. The High School won't enrol Joe until Tony or I land a job (permits - blah blah), so the pressure is still on. Check out Google to check out the area/schools etc. What do you think?

STOP OFF IN HONG KONG

Boy did we need the stop off! All of us were totally exhausted: trying to pack (bad job as Sue and Dave will confirm!), seeing off friends and loved ones (lovely to see Aunty Ann & Aunty Bid as we drove off - x), and generally hasselled with paperwork, job-hunting and all those nasty little things left to the last minute.

Hong Kong was certainly an experience. Philip was right when he said we would need face masks because of the smog. Even the kids noticed the smell. So probably not a place to spend too much time, but our 3 nights there were great. We had a super 4* hotel, and Tony's sister Debbie had put us in touch with her friend - Ming - who lives in Kowloon, and she acted as our tour guide for a couple of days. We didn't get to do as much as we wanted too because the jet lag was kicking in and we kept falling asleep at bizzare times, but we did go to the Peak on a very scary chain-driven train (thanks for the recommendation Roger!). If I can sort this page out properly, then there should be a picture of us all taken at night when we up the Peak.

Hong Kong airport beats Heathrow hands down for efficiency too. The tired - but rested - Cringles move on to New Zealand refreshed and raring to go......