NZ Winter Newsletter
It has been a long time since I sent out a newsletter from New Zealand. Usually I send via email but I have discovered "Blogging" and as the heading on this blog says "This blog records some of my thoughts and newsletters from New Zealand" So here goes!
Hi to all my friends and family,
Life in New Zealand still goes on and hasn't changed much since last we communicated.
I think the last newsletter was before Christmas last year. We spent from Christmas day until 8th January (15 days in total) in Australia. We had an absolute ball. Our trip started in Brisbane and ended in Sydney. We hired a camper and travelled down the coast to various seaside resorts eventually ending in Sydney where we spent 5 wonderful days exploring the city. What a great city. All three of us, Irene, Evan and I have fallen in love with Aussie. Australia is a very organised country, everything works and the people are so friendly, and the weather......just wonderful. All too soon we had to fly back to NZ. As NZ citizens we now have the right to live and work in Aussie and are thinking seriously of moving across the ditch (as the Tasman sea is known here) when we retire, we want to become "Grey Nomads". In Australia retired travellers are called "Grey Nomads". They usually travel north in winter in their campers to catch the warmer weather and return south for spring and summer. Some "Grey Nomads" have sold their homes choosing to travel on a continuous basis. There are many "Grey" employment agents around Australia who help find temporary employment for retired people, employment like: Fruit picking, office temps, drivers, teachers and many other types of work.
Another nice
thing about Australia is that it is not far from NZ and is very cheap to travel to, in fact it is cheaper to fly from Auckland to Brisbane or Sydney than it is to fly to Christchurch on the South Island. Now that Virgin (Pacific Blue) has joined the trans Tasman route the fares are really competitive. A return flight to Brisbane, Sunshine Coast or Sydney is under $200.00 NZ, very affordable. One could easily go over for a long weekend. The cost of living is also lower in Aussie than in NZ. No wonder there are more Kiwis leaving than Aussies coming in.
Last summer was late in coming, people were expecting a white Christmas, but when it did arrive in Mid January, it arrived with a vengeance. We had lovely sunshine and warm days and evenings right up until May and even now the winter has been pretty mild with just a few very cold and rainy days. The average temperature is around 13c to 15c which is quite warm for this time of year. After five years here, I am not that naive to expect it to last, it will get colder and wetter before this winter is over.
If I've not already told you, I've had to give up teaching as the whole language industry in NZ and, I think, the rest of the English speaking world, has taken a dive. I was fortunate in finding a very nice job in an engineering company. They required someone to setup and run their new planning MRP system. So now I'm their Office Systems Manager. It is a nice stress free, cushy job and I'm enjoying it, although I do miss teaching. The company has built a brand new factory in a small village called Silverdale which is about 40 minutes (25 kullometres)Unit of distance in New Zealand North of Auckland and just 12 minutes from my home. It is great, we move in on the 1st September.
We had a good laugh on Sunday 3rd July. We went to Darren and Manda to fit the new Roman blinds which Irene made for them. Well, with no ladder anywhere in the building, I decided that a knitting machine table on a coffee table would be good enough to get me onto the cupboard which would put me in a good position to fit the blinds to the window. All went well and the blinds were fitted with only minor adjustments needed. It was while doing those adjustments that it happened. I was standing on the knitting machine table when it decided that my weight was not compatible with the knitting machine and slowly split in half. To break my fall I grabbed the cupboard for support. The cupboard, I'm sure, had long ago decided that it was not a ladder and would not support me so it came down with me smashing to smithereens. Fortunately I was not hurt, just a few stiff muscles and a bruise here and there, but the cupboard was a write-off. Needless to say the cupboard has now been replaced with a brand new one and Manda has banned me from climbing on anything that is not a ladder.
The family here in NZ is well. Darren is excelling at work and has finally been awarded permanent residence. Irene is also doing well in her career and loves her job . Evan continues to do well at his music and school. I am content with my job and have started painting again, it's good therapy.
Anyway, please read the rest of my blog hereunder and feel free to browse "My Flickr" pages the link is to the right of this page. Also I would love some comments, just click "comments" next to the little envelope and make your comments.
As always, we send with this newsletter all our love to all of you.
Alf, Irene, Evan, Darren and Amanda
Hi to all my friends and family,
Life in New Zealand still goes on and hasn't changed much since last we communicated.
I think the last newsletter was before Christmas last year. We spent from Christmas day until 8th January (15 days in total) in Australia. We had an absolute ball. Our trip started in Brisbane and ended in Sydney. We hired a camper and travelled down the coast to various seaside resorts eventually ending in Sydney where we spent 5 wonderful days exploring the city. What a great city. All three of us, Irene, Evan and I have fallen in love with Aussie. Australia is a very organised country, everything works and the people are so friendly, and the weather......just wonderful. All too soon we had to fly back to NZ. As NZ citizens we now have the right to live and work in Aussie and are thinking seriously of moving across the ditch (as the Tasman sea is known here) when we retire, we want to become "Grey Nomads". In Australia retired travellers are called "Grey Nomads". They usually travel north in winter in their campers to catch the warmer weather and return south for spring and summer. Some "Grey Nomads" have sold their homes choosing to travel on a continuous basis. There are many "Grey" employment agents around Australia who help find temporary employment for retired people, employment like: Fruit picking, office temps, drivers, teachers and many other types of work.
Another nice
thing about Australia is that it is not far from NZ and is very cheap to travel to, in fact it is cheaper to fly from Auckland to Brisbane or Sydney than it is to fly to Christchurch on the South Island. Now that Virgin (Pacific Blue) has joined the trans Tasman route the fares are really competitive. A return flight to Brisbane, Sunshine Coast or Sydney is under $200.00 NZ, very affordable. One could easily go over for a long weekend. The cost of living is also lower in Aussie than in NZ. No wonder there are more Kiwis leaving than Aussies coming in.Last summer was late in coming, people were expecting a white Christmas, but when it did arrive in Mid January, it arrived with a vengeance. We had lovely sunshine and warm days and evenings right up until May and even now the winter has been pretty mild with just a few very cold and rainy days. The average temperature is around 13c to 15c which is quite warm for this time of year. After five years here, I am not that naive to expect it to last, it will get colder and wetter before this winter is over.
If I've not already told you, I've had to give up teaching as the whole language industry in NZ and, I think, the rest of the English speaking world, has taken a dive. I was fortunate in finding a very nice job in an engineering company. They required someone to setup and run their new planning MRP system. So now I'm their Office Systems Manager. It is a nice stress free, cushy job and I'm enjoying it, although I do miss teaching. The company has built a brand new factory in a small village called Silverdale which is about 40 minutes (25 kullometres)Unit of distance in New Zealand North of Auckland and just 12 minutes from my home. It is great, we move in on the 1st September.
We had a good laugh on Sunday 3rd July. We went to Darren and Manda to fit the new Roman blinds which Irene made for them. Well, with no ladder anywhere in the building, I decided that a knitting machine table on a coffee table would be good enough to get me onto the cupboard which would put me in a good position to fit the blinds to the window. All went well and the blinds were fitted with only minor adjustments needed. It was while doing those adjustments that it happened. I was standing on the knitting machine table when it decided that my weight was not compatible with the knitting machine and slowly split in half. To break my fall I grabbed the cupboard for support. The cupboard, I'm sure, had long ago decided that it was not a ladder and would not support me so it came down with me smashing to smithereens. Fortunately I was not hurt, just a few stiff muscles and a bruise here and there, but the cupboard was a write-off. Needless to say the cupboard has now been replaced with a brand new one and Manda has banned me from climbing on anything that is not a ladder.
The family here in NZ is well. Darren is excelling at work and has finally been awarded permanent residence. Irene is also doing well in her career and loves her job . Evan continues to do well at his music and school. I am content with my job and have started painting again, it's good therapy.
Anyway, please read the rest of my blog hereunder and feel free to browse "My Flickr" pages the link is to the right of this page. Also I would love some comments, just click "comments" next to the little envelope and make your comments.
As always, we send with this newsletter all our love to all of you.
Alf, Irene, Evan, Darren and Amanda
posted by Alf | 4:30 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home