Finding a House, Car and other essentials!

Our New Car!!


The Front of our House


The view during the day


The Sunrise View...not bad hey!!


The main aim of the first month was to have some time to find a house to rent and set up. Unfortunately we arrived in the middle of a rental crisis in Auckland (ie there were no houses to rent!). This meant the prices were rather high and most of them were rather "student accomodation" in style! We did eventually find a place with lovely seaviews and great amounts of space. The only down side to the house is that it is perhaps a little isolated and Rosie has to jump in a car for most things. The children seem to love it and there have been some great games of hide and seek! The other big bonus is a fun little walking circuit through the "bush" which we have done many times with the children.

Setting up the house has been quite fun. Our shipping eventually arrived at the end of April and that has made a big difference to the house becoming a home. "The Warehouse" and "Briscos" (the NZ equivalent of Ikea/homebase/B and Q/ Asda) have been great sources of some real bargains!

The biggest excitement has been buying a car. I know this may sound a bit sad but we went to a car auction to buy a big MPV! It was such a laugh and a real adrenaline rush. We managed to pick up a bargain Toyota Estima (bit like a Praevia) for a great price. Rose did almost bite all her fingers off though!