Where's Best to Live in NZ and what do we need to know: PART TWO!!!

[AngryBeaver]

Wow,have just gone to post and it wouldn't except it! So have had to start a new thread. Hope everyone finds it ok.I feel a bit like we've all been out for the night and somehow got seperated and no one has their mobile!!
Anyway,this was the question I've had to cut and paste from the old thread:...

Sorry,have had a quick look but can't see...has anyone used emirates?
I think the sky couch thing looks good,but we'd have to buy a couple and that would be pricey.
Dh reckons Emirates are fine,but I don't think he's anticipating how different it's going to be travelling that disatnce with 3 exhausted infants.
He has limited travel experience as it is and the longest he has been on a plane with them is 3 hours. He keeps saying it will be fine,they'll sleep for loads of it...somehow I'm thinking this will not happen!!

I keep wanting to come on this thread to apologise to the new arrivals for the weather. Honestly I have been here 10 yrs and this is the worst summer I have seen. I was just talking to my 78 yr old neighbour and she thinks it's the worst one she remembers .

Never mind the new arrivals, I'm thinking of moving to Oz!

We were planning a trip to Nelson/Golden Bay in Feb but now we might make it a reccie to Queensland.

Normally this time of year my main concern is keeping the dds inside during the hottest part of the day so they don't get heatstroke/burn to a crisp. At the moment my concern is it stopping raining enough to get them out of the house!

That report suggesting we're in for another three months of this made me want to cry. Even my DD is bored of going to Mitre10 and all the museums are busy cos of the school hols.

haha at mitre 10.I;m getting paranoid about going into The Warehouse too often. The cashiers will be like ,oh look it's that weird warehouse family again!
I heard nothing about the 3 month report,please tell me it is wrong? It's bad enough being away from everything familiar..it would be soooo much better if it was nice weather!
Mind you,it's lovely today,got the kids and the neighbours kids in the garden with the paddling pool,sprinklers and water shooters! Lovely

If you can improve on gale force winds and horizontal sleet that cuts your face in half it's fine by me!

Justabout Have you found Briscoes, yet?It has nicer house stuff than The Warehouse! Although Warehouse's dicount choc chip cookies are bleedin' yummy!So,it might be a draw
Gorgeous day today,eh? Was too hot to have the baby out until about 6pm!!

lolly you might want to consider getting a blackout blind/sunshade type thing for brodie? I got one before I came,I think off Amazon.Think it's a kidoo? Everyone has similar here.I would really advise it. Much better than parasol.
Plus,everyone here is very sun-safety conscious,what with the lack of ozone above NZ. The amount of times I've been warned to protect my dc's fair skins! But,several people I have met have had skin cancer.Apparantly it's very common here.

Suncream isn't too pricey though,which is good.
Also,if you ever use Bastiste (dry shampoo thingy to freshen hair!) bring some over.I get it from Superdrug for a few £...went into chemist today...$17 !!!!

Ooooh, a house warming justabout? Northshore did you say, will PM you, I might be tempted into the big smoke as an excuse to do proper shopping. Auckland's not too far but I flipping hate driving over the Brynderwyns, all a bit too twisty turning mountain roads for my liking.

AB I still haven't ventured into a hairdressers since we arrived. I've trained DH to do my roots every 2 months so I don't look a complete slob though...

This summer is flipping crap though isn't it? Everyone I know keeps apologising for the state of the weather. DS makes me laugh as he constantly talks at the top of his voice saying "it's a beautiful English summers day" was funny to start with. We arrived back from our "summer" hoilday today. Lots of fun until we got completely rained out of our tent in Rotorua and decided to come home before we lost of sense of humour. One very large very wet tent is now dripping all over the garage. Bet the sum comes back as soon as the kids go back to school.

I empahise about the Brynderwyns shelscrape. When we came here we spent a term taking ds3 to childcare every (school) day in Ruakaka and then going back to our schools in the opposite direction. So we went over the Brynderwyns 4 times a day for 10 weeks. Still the childcare centre was outstanding and very worth it.

AB - as we were hanging out the Phil and Teds raincover to dry (again) this weekend, DH actually said we'd need to sort out a sunshade net thingy before we go. I'll have a look in eBay. We are all a bit pastey in this family so we'll be factor 50 all the way.

Crown lady coming to quote any minute. I'm feeling a bit hyperventilatey about all the things that will have to get sorted before (if) we leave. Anyone point me in the direction of a good checklist.

Arghh - wee mouse just run out from under the cooker.... God get mr out of this damp mousecave - I'm losing it!!!!!

I'll swap your mouse for a fucking huge black thing that just scuttled past my foot. I rang dh at work making noises only dogs could hear I said it had gone behimd the tv but now I couldn't see it. He told me it was probably sitting on my head. NOT FUNNY

Don't tell me that sort of shit-furry or insecty? Not a roach? I hear they have minging things called weta beetles that are supposed to be massive.

It was like a cross between a roach and a weta!It had the longest antanae I've evr seen,ughghguuh. and it was fast.
Dh was like,"do not splat it on the wall!this is a rented house!"
My response to that?
Spattt!! Squeeeeeeeeeealll!

I inadvertantly bought grapes with seeds in the other day.DD loved them,but unbeknownst to me,had spat the pips on the floor and not told anyone.Next day...ants.lots of ants!

I tell you what as well, I wouldn't ever have a glass of water on my bedside (not that I have a bedside until the container comes!) I would have a flask!Or a bottle. Something with a lid!! Think about it

AB - I have a specific question re your visas - are you babies on student or visitor visas or a mix cos only one is at school yet if I'm correct?

The fecking mice are now eating holes in DS3's Milky buttons

They're on visitor visas as dd is entitled to 3 months education on a visitors visa. We knew/hoped we'd have the p.r visa sorted by then.
Yak,to the mice! But,I'm afraid you'll be swapping one set of pests for another! The rain seems to have driven all the creepy crawlies INSIDE!

justabout Briscoes isn't expensive.Well,some things are,but very often there are sales...and they are FABULOUS!! As lots of people have said to me "never buy anything full price in NZ,there is ALWAYS a sale around the corner!" true

justabout the Warehouse have fairly regular sales too. This is a good site salefinder.co.nz/, you can search for an item and it will tell you which shop has it on sale at the moment.

Curtains get mouldy quite easily here because of all the condensation on the (single-glazed) windows in the winter, a good tip in winter is to open all the windows to let air through the house and dry it out a bit, even if just for half an hour a day or something. Some people run dehumidifiers in winter if they are in a particularly damp house. The curtains in your house may only have been up a few years, I just biffed some that had gone mouldy in our bedroom (the one south-facing room i.e. no sun), they were $50 Warehouse ones and had only been up 5 years. It was cheaper just to buy new cheapy Warehouse ones rather than get them cleaned.

If you do get lots of condensation there is a product called Damp Rid shop.countdown.co.nz/Shop/SearchProducts?search=damp+rid which is like a little bucket of crystals that absorb moisture, you need to be careful to keep it out of the way of small dcs (mine would try to eat it), it's very good on a windowsill to absorb all the condensation and reduce the chance of mould.

I had a look at your blog, do you mind me asking you what brought you to NZ? I know your dh is a Kiwi so was it something that was always on the cards or was it a more recent decision e.g. to be somewhere you could get the house size for all your dses to have a room each. Please tell me to bugger off if I am being too nosey

Cheers whatshesaid have also bookmarked..any tips like that,keep 'em coming! Oh, I was in te rapa the other day at shopping centre and they had a brill sale on in T&T.I got a great quality wide brimmed sunhat,it was down to $4 from$40

All the shops have sales frequently, especially in the last few years.

I've just discovered JK Kids online www.jk.co.nz/, they have stores too but none near me so I've never been to one. I was looking at Debenhams online as my sil is over in a couple of weeks and was asking me if I wanted her to bring kids clothes out with me.

I stumbled across the JK website and looked at the sale stuff, some of it isn't that cheap but they have stuff like cool stripy leggings for $9 and T shirts for $7...I was comparing it to Debenhams and thinking "Actually this is the same price - I don't need stuff brought out from the UK"...

That was a sunhat for dd by the way!