WHERE'S BEST TO LIVE IN NZ AND WHAT DO WE NEED TO KNOW:PART 3!!!!(HOLY SHIT!)

[AngryBeaver]

Can you believe we've finished finished off another thread? Jeez we can talk!!
Just an update..we've found a nice double glazed,4 bed house,with nice garden. So that's one stress off the last.
Hilongwhitecloud

Sorry to hear that Justa. Poor DS1.
And happy mother's day everyone. My mum is here and has coralled children into cups of tea and cakes and cards - more than DP ever manages - so its been rather good.

Happy mothers day everyone!

Justabout- sorry your DS is in such pain. Hope they look after him.

Lolly- I think kiwi's might find it hard to understand the walking thing. Last winter it rained solidly for weeks and it could be pretty miserable for the boys walking round in the rain. Hope you find someone good.

littlest - we walked everywhere in the rain in the UK but I am finding the notion of walking is quite an alien concept here. To walk more than one block is seemingly a no no.

So the nanny saga continues. She's been texting inferring she wants the job again bless her. Argghhh...but I have a nanny coming to see me tomorrow and he can't drive and he is quite happy to stomp about on foot with my phil and ted's as he's from the London and urban like me. Sounds highly qualified so god hopes he likes us. I shall let you know how it goes.

And the biscuits saga also continues....Arnotts seem to be a better brand than griffins if tim tams are anything to go by. Yet why do they put cinnamon in their cardboard dsigestives? Justabout - please pm me any biscuit receipes you have - I am at the end of my biscuity tether

When we first arrived I would have a wee wander round with a map - that's my way of getting to know a place. People kept offering me lifts between shops. They didn't quite get that I was doing it cos I wanted to. And I like to be green. Here people like to drive INTO their houses.

Hope the London guy works out.

We're off to Welly next weekend. I'm so excited. Any Welly folk any suggestions on what to do with a toddler in the city?

oh Welly...now I'm not a Welly person (or a kiwi as you know) but Te Papa is AMAZING!!! I could have spent all day there and went with DS1 when he was 17 months and he also loved it.

can you pm me the ginger and buttery ones. If I can stick icing on the top then everyone's happy. How come the biscuits here are so bad?? Has no-one noticed?

Re Wellington - locals may have more suggestions but can also give a big thumbs up for Te Papa, also the cable car to the botanic gardens.

An you are right, don't know why but biscuits suck - do like Tim Tams though. We tend to bake our own as well.

Not sure if this is of interest to anyone thinking about the move to NZ. They are suggesting limiting mortgages to those with larger deposits. I'm not sure quite how people are supposed to save for a deposit when rents are so high though!

www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/6911301/Mortgage-rule-move-will-force-buyers-out

I suspect the biscuit thing is a case of comfort food that you've grown up with and you don't know what you don't know! I can't say I'm particularly fond of British biscuits, I'll buy M&S tea cakes sometimes cos they are a bit like mallowpuffs, Jaffa cakes maybe once a year and scoff them in a day but not bother for another year, DS gets tesco own brand chocolate chip but I do bake quite a bit, hate the on-the-shelf cakes from the supermarket with the massive best before dates - cake should not last more than a week, that's just wrong! So yeah I'm in the same position which proves very unscientifically that British biscuits arent the holy grail of biscuits but I'll melt into Toffee Pop and savour every crumb :)

My preschool mum friends really like my ANZAC biscuits, could be worth a try if you like oaty chewy biscuits?

justabout hope ds is feeling better today.
febes hi again!
bobbish get in, love getting unexpected winfalls!
lolly Can't believe you're saying "bless her" about Miss Dithery Knickers! I would be mighty hacked off at this stage! Look at you getting a Manny,very modern!!
My friend here gets FREE nannies! Well,I think they are nannies in training,but she thinks they are great. They can live in (hers doesn't) and she reckons they are "raw but ready to learn"

We have moved into our new place. Boxes everywhere (again).
Had my 8 week scan today. Good heartbeat,but the sac is surrounded by blood.So it could go either way. Pretty stressful time. Could do with my Mum to cuddle

Ab fingers crossed for the pg.

lolly I have to agree with AB about the original nanny, I worked in childcare for years and met some unreliable people (same as there are in any job I suppose) - if she's messing you about before she's even started, I wouldn't be giving her lots of chances.

justabout how is ds1?

I agree about the biccies, it's what you're used to - I don't think of biccies here not being nice! The Select choc chip cookies (come in a cardboard box) from Countdown are a fave here.

My suggestion for Wellington is Te Papa too though I'm sure there's loads of other places. I've never been there with kids though.

Yes, would go along with Justa on the biscuit front. Lots of so-so ones that are cheap. Need to fork out for yummy ones.
Good news re. school response Justa.

Welly for the weekend - cool. Well if its good weather (hardly ever) then its nice to wander through Waitangi Park - watch the skateboarders, vege market on sunday, little playground, round oriental parade, ice creams, another playground, little beach for paddle or just looking at etc.
Or the gardens is nice too. Can take cable car up to the top from Lambton Quay and then wend your way down.
Then Te Papa obviously, but can be mad on a rainy day.

Fingers crossed for you AB.

Fingers crossed for you AB.

As for the biscuits, it's totally about what you grew up with. I'm a Kiwi and when I moved to France (where all the food is basically a lot better :)) I still craved my Kiwi biscuits for the first few years and pigged out on them whenever I went home. Now that I've been away longer I can't stand them any more!

Thanks all x

Yep, fingers crossed for you AB. Glad the move is over- it's always good to have these things tackled.

DD seems to be having some sort of sleep issues cos we've taken the side off her cot and got her a duvet. I feel like I have a new born again between her recent colds and early waking. Maybe I'll stay home and sleep and send her to Welly with DH.

Welly - a plug for Wellington Zoo! Beaches up the Kapiti Coast are nice but might be stretching it to expect beach weather this time of year! You can get a train to Paekakariki and wander down to the beach via a nice cafe. Or train to Porirua and go to Pataka Art Gallery (nice cafe) then across the road to the Acquatic Centre and/or pop round the corner to Pirates Cove mini-putt (not very Welly-specific though). If you have a car, drive round the south coast and Mirimar Peninsula, stop at great Cafe or two, and amazing views of south island. Or drive around to the village of Eastbourne. Hard to beat the classics though as mentioned by others: Te Papa, then up Cable Car, walk down through Botanic Gardens via playground and duck pond then wander down Tinakori Rd in Thorndon past antique-y type shops (beware though that many of these are closed on Sunday for some unfathomable reason), turn right at Hill St and you'll come out at Parliament. Actually a tour of Parliament (free) is quite worthwhile too - not sure if they do them at weekends though.
HTH!

Oh AB - thinking of you. Do you have to go back for another scan por anything?

So the nanny/manny was fab - a total professional who was very enthusiastic but he has another offer - quite a different job with much older kids at less hours but I should imagine better paid than I could pay him. We shall see. I see another 3 people this week. Feeling totally worn out by the stress of it to be honest but I'm hoping by the weekend I should know what I'm doing.

The rain made our TV stop working. DH saying we should buy candles and torches. Seriously should we think about buying some kind of survival kit?

We have an emergency kit in our basement with loo roll, water, a mini cooker, sleeping bags, plastic bags (for pooing in) etc in our basement. It also had rice etc in it but we got mice. I've now keep the lid on! It's quite handy really cos we often run out of rice, baked beans and can just raid the kit.

We don't have any kind of emergency kit. We do have a wind-up torch but it came free with a bottle of rum.

Ha ha! Maybe we need to add some rum to the kit. We put it together after that tiny quake in Mission Bay. It felt like someone had driven into our house!

whatshesaid - I'm on your wavelength. Think I need to step it up though as the batteries have run out on the bob the builder torch we have (the only torch we have). DH works with various power companies and keeps telling me how unreliable they are.