WHERE'S BEST TO LIVE IN NZ AND WHAT DO WE NEED TO KNOW: PART4!!!

[AngryBeaver]

Arrgh,had to start a new thread!

Yes,you can get more land in Tauranga. Well,somewhere like Omokoroa or somewhere.Wouldn't want to live much closer than that. And I woulkdn't want to live at he Mount. Lovely as it is. Too touristy,imo.
We would like enough land for a pool (eventually) maybe a sleepout and still enough for a veggie patch and garden for kids. Don't neeed acres +. Wouldn't say no though,if we could afford it! Be nice to have a few sheep or something/

I think Mum would have to fly to Tauranga. So that would be
Manchester-London,London-Singapore, Singapore-Aukland,Aukland- Tauranga
Bad.

justa howws the back? Hope physio was a help,we may have driven past you!
Your house sounds great.
My mums friend lives in Silverdale.She has about an acre with some sheep etc
Wasn't overly impressed at but didn't give it a proper look I suppose,just stopped to buy flowers for Mums friend! Always worth another look

Vviola - what about the afterschool clubs as they cover the holidays I think and may be less activity specific (ie more babysitting) if u see what I mean.

Car seats - we hired from plunket and they were so helpful - all arranged for us and our car hire company picked them up in advance when we landed. They also gave us voucher to buy high back booster they recommend for $50 and it's fine.

VVViola - maybe find out where her friends are going (if they are) . Mine are always more willing to go if their friends are going. IMO the programme is to entice people to register, the activities are not usually compulsory but an option for older kids who need occupying. If none of her friends are going I would ring, speak to them and go on gut instinct. From experience they recycle the same programmes each holiday so you will need to rotate anyway or they get bored and start moaning about going if they are not with friends (my experience anyway). Good luck.

Oh justabout that's no good. You poor thing. Just when things were looking up a bit (I hope the ACC stuff will keep going to help you out. If not, just yell!)

Thanks all for the recommendation of the after school programmes. Never occurred to me. She's signed up for a few days in the first week at the one at her school. They don't do the second week, but it's a bit of pressure off as now I only need to sort out 2 days the following week

Sorry, justa what a pita. You deserve a big glass of something alcholic and a foot rub.
I have tonsilitus AGAIN . It is my birthday today though, so it has been nice. Even though I had to make my own cake! The kids loved opening my prezzies and I enjoyed seeing them happy and excited.
We went to Tauranga yesterday. I think we have decided that's where we want to head for.
We didn't get an offer we could work with on our UK house,and the bitch owner here, rejected our request to stay.
She said she'd think about it, made us wait four days, drove past slowly several times...and then said no! Seriously!

Happy birthday yesterday AB.

Do you like the look of Tauranga more than Cambridge then?

to the mean landlady

Yes, definitely like Tauranga more than Hamilton...which is our nearest city, it's dire imo.
Seems fresh and new and lots of shops. The veiws of the water and the Mount etc. No crowds or traffic, land available,low crime rate....but the only drawback is it's even further to the Airport

Wow...that sounds fantastic! Lucky old you....you do deserve it though so no need to feel x

Oh, Waitakere estate has fab views, we had dinner there once with the in-laws (who spent most of the meal complaining about how twisty the roads up there were, ho hum, no pleasing some folk )

Happy Belated Birthday AB.

Justabout- so glad you had a rest and a treat.

I've discovered the secret to a decent cup of tea. Two tea bags per mug.

Thank you littlest. Has it taken you this long to discover that?! I could have told you you need two bags on day 2!! I'm sure we've talked about it on this thread.."peely waly tea" I just buy tetley now,it's fine,only 1 bag needed!
whatshesaid was it you that started the delivery to NZ thread?

Beautiful day!

No I think it was littlest who started the international delivery thread.

Beautiful day here too, we're going to have picnic lunch in the garden, then my eldest has her second school visit :)

On the downside, I'm booked in for a root canal in 10 days time :(

I have to say I'm having a real day of respect for the NZ education system - or at least DD1's lovely school. We had the book parade this morning, all the kids and every single staff member dressed up, real enthusiasm & a lovely event. May have nearly shed a tear or two at them all singing the anthem (my own anthem has never done that to me, except at rugby/football matches! ).

Then all the year 1 parents were invited to the classroom to have morning tea & look at the work the kids have been doing (and I got adopted by a couple of extra kids whose parents couldn't make it).

And NOW they are all down at the school disco (I dropped DD1 off, and had to come back to settle DD2, and 2 lovely Mums are keeping an eye on DD1 til DH can get down to collect her).

I've just got a lovely warm feeling about the whole school today. Thought I'd share seeing as I've been doing rather a lot of moaning recently

I may also have got pretty good marks in my assignments so that helps my mood

Oh, and as for the 2 bags per cup for the tea, we found even that didn't quite cut it. 5 in a pot worked, but that just felt excessive!

So now I have a couple of friends and family members who send out occasional care packages of Irish tea & otherwise we make do with Yorkshire tea

Sod international delivery and two tea bags! We fly to the UK in 12 days!

It seems to have crept up on us. Now I'm worrying about how to entertain a 3 year old on the flight and where to shop in the UK. It's 3 years since I've been back!

Littlest Do you have an iPad or portable DVD player for the flight? Mind you, they all have screens in the back of the seats now, they must have a kids/cartoon channel on there.

Yes, we have the ipad which DD loves. And colouring books. It's the first time I'm flying straight through so I'm a bit nervous. Last time was when DD was 4 months and we stopped in both directions which just doubled her jet lag. She is generally good apart from when she is over tired which can lead to pretty impressive tantrums.

I'm getting a little excited!

justabout, it's not called Punch and Judy strawberry toothpaste is it?

empathy re root canal...can I suggest you get a 2 nd opinion as to whether you REALLY need it? I had it done,and then found out the dentists I had gone to, were suggesting lots of patients had root canal surgery...they were benefitting from it £££! I met a girl I knew who had gone and got a 2nd opinion and next dentist told her the tooth was fine
Just a suggestion!
littlest I'm soooo jealous you're going home! I am at a point where I am reeeeally missing everyone. Would love to see my friends and my brother and sil and nephew.
And just go to asda and buy loads of crap!
Hope you have a lovely time.
ds1 was3 when we came over...he didn't sleep at.all! But he did watch the kids channel and Cars 2/3 a million times over. It wasn.t half as horrendous as I thought it was oing to be. The worst part was LA airport...and the airline we flew with was pretty poor service wise.
Enjoy!!!

Well the irritating thing is that since I went to the dentist the tooth has not hurt one little bit and it's very tempting to put it off. BUT the tooth has been hurting on and off for about a year and I get that shooting "nerve" pain sometimes in it, it's very sensitive to hot and cold and he Xrayed it and showed me the inflammation in the root. I read up about dental abscesses in untreated teeth and it sounds horrendous, I can't risk that sort of pain with 2 kids to look after.

So I think I'll just be putting off the inevitable :( I've been seeing this dentist about 6 years and he's very good and he knows I hate dental treatment so hopefully will numb me up to the point of unconsciousness...

Ooh, just as I typed that the bloody thing started hurting again! Have to get it sorted out, will only get worse...