[MotherBear]

We bought a 6-pack of bottled water (think they were 1.5 ltr. but receipt doesn?t say) for $6.25 in New World. Not knowing how much mineral water goes for in the UK, I can?t do a comparison. As with most things, there?ll be some brands more expensive than others. I?ve got a receipt for Foodtown as well, showing 2 ltrs. for $2.11.

Hamilton is poised to add fluoride to its mains water after protests to clean up its act. I can?t speak for other towns/cities. The first week I was there I drank water straight from the tap, but a couple of days later I had griping stomach pains and bouts of diarrhoea. Perhaps this would have settled had I persevered, but, being on holiday, I didn?t want to spend most of my time on the pot and went onto bottled water. A couple more days and my gripes disappeared. To be honest, I can?t remember offhand whether Taffy and co. drank from the tap, the bottle or a bit of both.

Both in Hamilton (mains) and at our house in Ngaruawahia (rainwater) we had no problems with lathering, so I don?t know if that means the water is reasonably soft.

With regard to maintaining rainwater tanks, I would imagine it would be fairly reasonable if your tanks are in good condition and you opt to have them cleaned less frequently than once a year. Our vendors had said they had the tanks cleaned every year, but our tank man remembered that the last time he?d cleaned them was 6 years ago. They?d also said that they drank the water straight from the tanks without any filters being in place. Good luck to them, I say [smilie=Astonished.gif] . And we haven't even dared to peer into the septic tank yet ...... Let the dust settle on the rainwater issue first, I think.

Sorry, can?t help with the swimming pool though. Perhaps if Zemanova looks in he may be able to give some guidance, as they have a nice one with a sand filter. Not sure if I remember him saying he got a tanker to fill it up initially, then it gets topped up with rainwater. They are in a similar position to us, rural with rainwater tanks.