3 months in ...

Did I really just write that? 3 months? Where has the time gone?

Yes, all that planning and stressing and organising and here we are - 3 months after the plane touched down onto Auckland Airports runway.

Thanks to the efforts of Taffy, we had a car for our arrival (which is still going strong), and in less than a week after arrival I had a job lined up.

We had a very jet-lagged week in Auckland - saw quite a lot of the sights though, and collected our beloved dog from the airport, and then we headed south for our longest road-trip on record.

Arrived at Christchurch 3 days later, and immediately settled into life. Explored the areas, went into the city centre and checked out the beaches - and sorted us out a rental.

I started work a week later, and James started at a local pre-school afew days later. It was quite a relief to get back to a routine after all the upheaval of emigrating and finding our feet in a new country. However, in saying that, never before had I felt so at "home". Probably sounds quite daft, but NZ is really so similar to the UK, but has more of the nicer aspects, that I hadn't realised I'd missed them ... everything is so less populated, there are huge green spaces between villages and even between houses! And the people are friendly - everyone smiles and asks how you are, and seem genuinely interested in your response!

We had arranged our holiday let for 4 weeks - so it wasn't long before we were on the move again. As I was at work, poor Jon did most of the too-ing and fro-ing on his own (well, apart from the help from James and Lauren). We were actually very disappointed when we got to our rental - yes, it had the most magnificent views of the sea, and estuary but it was incredibly cold and dirty. Despite complaints to the agent, nothing very much was resolved, and it wasn't long before we decided that we wanted a place of our own.

After several rounds of open homes, and private viewings we fell in love with a house. It wasn't anything that we had thought we'd end up in ... our original aspiration was a hige lifestyle block, with ourbuildings but the reality was that it wasn't achievable without a sizable mortgage. So, instead we have a beautiful 4 bed place, with a reasonable garden, that I can cycle to work occasionally (12 miles each way), and the kids can be walked to school.

In fact, things couldn't have worked out better as 3 days after settlement day, our container was delivered. What a day that was ... in fact I barely slept the night before as I was so excited to see all our things again. Nothing much was damaged, and despite Jons protests, we unpacked everything that day!

So, here we are in NZ. Our own house, no mortgage (certainly couldn't have achieved that in the UK), and all our stuff. Already we have made a small circle of friends, and for the first time ever are having coffee afternoons, and playdays .. so much nicer than the pub scene.

I, and the kids are now on countdown to Christmas - our first NZ one!! Can't wait :-)