Living Like a Small Green Hairy Fruit

North Island Recce March 2007

Left Christchurch about 2pm on Thursday 15 March 2007 for Tauranga, via Wellington. 737 to Wellington then changed onto a twin prop Bombadier from Wellington to Tauranga!

Christchurch Airport

Flying over the mighty Waimakariri River

Leaving the South Island, heading for Wellington

We arrived in Tauranga at about 4.30pm.  We had booked to stay at the Roselands Motel and the owner was picking us up from the airport.  Although it was late afternoon the difference in air temperature was noticeable. It was warm and sunny and humid.  Lush tropical planting was all around but driving down to Tauranga it appeared to be a very commercial area; a very busy port for exports and huge oil and gas installations. 

The Roselands Motel was just a short walk to the beach.  The hire car was being delivered to the motel.  We had a walk down to the seafront and the strip of bars and cafes that ran parallel to it.  In between the two was the cargo train tracks and regular trains would speed through with deafening noise whilst people enjoyed their al fresco meal!  We went to an English-style pub for our evening meal and had a walk around the town; found Paddy's office (our employment agent there) before going back to the motel.

Maori carvings, Tauranga seafront

Sunrise over Tauranga, Friday 16 March 2007

 By the time we'd got to the Bay of Plenty, we had another 2 interviews arranged which was good news.  Out of the 11 altogether we were pretty confident that there would be some job offers, especially as Mark left one interview with a contract in his hand!  But in a way it made it more difficult as we felt sure we'd end up having to choose between North and South Island.

We didn't like Tauranga much when we first arrived.  It was a lot warmer and definitely more tropical and it was all lovely but more for us if it was just the two of us.  Christchurch definitely had more to offer the children.

We had quite a lot of free time in Tauranga unlike the previous 3 days rushing around.  We took Paddy out for lunch to thank him for all his hard work.  He is such a character, very animated and full of funny anecdotes, like when he first dated his wife she lived in a street called Waiwhakemucai ('wh' is pronounced as an 'f' so her street was pronounced 'why f*ck a moo cow'!).

After that we drove out to Rotorua, somewhere that Andrew really wanted to live as he liked the idea of having hot springs and steam plumes coming out of the ground in our garden!  Everyone says Rotorua smells of rotten eggs but it wasn't too bad when we went and you soon get used to it.  It certainly is spectacular scenery out there and we visited Hell's Gate to see the mud pools and natural thermal springs.  We couldn't believe how accessible it all was. The only sign issuing any kind of restriction simply said 'stick to the path'! There were no fences or barriers or tour guide.  And here the earth's crust is so thin that you can feel the heat beneath your feet on the rocky path whilst you walk along with bubbling, steaming mud pools spluttering just two steps away.  There are natural spa/mineral pools there were Maori still go to bathe for the healing properties.  We washed our hands at the waters edge, a very lovely 40deg and such soft water.  There were cooking 'pots' as well which were huge wells of sizzling water where Maori drop whole boar to cook.

Mark, looking for instructions on how to find the entrance to Hell's Gate. Typical! Men never can see what's right it front of them.

 Viewing Platform with bonus of a free facial

Mud Volcano. This volcano erupts without warning firing balls of red hot mud it all directions. After one eruption it grew 6' in height! And the walkway goes right next to it. The wooden strip on the ground marks the edge of the path you must not wander from.  Wonder what the UK HSE would say about that?!

One of the 'cooking pot' pool. The sulphur doesn't taint the meat and the water is so hot a whole boar can be cooked in a few hours. Mark said he can think of a few bores he'd like to chuck in and boil.

Mark doing his 'tongue out' Maori inpersonation.

Although beautiful and very historic we decided that Rotorua was great to visit but not somewhere we would like to live.

We had the weekend to ourselves.  We'd had such positive feedback so far whilst in Tauranga and we really did prefer the warmer weather and the more we saw of the area and explored the shops and cafes the more the place grew on us.  We spent the weekend looking at houses.  Paddy was confident that one particular company would definitely be offering and gave us an idea of the salary.  After looking at some dire places we found an idyllic log cabin at Ohauiti.  It was a long drive up the side of the hill and then we couldn't believe it when the real estate agent stopped at a huge stone decorated entrance to a private driveway with electric gates.  The driveway was 300 yards down to the cabin. It was just beautiful and so peaceful.  The school bus picked up at the end of the road and you could see down the valley to Mount Maunganui.  Quite simply, we loved it. We went down to see a financial advisor who arranged a mortgage and we went back the next day to the 'open day' at the house and made a conditional offer. 

Sadly, although the interview went well and the company offered a job they later didn't win the contract they had hoped to and so they had to withdraw their offer of work.  We had made this a condition of our offer on the house so there was no problem pulling out.

This is the place we would have loved to call home:

The house was surrounded at the side and back by protected native bush where little kiwis lived. When the Real Estate guy told us this, Mark thought he meant very small New Zealand people.

And it had it's own pine forest!

St Patrick's Day; and marching through Tauranga was a band playing, rather puzzlingly, Scotland the Brave!

Sunday was Mother's Day in England.  Michaela and Andrew had given Mark cards and presents to give me.  I got up on Sunday morning. But no cards, no presents. I didn't say anything, I just waited. We had breakfast. I had a shower. Still no mention of Mother's Day. I was drying my hair being very tearful. Mark was like 'what's wrong with you?'. He wasn't in a good mood that morning! I said that I would've thought that if someone's given you something special to do you would have thought they could have relied on you to do it!'.  He went out the back of the motel room to the garden for a smoke.  Light must've dawned.  He'd forgotten it was Sunday and rather sheepishly came back in apologising profusely and hurriedly handed over cards and presents. I just cried even more. The cards were beautiful.  The kids always choose cards with such meaningful words and write their own touching messages too. I really missed the children that day. I put the gold heart necklace on straight away and they gave me keepsake cards for my purse.  Mark rang home from his mobile so that I could thank them and we had a good long chat.  They were really excited and although missing us too, really wanted to know if we'd found anywhere good to live.  After that we went down to one of the seafront cafe/bars and had humungous wodges of cake for elevensies.

Monday came all too soon.  Our last day and Mark's last lot of interviews, only these were in Hamilton which was a good 1 1/2 hours drive away.  They went well and we stopped briefly in Hamilton for a MacDonald's before driving up to Auckland for our flight home.  One, if not the biggest construction firms was so interested that they arranged for their consultant who does the psychometric testing to meet us at the airport.  It is their standard policy that anyone they want to employ undergoes such tests but usually at their offices. 

We had to get the hire car back first and not knowing Auckland at all we were running a little late.  The consultant was very nice. Mark sat one side of the cafe doing his best to give the right answers whilst I got a gentle grilling from the consultant over coffee and sushi.  He was a really nice guy and gave us loads of advice and useful tips.  Mark passed all the tests. So then it was time for a few quick cigarettes, slap on a few nicotine patches and onto the flight home.  Only it didn't feel like home anymore.  We really loved New Zealand and we came with the mindset that we weren't on holiday we were trying the place on for size and it fitted really well.  We were pleased to see everyone again, especially the children, but I'd rather have stayed in NZ and just sent for the kids!