Stormer999

That is bad news Chippy glad we took your advice and visited last week

Tom1983

Damn, I love visiting the Maori section and of course the old town area of Canterbury Museum. Thank goodness they'll never close the Botanical Gardens by the museum

One word of advice, if you go to the Antarcica International Centre, get a years pass. They may be $17 more but you get it for the year instead of paying $69 for one visit. It's ok I suppose, not a great deal to do there. The truck ride is fun, the cinema is ok, experiencing a freeze over was good. Oh and they do have little blue penguins but the experience is pointless. You'd be better travelling south to Akaroa and doing the Pohatu Penguin tour. That was a great experience

chippy64

Or you could do this up to 30Jun this year - http://www.iceberg.co.nz/pages/87/locals-deals.htm. $50 for 2 adults and upto 2 children (have checked that it is ok for just 2 adults!) for an Extreme Pass.

scottishstacey

Yeah I was having a look at the antartica centre the other day, I've been to a similar thing before in america so probably wouldnt be in a rush to go. I definitely want to go to Akaroa though! looks great

Thanks for all the info guys, im sure i'll have loads of other questions, im a pain in the ass lol

Stormer999

Akaroa is nice on the return journey there is a winding high road that has good tarmac that is going to get a revisit when I get a replacement bike......when my helmet and gear get here.....

scottishstacey

hopefully your gear turns up soon lots of nice places to visit from the looks of it and thats just in canterbury! then theres lots of other places in the south island.

Stormer999

If we drive a little NE from home we pop out onto beaches that go on for mile after empty mile of sand and dunes.......no donkeys, deckchairs or footballs...

scottishstacey

aww you've got to miss the donkeys no icecream vans either!?

we very rarely go to the beach here because its almost a hour away and tbh not worth the drive, we only take the dogs there for a run maybe once or twice a year. It's not the cleanest and then when the weather is (occasionally!) nice its very busy which I hate.

So the idea of a quiet beach sounds bliss to me! You having a good time over there then? Feels like you've been over a while now!

Stormer999

Yes we lived in the midlands so a trip to the sea was more than 1 day out because of the traffic. We are enjoying Chch and especially the people we meet. We are obviously still in the 'honeymoon' stage but when that actually changes over to 'resident' I do not know. We are in the stage of turning holiday mode into daily living mode and coming over into winter is the best thing that has happened so we can settle into the worse scenario.....cold, damp etc. As I have said somewhere before I made a big list of pro's and con's of UK/NZ prior to departure for future reference to when the human brain starts to forget the bad bits and only remember the good bits giving the 'grass is always greener' especially when wearing 'rose tints' missing 'home' mode.
We searched the UK including Wales and Scotland, Devon, Cornwall, Dorset etc before making this move, went out and travelled Europe by train to see if anywhere gave vibes but no. We had been over here and had a look see and knew what we think will be our new home. My rellies from Wales came over 25 years ago and never even considered a move back, in fact have never been back even for a visit.
The big thing that draws me to NZ is the 'can do' attitude of the people. Lots on here will give you the impression of disliking NZ living but that is normal behavior for forum posting and is a good thing to help prospective 'Kiwi's' look a bit deeper into what is in store for them.
A good NZ friend said to me....'If you like being entertained don't come, if you can make your own entertainment then you'll fit in'......

scottishstacey

Great post! Sounds like you really did loads of research before you made the final move across the world, well done. So your finding the people friendly, thats good then

I would say im used to cold and damp from living in scotland lol so im hoping it wont be much of a shock but who knows. time will tell.

The 'can do' attitude draws me too. Tbh i was a bit worried by some of the negative posts but I realised a while ago thats normal for a forum, everybody has different opinions obviously. I try my best not to believe everything i read and if we come over i'll try to have a open mind

We've had the job contract in, need to ask a few more questions and then hopefully start the visa process within the next few weeks.

Do you know what the job situation is like? just jobs like admin, retail etc. Are you working?

Stormer999

I think the Chch peeps who have been here longer maybe able to help with the job situation, I'm retired and playing the 'housewife' roll whilst real wife works. I have done my time in Engineering in the UK before PRC took it all off them!
And whilst I type this the sun is making me move the screen....

scottishstacey

Ahh i see! I have a look at trademe and seek.com quite a lot to see what sort of things are out there. There seems to be quite a few jobs that I can do so im hoping i'd find something eventually! I'd like to try something new eventually but anything to bring in the dollars at first.

Ooh sun, weathers been funny here, today it was dark and raining and then went sunny and then ended up chucking down with hail! just couldnt make its mind up

I've been having a look at places to visit like Hamner springs, looks good!

BEVS

Good news. Who with, for how long & how much spondoodles $$ pa ?

shirl

We are off to Hanmer at the weekend. Been there loads of times and have a voucher that has to be used by 1st May. You can get a massage there as well and they have just done an upgrade to the pools. It is lovely for a day or two to just relax. Stayed a week once and was bored to tears, we are not the hiking outdoorsey kind so got pretty bored of going in the pools and eating out. However, if money is not a problem I can definitely recommend this place to stay for a couple of nights www.villagelake.co.nz Stayed there last year and had an awesome weekend. Oh and the best time to visit is when it is colder weather as you can imagine when the pools are up to the 42 deg mark and it is a hot day as well it is not very nice! Prefer cooler cloudier days although the run between the pools is amusing to watch to keep warm! Went in the snow once, amazing!

Tom1983

A nice 2 hour drive is the seaside town of Kaikoura. Magnificent place where you can literally be within a metre of a Seal at the Seal Colony. It was like being back in South Africa where the penguins are. I'd do that again and again and again. Plus there's the dolphins, sperm whales, sharks, stingrays and I even saw a cone fish (snail) in the rock pool areas. Amazing little thing seeing a cone slowly move but wouldn't recommend being picked up.