Fooferfish

First Christmas in our new house in the country, here are a few pics of the place and Christmas day in the sun, awesome, got folks over from UK fro 4 weeks, so great all round.




Daughter and her Pops opening pressies.






Volleyball on the lawn with the rellies







View of playground in the garden from kitchen diner







Kitchen diner, this place is huge, never had so much room.






The wild ducks that visit every day for a feed







So we are having a whale of a time, what a year 09 has been, bloody awesome or as the Kiwis say, " what a ripper "

CAN2NZ

Nice photos. Here, we went to the beach. I have more sun on my ankles and feet than I want and so have been in shorts and no socks since. This is me in the kayak out in the surf on christmas day. It was good fun. This was followed by showers and a potluck dinner with friends. We spent boxing day playing Monopoly and vegging out.

love30stm

great we had a quiet Christmas with just hubby and my girls but New years Eve here we come with friends in the Lovely Napier! Hubby not in pics he dont like his pic taken Lol!!

weejie

Here's some pics from our first Christmas in Dunedin

Boys opening pressies,OH and youngest out in canoe and kayak in inlet,eldest at St Kilda beach,the blue sky above,my OH getting in the Christmas spirit!!!

Phyl x

Fooferfish

Glad you all had an awesome day, Dunners was the hottest place in country,

Off to lake Waihola today for some Jet Ski fun and biscuit towing

weejie

bugger,could have had a meet up as our neighbours are heading there with boat,doughnut thing,kayaks etc and invited us along...........but I am on late shift. Never mind,some other time. Enjoy Wiahola.Weather looks set to be a cracker again

Phyl x

lapsed kiwi

Shame about your forecast for Wednesday - max 13C - Brrrr!

I think I prefer Auckland's boring 20-26C summer days - never too hot or too cold to do what I want

Awesome property you have there and I am v envious of the section - you'd need to be a multi-millionaire to have that around here

Am Loolah

Forecast here for the next 2 days is showers then 25-27 again.

teebrown

Yes our was on the beach too. Took the boat out with the sea biscuit and had a blast. Saw a pod of dolphins in Lyttelton, which made chirstmas for my Mum. Great relaxing day.

shirl

Where is that beach Tee where your kids are on the grass? Always looking for somewhere nice to go instead of the windy beach at New Brighton.

Fooferfish

Lapsed Kiwi


I wouldn't change our weather conditions for living any where near Auckland mate, nothing against the place to many people for us, and over inflated house prices, been there and built house like that in Poole, Dorset, we got this place for $335k

Fooferfish

Yesterday lake bashing, another gorgeous day in the sun.




Me and my daugher





Father in law doing the obsevrver bit






tow time





Slow the speed down with mother in law on the back !!





Not long after this daughter ate water lol

lapsed kiwi

!?! Now I'm even more envious!

Fooferfish

Even better we got a registered valuation that says $395k you wait till we've done the upgrading in the loft area, recon we can get 3 more rooms and a bathroom, looking at a couple of those Velux windows that open out to balconies, fitted one in Uk, so might get them from UK and fit them myself, recon that will add more value.

We have looked at solar,a nd yet to decide on that, would love a wind turbine , but they are soooo expensive, we have ahuge fire in the lounge and it is dying out for a wet back, so will get prices for that, we are getting a heat pump down end of hall for bedrooms, but at the mo even on cooler days, the concrete walls heat up so much and the iron insulated roof, that the insulated walls are roasting, so with a bit of winter sun, we should stay toasty

I have met many Jafa's who have moved down south, as they can sale their huge houses in Jafa land and buy heaps of land down here, and be mortgage free, with $$ in the bank, the south Island rocks.

We were very tempted to keep the house in town and rent it out till prices went up, but we decided to knock off a huge chunk off this place and pay of the small bit as quick as possible, so far this place has offered all we wanted from a house in NZ, so peaceful, rural, no noise, and friendly neighbours, i can sit on me dick and drink more than just a beer, i can now drink in the countryside views.

lapsed kiwi

I was brought up in rural Canterbury so I know where you're coming from

I have to say though that I love the Auckland area for its climate and coastline, it just gives us what we need for our family just now. And it works for jobs. I'd like to try the Marlborough Sounds sometime as a place to live but no idea what I'd do there.
A couple of photos of our Christmas Day picnic site attached. This is a 10 minute drive then a 20 minute boat ride (in our slow boat) from our house. As you can see, the crowds of JAFAs are a bit overbearing but apart from that, the picnic under the Pohutukawa tree was about as good as Christmas gets for me! We even had a bottle of pink Lindauer to wash it all down