week 3 - subtitled "living in a rural area"
 

We've been here a whole 5 days now and thought we would share some views of living on a small "lifestyle" block.

When we first saw the property, we thought that the big tank at the back was a gas cylinder. There is no mains gas in New Zealand because of earthquakes – unless you live in Wellington, which, coincidentally is built on a major seismic fault line. :rofl: However, the agent told us it was our water supply!!! Collected from rain water and ultra filtered into the house, she assured us that bigger families had lived here before and the council had only had to come out and fill it a few times… :ohmy: We find ourselves being more careful even though there are only two of us and 3 doggies, and another downside is that there is a pump in the garage which is a bit noisy, and the water pressure in the shower is not great.

Secondly: gas itself. If you live in NZ you will know this but if not, you should know that a lot of gas hobs have a little gas bottle underneath them. You go to a petrol station to have it replaced. The way to find out how full/empty it is, is to pour hot water over it and where the condensation stops indicates how empty it is.

Thirdly, the rubbish story. We were given 26 free bags for the council to collect. Great, we thought, sorted. Chatting to some neighbours, we mentioned this. Oh how they laughed….. :o the council don’t collect rubbish “this far out”, you have to get a private contractor to supply a bin and collect it. It’s only 20 miles (28km) outside Christchurch ffs

And finally, for now, the post collection. We ordered a modem, but it didn’t arrive. Neil rang up only to be told that it was in the hands of the “rural delivery service” and could take up to a week. Well, this was no good, we needed to keep up with this forum!! However, the next day, a van drove up our (very long) drive. A very nice man got out, shook our hands, and handed over the modem, plus a form so that we could continue to have our mail delivered. On this form was his own mobile phone number, and he explained that quite often it was his wife who drove the van, not him, so her name was on the form too. He also explained that we could leave mail IN the box and he would post it.
Awesome!!

Next instalment– how our dogs escaped from the house, but waited for us in the (3.5 acre) garden , possibly for hours, how I took them for an early morning walk, just around the garden – which took 15 minutes :thumbup: - and how next door’s dog was waiting by our garage one afternoon when we got back, plus going to beach with them on a Sunday, and there wasn’t really anyone else there :thumbsup:

Jan

Re: week 3 - subtitled "living in a rural area"
 

Fab update Jan. Very funny. I feel an 'irish eyes' thing developing.;)

Re: week 3 - subtitled "living in a rural area"
 

Thanks Jan for update & useful insight to the realities of settling in to life in NZ. A funny read and am already looking forward to next installment :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Keep up the good work

Dewb x

Re: week 3 - subtitled "living in a rural area"
 

wicked, also looking forward to the next instalment so is the family, just read story out loud, lol.

Tina. x

Re: week 3 - subtitled "living in a rural area"
 

We filled in the form for rural deliveries last night.

It asked us if we were rural residents, farmers, or ran a rural business. Not sure why the postal service needs to know, but never mind......

Intriguingly the form also asked us for our hobbies and interests. Presumably so that only mail that we might like gets delivered??? :rofl:

Re: week 3 - subtitled "living in a rural area"
 

Is this modem dialup or is there any form of broadband?

Re: week 3 - subtitled "living in a rural area"
 

:rofl: could be, but more likely so they know what kind of future deliveries they might be having to make to your house (tractor, silo, cow, or just the odd normal letter)

Re: week 3 - subtitled "living in a rural area"
 

:rofl:

Another few unexpected features of being "rural"


I let the woof woofs out this morning, so see the staffy immediately charging after two ducks who were in the garden. They can fly, of course, which surprised him no end....

Also, it's sooooooo dark here that we had to buy a mega torch to go out with them at night, in the garden. The staffy (AGAIN) is a big coward and won't move unles to light is shining directly at HIM and his way forward, and not the other dogs :rofl:

The leaves are just coming out on the olive trees - pity the house is made of cardboard :rofl: or we might have even bought it when it comes up for sale next year

Jan

Re: week 3 - subtitled "living in a rural area"
 

This is great guys, keep it coming, we will be moving with our two doggies from big city Manchester to our rented two acres in Invercargill next month, we don't have a clue!

The post thing is really confusing - most people and businesses seem to have a location address and seperate postal "address", a bag or box thingy. Is it unusual to have mail delivered to one's home out there?

xx

Re: week 3 - subtitled "living in a rural area"
 

Hi Jan & Neil
just caught up with this thread......good to hear you are 'embracing' the kiwi lifestyle!!

had any possums on the roof yet?? my M&Fin laws lived in rural NZ in the mid 50's and MIL (89 & 'slightly' confused now!) still talks about 'the bloody possums on the tin roof' ...at first she thought it was an earthquake!!:rofl: just a bit releived it wasn't!:rofl:

can you get headtorches for dogs?! maybe your staffy would appreciate!!

keep the updates coming please!
lol B x

Re: week 3 - subtitled "living in a rural area"
 

no possums on the roof - I think the dogs are keeping them away.

But we do have a rather cross pair of spur winged plovers and their 3 chicks living on the lawn :rofl:. The little dog has come close to being dive bombed by then adults, who are only protecting their babies.
A guy at work offered to shoot them for me. I am, at present, a vegetarian and an animal lover, I do wonder if New Zealand might change my views on killing things tho.......:unsure:

Re: week 3 - subtitled "living in a rural area"
 

Many people have a PO Box because the rural delivery service does not go to their address, I have friends who live about 20k from the nearest main road and all of their mail is delivered to the local hotel where they have a PO Box.

I live in a rural area and have a PO Box in town (which I set up before leaving the UK so that I could direct all my mail staright away) and I have my residential rural delivery.

The PO Box actually acts as an address out here.

Re: week 3 - subtitled "living in a rural area"
 

Aye, all our mail gets delivered to our mailbox about 3km down the road from us. There is a row of mailboxes at the junction of the road where all the rural properties in the area have their own boxes. Our rubbish gets dumped there too, no door to door for us.

Re: week 3 - subtitled "living in a rural area"
 

Hi. I enjoyed reading your post. Just a wee point about mains gas in NZ. Lots of towns and cities in the NI have mains gas. The gas is produced off the coast of Taranaki.( The Maui gas fields ). I think the logistics of getting it to the SI is the major glitch.
Just another wee pointer to those looking at Lifestyle blocks. These are a favourite" sell " of real estate agents here in NZ. especially pushed on those new to the country , who are looking to " live their dream of being landowners ". Lifestyle blocks have a very high turnover - about 2 years.They are quickly sold off again to the next new arrival to the country, often after the last buyer has sunk a fair amount of time, energy and money into their " dream ".
( A Bayleys realestate agent gleefully shared that with me, and I could have / should have boxed his ears ). Take care and I hope it works out for you. I don't wish to be a miserable git , but I think it is worth considering some of the negatives and there are a few.

Re- reading your post, I think you are probably renting ? Anyway, I think that would be the best thing for anyone to do initially before committing to a large chunk of land.

Re: week 3 - subtitled "living in a rural area"
 

I absolutely totally agree with you about buying a large block. However, we are renting just 3 acres to see if the size suits us and we can make a go of it. Conclusions so far? it's a great size. We do not want 10+ acres, most Brits who buy 10 acres give up and go home, as you say. They find they are spending all weekend cutting grass, or they need sheep or something to nibble it.... too much hassle and too different from the UK. A UK employee of mine has 10 acres, and 3 horses on it, but even as a horse lover she says she wouldn't buy 10 acres again. :(

The downside of 2-3 acre plots is they're not that common - and they fetch a premium price as they are more desirable, maintenance wise. We also have three active dogs and its a perfect size for us and them: we can see them in the far corners and they can have all the space they need. We are looking at houses to buy with 2-3 acres at the moment, the land is often cleverly subdivided into a yard, garages, formal garden, grass, maybe a water feature.... then it just looks spacious without being intimidating. :thumbup:

Sorry about the gas thing, I just knew it wasn't common.

We have several things we could mention that are not "perfect" but I thought people would like to see the nice side of living a little bit further away from the city :D It's a lot more perfect as a location than the centre of Warrington, put it that way :rofl: