Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

Just a quick update - we have final sold our house on Park Road. The sale was completed yesterday, the 28th, to our great releif. Bye for now, Rick

Thought you all might like to know a little more about the area of Auckland we are living in, so mainly pictures in this update. Walking down to the end of our driveway, which is about 75 meters and looking to the west gives you this view, towards New Lynn: New Lynn is where we do most of our shopping. It has a mall, the first to be opened in Auckland, other shops around it, railway and bus stations. It is about a 5 minute drive and 25 minute walk. Walking towards New Lynn and then looking back to the east along Matata Street towards our house gives you this view: The main road at the eastern end of Matata Street is Blockhouse Bay Road, which as you can see is a long straight road: Just over the hill (we are looking north here) where the road disappears are some traffic lights, from where you can see Sky Tower. Downtown Auckland is about a 20-25 minute drive outside the rush hour. Walking south along Blockhouse Bay road takes you a roundabout with a small selection of shops, and a sign...

We were woken at 7 this morning by a man hammering on our front door. It was a courier with my passport, now duly ticketed with my residence permit and visa! So now I am legal - I can now live work and study (it doesn't say anything about playing) in NZ. Another hurdle jumped. Rick

Thank you to you all for your congratulations. I went at 10 today and was supposed to go over my contract etc. with Rich (Richard) and maybe do a bit of training. Instead, I read through my contract and then Dana trained me how to use the sales system because Rich was busy and Simon (the manager) was out/hadn't arrived yet (I'm not sure which). So I worked with Dana on the counter from about 11 or 10.45 I guess until 12.30 and was serving customers, which was great, and using Courtney's ID for it because I don't have my own yet. I shelved books for a bit and then helped a customer find and order a book, with a bit of help from Simon who had arrived by then, til 1 when I went off with Dana and Tom (who were going to lunch). Tom is from Scarborough, England, and moved to NZ a few years ago with his parents, I'd say he's between 20 and 22. Dana is one of those people who looks younger than she probably is, I'd peg her at about 25 or slightly older but she looks...

We are now coming to the end of our second weekend at Matata Street. This is the view we have of the mountains through the trees which surround us: After our container arrived on Wed Oct 31st we had more boxes to unpack that you could shake numerous sticks at. We spent much of Thursday getting the bedrooms and kitchen as ready as possible, but didn't spend our first night here until Friday. By Saturday evening we were getting a bit stir crazy with all the boxes so walked to a local school which we had seen advertising a firework display. We knew the gates opened at 7pm, but we didn't get there until twenty past eight because of it not going dark 'til then. There was a queue to get in!! We were stunned, and not longer after we got in at around 8.30 they closed the gates with a longer queue still waiting. There must have been over a thousand people sitting in the school playing fields, facing the tennis courts. Many had come with rugs and seats and picnics. The fireworks star...