Hi from the Millards- welcome to this weeks episode of events. We have had a busy week so we have not had chance to do much sight seeing. So not much to report. We have had lunch most days in the city centre, this is so martin can get used to the views he will have to put up with when he is back working again and having his sandwiches!



This is the bench he intends to sit on each day! As you can see its a lovely city, there is lots of areas for the kids to run about. Sam and Joe enjoying each others company. Yes I know thats a sight very rarely seen!


We bought a car this week so we could return our very thirsty 4 ltr hire car. we have bought a Rav 4. Here is a picture of it ( not very interesting I know - just the same as a Rav 4 in the UK)

We have also bought some land this week. We have bought a large plot over looking the Kaimai mountains on a new development. We have spoken to several builders to get some ideas of what sort of house to build on it. We are going with the single storey option that is so popular here. Apparently New Zealanders dont like 2 storey homes so we are going with that option as we have to think of the resale value.
It will take 7 months or so to plan and build so we have been looking around for rental properties near by so we can get the kids in the Omokoroa school.
We will still need for our permanant residency to come through before the kids go to school . So as you can imagine I will be putting pressure on immigration to get that sorted before I end up sectioned and in a straight jacket!!
Think the next things is to get the kids joining some groups in the Omokoroa area so they can meet some new friends.
So this weeks project is to find a rental house and some kids activities to join.
Will post some pictures of Mount Maunganui this week so you can see where we are staying. It was too misty today and the top of the mount was missing.

We have now arrived in Mount Maunganui where we stayed at christmas. It is a beautiful place, full of surfers and coffe shops. 'No worries' and 'good onya' being the catch phrases. We have rented an apartment up in the oceanside twin towers for the next month. Its a fantastic apartment with lovely views over the peninsular. The surfers beach is on one side and the other is a quieter side with more boats and a harbour. Its great for the kids, we have been able to stroll along the beach in the evening and walk across to a little piece of land that gets the last hour of the sun to see the beautiful sunsets. Its awesome!


We have been looking around for schools and areas to live. We had a look at an area called Bethleham but decided against it as we thought we would have got too many visitors at christmas!! The area we have decided on is Omokora, its a beautiful area with fantastic views, the schools are great, there is a deserted beach( above - yes this is winter) with a sailing club that the kids can join and learn to sail. There has been a recent crime wave here with 1 house burgalry this year where the complete list of stolen contents had been lisited on the front page of the local newspaper. It is a big area but with a lovely village atmosphere about it. It is defintley the place for us.
Martin now has a job - he will be working at a printing company in town, its about 30 seconds from several coffee bars, 50 seconds from a pub and 1 minute from the harbour. So Martin now has his lunch hours planned! Not sure how much work he will get done in the afternoon!
We can now start making a few plans and are currently looking at possibly buying some land and building our own - not sure if we are brave enough yet. Will keep you posted on that one.

We have been to the zoo in Hamilton which was great, the kids loved it and we have lots of photographs of every animal in every position possible. Just posted one of a baby rhino and Jess.


Oh and another one!

We have now started our journey south in the quest for employment - we have decided to go Tauranga to have a look around there. As its a 6 hour journey south we stopped off for a night in auckland. Today we decided to go up the skytower, which was very high to say the least. Jess and martin were jumping on the floor windows loving it whilst Sam,Joe and me were timidly holding on to the hand rails looking over. Jess wants to know when she can have a go at the sky diving! We can see we are going to have to watch 'no fear' Jess!!

We visited the Kiwi farm which Jess has been desperate to go to since we arrive back in NZ. We managed to see them in their environment. Sam and Joe enjoyed the gecco's the best although they were disapointed that they didnt get to see them lick their eyeballs.

We visited Ocean Beach which is about 10mins from the house. Its not bad for the middle of winter! There was one man on the beach who was walking his dog, he was about 75 and would you believe born in Sheffield - Small world eh??

This is the plane we travelled up on and yes you can see the pilot. This was the actual width of the plane, 1 seat each side. It was definetly an experience. Jess couldn't stop laughing. It was really noisy but Sam still managed to fall asleep!!
If you come to visit you mustn't drive from Auckland, this plane journey is a must.

Episode 1

Hi from the Millards. Just wanted to show you all the awful view we have to look at everyday!! The photo does not show you the very big drop down to the beach though. The kids love the walk down there as its a big adventure. We are settling down well, things are a bit chaotic at the moment as we are busy dropping CVs off and opening bank accounts, the boring stuff. We have been up the coast to Kerkeri and russell, both are very beautiful and we would be very keen to settle up there. The journey here was a very long one as we had to stop off in Dubai for 10 hours which I wouldnt recommend especially with 3 kids!!