Sorry for the short absence, we have just been settling in and really busy for the last few days, and not had chance to write a message. We are back in Auckland! After searching for suitable jobs, it seems that most of the auto electrical stuff is up here, and we both really liked Auckland so we decided to give it 6 months or so and see how we get on in the North.

I never got round to describing the East coast of the South Island, so will do that quickly before I talk about this mad week we’ve had!

I think I mentioned how rubbish Invercargill was. Such a shame, because of where it was placed it could have been a lovely little town, instead it was quite industrial and tired looking. Even the focal point for the town, Bluff, was a dissapointing. It is New Zealand’s equivalent of Land’s End, there is a signpost showing how many miles to different cities like New York, London, Melbourne etc, but it was just sat on a carpark in the middle of nowhere, with some roadworks around a big hole! We left here after only a night heading about 200km further north to Dunedin.

Dunedin was settled by a group of Scottish Immigrants who named it Dunedin, the Gaelic word for Edinburgh I believe ( correct me if Im wrong Julie and Laura!) The accent here was funny, they had a definate scottish burr on certain words. We found statues od famous scots like Robbie Burns, and the areas were named after their Scottish counterparts – we stayed in a campsite in Leith by the River Leith!

After two or three days of exploring the city we decided to head further up the East coast through a few small towns, stopping properly only to look at the giant boulders at Moeraki, they are formed inside the hill and roll onto the beach after so many years, very odd. Apparently there used to be hundreds of them but the tourists have pinched all the small ones! Yes, I was looking for one to take home but they were all as big as me, and I didn’t think the van was upto it!!

We eventually arrived at Christchurch, which we were both looking forward to after hearing so much about it. It was a lovely big city, which is supposed to be very English. We could see the resemblance to some of the University towns like Oxford and Cambridge. There were old stone university buildings ( now a private school) with kids running round in really old fashioned uniforms ( straw boating hats, stripey blazers and knee high socks… poor things) and you could even go punting up the Avon river than runs through town! The city itself was very modern with a big Cathedral square and lots of good shopping streets. I think if Mark had found a few jobs advertised here we probably would have spent some time here. The only drawback was that the seaside area, where we really want to live was so expensive. The other beach areas looked a little bit run down to us, and probably were due a face lift soon.

After much consideration we decided that we should probably head for the places where the work was to start with, and then we can always come back to the south when we have saved a bit more, or the house markets stabilises a bit ( here the house prices and land prices have shot up unbeleivably in the last few months). I mentioned that we stopped in Wellington ( Oh I love it here!!) but again the job market was a bit poor, so I was sad when we had to leave

We managed to get here in about a day and a half taking it in turns to drive, and stooping at Lake Taupo on the way up. It was quite weird going through places a second time, everywhere has been new to us before that.

Luckily there is everything you could want here in Auckland, lovely beaches out at Mission Bay and in St Helier ( where we are hoping to get a house) and the big city for shopping and nights out, and there are 20+ volcanoes and national parks for walking and picnics etc so we are set up now! The Coromandel area is only an hour or so drive away and just further north is an area called ninety mile beach, with untouched coast and forests etc.

We have come back to the original hostel we stayed at in our first week, in a suburb called Ponsonby, (you can take a virtual tour here!) where all the trendy bars and boutiques are, its really a nice area. Mark has even managed to get some work for the landlady Diana, clearing out and refitting one of the outdoor bathrooms, to pay for our rent, so he’s happily working away in the garden. One of the guys he is working with works in the ship yard here so Mark might even get some work down on the boats which I know he would love!

 I am going to look for jobs today, Im not really desperate for money yet, but I end up hanging around all day doing nothing except eating cakes in all the cafes up here so its time to get out and see what I fancy doing before I gain 10 stone! No solid ideas yet, will just have to see whats on offer really.

Some of the people in the hostel are ok, some not so friendly, its a bit like living in uni halls again, and the kitchen is always a tip which bugs me! Our room is lovely and the bathroom is on our corridor – finally a shower ahh. That first night we slept out of the van in 3 months was like sleeping on a cloud, sooooo comfy.

We have a po box  address you can use, if you want to know it just send me an email and I will let you have it. I think our travelling is paused for a little bit now, but I will still let you know what we are upto on here.

Hope you are all well

love from Gill and Mark

xoox