Well apartment really, but its lovely! We started looking around at houses and although we don’t want to buy yet cos of the dodgy house market, we saw this really nice one for rental, at LESS than we were paying for the hostel! All the other ones we looked at were so horrible, with broken windows and in really rough neighbourhoods, so when we saw this we snapped it up!

It is still in Auckland but over the bridge in a town called Northcote. The Address is 33 Richmond Avenue, Northcote, Auckland, if you want to google earth us, I believe you get quite a good view of the roof! ( Which is green!) We are on the ground floor of a 3 storey house, but the couple above live on both the second and third floor. We have a lovely garden with orange trees and a little deck that gets the sunshine. It is just a 1 bed place but it is enough for us to manage for now. I have taken some pictures but seem to have lost the wire that connects my camera to the pc…so who knows!

Last weekend poor Mark got dragged around NZ equivalent of IKEA, as well as a few other places so we could buy our furniture. He was not as excited as me about how much we had to buy ( surprise surprise) but we managed to get some nice sofas and I’ve even managed to borrow some stuff from people at work. All we need now is a fridge ( we are only borrowing one for now) and a tv, so any donations to the fund would be helpful

As we have spent about a million dollars this last two weeks we have done absolutely nothing else, except sit in our little house and walk to the beach ( 5 mins away) I am having to work this weekend to get some extra money together as well so it looks like no dancing or drinking for us this weekend either! Jill, I am as bad with my savings as you at the moment, I have to give it to Mark so theres no chance of him giving it back!

 Still both working at the same place, and nothing much of excitement to tell you. The weather has turned a bit rubbish, quite chilly and rainy, but it supposed to be summer til the end of March so we’ll see. I saw a new piece last night about the starlings in Scotland, and it looks a bit chilly there brrr.

 Hope you all well, I will try to stay in touch more, work have let me have free access to the internet so I will pop in a lunchtimes to say hi! Take care

love from Us

hello again! Not much to report Im afraid, just checking in to say hello!

We have been out househunting this weekend, I think we are just going to get a rental for the next few months until we see the house we want to buy. I am getting really fed up with the backpackers and ready for a change.  Unfortunately the van failed it’s MOT the other day so it has gone in for some work and we have had no wheels. Its not much fun walking a round Auckland in this heat looking at houses! We have seen some really shocking ones today, they look as if no-one has lived there for years!

We have an appointment to view an apartment in Northcote, over the harbour bridge tomorrow night, so keep your fingers crossed for us! Mark has already decided which house he wants but we can’t get hold of the estate agent yet. The nice houses get snapped up so fast we have to get in there quickly! 

Work is still the same, Mark is really enjoying his job, but if we do move across the other side of the harbour I might be looking for something else when my contract ends. I  dont fancy a ferry then a bus ride to work and back every day.

The weather is still hot.It is really humid at the moment, you just feel so tired and sweaty its horrible. I would swap it for a chilly night in Oldham  so I would get some decent sleep! (Maybe just a couple of nights tho!) Last week was Waitangi day on the wednesday which meant we got a day off work (hooray!) Its the anniversary of the peace agreement between the English and the Moaris, so we went off to try out the biggest shopping mall in NZ, and spent the afternoon on the beach.

We tried out a few new bars on Saturday night, and had a good time with a couple of other backpackers that came along ( South African called Tom and an English girl called Nikki) We know all the good pubs now for when Laura and Julie get here in 2010!!

Well thats about as exciting as it gets this week Im afraid. Hope you are all well, I am trying to post some letters out, when I get around to writing them! So keep your eye on the post box!

love from us

xox