Moving house!

No we are not moving again!

But moving house in New Zealand takes on a whole new meaning! To a another New Zealander or even Australian this is something common but not to those of us coming from Asia.

In New Zealand, one can actually buy a piece of land called a section, and then go to a yard and buy a house off the "shelf"! they then transport the house of your choice to the land you own and plant it there for you. Then fix the plumbing and electricity and bingo! You have a house to live in.

Strange but true!

This is a picture of a yard near a town called Bulls north of Wellington!

New interests in New Zealand

Both Vera and I have taken up new hobbies since coming to New Zealand. Probably it is having more quality time on our hands. Vera has taken control of the once forest behind our house which is now starting to look more like a decent backyard. She even had some roses bloom. Her next project? An orange tree in the garden.

As for yours truly, I have followed my dad's footsteps and starting putting my feet into the kitchen. I would not dare say taking control of the kitchen just yet or I may have to starve for a while.

I started with some roasts and my last leg of lamb roast actually was a sell out! This afternoon I tried my hand at baking muffins. It did taste not bad but did not look quite like muffins but more like cup cakes. It was a winner with Anil and Ashwini so I guess it wasn't all that bad!

First DIY Project

Living the Kiwi tradition, yours truly embarked on the first DIY project, renovating the shower! What a disaster it almost turned out to be. Taking the old shower down was a piece of cake but putting it back together again was another story altogether!

This was the good part... wrecking the existing shower...





It cost me $423 all in and three whole days to get it all up as opposed to paying $800 and getting someone else to do it Of course that would have meant I had three days to do something else and the shower would have been up a lot faster and would have looked a lot more professional.

And after all that sweat and pain...



Almost looking good...



But nothing beats doing it yourself!

The grass needs cutting

Back home when the grass needs cutting, it is the friendly neighbourhood grass cutter on his trusty motorcycle that comes to mind. Although there are people who mow their own lawns, it is usually far and in between. Then there are the ones who believe in low maintainence lawn, aka concrete the whole thing! The only tool you need is a broom!

Here, it is the reverse. There are still the friendly neighbourhood grass cutter but they are not a common sight. Almost every home has a grass cutter of some sort. There are the huge buggy cutters where you can sit on and drive around. There are the petrol grass cutters that you "drive" from the back and there are the electric variant of the same sort. Then there are the Malaysian version which is called weedeater. And finally there are the hand powered ones like the one we got.

Almost every weekend, we hear one blaring somewhere in the neighbourhood but since we already polute the neighbourhood with my trusty chain saw cutting firewood, we decided to get something that is quiet.

It is really easy to use, even a 5 year old can handle it!

Holiday in the mountains

Our first NZ holiday. We heard that winter decided to come back for the school holidays. There was massive snow fall in the mountains which is only 3.5 hours from Wellington. So, we decided to go for it before it all melts away.

After about 3 hours drive, the imposing Mount Ruapehu came into view! It was majestic. All that snow was awesome.





This is the highest point in the mountain road called the Desert Road. Just a week ago, it was closed to traffic as it was completely covered in snow. It is the desert road because it is totally bare of any vegetation for miles. I read in a tourist brochure that Mt Ruapehu (which is an active volcano) last erupted in 1995 and the lava burnt much around it.



As we were climbing the mountain to the Turoa ski resort, the roads were starting to be covered in snow. It was a little like a winter wonderland.



And after about 30 minutes uphill, we were finally there! We did all that is expected which included snow sleding, snowman making and the family potrait...just to prove we were there.









If you thought the snow capped mountains were a sight to behold, look at the sunset, which was just as impressive.

Going back in time

We were driving up North this morning and just past Parapaumu we came across this beauty, waiting to fill up and move.



We pulled over, just like others driving by, and took photos. A ride on this beauty will cost about $120 but will definitely do it!

Ain't she a beauty?