in the heart of the waikato

We're back. And right now it feels good. We're enjoying spending time with Bronwyn's parents, and with her youngest sister who has moved up to this part of the country while we've been away. And oh, the weather has been glorious—just the way our English friends imagine New Zealand weather always is, if they haven't been here! Bright blue skies, warm sun, gentle breeze as I sit on a deck chair talking to friends on a cordless phone and wondering why we've been gone so long. The locals have been extolling the virtues of the Waikato (this mid-north part of the country), including this climate, in an attempt it would appear to recruit us. It would be quite a change of plan for us to settle in this part of the country. However, I have a job interview at Waikato Hospital tomorrow, so it's certainly not completely off the table.

Are we home? Yes and no. Over the last six years this part of the country has become family-iar territory, since Bronwyn's parents relocated here. But we'd never seen this area as home in the past. I expect things may hit us more when we travel down to our old haunts of Palmerston North and Wellington at the end of this week. Lots of little experiences show we've got unfamiliar with the place. I have trouble estimating how much things will cost, am constantly taken aback by the prices, only to realise it's about the same in relative terms as we were paying in London. The banknotes seem so small. The (silver) coins seem so large. There are no copper coins! (Thank goodness.) We notice New Zealand accents everywhere; sometimes miss spotting when someone is English. An English person (who admittedly moved here when he was 12) asked me yesterday if I was English! May have been biased by life circumstances though he was referring to accent.

We're on the move. People are asking us where we're going to settle, and the straight answer is we still don't know. But wherever we have to get to, we've got the wheels to get us there! With the assistance of Bronwyn's parents we'd purchased this beast before we'd even arrived back, and having seen and driven it now I've no regrets. This car rocks. It's a Ford Mondeo Ghia 1999 station wagon. You can see it comes with big grin for the driver—what the photo doesn't show is the heated leather seats, the six-disc CD stack, and a 2.5 litre V6 engine that will have us cruising up and down this country no problems. However, with the tank three-quarters empty the other day I filled it up, gulping a little as it hit 55 litres of fuel, emptying my wallet of cash at a tidy total of $69.80. Yikes.

Though they were valid for the two years we were away, In an ironic twist of timing our EFT-POS (British translation: SWITCH) cards expired last Monday. New ones were sent in the post, but are currently in the wrong part of the country. The next few days will mostly be filled with sorting such details... banking, our new internet access account finally being activated, getting our mobile phone(s) sorted. And, of course, pursuing that right job. Because, fun as it is, this “holiday” has to end eventually.