Kiwiagogoland

 I did promise this one a while ago. Although I can't access the gallery at the moment, I can now get the odd image up on the blog. This one is the view from the front of the house towards the mountains. If you want to see the full image, just click on the picture to the left.

Today was Nicki's big day. She has been very nervous over the last couple of days and venturing out of bed at 6am this morning was a monstrous achievement, well for me anyway ;)

Alex came with us as I had to drop him at holiday club after dropping off Nicki, he was really well behaved and was looking forward to his exciting day. The poor girl was there almost an hour early, but settled into McDonalds for a drink. Feedback this afternoon was positive and whilst the next few weeks are here and there with induction programs (causing transport headaches), she managed to scrape a lift home this evening, getting home an hour early.

Hopefully we will hear some first hand news about how it went, over the next few days.

 We really enjoyed the visit to the International Antarctic Centre. The Hagglunds were great fun athough some might admit to being a tad scared if you ask them quietly ;)

The Blue Penguins being fed, were another highlight and the information on the displays were clear, well presented and contained stacks of information for those who were interested. 70 percent of all Antarctic personnel leave from CHCH and we were lucky enough to view the flight deck of the transport aircraft and see the airport fire truck do a demonstration. Strangely fire is one of the the biggest risks in Antarctica, due to the lack of water. It's not rained for millions of years and the annual snowfall is less than 5mm a year! Talking of weather, they also have a storm room, where we all dressed up in thick coats before subjecting ourselves to 46kmh winds and temps of -16C brrrrr!.

Much is made of the regular winds that come around the time of the equinox. The north westers are renowned for howling their way across the country. This year is no exception as we were subjected to 120 kmh winds overnight, which brought down a tree in our front garden. Luckily its smaller uper branches were the only things to come into contact with the house itself, so there was no damage. It could have been worse had it have fallen 10 degrees left, it would have taken out a window.

The wind still amazes me here, not due to its strength, but to the effect it has on the days temperatures. Yesterday in Dunedin it was 15C, but overnight it reached 18C, purley due to the warmth carried on the subtropical NW'er. Had it have been W or E the temp would have been 6-8C and had it have been Southerly, the temp would have dropped to around 0C

This weekend marks the opening of the Christchurch Antartic Festival. The Christchurch Antarctic Festival celebrates the start of the season where the scientists make their way over to the greatest wilderness on earth.

Hopefully the weather will improve enough for us to be able to get to the ice-capade tomorrow, so that we can take a look around the C17, Hercules and other equipment used as well as trying out the Hagglund ride.

The nearby port of Lyttleton (where our container docks) is also playing host to some events and exhibitions as this is where the likes of Shackleton left from.

Just so that you know, NZ goes into DST tonight, so we will be gaining an hour.

Picture the scene.....

Its 6:30pm, you are travelling west, towards the setting sun. The blue of the sky is beginning to pale and the colours of orange, red and pink deepen in the evening clouds. The road is straight, the land flat and a cloud of dust is visible in your rear view mirror as your car moves forward. To your left and right is farm land, edged by tall pine and eucalyptus trees, that act as wind breaks. Every now and then is a cluster of trees to produce a copse. In front of you is the outline of the montain range, greyed by their own shadow, but tipped white by spring snowfall. The view remains the same for 5 or 6 minutes, broken only by 400 yards of housing, just before you turn into the supermarket car park.

Today we have been here for 4 weeks.

Things are very diverse. Already, apart from the usual desktop stuff, there are 2 email systems to maintain, users to create and update, network shares and permissions to assign, printers to fix, ports to patch and antivirus servers to check and update. Basically server, apps, infastructure and workstation all in one. The great thing is that you can have a go at it all.

On day 2 I was congratulated for being a bit more casual (I didn't tuck my shirt in) and tomorrow should be interesting as its dress down Friday, combined with blue day for prostate cancer. The weekly email notice has gone out from the staff club, to remind us that a free finger buffet is available from 4pm, with locally brewed beer and cider from the deep south, available to all ;)

The catering here is out of this world and seemingly heavily subsidised. A cooked lunch is equvalent to 1GBP unless you have a large portion then its 1.80 The coffee shop is unreal and is the equivalent to a Druckers and Greggs the bakers combined. To make up for this, full gym facilites are available (although the pool is being refurbished) but staff membership is equivalent to 55 quid.....a YEAR!

Everyone has been really helpful and friendly and I am fortunate to work with a great team of very skilled and capable people.

Thanks for your cards and well wishes. Work was busy today as they just implemented outlook for the first time on Friday afternoon. Trying to get my head around how they work their antiquated helpdesk system was a challenge. Things are so laid back though its unreal. Dress code: sunny day - shorts, tshirt and sandals.

For my health and safety briefing we went and sat on the lawn in the sun and read through the paperwork, then I got shown a fire extinguisher and a first aid box so that I could identify what they looked like - lol.

The kids seemed to have settled well in their respective schools, although Georgia is now coming out with a sore throat that is going around. Nicki starts work next week and is hopefully enjoying some time to herself during the day this week, while we are all out. The school day seems more relaxed, but they actually spend more time at school as the holiday cover 12 weeks a year (6 weeks summer, then three x 2 weeks at the end of each term. There are no half term holidays).

The dogs have settled well, and enjoyed their time on the beach at the weekend, after their flight. They are in good health, but seem to be constantly on the hunt for food. The only dog food you can get out here is branded - eukanuba, purina, hills etc or fresh meat! We've opted for eukanuba as it always seems to have an offer.


Keep in touch, hope you enjoy the blog updates and speak to you soon

The car has arrived and is really neat. I did wonder why every car has aircon as standard, but after this last week of blazing sunshine, 19C in the shade, means 40 degrees plus in the sun - as I've said before, its sooo piercing. The 1.6L engine is quick off the mark (the only size they do and a bit different to the 1.4 even with the low grade fuel).

All the kids seem to have settled at school. Alex says he has a lot more friends here already than at home, and I think this has been helped by his change in approach to his peers. I hope he keeps it up, but so far he is doing really well and its rewarding him! He's also taken an early interest in basketball - lol

Abigail has been invited to a party this weekend. It starts at 1pm with ice skating and ends at 8pm, after a video and food. After a dilema about school camp next week, she has decided not to go and will spend the time with 4 other classmates, which she currently gets on with really well.

Georgia seems to have made a friend in her buddy, who also lives on the University and she came home today having got full marks in an English project that she was dreading doing, so that has been a relief for her.

Our UK money finally hit our NZ bank account so that has been a pressure lifted to some extent for us as we now have some liquidity. I made a promise back in the UK and I'm still keeping as tight a reign as possible, as we will have no wages coming until mid October. Savings currently equate to an emergency trip home or a house deposit. I am determined not to eat into them and we hope to build on these after 6 months or so.

The dogs arrive tomorrow, which should be a really good boost. Finding things to do within budget during our spare time is difficult at the moment as all our stuff that goes to keeping us busy and occupied has not yet arrived. The kids have finally rebuffed any further suggestions of walks in parks or museums, although trips to the beach still feature as a plus point - lol

As a final update, I sent out an email to friends at BCU last week. I'm not sure that it got throguh though due to the way in which my email is currently being routed, so if anyone can confirm or deny that would be useful.

Time for Abi and Alex to start school in the morning. Both are really excited and love the compulsory 'sun hat' for break times :) They also have the rest of their uniforms and really look the part.

Georgia seems to have had an OK day. With the usual grunts and hmms when asked about aspects of how it went, as a parent you can assume that thats generally fine. Talking of fine the weather has been great. Sunny and warm for the last couple of days. We went to Sumner or an hour today and its really pretty, so when we go again that willl be a camera trip ;)

No show for the car due to late arrival from Auckland, but its been promised for tomorrow.

Georgia started school today at Lincoln High School. I'm not sure who was more emotional her or us, but the good news is that she escaped PE as her first lesson, due to inductions ;)

The school is very proud this week as a current student (who is only 15 and in the year above Georgia) has won 3 gold and a silver for swimming at the Paralympics in Beijing, setting a number of world records in the process.

Today we have an enrollment interview for Alex and Abi at Rolleston and hopefully they will also be starting tomorrow as long as we can get uniform and things sorted.

Fingers crossed that we can also get our own transport today, rather than having to rely on a hire car, as we a re due to take delivery of a Fiesta later today or tomorrow.

Speak soon.
Grant

We said our goodbyes at Birmingham airport after a smooth and quick check-in 12 cases and 5 peices of hand luggage. Emirates were great and we had 50kg each! Security was quick although I had a slight handicap in that you have to remove your belt. No problem normally, but as my trousers were now 2 sizes too big for me it did cause a slight issue (especially 3 times round for each airport).

The kids were great and enjoyed their first experience at flying. We didn't sleep out to Dubai, and the morning air hit you like a wall. Transit in the aircon bus was nice but I found the terminal too busy for my liking (a bit heathrow!) Georgia had an experience with security but they were that quick we didn't realise until after the event. The 3 hour wait went quickly and after being fed (again) on the flight we managed to nap.

Sydney was an altogether better experience - fantastic airport! We were due to have 3 hours according to our tickets, but the times were wrong and we actually only got 40 mins, which was a shame. Nicki got the drugs test this time but we had known about that due to a program we had watched on sky about Aussie customs at Sydney. We felt refreshed and the flight to Chch was now exciting.

Flying over the mountains was an experience and our first view of New Zealand. It was awesome. Landing at Chch, was like landing at Elmdon all those years ago. It seemed small and run down as we approached the "strip" but as you taxied off the runway the buildings got a bit bigger - lol.

We went through security, this time the MAF dog indicated for Alex - lol but all was well and within 20 mins we were getting a transit taxi having been met by my future boss (team leader).

Our first impressions were that the roads are a sort of cross between the continent and the US. There is a weird left turn give way rule that takes some getting used too, but thankfully the roads are quiet in comparison.

We arrived at the house and I think our first impression was that it was dated. Fittings, lights, electrics and the fireplace looked from the 50's and at this point I did begin to wonder what we had let ourselves in for, but we have now got used to it.

My team leader had gone to a great deal of trouble for making us feel at home. He had got the heating on and he had arranged a great welcome pack of tea, milk, fruit and basic provisions as well as champagne (with fruit based alternative for the kids.) I'll get some pics up in the photo gallery soon and you can take a look at our new setting. One thing I have to say is that the campus is awesome, but thats for next time.