News from New Zealand

It has been 10 weeks since we returned to New Zealand; some days it seems that the time has just flown by and other times it seems that we have been back at home forever. We arrived back to find our wee house much as we left it. The garden needed attention after the winter of course but friends had been by and put supplies into the fridge and pantry, and flowers in the living room, so it really did feel like coming home. With the weather having turned cold in France even before our departure, we knew we were in the right place at the right time.

As many of you know, C already had work lined up for this summer and started back into her job as Languages Adviser to schools in the Wellington region the week after our return. The contract was only certain through until Christmas but she has been really fortunate to be offered a further contract for 2011. This will enable her to work fulltime for the months we are in NZ and still to be able to take time off from June till October for our boating season in France – the best of all worlds! As was the case this year, she’ll have work to come back to until Christmas. Beyond that, things are much more uncertain as the National Government is quietly dismantling the traditional schools advisory services, along with much of the public service.

J has found a job too – in an early childhood centres in Lower Hutt, about 15 minutes by bike from where we live. She works long days – from 7.45am to 5pm – looking after three and four year olds. It’s intensive work but she enjoys the children, the other staff and the fact that she has no responsibilities beyond the end of the working day. She is relieving for a permanent staff member who is on sick leave and has work all the way through until June.

The past couple of months have been really busy on the family front and the next few are lining up the same way. C’s mother in Dunedin had a car accident not long before we came home, so C needed to go down there to visit soon after we landed; her aunt, also in Dunedin, died a couple of weeks ago. On a happier note, we’ve had the christening of C’s great-niece, Lexie, who was born on C’s 50th birthday. That's her on her christening day in the photo below.


We are looking forward to three weddings in the first part of 2011: Lexie’s Mum (Rebecca) and Dad (Anthony) get married on Jan 2 here in Wellington, the day after Lexie’s first birthday; C’s nephew, Pete, gets married to another lovely Rebecca in Dunedin two weeks later and another niece, Carol, will get married in Christchurch on Easter Sunday. To balance out all this time with C’s family, we will be spending the time between Christmas and New Year in Auckland (albeit in C’s brother’s house) with the intention of catching up with J’s children and grandchildren, who all live in that part of the country. We also hope to catch our breath a little… late mornings, coffee at the French Café, kayaking, reading and walks along the beach nearby.

Apart from work and family, our time has been spent putting our house and garden in order, and in catching up with friends. The spring has been unusually warm and latterly, also very wet, so the garden is flourishing. We’re already eating our own courgettes, lettuce and silver beet, with other vegetables coming on a treat. At Labour Weekend (late October here), we transformed a small area of scruffy lawn at the front of the house into a flower garden (see below) and it is starting to get established. We have no plans for major alterations or maintenance work to the house this year (thank goodness!); most of that has been done in the last couple of years. We do, at some stage, want to replace the 1980s mustard-coloured carpet that is throughout the house but that can’t be done without major upheaval and expense. We’ll wait until we are feeling both financially and emotionally strong.


We are already starting to plan for our 2011 season on the European waterways. We have booked our flights there and back, leaving NZ on the 21st of June and returning on the 20th of October. That’s later than usual but we’ve adjusted our plans to fit in with Cs work commitments - it’s worth it when they go out of their way to look after her! We’ll fly into Paris (as usual) but out of Rome as we hope to spend some time in the southern part of Italy just before the end of our stay, when the weather in more northern parts may be getting cold.

Talking of cold weather, our thoughts go out to those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, who are suffering from unseasonably early cold weather and snow. We hope you are managing to stay safe and finding ways to keep warm and cosy. We also hope that the weather won’t interfere with your plans for Christmas, whatever they may be, and that you and your families will enjoy a happy, love- and laughter-filled festive season.