Oh what a month!

Another morning sunrise captured by Eric. I enjoy seeing them on his phone AFTER I am awake, several hours later.

This vantage point is our favorite from my favorite seat in the house. Even with the rain, the view through this window looks like a painting. Especially with the effect of the water running down the glass pane. 

We have reached the one month mark. Amazing how quickly our first month has gone. We are enjoying ourselves and continue to enjoy catching up with so many friends.

Eric spent a little time helping repair a fence. Our friends Henri & Lance have a herd of cows that they take care of. We visit the cows sometimes on our walks. A section of the fence in one of the pastures had fallen over and the grass and weeds had grown up through it. It was on quite a 

steep part of the hillside. But they managed to get up there and with 

the proper tools and some hard work fixed the fence so the cows would stop getting out. 

We also spent two days in the Wairarapa with friends. This is just a quick 2 hours drive from the city over the Remutaka mountain range which is a narrow and winding road. The first road trip with the new car! It handled great and got great “gas mileage.” (Can you still call it “mileage” if it is measured in kilometers? - ahh I guess that is why it is referred to as “fuel efficiency” here.) The place was absolutely beautiful. And had quite the view from the back deck. Their cat Zero liked to accompany us on our walks.

On our way back we stumbled upon a great burger place in Featherston. Vixen Burger -Highly recommended if you are ever passing through.

We also took a short drive - about 20-30 minutes away to see where a friend has been remotely working on a sword he is making for the Skullduggery art show. The place is also an alpaca farm. The alpacas were very friendly and super soft! 

The house hunt continues… We got our approval to purchase a home from OIO - Overseas Investment office. Because we have not been in NZ for the last year, we need permission to buy a house. Wasn’t too hard, more of a formality - a form, and of course a check$ LoL😁

But we preferred this option to renting for a year and then moving again. 

Of the very few homes on the market right now, there is only one we are interested in. We will be putting in an offer later this week and are crossing our fingers. If we don’t get it, then it wasn’t meant to be and we will just keep looking. It is still early in the housing market season here.

Our “stuff” is currently still on the boat on its way here. Due to arrive on the 30th. We are happy to let it take its sweet time as we do not have anywhere to put it yet. We will be having it held in storage after it clears customs until we have a house to move into. 

We continue to endulge ourselves, eating the foods we missed most. 

One of the things that Eric missed was the regular “sausage sizzle”

commonly found out in front of the local hardware store on the weekends. They are basically fund raisers for local groups. And it is a grilled sausage on white bread topped with your choice of onions, tomatoes sauce (ketchup) and mustard. They are not my favorite, but Eric loves them.