moving in

Hi Sarah here!
this is my virgin voyage on blog! Firstly I'd like to say Happy New Year to all who have logged on so far! Secondly thanks to Shelley whose idea it was to set this up.
On the 9th we moved into to a school house connected to Gareth's school in Taumarunui. It has 3 bedrooms, a nice garden and is in a tidy, quiet street.For girls and gardeners( there are tree ferns, hydrangers, umbrella trees and flax outside the kitchen window, and Dahlias and Rosemary as well as unidentified at present fruit trees). The decor/ soft furnishings are very dodgy but for $90 a week we can't complain.
Since moving in we have done several day trips, a weekend away and a five day holiday.So lots to tell you!
We bought a book of walks in the local area which has been great so far. We drove to Lake Taupo(1 1/2 hrs) and picked up some essentials for the house, as we are still waiting for all our stuff from the U.K. to arrive. Another day trip to Te Kuiti (just an hour!) took us to another Warehouse store (for those not familiar- a cross between matalan and tesco). On this day we picked up afridge which after buying it we discovered didn't fit that well in theboot of our car! With a bungy holding the boot down and 75km of mountain roads to negotiate it was quite a tense drive back!!
We drove to New Plymouth for the night, travelling along the Forgotten Highway (imagine Jurassic Park!) and then back via Waiau Estate( v. nice winery) to Taumarunui along over 100kms of unsealed roads (no petrol stations) the fuel light was on for the last 50km another interesting experience!
My scan was on the 16th(21 weeks) one healthy baby to report.
Next we took off to Rotorua where we had a great couple of days and some fab weather.We visited the Tamaki Village, to learn more of Maori culture. We also caught the sky gondola to catch a great view over Rotorua and visited The Buried Village ( an entire village buried by the Tarawera volcanoe). There was a rowing regatta going on at nearby Blue Lake, one of the competitors confirmed what I already suspected ...that I was about an hour and half drive from the nearest Rowing Club. I think I'll have to find another way of getting back into shape after this baby!
Next stop Mt. Maunganui in the Bay of Plenty. The weather was amazing(30 degrees) and the surf was up!So we just chilled out withSANDwiches on the beach. We did a good reccie of the area, as this was originally where we intended to settle....Jury is still out on that one.
Returned home today, the modem has finally arrived and Gareth has got us set up. Apologies for not being in touch earlier and then mammoth news session. short and sweet next time and with pictures!!!