Fledgeling Beginnings

Well we're starting to settle in, I'm not thinking like I'm going to go home to Horokiwi any minute now as I was the first few days. Impressions of Canterbury: signs of agricultural activity wherever you look, wide open roads with little traffic, people acting like they own the place (and they probably do), shorts and rugby shirts, grunty cars with drivers who make poor passing decisions, good cafes (jay), wineries and good food (more jay), lots of ladies who obviously shop at Ballantynes and kids having a ball because they have all the freedom in the world.

The last couple of days have been productive with having made a good start on our stable abode despite persistent on / off drizzly rain.  Steve is building the stable with my cousin's husband Ross: a great partnership between the yin and yan with plenty of humour thrown in.  The instruction to the kitset are somewhat lacking in detail so we're very much in the two brains being better than one category (supported by good coffees from the cafe at the end of the road: Blue Duck Cafe).  I've got a special VIP tray for in the car!  Steve's got his head around the engineering.  Just as well we saved all the mooring lines from Manaia.  It was rather involved.
 

Those good old mooring lines pulling everything into place...

Getting the boys to see the value in following instructions...

The kids have got a sense of purpose and confidence about them I hadn't anticipated.  They're really happy. We hardly see them all day, just so busy adventuring building castles, moats and / or getting involved with what we're doing.  I think they're just happy that we've reached an end point now.  And they're really excited about going to their new school.

I had an interesting experience today where the guy in Mitre 10 Mega made the effort to genuinely thank me for the effort our family has made to relocate down to Christchurch and help with the rebuild.  I've got to admit I bawled all the way out to Motukarara.  It's not that I want a medal.  It was just so nice to get some recognition for our effort given that it hasn't been easy.  Most people say WTF are you doing moving to Christchurch: so you feel like you're swimming uphill and alone all the time.  While we're here by choice, we've made sacrifices.  So thanks Mr Mitre 10 Mega.  You made my year. 

Speed demon.