Mothers Day

Mothers day started with netball practice this morning, way too early as we had to be at the courts by 8.30. Thankfully the rest of the day was much more relaxing.

As it was Mothers day, I had the choice of activities this Sunday, and I chose to go to my favourite place for a stroll, Queen Elizabeth Park in Paekakariki.

It was chilly but still stunningly beautiful as always. 

The other half has decided to try and make a lamp shade out of the drift wood. Beautifully soft, white polished drift wood is found in abundance on this beach. So this morning we collected armfuls of suitably interestingly shaped wood to bring home and sculpt.

The coastline here is being eroded at quite a fast pace. The sand dunes have already moved back by at least a couple of metres in places since we have been in New Zealand. I should probably stop the kids from adding to the erosion by climbing them!

I was treated to lunch at my favourite cafe the Perching Parrot. The food here is always tasty and I love being able to sit outside and watch the world go by.

All in all, I have had a wonderful Mothers Day and we ended up with a very unusual new light fitting in our bedroom thanks to the drift wood!

Cuba Street and Trips to Alternate Dimensions.

Weekends at the moment tend to start with a couple of hours standing in the cold on soccer fields cheering on one or other of the girls teams. So following a couple of wind swept hours this morning we headed into Wellington to explore one of our favourite spots for hunting out odd and unusual things to fill up our new home.

If you have not yet been to Cuba Street I thoroughly recommend a trip. Its full of weird and wonderful shops selling the useless items that you discover are vitally important when turning your house into a home. A nodding cat and bird coasters are examples of the must have items we came back with today.

The street reminds me of a cross between some of the shops found in The Lanes of Brighton and the charity shops in Oxford. A great mix of over priced vintage clothing, designer jewellery and imported Japanese goods.

It also has quite a number of really good second hand book shops. We always loose a couple of hours in these every time we visit. Books are oddly expensive over here and so second hand book shops are very popular with those of us that still like to have the real thing as opposed to electronic versions.

I can't remember which author it is that mentions second hand book shops being portals to other dimensions but I always think there is something unnerving about book shops. It all the thoughts and emotions contained within the pages and in such a confined space. You always seem to loose track of time in them and spend far longer there than you intended. Anyway, this photo taken in the shop today came out very strangely. Proof I think that there is something very odd about book shops!



After a good bit of retail therapy a bit of refueling was required and there is no place better than the Southern Cross. Great food, lovely atmosphere and entertainment for the kids. A good place to while away a few hours and people watch.

The Continually Increasing Cost of Living.

Just been around our local New World (the equivalent of Waitrose or Sainsburys, likes to think its a cut above the other supermarkets) and was shocked that I managed to spend over $110 on just "a few little bits" that I needed to pick up.

 I had been watching the news reports complaining about increasing prices and had filed it away in the part of my brain labelled "things I'm not very interested in". However today it hit home that food prices really have gone up and perhaps I should be looking at the prices of the items I am blindly chucking in the trolley. Its not just the food prices that are going up over here. The price of petrol has been steadily increasing since we arrived and our electricity and gas direct debit has been sneakily going up each month. Although that is more likely to be because I have been having the heater in the lounge on constantly the last month or so, as I resent the fact that if I don't I have to wear so many layers of clothing it becomes difficult to move.

So I thought it would be a good idea to do a bit of a review of food prices in this country. Well over a year ago I posted a cost of food comparison between the UK and New Zealand. I think this now needs updating. So here is my shopping list from this morning and how I managed to spend $110 in about 10 minutes.

ACT popcorn. 1 packet $2.35

Toilet Duck $3.99

6 Eggs Free Range  $3.05

Friskies Cat Biscuits $7.06
30 Sandwich bags $3.44
2 loaves of sliced bread $8.52

Listerine mouthwash $8.77

Pack of 4 Cup of Soups $2.67

Porridge Microwavable Packets $6.84
Toilet Tissue 18 pack $9.99
Tinned Pineapple chunks $1.29
Raspberry Jam $3.25
Ricies Cereal $3.68
Twisties crisps $1.99
Cheerios Cereal $5.36
Whiskas cat food $8.33
Lean diced beef 0.350kg $5.95
Beef mince 0.378kg $6.42
Meadow lee margarine $ 4.14
Butter $5.99
Grapes 0.334kg $3.34

Please don't judge me on my healthy eating habits! Based on this we live on a diet of beef, grapes and cereal. I can assure you we do eat a reasonably balanced diet and I stress this is a just a few bits I needed to pick up. Honestly!

Anyway I hope this proves useful to anyone out there looking for information on prices and cost of living out here. At the moment it seems to be increasing and I think I need to start keeping a closer watch on what I am spending whilst going round the supermarket. Instead of trying to think what would be the quickest dinner I could produce so that I can stop the kids moaning at me and proclaiming that I am starving them.

In order to save some money we opted to do our own baking, which is much more fun than simply buying cakes from the bakery. Even if it does make a lot more mess.