The Real Stonehenge!

It's the school holidays over here and since we are currently saving for a visit back to the UK we are rather unusually staying at home this half term. So we are exploring locally and decided to take trip over to the Wairarapa for the day. It poured with rain and having had lunch and been somewhat disappointed with Martinborough we ended up at Stonehenge Aotearoa.

I assumed that this would be an attempt to reproduce the original motley collection of scattered stones as they appear next to the busy A303 in Wiltshire, only in someones back garden in New Zealand. I was wrong. The New Zealand version is truly a labour of love.

Not only is it set in stunningly beautiful (and on the day we visited spookily mist covered) landscape it is constructed to accurately track the stars and changing seasons.

The website below explains it far better than I can. I would really recommend a visit and spending a good hour or so chatting to the owners (providing you don't have a fidgety five and eight year old with you). They are experts in this area and have a wealth of interesting information to browse through. We will be returning for the mid summer solstice which should be quite spectacular.

Stonehenge Aotearoa

Looking up to the heavens - unfortunately it was way to cloudy to see anything!

We will be returning along with the Druids and other fairy folk to see the henge perform in the way it is meant to in the sunny weather.

The difficult search for a rental in Wellington

We arrived in Wellington on the 27th of February and had booked a holiday cottage for the first 12 days. DH had the first three days off and then was due to start his new job on the Monday. We rather naively thought we could find somewhere to rent in that first weekend.

We had tried to plan ahead as much as possible and had contacted letting agents and set up references before we left home. We had managed to book a couple of viewings for that first weekend and set off to have a drive around Wellington to see what each area was like.

Wellington is a beautiful city. We decided its a cross between Swansea, San Francisco and Balamory. The view as you drive along the highway past the bay and towards the city is breathtaking and I don't think I will ever get tired of seeing it. Much of the city is built into the side of the hills and there are many different styles of house clinging to the sides of the valley. Most of the houses near the centre of the city are of the old wooden colonial style and very beautiful. Its a very different style from UK towns and city's and you are hard pressed to spot any brick built buildings until you get into the centre of the city. Some of the parades of shops in the suburbs look like something you would expect to see in an old mid western town in America.

The picture below was taken from our holiday cottage which was located in Thorndon about 10 minutes walk from the Parliament buildings. It was one of these old colonial style cottages and needless to say this area is quite expensive to live in and way out of our budget.

We had been advised that some of the nice areas to live within commuting distance of Wellington were Karori, Ngaio and Upper and Lower Hutt. We spent our first Saturday in New Zealand frantically driving round these areas to see what they were like and waiting in vain for a letting agent to turn up to show us around a house.

By the end of our first weekend we had narrowed down the areas we were prepared to live in but still had not seen a property we liked. With DH starting work on Monday it looked like I would have to drag the girls around to look at properties during the week.

When looking a properties in New Zealand there is one major problem that you have to look out for. As most of the properties are wooden you have to check for damp. Normally this is very obvious to spot and I ended up looking around quite a few that had that musty smell as soon as you walked in the door or wallpaper that was peeling off the walls. You also need to be very suspicious of any fresh paint.

By the end of Wednesday we were all getting a bit depressed as we had yet to find any property that wasn't showing signs of damp, peeling wallpaper, rotten wood or was too remote and difficult to commute from. There was one property that I don't think I will ever forget looking around as it left me feeling quite traumatised!

It was in a lovely area of Karori so we were both quite keen on it. However as we walked up to it you could see that it wasn't very well maintained on the outside as the paint was peeling. We thought it might be better inside, it wasn't. The floor in the kitchen was slightly wonky and the kitchen was grubby and old (although bizarrely it did have a brand new dishwasher). Then when we walked in the bathroom the owner proudly displayed the sunken bath. Well is was definitely sunken, it looked like an ordinary bath that had just fallen through the floor and they had decided to leave it there. Its very difficult to think of something nice to say to the person who is showing you round when faced with this. So I think in the end we just mumbled something and quickly moved on to the next room.

We could see a view of the back garden from there and spotted a large shed with a lady standing in the doorway. My DH asked what was in the shed and the landlady said not to worry but that was where Mrs X lived and she was honestly no bother as shes very quiet and wont intrude. It was at this point that we rapidly made a retreat. The house with the sunken bath and an old lady living in a shed in the back garden was not for us!

I managed to make appointments to view two properties on the Thursday and we decided to look slightly further out of Wellington to see if you got more for your money. It turned out that both of the properties we looked at were great but one in particular stood out. The views across the bay were spectacular and I don't think I really looked at the rest of the house. The picture below is the view from the living room balcony where I am now typing this. I think you'll agree we chose the right house.

The very very long journey continued..... How to survive on a plane with toddlers.

The first leg of our journey was from Heathrow to Los Angeles which would take 11 hours. Our flight left Heathrow at 3.35pm London time so we were going to fly through the night. Our hope was that the girls would fall asleep - this was not to be.

To be honest this part of the flight was not that bad as the whole thing was a novelty and the girls loved the TV screens and as we boarded they were handed an activity set, colouring book, stickers and pens (this kept them amused for about 10 minutes). The food delivered a few hours after we took off was great and the kids were very impressed with all the little packets and individual trays. All they ate mind you was the cakes and roll and butter but this kept them happy enough.

Trips to the loo were also greeted with great excitement by the girls as this involved walking past everyone else (who tended to say hello to them or were busy snoring) and the great big swishing noise as the loo flushed was apparently very amusing.



People in general were very patient with the children and luckily we didn't have any major tantrums or yelling. However dd2 was not very good at remaining quiet when everyone was trying to sleep and the only way we could get her to stay still was to plug her into the TV.

There were plenty of other people with children on the flight - some with very young babies and the airline had obviously grouped us together near the bulk head of the plane. The families developed a kind of camaraderie between us and we found ourselves chatting to one another and helping each other out with awkward kids. It was nice and made you feel less worried if your child decided to have a tantrum or scream continually for 45 minutes at a time. Or as this video illustrates your daughter decides to perform a duet with Fimble when everyone is trying to sleep.



We took pyjamas for the girls and got them changed and washed in the loo on the plane about 5 hours into the flight. This helped them get to sleep as they felt fresher and more comfortable. The chairs are not an ideal place for anyone to sleep but the blanket and cushion helped. I think sheer exhaustion got the youngest to sleep in the end.


I have never been to America so I was rather excited about stopping off in Los Angeles even if it was only for a couple of hours. In the end the only bit you actually see is the security area where they stamp your passports and ask you why you are passing through the US and a room where you sit and drink coffee until your plane is ready for re boarding.

This was a very difficult part of the journey as the girls had to be woken up and then you have to carry all your hand luggage through US customs and security. We had a lot of on board luggage and two very tired girls - it was not pleasant. I think the airport staff took pity on us when DD1 had a melt down whilst waiting in the queue to go through customs. We were immediately taken to the front. I guess having a tantruming 4 year old can come in useful occasionally.

It was quite amusing watching all the other passengers stretch and contort themselves before the next leg of journey. One man lay down on his back and stuck his legs up in the air against a wall whilst reading the Financial Times and one lady did some yoga in front of the coffee machine. To be honest all these exercises are probably a very good idea considering the length of the flight.

The second half of the plane ride was somewhat trying. However the kind airline staff had moved us directly in front of the bulk head which meant we had far more leg room and enough space for the girls to play on the floor in front of the seats. We managed to get through most of the toys, books and games we had brought with us in this stretch of the journey. Someone had told me that you needed enough toys to get out a new one every hour and this is true. Its amazing what short attention spans toddlers have.

We slept for quite a large proportion of the second flight and DD2 spent most of this curled up in my lap. This meant that I woke up at one point and found a strange extremely tall man asleep next to me in DD2s seat. My husband said he had asked if he could sit there for a bit as he was a bit cramped in his normal seat and he had then promptly fallen asleep. We left him there until he woke up a few hours later, he apologised profusely and then when back to his own seat.

Our first glimpse of New Zealand was as a line of clouds in the distance and then you could gradually see land underneath. I will never forget landing in Auckland and the tropical smell that hits you as you get off the plane. I thought that they might pump perfume into the airport but it appears to be the natural smell in the air. Its a mix of Herbal Essences shampoo and the sea. The other thing that struck me was the fact that the airport is carpeted. OK this may be an odd thing to notice but I am so used to the vast expanse of tiled Heathrow that arriving in Auckland is like coming into someones carpeted front room or office. Its very homey.

By the time we got to Auckland we were all exhausted so I am afraid that the first thing we had to eat in our new home country was a MacDonalds.

The Big Decision

We had been living in Brussels for 14 months and rather liked it. We didn't speak the language but I had managed to make a few friends in the local expat community and with the parliaments generous living allowance we didn't have any financial problems for once.
However DHs secondment was coming to an end and we would have to head back to the UK in a few months time. This meant back to the daily 4 hour commute for DH and back to buying value food and worrying about going into the overdraft. We didn't really fancy this.

DH started to look around for alternatives to heading back to the UK. He tried for a job in Manchester and looked at things in Paris. None of which I was that keen on. So he spotted a job in Wellington, New Zealand. Well we had both decided long ago that if we were going to live abroad permanently it would be Canada or New Zealand - so I told him to go for it. Thinking that he was unlikely to get and I needn't think about it seriously till then. Well two days before Christmas 2009 and we get the email - he has the job.

"Bugger" is the first thing that goes through my mind. Now I really had to think about what i wanted. DH wanted to go for it, and I could understand where he was coming from. New Zealand is meant to be one of the best places to raise children, has an excellent education system, fantastic open spaces and a good standard of living. However it doesn't have my family in it. I am very close to my family and I have often said that what i really want is to live in the same town as my parents and brother and sister (my DH surprisingly is not that keen on this idea!). Well if we were in New Zealand this wasn't going to happen. My grandparents were getting older - what would we do when they went - how would we afford to travel home? I began to panic and told DH we couldn't go.

He accepted this but I could see he was disappointed. This led to many sleepless nights and several animated discussions. One of which DD1 overheard and repeated to my mother over the phone. You have to be so careful what you say in front of a four year old.

In the end I decided that we should go for it. This was as a result of many conversations but mainly down to my Grandad and Nan. They repeatedly said we should go for it and that we shouldn't waste any opportunities we get in life. Well this was one hell of an opportunity we were being given.

Neither of us had ever been to New Zealand or even south of the equator but we decided that we would make the move to the other side of the world. So this blog is about us, that's me, my DH (husband), DD1 (daughter no.1) and DD2 (daughter no.2) relocating and making a life for ourselves in Wellington New Zealand.