Woke up with a positive attitude today determined to find ourselves a house. So after a shower and B'fast we phoned up Karen, a lady who dealt with furnished property and then spent the whole day driving looking phoning etc. The best one we found was a bright yellow cottage which was positioned opposite the beach and had a golf course out the back with a fair sized garden. It was small but had everything we needed even down to having pans and was really very sweet. The only thing was we would have to move out over the Xmas period so that they could rent it out at an extraordinarly high whack to some holiday maker.... not so good.

Well we had made a decision about the cottage and went down to see the Estate Agent - Karen and find out some more details. I really didn't feel right about this place for some reason and by the time Karen had finished telling us about having to move out over the Xmas period whilst they rented out to others and the fact we might have to move out over some weekend so that the 3 owners could use it, Toby was put off as well.

So we wondered off saying we would think about it whilst all the while I wanted to go back to Katikati and find a place around there. We had a chat over lunch and decided to take a serious look at the 3 bed place in Katikati for $80 a week which was ridiculously cheep but a bit of a drive away from Tauranga where Toby wanted to work. We went and had another look and I just new this is where we were going to live..... I also went into the old peoples home next door to see about jobs and was offered a position in the kitchens straight away (part time) the people seemed so friendly and extremely helpful so I took an application form and told Toby who seemed really pleased. It now looked like everything was going to work out all we needed to do was tell Meri, our lovely Estate Agent about our decision. Meri was really pleased and promised to try and get in touch with Freda, the lady who lived down stairs from the flat/house, so we booked into a Motel for the night and waited to hear back from her.

It seems she was away for the weekend and would love to see us on Monday afternoon, in the mean time we decided to drive to Thames for the weekend.

Took a couple of hours to get to Thames due to the continuous windy and mountainous roads and the miserable weather which had descended again. Thames centre which was the main street basically had a lovely market set up all along the pavements on both sides so we parked up and had a wonder around much to Toby's annoyance. We then went and found a really cool backpackers which only had a couple of people staying and checked in for the night. We had a quiet evening watching the video, Billy Elliot then went to bed.

Took a drive out of town to see if we could find a bird and butterfly farm to spend a couple of hours, but we unfortunately couldn't find it so carried on driving until we arrived at the town of Coromandel and had some fish and chips for lunch then decided to drive back and find the farm. Toby was talking to me about if we did decided on this flat then we couldn't go mad and buy stuff we didn't need, you know, decorative bits and pieces ....... only buy things we need like bed and table and chairs. I agreed and said I would try my best but didn't want to be living in a bloody dreary empty flat that had no character, other wise me might as well live in the backpackers! With that I saw a big bag of pine cones for sale on the side of the road and thought I could probably use them somehow in the flat. I made Toby stop and bought them dumping them in the back of Bertie, but when I got back in the front, Toby didn't look very happy and couldn't believe I had just spent $6 on a bag of pine cones! after what he had just said. He has no imagination that man......

We spent the afternoon sitting around as the weather was really nasty again then just played pool in the evening.

Woke up really excited today!! so drove back to Katikati for a wonderful lunch then went round to see Freda about the flat. It shouldn't really be called a flat as this was a huge house set on 1 acre of land ( all fruit trees) and the house was upstairs whilst Freda now lived down stairs next to the double garages - a sort of granny flat. We had a lovely wooden veranda that went all around and had a wonderful view of the valley below and the hills in the distance. The garden was wild and full of orange and grapefruit trees and very private, I could walk through the garden into the Rest Home where I was going to work! We sat down and had a chat to Freda who was asking us a few questions, all was going really well until she said 'now you do know it is $185 a week' we just sat there and stared at her not believing our ears!! how could this be? we told her we thought it was going at $85 a week and she was upset for us, she phoned Meri at the Estate Agents who was also mortified and couldn't apologise enough to Toby on the phone. We said thanks to Freda and got back into Bertie driving aimlessly both not saying anything..... we were both very very disappointed and I didn;t know what to do about the job now. Toby rang another Estate Agent and arranged to view a 1 bedroom furnished flat which we new wouldn't be any good for when mum came over. The flat was in Tauranga which, yes was a good position and, yes it was furnished but it just didn't do it for us and decided on giving Freda a call and taking her up on her new offer of $170 a week including power. Hoorah it just felt like the right thing to do and soon we were sat in the Estate Agents with Meri and Freda signing forms which meant it was ours!!!!!! at last somewhere we can call home and can unpack our bags and walk around in the nud, use the kitchen whenever we like and not have to fight for space with other backpackers, walk to the toilet in the night naked, sit in front of the TV and watch what we want ( not that we had a TV) a place to call HOME......

Later that evening Freda took us down to her friends house so that we could pick out bits we wanted to buy, George, her friend had moved into a rest home so was getting rid of bits. We settled on a very nasty brown velour couch, coffee table, single bed, plates and some cups, 2 chairs, a wicker chair, lamp, and some other bits and bobs all for $325 - about £100 which was good. We went and collected it later on in the evening which at least filled a little of the house, we then went and blew up our air beds and tried to get some sleep in the middle of a empty room - looked quite sad!

Didn't sleep a bloody wink and was really keen on getting a bed ASAP. We drove into Tauranga and dropped Bertie in for the service and then went for a looksy at the second hand shops to see what we could find. Well I had a fab day and ended up in numerous amount of seconds shops, porn brokers, cash exchange etc. One shop we went into had a really nice second hand Queensize bed for $250 and a lovely chest of draws so I got a huge discount on those by doing some aggressive bartering but then realised we didn't have any means of delivering them home. Colin, my sparring partner offered to deliver for free if we chose a few other items so to fill up the lorry and make it worth his time. They had another couple of warehouses in Mount Manganui and offered to drive us there in his car so that we could have a look. I found plenty of odds and sodds and double bed for the 3rd spare room and other things that we could use - some of them would need my painting skills but they were cheap especially after the big discount we got - god I should do this as a living, I really drive a hard bargain! Colin dropped us back to do some more shopping much to Toby's dismay and ended up in the Salvation Army where I found loads of bed linen, a Queen size duvet for $10 about £3 and some Italian shoes for $8 ( could come in useful!) I then found another shop that was selling bags of odd material for £2 a bag which I bought to make some cushion covers with. All in all we had just managed to fill most of the house with some pretty decent stuff which was all second hand.

We went and collected Bertie and found out she needed a couple of things done to her but nothing serious, and then went and collected some bits of furniture that would fit in Bertie - like the wooden table which I think was fab from the Pawn Brokers and kettle,iron and toaster. Toby also went and bought a TV whilst collecting these things from Colin - well it was 'Osbourne' night tonight!

I really hope we can sell all this stuff again otherwise we are gonna be buggered!!

Well my first day at work... start and 6.45am which wasn't so bad seeing as I didn't need to add on time to travel to work. It was nice to do simple things like stick the kettle on and sit at the table to have b'fast rather that sitting in the middle of an empty room eating cold left over takeaway!! Believe me you really do relish everything when you haven't had it for so long. Even staying at other peoples houses it not the same as it being your own....

Anyway I walked to work which took 1min 30sec and went straight into the kitchens to work with Laura for the day and to learn the process - well to cut an extremely long story short it was like the f***ing Krypton Factor. I had to set up trolleys - hospital and just residential full of trays of food trying to work out from a list what everyone had - some had pureed fruit with weetabix, some had toast, some had to have diabetic marmalade whilst others had prunes, you even had to make your own yoghurt!! we also had to make up a tea trolley and set out the dining room for the other residents who liked to eat in the room together so you had to know what everyone wanted off by heart and set it out ready - all this plus about 50 other things before 7.30am. Then they had morning tea which was at 10.30am after clearing up b'fast stuff which meant wheeling round a trolley and handing out tea etc with cake to everyone. Now Laura new how everyone wanted there drink and who was a diabetic and couldn't have sugar, who had a protein milk shake, who had a special thickener, who had just warm milk bla bla bla the list is endless. This could be done by asking the people as they were coherent much to my relief. But when wheeling our trolley round to the hospital wing that's when it got harder. These people couldn't speak and had to be spoon fed so you can't ask them - ' mornin love how do you have your cuppa' some of those poor old sods are just laying dribbling in the corner somewhere being spoon fed some red jello...... god shoot me when I'm old.

When this had been done it time to prepare for lunch all cooked by 'Olious' a chef from Holland who I had been told was very temperamental. I won't bore you with the rest of the day only to say I went through 6 sheets of A4 paper writing notes which when I look back on don't make a damn ounce of sense. My shift finished at 2pm and I literally crawled out of that place and dragged my sorry arse back home to find a happy little Toby flitting around the house sorting out the furniture which had been delivered at lunch time. We drove into Tauranga in the afternoon to visit the 'Warehouse' a huge discount place that basically sold everything at ridiculously low prices but also fell apart within a week! we bought some cleaning materials, mostly for the couch which stank of stale fags and had a hideous amount of webs lurking underneath then went to 'Pack n Save' for some food shopping then drove back home again exhausted. Thankgod we now have a bed to sleep in! we now also have some 100% cotton fluffy sheets and a thick woollen mattress cover to keep us snug - absolute bliss, if you have never had 100% cotton sheets on your bed and under your duvet then you have missed out on one of life's little comforts.

Had a good old trog around Katikati to see what they had to offer whilst leaving Toby to clean the windows. I found a lovely rug which was in the sale, well 2 lovely rugs but couldn't make up my mind which one to buy. I ended up with the green one and took it home to show Toby, after rolling it out I decided I didn't like it so went back and swapped it for the other favourite which turned out to be just perfect. Poor Toby is now having a hernia because of the money so we sit down and write everything down that we have bought and try to budget ourselves. Well the evening entertainment was me trying to make a cushion cover........ I had some lovely sky blue material and I had some bright buttons which I had picked up in the second hand shop. So I thought I would create something with a bit of flare and character but as it turned out, I ran out of material and had to fill up the gap with some other scrap of material. On one side of the now covered cushion it looked like a professional piece of art but when turning it over it looked like, as Toby put it ' Pinocho's shorts' Mmmmm will have to rethink my covering technique...

Toby had to get up early for work so I had a bit of a lazy morning around the house then went round to see a lovely lady about joining her Yoga class on the 20th August for the both of us. I ended up staying for 1/2hr chatting to her about this and that, everyone in this town is sooooooooo friendly! She lived round the corner from us so we could just walk to her house - very handy.

I then went into Katikati to buy some glue then spent the afternoon trying to cut out bits of old curtains and jazz up our boring lamp. Oh dear I succeeded in gluing most of the material to my hands and turning the lamp into a hideous monstrosity that was now covered in running glue and tatty bits of green curtain - how come it worked out in my head but not in theory. Toby came home looking knackered and just looked at my lamp creation sitting on the floor without saying a word - his silence conveyed complete horror........

Oh well might have to buy another lampshade!

I had also moved the bed around in our room which made the room look much nicer and and moved one of the chest of drawers into the lounge just to fill a gap. We were going to go down the pub for a drink in the evening to meet the locals but Toby was whacked so just had some dinner and then went to bed.

Well we both got up early, Toby for work and me for the market. I said my farewells to Toby and headed down to the Sat morning market at 7.30am to see if I could get some cheap plants. I had a lovely time mooching around and ended up bumping into a couple of people I had already made friends with - I really like this place. I came home and housed my plants in their new rooms then caught up with my diary. I spent the afternoon bird watching from my balcony then cooked dinner for my hard working boyfriend.

Spent the evening watching TV with poor tired Toby who couldn't move off of the couch. We were supposed to go out and try out the pub but Toby just wanted to stay in saying he couldn't believe how bad the wages were for his new job. I of course laughed and gloated that for the first time in my life I am earning more money than Toby not that it would last for long. For the first time in his life he knows what it's like to work hard in a shitty job for a shitty wage - I think Toby has got used to doing his office stuff for lots of money.........

I will be laughing on the other side of my face when he gets his posh job and earning good money again!!

Ahhhh I had a lovely lie in whilst Toby had to get up for work again at a ridiculous time in the morning. I packed up my day pack with all my walking stuff and headed off for a lovely couple of hours of 'tramping' as they call it over here. I had my bird book and binoculars and had a wonderful 2hrs wondering down in the valley by the river taking some wonderful photo's and watching some beautiful birds. My walk took me down to the sea where I then walked back to our house which is conveniently situated round the corner and then wrote up my notes ready for work.

Got up early and went to work, I was on another early shift which turned out to be just as confusing as the last one which wasn't much of a comfort!! We went into Katikati in the afternoon and just pottered around.

Went into Tauranga and had a walk around to look for throws to put on the dodgy brown couch then went and watched 'The Signs' at the cinema, I have been waiting to watch the film for ages and wasn't disappointed Christ I crapped myself and thought it was a really good film, just up my street.

We then went and did some food shopping before I went and did my evening shift, being shown by Rebecca, the girl I'm replacing. This was a lot easier than the morning shift and was quieter, should be easier to pick up. I keep thinking of Del, my late stepfather lately as there is an old bloke who reminds me of him living in the Rest Home. Del seemed to age 30yrs in the last few weeks of his life and I can't help thinking if he would have ended up staying somewhere like this if he had lived longer with the cancer, and I can't help thinking how much he would have hated it and that it was better he went when he did. I still find myself forgetting he is dead though and think of home and stuff and then it dawns on me he is not there any more......very strange.

I went home to a lovely tasty curry which Toby has lovingly cooked - yes Toby had cooked something!! We then watched the Osbournes

Toby had another interview with the same company as before whilst I walked around Tauranga for an hour and bought some paint. Met up with Toby later on and he seemed really pleased, he was to start work the next day!! which now meant having to quickly go and look for some clothes for him to wear. I went and found some settee covers (bed sheets) to finally cover the horrible settee of ours. ...

When we got back home I tried the covers and couldn't believe how much better the room looked

er

Toby's first day at work today bless him whilst I painted my crusty chest of drawers - no pun intended........and was pleasantly surprised at how bloody good it looked!!

Mmmmmmm went in to check on my now dry chest of draws only to find out I had missed the underneath bit and feet, so had to finish that off. Toby came back really late and didn't let me know where he was so I ended up really worried and pacing up and down the lounge. Little bugger came home and said he had a meeting at work but had lots the use of his phone finger..................

Well my first shift on my own! I decided to start early just to make sure I got everything out in time, so started at 6.15am which seemed to help and meant I wasn't so rushed. I work with a different chef at weekends who was very helpful but then everyone was luckily. The whole shift was really tiring so my the afternoon I crawled back home and did nothing all afternoon whilst Toby worked on his computer.

Another morning shift which again was like something out of a comedy film then went home. Toby was once again working on his computer all afternoon

Had a morning shift then went down to buy some soil and pansies to put in my pots outside

Had the day off. So I spent the morning doing some washing and ended up flooding the laundry room!! luckily Freda was out for the day so I had enough time to clean it all up..... did some drawing in the afternoon and read my book, prepared a curry then got ready for my first Yoga lesson. Toby got back at 6pm got changed into his new Yoga clothes that he had bought at lunch time - narner. We walked around to her house then spent the next hour and a half stretching ourselves into very difficult positions..... we also had the instructors kitten joining in and attacking our hair and feet and even my shadow on the wall. We both really enjoyed the evening and felt really good afterwards, afterwards we walked back home and ate a huge curry and watched the Osbournes

Well an afternoon shift today but said I would do a few hours in the morning as well whilst Lilian went to her neighbours funeral. Getting to grips now, of what has to be done, the afternoon shift is a lot better than the morning. Checked my emails when I got home and found our my mum, bless her has put £300 in my bank account to help out. Mum you didn't need to do that!!!! On my evening tea round at work I asked what one old lady would like to drink, I had Milo, Coffee or tea, and she asked for a large Brandy or a neat Vodka!!! I know how she feels...

Another afternoon shift so went for a walk and ended up in Katikati again looking for a hair product from Aveda which is the only thing that seems to work with my big curly hair! but these people had never heard of it... that was like going to a hairdressers in the UK and asking if they had ever heard of Burger King....... Aveda have huge shops in Oz and they do makeup stuff as well NZ is really behind with everything, they have just had the 'Ali G' film open up, which has been and gone in the UK. And I saw an advert for Neutragina skin products which are just launching in NZ..... they have been going in the UK for years!! I love it over here it's like taking a step backwards in time.

What a beautiful day today, the sun was shining and the sky was blue.... I went out for a lovely walk into town and bumped into a lovely kitten who wouldn't leave me alone so I had to take it home and tell the owners that it was too young to be out on the streets, they just looked at me strange and shut the door....

We decided to go out for our first social event ......... so we went down the local! the first pub or should I say a room with a bar and some pokie machines in, was nearly empty apart from a gaggle of Maori ladies whom of all were quite loud and a bit drunk. It was supposed to be 'Rock Karoke night but didn't have anyone singing, just loud music. We decided to vacate this establishment and go down to the only other bar in Katikati which I had been told was better. It was basically a small room at the back of a bottle shop ( off-licence) it had a bar and once again - pokie machines ( slot machines) it was full of locals who all new each other so we felt a bit out of it, had a beer then went home. NZ is the same as OZ when it comes to pubs, well they basically don't have any..... they are just rooms with a bar and usually is a betting place for the horses/ dogs / just about anything that moves or just full of these slot machines that everyone is addicted to.

I was on an early which wasn't very good especially when I was kept up all night with Toby snoring, the little bugger stopped though at 4.30am half an hour before I had to get up for work........ bugger.

Thought I should try and make some curtains to go in the small room but only had had some orange material so gave it a go......... Crikey I am so crap when it comes to sewing etc, they didn't turn out as bad as my lamp that I tried to tart up but they still looked bad.

Another early and still very tired but the shift went well, didn't do much when I got home as Toby was working on the website so I just read all afternoon.

Working on a late so stayed in all morning, which meant I had the unfortunate --------of overhearing Freda's granddaughter going absolutely skitso downstairs swearing like a troopa at her grandma. It seems she is only 9yrs of age but certainly didn't sound it!! I forgot all about my meeting at work! woops

On a late again but had the car so went for a lovely drive then went to the meeting which had been prosponed from yesterday thank goodness- woops. Worked on a late today but had a morning meeting at work with the rest of the kitchen staff. The chef was going back to Holland for five weeks for a holiday so wanted to get things sorted before he left. The meeting didn't go so well as it was brought up about his being unapproachable and difficult to work with, I hadn't worked with him so couldn't really comment, needless to say he got quite angry and made his views known

Yoga session first thing then came homeI and waited for Patrica, Freda's daughter to come round at noon so we could go out for coffee and a chat. We had lovely lunch down in town and spent the afternoon together just chatting and talking about some of her problems, ie family.

Had a lovely day as I had the car for a change so I decided to wash Bertie which ended up taking ages and I couldn't reach the top of her. I then went out and about exploring some of the surrounding area. I went down to Waihi beach and had a wonder around before finding a wonderful lookout over Katikati, took some lovely pictures. I could see for miles straight out to sea and even as far as Tauranga so I stayed up there for a bit then went back home

wahey, day off today and the weather was beautiful so dropped Toby off at work and spent the morning looking at second hand shops again and found some more bargains for the house. I then went up to Toby's work place to drop the bags off and to say hello to some of his work colleagues. I then walked into the town centre part and spent 30mins mooching around before meeting up with Toby for lunch sat outside in the sun......lovely. Toby went back to work whilst I spent the afternoon buying lots of bits and pieces, I even bought some little bits for myself which is something I haven't done in a long time apart from some clothes in a second hand shop. I then met up again with Toby at 4.30 and did some shopping before getting a takeaway curry and driving home.

On an early shift today so just crashed out in the afternoon and felt bushed. Nearly into Sept and can't believe we have been travelling for nearly a Year

Getting to know all the people who are in the rest home by name, which is good. They all seem to know me as well and seem to like me, I have a good old banter with some of them. There is a lady who is 100 and completely with it.

NEW ZEALAND SEP 2002 >