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| Well we were
pretty gutted about having to pull out of buying this plot of land.
Fergus has been very quiet all this week and I know he is still thinking
about it all. The land prices are very high. They have risen out of all
proportions since we were here two years ago and a house near a beach is
simply unaffordable anywhere now. My therapy to get over this fact was
to write it all down and then email it to all our friends and relatives.
We also telephoned the three couples we recently made friends with about our decision, but talking to Tim who would have been our Scottish neighbour was much more difficult and we wanted to do in person. We would go and see him on Friday but also write a letter, explaining our decision, which we could leave for him in case he was not there. |
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The best part
of the week was spent updating the Dance Laines web site and being
distracted helped. We are making good progress and hope to be able to
lunch the new site with the travelogue very soon. This was interrupted
with a swim in the morning and followed by a walk along our cove,
letting the sea lap over our feet. We would then return to working and
then repeat the ritual in the late afternoon. The colours are amazing
and forever changing I think I will never get used to it. I will never
get bored of looking at the sea. It has an amazing calming effect of me
and I realised this week that ever since I was a small child, going to
Italy on holiday, I have loved walking along the beach. Looking back
over the years, whenever I have had the chance to stroll along the beach
I had promised myself that one-day I would be able to do this every day.
Well we have almost achieved it and perhaps we still can find such a
life.
Yesterday was Friday and we were off the store in the next bay to use the public phone. We tired to find out about our motor home. Guess what it is still not ready. Fergus could not get a clear answer out of the man called Ashley and we feel he is not telling us the whole truth and constantly stalling us. It feels like we are being fobbed off. |
| When we first
got to this town we made a friend at the AA in Whangarei. Then John
advised us on where to get insurance for our motor home (which in the
meantime is also sorted out). He was very interested in our project and
asked if we would come back and show him our new home when we eventually
get it. This was almost three weeks ago and so we decided it was time to
go and see our friend John at the AA and see if he could get any sense
out of Ashley. John was pleased to see us again but also surprised that
we still did not have our motorhome. We explained the situation to John
and he kindly phoned the AA compliance centre in Auckland to find out
what was going on. He got an assurance out of Ashley for a Monday or
Tuesday 21/22 November delivery. Let’s hope so. If we have no luck we
are to phone John back and he will have another go with Ashley.
Next John explained to us about the road licence in New Zealand, which for diesel driven vehicles depends on the mileage (actually kilometreage, if that is a word). You buy a road license for so many kilometres in advance, and then you have to pay again when you have travelled that far. John also suggested that we should invest in a safe, which could be bolted down to the chassis of the motor home. All our documents and lap-tops could then be safely stored away. He also told us where we could start looking. Off we went and found a perfect safe at the local locksmith and security centre in Whangarei. |
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Feeling better
for having achieved another bit of assembling our new life we decided to
have lunch. Armed with our laptop we went to a friendly café which we
have started to go to when we are in town, ordered our Nachos and
checked our emails. It is always fabulous to get this post and this bag
was full of lovely emails, in which mostly everyone was glad we had
pulled out of buying this land.
After lunch we went to visit Tim. We would have preferred to see him but if he was not around we would simply leave our letter for him. We were lucky. Helen, his wife, was there and as we told her of our decision she was not surprised but understood perfectly. She suggested that she and Tim would get in touch with the owners of the land and see if they could not get the price down for us. Fergus then went off to find Tim who was at the bottom of his hill where he had just lit three fires. He was burning the wood he had gathered at the edge of the stream and keeping the stream free and flowing is very important to the water supply. It would have been dangerous to leave the fires as a bush fire would be a catastrophe for the area. I stayed up on top of the hill and talked to Helen. Helen has 3 children, plus I think they have fostered one. Anyway she is lovely. A bit like Lucy, same body, same body language same hair but pitch black in colour. Helen had just discovered texting and is very excited about it. |
| Fergus returned eventually and as a very much happier man. Tim would very much want us to come and live here. His other neighbours are builders and they have just finished re-building their house and would love to get going on our house. Fergus would be in charge of organising the electricity by making good use of the streams and organise three individual systems, one for each house. The idea would be for Fergus to do it for us first, if it does not work they can all laugh at him and if it does, they could all copy it. Conventional electricity is very expensive to install and Helen is really ready to have electricity. She talked about this commodity as if it were the most valuable, exciting and exquisite thing to possess. Fergus is quietly sure that he could with clever use of the streams, arrange free electricity for all three houses. |
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We left feeling much happier we returned for the last weekend to Moureese's Bay. When Helen and Tim have some news Helen will text us and we can then phone them at an agreed time. Brilliant! So it is not over yet! Lets see if during the summer there will be other buyers but at this high price everyone doubt’s it. If in the autumn (April/May) the price comes down or Tim can influence the owners we could reconsider. We can live with that and get on with our original plan. On Monday 21 November we will pack up and return to Geri and Colin in Auckland. With a bit of luck we will get our home and can start sorting out the house hold shipping agent. Yes that is also still pending and we do not know what surprises await us on that front. |
