Moving Again - Really - KINDA

Today we begin moving -- again. Although this is the 3rd place we'll have lived in in New Zealand since we got here in October, it doesn't REALLY feel like moving. Basically, it feels more like "upgrades" since we're staying in the same city.

First we were in a flat owned by the school, which was like one long apartment split in two. Next door was a young woman with a baby who had a LOT of friends and played her hip hop awfully loud, but overall was fine. But we were still glad to get out of the place, which was a bit suffocating. It's mostly rented out to vacationeers, so it's not the most ideal home.

Then we moved just 2 spots down to a house also owned by the school. A tiny, but cute little 3-bedroom home with a nice-sized back yard and a kick-ass view of the ocean across the street.

But then one of Beau's colleagues approached us to make us an offer -- come for tea at her brother's place to talk about it.

Her brother's place, now only occupied by his wife, was about 25 minutes west of us along the coast. It was a road, right off the highway, that you'd miss if you weren't looking for it. It then immediately jutted upward at a 45 degree angle. At the top was a lovely little place -- a modest house on an enormous piece of land. Behind the house rose a mountain full of pine trees, in front of the house was a view of a river running into the ocean below. It was breathtaking.

This was the deal: the husband was off in Australia working, and the wife was here. This is pretty common here, as you can make anywhere from 2-4x your NZ salary in Australia. You get generous vacations to return home to family as well. But the wife had stayed behind at their home, and with 3 grown children flown from the nest, she was lonely and missed her husband. She wanted to join him, but feared leaving their beloved home, which they had built from scratch many years ago, empty and vulnerable.

See where we come in? Beau was just about slobbering to accept -- all he could see was that fat river below and his mind kept saying, "Ooooh fly fishing, fly fishing!" I was less enthusiastic at first, cause you know, it means we'd be MOVING, though walking around the land and seeing the wildlife, the fruit trees, the "chucks" (chickens we'd take care of), and the much nicer home overall, I was beginning to get won over. Another HUGE plus -- about 25 minutes CLOSER to town. As beautiful as the drive to town is, an hour-long drive just to get to a crappy grocery store and another 30 minutes to get to a good one, gets REAL old after awhile. Real fucking old.

The land also has a tennis court on it, though I'm not going to pretend I'm all that interested in playing tennis. It'll also be really wonderful for our dog, Tonks, to have all this land to run around in. Right now, at 5 months and the size of a Shetland pony, she's wearing thin on our nerves in the house. She's the proverbial bull in a china shop and bangs into tables and human legs as she barrels through the house, chasing a tennis ball, or more likely, the cat. The dog-cat playtime was real cute when it first began - we wanted them to get along - but now that the dog is ginormous and apparently completely oblivious to her power, she's hurt the cat a few times which is real scary. What's worse, and weird, is that the cat LOVES these games and will always be the instigator, which makes breaking them up all the harder. It's hard to yell at the dog to stop when the cat is enticing her from around the next corner.

Anyway, everything seemed to have gone to plan -- moved the phone service, called up the cable company to start service (we haven't had cable yet, and have grown REAL tired of New Zealand's three channels), and fixed it with the electric company. But when we talked to our broadband people, they dropped a bomb on us -- we can't supply broadband in your new place.

WHAT?!?!?!?!?

Omg, omg, omg! Dial-up was available *cry* for $10/month for 30 hours. I think Beau uses 30 hours in one day, seriously. Plus, with 2 computers, I suspect dial-up, which I have been told is as slow as you'd fear, would be painful at best. It looks like our only option at this point is satellite internet.

Yeah, and it's just as expensive as it sounds. *sigh*

Well, I guess I could live without internet for awhile.

.....

BUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.

So, until I get this internet thing straightened out, who knows how much I'll be on, not that I've been blogging up a storm, but still. Much more depressing for us than you.

A bientot, my friends! I'll post pictures later.