http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge All about our move from South Woodham Ferrers in Essex to North Canterbury, New Zealand. en adamsat adamsat Sat, 29 Oct 2005 11:23:31 +0200 daily 1   well another very busy day today we have acquired 2 kune kune pigs, a little piglet of 9 weeks who we are going to call Ruby and a boy of about a year now named Reggie!! we are collecting them tomorow, one from Ohoka and the other from Chertsey. we also ended up with 5 ducklings who were being brought up (and had actually been hatched by a hen) so obviously we had to have her aswell, and some silky chicks to add to the 3 hens we got last week. the chicks wil need to be kept warm at night so we will be putting them in a box in the barn with a hot water bottle (its a good job its warmed up here now!) there is as we speak an incubator on the way to us and we have ordered 12 fertile eggs so hopefully will be able to hatch some of our own hens and anything else that takes our fancy. I've been busy during the week getting a section of one of the veggie patches ready and have bought lots of seeds and some strawberry plants as well, there are quite a few fruit trees already planted but I hope... Sat, 29 Oct 2005 11:23:31 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/adding-to-the-menagerie/8/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/adding-to-the-menagerie/8/   well its been a busy but productive weekend - we bought a 2nd hand ride on mower on Saturday and picked it up today so Andy has been busy cutting the lawn. Olivia has bought herself a miniature pony which we walked home this afternoon his name is Bo (Jangles) and he is a 5 year old gelding, he is a real sweetie although a little over weight at present !! Cameron and I have been busy cleaning out the chook house ready for some bantams / hens - have I bought my last dozen eggs from the shops? the sun has been shining and the garden looks lovely - the kids have finished their first week at school and seem to be settling so all in all things are looking really positive for us right now.   Lisa Sun, 16 Oct 2005 11:08:30 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/getting-started/7/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/getting-started/7/   well we've done it we moved in on Thursday afternoon and are loving it so far. getting out of the rental took longer than we thought as removal men were running late and there was a last minute hitch with some paperwork but all in all not too bad. stayed the night at a friends backpackers on Weds and then had to hand in the aformentioned paperwork at 9 am on Thursday morning, after morning tea in Christchurch we decided to take a chance and pick up  the new cat from the resue centre and just hope we wouldn't be too long, luckily as we headed back into Rangiora we got the call to say it had all been finalised!!!! so just the new rabbit to pick up and we could head off. spent Thurs evening trying to get straight and take it all in as we still can't quite believe we have come this far. spent the last couple of days just wandering around looking at things and making a mental note of things that need doing. we've got hard work ahead of us but are looking forward to getting... Sun, 02 Oct 2005 12:21:38 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/Moving-in/6/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/Moving-in/6/   went out for lunch today and while there met a couple who knew another couple who have over 130 alpacas as we are going to be getting some of these lovely animals they offered to introduce us to them. well off we all went and were made extremely welcome they showed us several alpcas and what to look for in the fleece ect, we also rather bizarrely, as we were standing there chatting got to find out first hand what the mating process entails !!! there was this poor little lady "sitting" while "Mr. Stud" who can charge upwards of a $1000 for the priviledge gets down to business !! this can last up to 45 minutes apparantly and it does involve a very weird little sing songy type of noise!! it was definitely not what I was expecting to see on a Sunday afternoon but guess I will have to get used to it !! rest of the day was spent packing and generally trying to get sorted out. Sun, 25 Sep 2005 12:47:42 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/the-facts-of-life-alpaca-style/5/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/the-facts-of-life-alpaca-style/5/ Less than a week now till we move into the new house. Spent most of yesterday contacting Telecom and the electric company, and visitng the solicitors to sign papers. Doing things like that certainly seem easier here than back in England, although no doubt there will still be the last miniute rush to do something you always get when moving house. The weather is back to being warm and sunny again, so in a week we have gone from hot and sunny, through snow storms and road closures, back to hot and sunny again. The children spent their last day at their school yesterday, they have two weeks off now between terms, so when they go back it will be to the new school in Oxford. They all got cards and presents from their friends which was really good, they have only been here for a term after all. Next week looks like being really busy as there is still the packing to do, sign the final set of mortgage papers and get out of this current house by Wednesday. I'm also going to be in Wellington all day Tuesday... Fri, 23 Sep 2005 22:56:25 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/Nearly-there/4/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/Nearly-there/4/   today we had our first taste of snow in NZ, we seem to have had a whole years weather in just one weekend it was really hot on saturday when we were in the Botanical Gardens in CHC and then sunday was a bit colder - we spent the day at Akaroa mooching round the shops ect. the tourist drive back can be a little hairaising especially as it was starting to get foggy but its well worth it the views are out of this world. come Monday however the snow was coming down thick and fast and most schools were closed so the kids enjoyed an extra day at home - the power also went off on 2 seperate occassions which had us a bit worried as our rental is all electric and made of some kind of polystyrene so not the warmest place to be!!! anyway snow has turned to rain now and we will just see what tomorrow brings - we did learn one lesson today though and that is "don't park you car in the garage while its covered in snow and you've got packing boxes everywhere!!!" Mon, 19 Sep 2005 11:44:28 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/snow/3/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/snow/3/ We've been here three months now and I'm still trying to catch my first NZ fish! Before I left England I sold most of my coarse fishing gear, and just packed the trout and sea tackle. We got here at the wrong time of the year to give the trout and salmon a go, but I've probably tried surfcasting half a dozen times and caught absolutly nothing. I must be fishing at he wrong times, wrong places, or maybe it's just me. Still you can' beat the locations. Yesterday I went for an hours fishing at the end of the day at Waikuku beach, where the Ashley River joins the sea. I think I saw two other people in the hour and a half I was there, and watching the sun go down and the moon rise over the Pacific was something special - who needs to catch fish anyway............ Sun, 18 Sep 2005 11:57:47 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/A-fisherman-s-tale/2/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/A-fisherman-s-tale/2/ We arrived in New Zealand on the 13th June and were met by the the very welcome site of Peter at the airport. The weather was a bit of a shock and we wondered what we had done as Pete drove us to our rental, through the grey, cold, damp streets of Christchurch. Summer had just started in England, and although we were expecting to come to colder weather, just how cold it was for the first few days was a bit of a shock. Everyone had told us to expect cold houses, but actually how cold the rental was for the first few days was another shock to the system. Things soon picked up though, and the rental, although not being in an area we would choose to live long term, was well furnished and comfortable, and being only a tem minute walk from Cathedral Square was well placed for job hunting and sightseeing.  I picked up a job far quicker than I planned and within 10 days had been offered a job as an IT Programme Manager for a large Government Department. The first couple of weeks were spent... Fri, 16 Sep 2005 12:33:03 +0200 http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/The-story-so-far/1/ http://www.blogigo.co.uk/ashleygorge/The-story-so-far/1/