Settling in

Sorry for the lack of updates to the blog over the last couple of days. There are two reasons for this:

1. We only have internet access when we're at Skry's cousin's house
2. We've been doing really boring stuff recently

I know, I know - how can settling into a brand new country be boring?! But we have been doing some very everyday things like buying maps, opening bank accounts, and trying to not get lost too often. I haven't even taken any photos of Christchurch yet, although I fully intend to rectify that next week. We're probably going to move into Phil and Lou's house on Monday, and it's within walking distance of the city centre, so we'll have more opportunity to just walk about and take in the sights.

Skry's cousin Stephen and his family live about 45 minutes by car from Christchurch, so it is really out in the countryside here. They have a gorgeous big house and lots of land, but there isn't much else in this area. The land here is extremely flat, and they can get very hot dry winds, so there are huge belts of tall trees planted around every property as a windbreak. This does rather block the view from ground level, but we can still see the Southern Alps in the distance.

Christchurch itself seems like a nice little city so far. We haven't really explored properly, but I did meet up with another couple of internet friends, Jo and Kathy, and they have been showing us around. They also presented us with a lovely basket filled with local goodies such as Tim Tams, pineapple lumps, Marmite, two compilation CDs of what I assume are local bands, and even a tin sheep in a Santa hat. It is really great to have two such lovely people here that can help us settle in. Yay for meeting random strangers on the net!

I will update with photos if I can, but I don't know how many I will be able to take between now and when we move in with Phil and Lou, and they don't have internet access. We're having a barbecue this evening so maybe I'll get some at that. The weather is absolutely scorching at the moment, blue skies and sunshine, so it's perfect for eating outdoors. This lifestyle seems pretty good so far...