So, we've been here in Christchurch just over 1 month and i thought you guys might like to know how things have been going.
Well.......We've found a small place to rent, supposedly a flat but it's more like a small semi detached bungalow, old, cold but clean and tidy and well kept, we've our own garage and drive and a nice wee garden that requires little maintenence it will do until we start looking to buy.
We've had some ups and downs since leaving Switzerland but funnily enough all the downs have been problems with leaving Switzerland plus the fact that my dad in the UK was diagnosed with terminal cancer during the 2 week stopover we had there, that made it so much harder to come here and be excited about it!! And of course there was the earthquake which put us back a bit, fortunately we were visiting my husbands father over on the westcoast when it hit, although we still felt it we were glad not to have had the full force!
So what have we achieved?? My husband has managed to bag himself a full time job as a butcher which was really our turning point, he started yesterday and so far so good I've managed to get work too as a relief preschool teacher, i've had 2 days work last week and 3 days this week, plus 2 other preschools have me on their books too which is very positive.
Our daughter started preschool and LOVES it to the point where she woke me up in the night just to check she was still going the next day lol
We've sorted out Internet/phone and mobiles (treated ourselves to a new iphone) and basically set up our home from scratch, we do have 5cbm coming at some point from Switzerland, although we've had some problems with that some when it's going to arrive is anyone's guess
We picked up a couple of cars, hubbie a Subaru Forrester and i got a little 306 last week when hubbie got his job.
So how do we like it?? Of course hubbie being a Kiwi is loving being 'Home' i'm also really enjoying being here, people are so friendly and can't do enough to help, compared to life in Switzerland things are just so easy.
As far as cost of living goes i can't compare so much to the UK as i've not lived there for nearly 9 years now but it's certainly pricy in some respects, cheaper in others, we pay less rent than we did in Switzerland but more for our phone/internet plus the internet is not unlimited like it was there, wages are low but we expected that, food is pretty expensive, meat very cheap and very good!! Cheese rubbish and expensive as is most dairy which i found strange considering the amount of cows here!! Fruit and veg is expensive if out of season although there are places (farmers markets etc) where you can pick things up cheaper, fruit and veg in season is reasonable and very yummy!!
Thats all i can think of right now, i'm sure i'll be back with more updates but so far so good............