Thursday, January 31, 2008

New Zealand

New Zealand

23 hours after leaving our house in Singapore we arrived at Nelson airport. Crazy, as it should have been a 10 hour journey, still it has give us a taste of what a flight back to the UK is going to be like!

The lady who was looking out for a house for us came up trumps. We sent her a text from Nelson airport to say we had arrived, a few minutes later she called us back, gave us the address and said the keys are under the mat just let yourselves in!
That is just typical of New Zealand’s wonderful laid back attitude to everything, there just doesn’t seem to be any formalities to anything here. The people are so incredibly friendly and helpful.

The house is very sweet, it is a traditional, single story, weather boarded, tin roof house set on a hillside. It is such a huge culture shock though, we are so used to being in the heart of the city surrounded by people and noise, the space and quiet here feels very strange.
The weather is gorgeous, we have arrived right in the middle of summer and it is blisteringly hot, but it is so fresh, it’s such a relief to get away from the stifling tropical heat and humidity of Singapore. I have no doubt that I will change my mind about that come the winter! It has been four years since we have seen a winter and although New Zealand’s winters are very mild it is going to seem freezing to us.
Not missing anything from Singapore just yet - well maybe our swimming pool :)

I will be glad when the jet lag has gone, still really groggy but haven’t got time to sleep it off; there is so much to do.
We went to the kids new school yesterday, they start next week so we have had to fly round trying to sort out uniforms, stationary, books, bags, shoes, so we are getting to know the local shops quite well!

We are now trying to sort out new mobile accounts, buy a car, look for a more permanent house and get online! I can’t believe how horribly dependant I have become on the internet, I honestly can’t function without it. I have always relied a 100% on the internet to run the business but I am now starting to rely on it to run my life also – it’s scary!
The first thing we did when we arrived was sort out a broadband account, hopefully the new modem will arrive tomorrow and I can start to catch up on everything. In the meantime I am at the mercy of ‘Starbucks’ so you will all have to forgive me for the lack of contact, I will be in touch with everyone as soon as I get my ‘lifeline’ back.

Carri x

Sunday, January 27, 2008

We are on our way

Well Friday has to go down as one of the most stressful days of my life!

The container arrived at 10.00am and at 10.00pm we were still packing it! I have no idea how we have managed to accumulate so much junk, I wouldn’t mind but we still didn’t get it all in! We had to get a lorry and a few men on Saturday morning to help us move everything that was left over down to the studios so it can ship along with all the work stuff in a few months.

I feel like we have been packing forever, we started just after Ziggi and Matt left in September, that was four months ago!
It has been difficult though, as they are very strict about what is and isn’t allowed into New Zealand. You are not allowed to take in anything of plant origin in case it contains seeds or pests. That means no dried flowers, cane blinds, rush mats, bamboo etc it is surprising how much stuff you have made from plants. They also need to inspect all sporting equipment, bikes, shoes, garden tools etc in case they have traces of soil that could be carrying disease, so all that kind of stuff has to be left accessible.

We spent Friday and Saturday night sleeping on the floor in an empty house, that was fun!
It is now Sunday morning and we are just about to leave for the airport and I am anticipating another stressful day ahead.
It was impossible to get a direct flight to New Zealand. With it being Chinese New Year and the start of the new academic year over there. Not only were all the non stop flights full, but every direct flight via Australia was full also. The only way we can possibly get there is by taking a flight from Singapore, in the opposite direction to Hong Kong, then Hong Kong to Auckland, then Auckland to Nelson. This has more than doubled the journey time (and the cost!) No doubt we will be dead on our feet by the time we arrive. That is when the fun really starts, as we have no where to go!! We can’t rent a house because our stuff won’t arrive for another month or so (two nights on the floor was enough for me) so we are going to have to stay in holiday accommodation for a while – but it is high season in New Zealand and Nelson is one of the most popular destinations, so finding any where with availability has so far been impossible. We have one of the agencies over there trying to sort something out for us but we won’t know if they have found anything until we reach Auckland.

Now on the flight to Hong Kong (thankfully Singapore Air turned a blind eye to our overweight luggage and six pieces of hand baggage!) So far so good --------

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Happy New Year!

Hello everyone and a belated Happy New Year!

I had hoped to be able to update this while we were out in Kathmandu but unfortunately the internet connections were just too slow to upload.

We have been back a week now but have had little time to do anything other than pack as the boat for New Zealand leaves on Friday!

Nepal was just amazing; huge contrasts though, I can honestly say that during the time we were there I have seen some of the most incredible things that I have ever seen in my life but also some of the most horrific and tragic.
After living in Bangkok for a year I thought that we had become pretty hardened to the type of poverty that you see in the world’s poorer countries, but nothing that I’ve ever witnessed prepared me for Nepal.
The hardest thing to comprehend is the amount of starving and sick children that are living on the streets. UNICEF estimate that there are around 30,000 children living and working on the streets of Nepal, and it is just tragic.

There was one particular little girl that will live in our memories forever. We found her wandering around the Boudnath stupa area. The poor child can’t have been more than three and she was quite alone and clearly very ill. You don’t see as many girls living on the street as many of them are abducted and trafficked into India and China, but this little girl had two thumbs on one hand, ironically this deformity will most likely save her from the sex traders.
We bought her some food and water and tried to find someone to help her, but in the end, like everyone else we had to walk away because there was nothing that we could do. It is just horrendous that in the 21st century children are still living like this, I can’t even begin to understand it.

On a happier note, we got to visit Kopan Monastery which was even more beautiful than I ever could have imagined it would be. It is set on the top of a hill with simply breathtaking views to all sides and it is just so unbelievably peaceful, I could have happily stayed there forever! (I am now even more determined to do one of the month long courses that they run there)

I have to cut this short and get back to the packing as we still have loads and loads to do. We have a 40 foot container booked on Friday’s boat; this one will just have all of our personal and household stuff in it. We will be coming back to Singapore in April to load up another one with the contents of the studio and all the stock!

Below are some photos of a few of the kids that we met, the first one is the little girl at Boudnath.