September 3, 2001  

 Hello from Red Beach,

 Hope you all had a nice Labor Day weekend.  It is Monday here (Sunday to you) and we don’t celebrate Labor Day at this time.  So just another weekday for us. 

 Today is very windy with some gray clouds—no rain as of yet today.  I hope it won’t rain for I have my laundry on the clothesline—it is blowing in the wind.  Yes, I have become quite domestic here—don’t laugh too loud now.  Everyone hangs their laundry out here.  I now have learned how to do it too.  I had to drive by slowly examining how the neighbors did it to get the technique down.  Now the kids hang it out for me and they are pros.  Example:  Hang the shirts upside down so you don’t have pinch marks on the shoulders on the shirt.  Ah…the things I am learning.  Actually it is kind of fun.

 Kids are still not in school which worries me just a bit.  I picked up the letter from Red Beach Primary for Nicholas today.  This letter will allow us to get Nicholas a Student Visa so he can start school.  Cailyn is another story.  She really wants to go to King’s Way Christian School, but they are quite full and very hard to get into.  We need a form completed by her youth leader at the church she attended in Chico to even be considered for enrollment.  It is a little frustrating, but all this paperwork is necessary I guess.

Rob is still in the running for a position with a large construction company.  He was supposed to hear last Friday, but received an email today that the decision won’t be made until next week!!  The person who is doing the hiring is so busy he won’t be available until then.  So…. Robin is out meeting with other companies today.  His first choice is still the large company—so we shall see.

 I am getting quite good at driving on the left side of the road now.  Robin is very considerate and bought me a book with the rules of the road in New Zealand (for his safety and all of New Zealand).  At the risk of insulting my new neighbors, New Zealand and Australians are not very careful drivers.  Another reason not to have our bikes shipped over!!   But Nicholas tells me he can’t live a year without his bike, so we shall see.  I even know how to drive in the round-abouts now.  They are great ideas and I have to say that is a better system than traffic lights—we should have more round-abouts in the states. 

 Cailyn and I checked out a Presbyterian Church yesterday.  We enjoyed the service very much, but we were about 50 years younger than anyone else there (ok Cailyn was at lease 65 years younger).  Very small, quiet, and elderly church.  The people were very gracious though and I am to have tea with a delightful woman named Kim this week.  She has actually been to Chico in the states!  Everyone is amazed we would want to come and live here for they think the Hibiscus Coast is very boring.  We think it is very peaceful and beautiful.  I guess not many foreigners move to Orewa/Red Beach, so we are a novelty.  They even say I have a delightful accent!  This is a more rural area than Brown’s Bay (the other house we were interested in) so just mostly locals live here. 

 We are all really enjoying this house.  The three stories really keeps my legs exercised.  Robin and my bedroom is on the third floor and we call it our “Crows Nest”.  The view is gorgeous, we have three large windows up there, but when it is windy---we know it.  The wind really whistles.  The locals are apologetic for their “bad weather”.   But really it has stayed in the 50 and 60 degrees F most of the time and is a nice change from the 100 degrees plus we had in Chico.  The dramatic storms are usually short lived here and to us the weather is very interesting.

 Yesterday we drove to the thermal pools in Waiwera (10 minutes from our house) and decided we must go there once the weather warms us.  They have a waterslide park and spa from the thermal pools.  New Zealanders are very active and love the outdoors.  We watched kite surfing (like windsurfing but the surfer is pulled by a very large kite), sand sailing, and parachuting (some of the wind keeps them in a floating position over the cliffs in Army Bay—they just float there until they want to come down.  Incredible to watch!).  We then went to Shakespeare Park at the end of the peninsula where we live.  Lots of great hiking trails.  Next really nice day we have we want to take the kids into Auckland and show them around.  And the New Zealanders think it is boring here!

 Well, I hope to hear from you soon.  We really miss all of you and love to hear from you.  I think I will post the form letters on the website from now on so I don’t bore too many of you.  You can look them up if you are interested, but if not, you don’t have to.  Robin is putting more of our photos on the website too, so it should be updated soon.

 Take care!

 Cheers,

 Catherine and family

 PS:  New Zealand fascinating fact of the day:  The toilets have two buttons to flush; one on the left for ½ flush and one on the right for a full flush.  I am sure you can figure out which flush is for what.