Week 6&7: 22-30 July; Settling In & First Visitors

Kiwis love to travel. Within a week of us moving into our new place, we'd had two sets of visitors from Taranaki. Well, technically, Taupo and Taranaki, but we met them all in the 'Naki.

First up, Theresa and Jeremy, their two kids Jemima and Alfie, and Jeremy's mum. We know Theresa through Steph and Glenn, and she was pregnant with Jemima when I was preggers with William so we used to go to Whale Yoga together. Jeremy's brother has a place a couple of hours north of here and they were over on holiday from NZ and decided to come down for a wee day trip. It was awesome so good catching up with them and getting to meet wee Alfie.

Our second set of visitors are a law unto themselves. Sue and Bob. I met them while doing French classes at a cafe in Oakura in the Naki. I knew that they were coming over to France on holiday and said that we should try to meet up. I didn't really know them well at all but after meeting for a coffee in town, I invited them to our place for dinner. My God, these two have stories to tell!

They've bought an old camper van which they store via some dodgy American woman in Amsterdam. They reckon its cheaper to fly to Europe and live in the van for three months than it is to live in the Naki so they try to come over here once every two years. They're a class act and just want to travel, and see how other people live. Their stories of following Le Tour were hilarious; trying to get the van up the mountains and buying "2nd hand" bikes from a guy in Honfleur. It also turns out that Sue's nephew was Iain's old boss at the TRFU. What a small world.

The rest of the week has been spent settling into our new place. I'm loving having a proper kitchen again and being able to cook a wider range of foods. One of my new friends, Miriam, is actually just about to move to Paris so she has cleared out her wee boy's toys and William has inherited them. Such a godsend given that our shipment isn't due to arrive for another week. The weather continues to be amazing and William is loving pottering around in the garden. Iain is also loving it. This week he dug out all the weeds in the back garden and laid grass seed. We'll see how this pans out....

LM.