Lyttelton: where we belong

We are in love with Lyttelton. It's a town of 3,000 on the other side of the port hills. It is the focus of our house search.

It's a hilly place, so walking around would be quite a workout. There are at least two trails leading from the town up into the hills. Both the Bridal Path and Stan Helms track lead up to Summit Road. Once you reach the summit, there is access to a whole network of trails stretching all the way out to Godley Head. We're hoping to explore some of these trails this weekend. If we lived in Lyttelton, we could do our morning runs on these trails. Imagine!

Lyttelton is a port town - it's the port where our container arrived from the U.S. and where all other containers arrive as well. We understand there are also Russian sailors who frequent the harbor. We think it'd be pretty cool to have Russian sailors around.

It would also be kind of cool to live near the general hustle and bustle of the harbor. We could watch them unload logs and stuff.

Lyttelton also has a nice assortment of bars and cafes. It's cheaper than Christchurch. Lots of artsy people have settled there. (We're not artsy, but it's nice to have them around, like with the Russian sailors). Most of the houses in Lyttelton are on crazy hilly roads like this one :

This is supposedly a two lane road, but half of it is taken up by parked cars. There's no way two cars could pass here. Luckily, there's not a lot of traffic in these parts. We were told by an estate agent that this particular road is "unoffically" a one-way street with "down" being the preferred direction, but apparenty the people who parked these cars in opposite directions didn't know that.

Lyttelton has an awesome farmers' market on Saturdays. Even though it's still winter (tomorrow's the first day of spring!) there were lots of veggies on offer at last weekend's market. The market is organized by Project Lyttelton, who also do a "time bank." We haven't gotten all the details on the time bank yet, but basically it's a volunteer time exchange. You mow my lawn, I'll walk your dog. That sort of thing.

Not everyone loves Lyttelton. Some think that it's cold and dark there. As the sun shines from the north, and Lyttelton faces south, it's true that it won't get as much sun as some places. But the Port Hills are not that big, and they certainly are not casting a perpetual shadow on the place. We will just have to be careful not to buy a house in a shady hole. There are plenty of sunny ones. And, probably because it's right on the water, Lyttelton does get a little chillier. Today for instance it was 17 (63 F) in Christchurch and 14 (57 F) in Lyttelton. A small difference, really.

We think the community offers more than enough to offset these drawbacks.

Gondola ride!

We have visitors from Auckland this weekend - Gareth's sister Heidi and our nephew Brodie. You know what having visitors means: we get to be tourists! Of course we are just barely over that tourist/resident line ourselves, so it's still fun to check out what our city has to offer its visitors.

Today we rode the Gondola. It was a beautiful day and the views were awesome.

No, we're not throwing Brodie over the edge... he's just a bit squirmy....

Not missing America (sorry American amigos)

We're about 3 months into our New Zealand experiment now, and it's going just swimmingly. I speak for us both when I say that there has not been even a moment of homesickness yet.

It probably helps that the news from America is absolute insanity. I'm talking about the health care "debate" going on over there. I have to ask, WTF is going on in America? We read that people are bringing guns to townhall meetings. GUNS!! People are comparing Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler. That doesn't even make sense. Sarah Palin and death panels and 'socialised medicine'... it's all so absurd. So completely absurd.

And while we're on the subject, let me tell you - we have national health care here. It's not as bad as the insurance companies would have you believe. Really!

The health care uproar is just part of the craziness emanating from America. We just saw an advert on TV for a show about Americans teaching their kids how to fire guns. I just saw footage of American kids firing machine guns under the guidance of their misguided parents. One kid was squealing "die! die!" with a very frightening level of glee. This is the kind of thing that makes Kiwis shake their heads and say, "only in America..."

It's true that from a distance, America kind of look like a place filled with gun-crazed lunatics. This sheds a little light on something that happened to us during a visit here two years ago. We were chatting with a bus driver and told him we were visiting from Arizona. His response, "do you have guns at home?"

We are also not missing American "bigger is better" excess. Portions in restaurants are smaller here. You get an amount of food that will sate without overstuffing. We have not seen a single Big Gulp soda. (Who needs a 2-litre soda in a cup!? No one needs that.) And people drive small cars here. There are very few SUVs or pickup trucks - called "utes," short for "utility." People who drive utes need them to haul stuff around. Most people drive little cars. This is probably because gasoline is too expensive to drive bigger cars. That's right: gas is priced to reflect that it's a nonrenewable resource that should not be wasted. In Phoenix, we used to spend a lot of time booing Hummers. No more. We've only seen 1 Hummer since we got here. We booed it.

I was thinking that I should mention some things that we don't like to make this post more balanced, but I can't think of anything right now...

Life is good for us in New Zealand.

Good sorts

There is a feature on the evening news here called "good sorts." Viewers can nominate someone who has done a good deed or shown worthy character and that person will be that week's good sort.

I ran into a good sort today that just made me so happy to be here.

Our Honda had a burnt out headlight. We've had the car for less than 3 months so it's still under warranty. We figured that a burnt out headlight would fall under the "general maintenance" "uncovered" umbrella, but thought we'd go back to the dealership and ask just in case. We were very happy to learn that indeed it is covered. (This is especially good because apparently to change a headlight on a Honda Fit, you have to take a wheel off. Who needs that?) But the car salesman and his generous warranty plan is not the good sort I'm here to tell you about.

So I made an appointment to have the light fixed at a mechanic who is contracted with the dealership. The plan was to drive the car to the mechanic, walk 20 minutes to work, and then walk back to the shop at the end of the day to retrieve the car.

When the mechanic learned that I was going to be walking to work he insisted on giving me a ride. He called over a kid in the garage and asked him to drive me to work. The kid seemed more than happy to help. I thought this was very nice. I mentioned to the kid (didn't get his name) that I'd be walking back later to get the car.

This afternoon it started to rain like mad. Blowing wind, sideways rain, all of it. The mechanic's receptionist called me at work and said the weather was pretty bad, would I like for them to send someone to come pick me up? Why yes, yes I would.

The same kid came back to get me. He said he had seen the awful weather, remembered that I would have to walk to the garage, and told the office that they should call me and see if I wanted a ride. So nice! What a great experience.

Obviously, there are nice people everywhere and this is not an "Only in New Zealand" story by any means. But it sure is nice when things like this happen in our new country, you know?

House hunting

So we've been here for less than three months, and we said that we'd probably wait a year or more before deciding to buy a house, but here we are, shopping for a house. We are going to buy a house. We just don't know which one yet.

A few things have led to this. First, we found jobs much more quickly than we had ever dreamed possible, so we barely had to dip into our savings. This means we have enough for a down payment.

Secondly, it would seem that house prices are starting to go back up again as the market recovers. We'd rather buy now, while they're still low, than a year from now, when they're up again. It's supposedly a very good time to buy a house right now.

Also, mortgage rates are lowish now, and probably only going to go up. New Zealand mortgage rates are a bit higher than they were in America. We had a 5.5% 30-year fixed mortgage in America, a creature that doesn't even exist here. The best we can hope for here is a 7% fixed rate for 3 years or so, and then a floating rate for the next 22 years.

Finally, we just have this feeling that we are not going to be leaving NZ anytime soon. So we want to be homeowners. We don't want to renegotiate a lease every year, or worry that our landlord might decide to kick us out. And we don't want to be stuck with ugly carpet.

So we've been pre-approved, and we're going shopping.

The first thing we noticed that's different here is that buyers don't generally work with real estate agents, but lawyers are always involved. So we have a lawyer, but no agent. This means that we do all the searching ourselves, and then when we find something we want to buy, we have the lawyer do the paperwork for us. The lawyer will do what our estate agent in America had done - make sure the contract has all the right terms for us. But the lawyer will not negotiate the price. We will do that directly with the seller's agent.

We were very surprised to learn that most Kiwis don't bother getting a building inspection done when they buy a house. Our lawyer said that in his experience, only about 5% of buyers get a building inspection. This just seems like madness to us. The inspection will cost about $400, but considering the size of the investment, it seems like money well spent. So we will definitely be getting one of these done.

This brings us to the quality of New Zealand homes. Here are a few things that we are learing:

1. Heating the whole house is optional. Many homes are heated by a wood-burning stove, a pellet stove, or a gas stove. Basically, a stove. This will be in the lounge (living room). The rest of the house is cold, but can be heated with a plug-in heater of some kind or another. Central heating in homes is almost nonexistent.

2. Insulation is optional. Most old houses have none at all. Newer homes and renovated homes might have insulation in the ceiling or some of the walls. You can't take it for granted that a home is insulated. Usually if it is, this will be advertised. There is a push now to add insulation to homes, and the government currently offers a subsidy to add insulation to your house if you need it.

3. Facing north is really important. As we're in the southern hemisphere, the sun is to the north. Having the sun shining into your windows makes a dramatic difference in the temperature of your house. This is closely related to items 1 and 2 above.

4. They won't always tell you how much it costs. We're finding this kind of annoying, because we just want to know how much money the house costs. If it's too much, we'll move on. But instead of advertising an asking price, many sellers either say "POA" (price on application? we're not sure) or "auction." We're not even going to get into the auction thing - it's just like it sounds. The hammer drops and you own a house. No thanks. So we're mostly sticking to the houses that have an asking price, which is about half of the houses on the market. I suppose if we found one that was just that incredible but up for auction, we might try to make an offer before auction day. It seems that some people do that.

So we've been to about 10 open homes (at least) in suburbs all over the Christchurch area. Should we live in the city? Or by the beach? Or in the hills? Or on the other side of the hills? So many choices, each with their own benefits and drawbacks.

The photo above is from a house advertised for sale. It's really important to imagine these houses with the present furnishings removed.

Flight to Welly

I had to go to Wellington for work today. It's just a quick 45 minute flight to New Zealand's capital at the bottom of the north island. It is so easy and enjoyable to fly in New Zealand. I arrived at the airport about 45 minutes before my flight was due to depart. I walked up to a kiosk and typed in my name. I confirmed my seat and a ticket popped out. I didn't have to wait in line or show any identification to anyone.

I got in line at security. The line was only about 15 people long. I was wearing boots and a long coat, and no one asked me to take them off. I walked through the metal detector and then went to the gate. No one checked my ticket, checked my ID, or made me put my lipstick in a plastic baggie.

At the gate, the attendant called the back half of the plane to board. No identification needed here either. I walked outside, climbed the stairs, and got on the plane.

Piece of cake.

And the views from the sky are just lovely. Here are the plains north of Christchurch:

The snow-capped Southern Alps ...

I didn't take any pictures arriving in Wellington, but I took a few as we left...

We live in a gorgeous place :)

Beach art

We stumbled upon this today.

Neat-o.

Mexican food review

Last night we went out for dinner at The Flying Burrito Brothers, a Mexican restaurant. We had been hesitant to try the Mexican food here - we come from southern Arizona, where burritos are plentiful and Tecate is cheaper than water. Sadly, the days of $2 tacos and bottomless bowls of tortilla chips are gone. Way gone.

Flying Burrito Brothers has a nice atmosphere that feels kind of Mexican. There are wood and metal crosses on the walls and lanterns hanging from the ceiling. They even had some of those cowhide chairs at some of the tables. So far so good.

Then we opened our drink menu. Tecate: $8. Dos Equis: $8. This is per bottle mind you, not for a six pack. It hurts to pay $8 for a bottle of Tecate. But we did it anyway.

Our beers were properly served with lime wedges, only the limes were yellow. (No, they were not lemons.) Not sure what's going on with that, but we had noticed this in the veggie markets already. No green limes, just yellow ones. Weird, but okay. Yellow limes are much juicier than green ones, as it turns out. Either that, or every lime we ever had in America was stale and dried out. Also a possibility.

I can never say no to a quesadilla, so I ordered the vegetarian option, a mushroom quesadilla. We've never known mushrooms to be widely used in Mexican food, but it's cool. I love mushrooms. Gareth ordered a veggie burrito. We started with jalapeno poppers. (okay, these aren't really Mexican at all probably, but we love them.) All of this was crazy expensive for Mexican food. A burrito = $23. No joke. And apparently avocados are as rare as saffron here - they wanted $14 for guac and chips. Insanity! We did not order guacamole.

The poppers were probably better than what we'd had before. Instead of cream cheese, they were filled with more jalapenos. mmmmmm - caliente!

Then the mains. The mushroom quesadilla was lovely, no complaints. Gareth's burrito, however, was more like a gourmet wrap. Instead of a regular flour tortilla, it came in a pesto-flavoured one. And it had pumpkin in it. Delicous? Yes. Mexican? No.

So it would seem that Kiwis have their own idea of what Mexican food should taste like and they charge an arm and a leg for it. Of course this makes sense - Mexico is really far away. Mexican food is exotic now.

If we are ever back in Phoenix, we are totally hitting up Juan's on Thomas Road and loading up on flautas.

Another thought is that we might be able to make our millions by opening up a real Mexican taco stand.

The washing

One thing that has been a change for me, but a return to normalcy for Gareth, has been the way we dry our clothes. Although tumble dryers do exist in New Zealand, they don't seem to be very popular. Everyone hangs their washing out to dry on a clothesline, or, if it's rainy, on a clothes horse inside. Even if we wanted to buy a tumble dryer, our house doesn't have a space to put one. But we're fitted with a very nice clothes line outside in our garden.

When I told mom that this is how we'd be doing things here, she responded, "oh, you'll never manage with THAT..." thanks for the vote of confidence mom... you'll all be happy to hear that I'm actually coping just fine.

Hanging out the washing is a fact of life here (and, I'm led to believe, in pretty much every place except America). It's the norm. We've started looking at house listings, and had a little chuckle when we read this one:

Comes with a heat pump, a dishwasher, a wall oven, a large pantry, a laundry supertub and a clothesline for the ease of modern living.

If hanging clothes out to dry is the modern way, what's the old way??

The attitude here seems to be one of sustainability. Why would you use electricity to dry clothes when sunshine and fresh air are available for FREE? When we first arrived in Christchurch and checked into a hostel, we were shown around by the lady of the house. She pointed out that there was a washer and dryer available for our use, and added, "but of course on a nice sunny day like today you won't have any need for the dryer..." Right. (I used the dryer.)

Just two months in, and I'm learning to love the washing line. For one, my clothes don't shrink everytime I wash them now. No more wiggling into fresh-out-of-the-dryer jeans. I think our clothes are going to last longer now. And there's something nice about being outside to hang out the washing. It just feels good, like homemade bread.

This subject came up at work last week, and I mentioned that I had never hung clothes out to dry before moving here. They were incredulous. They pointed out further benefits I had not considered. Apparently, the UV rays in the sunshine act as an acti-bacterial and make your clothes even fresher and cleaner. As I can't seem to hang everything up without dropping one or two things on the ground in the process, the UV effect is a lucky bonus.

We kind of shudder to think of all the electricity we wasted by using the tumble dryer during the 6 years we lived in Phoenix. It would be 100 degrees outside, sun blazing, zero humidity. But we would throw our clothes into the dryer and push a button and pull them out 60 minutes later. That just seems like insanity now.