hayleyearth

Yip, those Quechua tents gets my vote. Our small one is also one of those work the dark coating. It made camping with a 6 month old a dream due to being able to do naps in the middle of the day in summer! That size one looks like it can work for us!

We are not going far, just Omokoroa for 6 days then Mt Manganui for another 6 days. Our little man is only 2 months so we won't be camping this year, something we really love to do but now need a bigger tent, our are only 1.9mx2m... Not enough for 4 people 😅

If ya folk have any event coming up and need drinks at a discounted rate let me know I now work for LionCo and we have a 'friends and family' discount system, we also get other great deals along the way. Excited about my new role as it covers mechanical, construction and software technologies and across all the different brands and sites which makes up Lion in NZ. What I have come to learn in New Zealand is there are MANY different places for an engineer to work.

Does anyone here in NZ or Aus get car allowance from your company? Would like to know what you think is the pros and cons etc. And also how it works month to month.

I'm so over this lockdown! I want to be let free now! Not just to leave Auckland but to be able to have family here and to travel overseas too!!

Our little man decided to arrive early and with quite a different approach to his sister and due to COVID Papa missed his birth unfortunately!! Luckily I insisted on staying at hospital while having contractions (which they thought was false labour) otherwise he would have come in the car or at home.... He was 9 days early, 2 weeks shorter in the tummy than his sister, but a big difference in size. NB clothes fitted her for only a week, he swims in it. Spacial times for sure! ????

Most cycling related purchases in our house these days are for the little one(s).... If you are ever looking for an AMAZING kids bike (this is a 16", but they start smaller) I would highly recommend Prevelo! NO BACK PEDAL BRAKES! yeah!! Our little girl is only 3y3m (102cm) now but fits her really well and it comes with 2 different size seatposts so it will go for quite some time too. She still needs to get the hang of the brakes and then onto the pedals. Happy little girl though with her pretty cool bike! (Light too @ < 6.5kg)

Any of you had success in buying something other than a plastic water bottle that fits nicely in a bottle cage?

There isn't really trails on a "mountain" here in Auckland, it is more on hills, but still fun! As Patches mentioned, Woodhill and Riverhead is probably the most popular up north, then down south you get Maraetai trails, Four40 and Totara Park (more family riding I'd say).

We found out this morning that we are going to have a baby boy ???? Both dad and I wanted another girl, but I guess this will bring a new dynamic to the family. And we were bargaining on passing down all her cool clothes (like winter jackets and snow clothes) but now we have to go buy new things... Eish. So can anyone mention something where they found boys are nicer to have that girls? Layla has set the bar high unfortunately. ????

As many other post, you will get A LOT of information (cycling related and just general living in NZ) in the other NZ thread. Ummm you can't compare CT with NZ - that is a city vs a country. And depending where in NZ you move your experience will change completely! My findings summarised: I use to do 'a bit' of road riding in SA before I moved to NZ, I loved the 100km+ rides on weekends and would do 25-ish in the mornings before work. I moved to NZ thinking I would do more MTBing but Auckland isn't a easy area to go MTBing as trails are far out in all directions. So I did more road rides. There are plenty of separate cycle lanes here now and I got some decent routes that would take me all around Auckland (most between 100-160km). One thing though......the terrain here is HILLY! If you want to know about generally in NZ I would say gravel style riding is best - oh boy there are heaps and heaps of options, even 'a trail' going from the northern tip of NZ right to the south of the south island. I am a mom now and most of our riding these days involve carrying our little one (soon to be little ones) on the bikes with us, this does not stop us from touring all over with the bicycles as there are plenty of cycle trails all over which you can do and adapt to your own capabilities .. Home | Ngā Haerenga New Zealand Cycle Trails (nzcycletrail.com)

Ummm...the rain and flooding...

Christchurch..... urgh, we have flights down for this weekend. Anyone know how bad it is in town itself and towards Akaroa etc?

Any engineers / Project Managers in Australia looking for a job? Or know of anyone there (Victoria mainly or Sydney willing to travel)? PLEASE let me know!!!

The start amounts of your 2nd property is a bit unclear to how you get that value. I guess this is more made up to leveraging off your 1st property to be able to buy your 2nd one and nothing to do with what % of income you are actually putting on on the bond of the 1st one, life expenses etc. We are sitting with the decision currently if we should be saving for the 2nd property or put as much into the current bond as we can. Our pay back are scheduled around the 15-17years mark now, but we can either reduce that or use the money to save (invest in additional shares to us as a 2nd deposit say in 5 years).

We did an overnight bike trip a couple of months back, easy gravel trails, only 87km... I was shocked to see so many roadie looking guys on e-bikes all the way. We were 2 of maybe 5 or 6 people on pedal bikes. Crazy I think. I can't imagine riding one myself yet, maybe when I'm old, fat or lazy one day.

I'm in group 2. But not sure I want to get it now.

Sad to think (for us) that that's not even 10% of the value of our house we bought here where we will basically be arms length away from our neighbors (at least we have a bit of a coastal view). Crazy.

We are testing out the medical service in NZ again. We went riding at Totara park again yesterday, a relaxing family cycle. Layla was with me on the MTB, her dad riding in front of us. We were going slow and still on the very gentle trails at the start. I came around the bend and there Thomas was lying on the ground, helmet off his head back to us. I put Layla down at my bike and went to look at what happend. He was lying unconscious. Blood everywhere. I started yelling for help, I didn't have my phone and at least the park was very busy. People came to help quickly, felt like the ambulance took for ever. He had to be carried quite far. Currently in hospital, a few broken vertebrae, very very bad deep cuts to his face, nose halfway teared off. Crazy! Crazy! That all this damage could happen on a normal piece of trail that had no bumps, not even a big slope. An area our 2 year old will ride with her own bike. We are in Middlemore hospital and I can't fault the service received here again. The only rediculous thing is the COVID restrictions. Layla can't come with. Now that he is in a ward I'm not really allowed in here either, only visitors for companionate reasons are really allowed (so when the patient is dying). Eish, don't know what the recovery will look like yet. They are finishing up plastic surgery on his face now which was done under full anesthesia. What a tough few weeks for our little family. Can only go better now.

I was in Napier area over Christmas/New years.... Don't do that too your kids! Rather choose Tauranga if you have to. Property there is a hit or miss at the moment thought, had different friends bought down there there last few months, some got a deal, others not at all I'd say.

Yip, when I was 4 months pregnant. We did it 'in reverse', so started closest to Taupos side. Enjoy, it's great.

Where's the rain? It's scary how dry it has been, definitely not the same place than a few years ago. I went up north this past weekend, the cows and sheep had no green grass to eat, done areas were actually barely any grass.

How tall are they? What is the weight of those 16" Munn bikes? I'm thinking of skipping 14" for my little one too, she's only 2.5 now but going comfortably on her balance bike and she's quite tall for her age.

I think yours will be much faster due to there not being Covid working restrictions anymore.

He got the invitation yesterday to his ceremony, it's on the 23rd of Feb.