Carolina Kiwis: The House Hunting Begins

Monday, February 9, 2009

Today was fairly ordinary. Ro had a fitful night last night, so Sherry and Ro chilled at the motel to nap and relax while Mark ran a few errands in the morning. He had to go to the "Post Shop" to apply for an IRD number (like a Social Security number) so he can get a bank account and get paid! And who should he wind up behind in line but Tracy, the innkeeper's wife! Small world already here.

We met a realtor this afternoon at a rental house on Marine Parade (the beach road near Mount Maunganui). Given that it was only NZ$350/wk (about US$200), and the nicer properties in that area go for NZ$500/wk, we were prepared to make a few sacrifices, but it was a little too, um, rustic for our tastes. It was a lot like Teta Alice's place at Lake Tahoe - a million dollar view with a house that was period-correct for 1962, complete with avocado green tub. The dealbreaker for Mark was the phone-booth sized shower, and for Sherry it was that she couldn't imagine putting her bare feet on the well-used, apparently athlete's foot impregnated carpet.

The front porch view from the first house we looked at

We spent the evening walking along the shops on Maunganui Road, where Ro tried his best to get us to buy him every toy in sight, most prominently a stuffed animal that reminded him of his dog Shadow back home. We dined at a sidewalk Mediterranean cafe, where Ro happily ate his Subway sub from across the street and enjoyed the novelty of drinking Ginger Beer from a glass bottle, especially since it looked almost exactly like Mark's Steinlager. We drove past a few other rental houses on our way home, and there are a couple of others we'll look into. We got home late...it was raining and the sun was setting, and of course Ro wanted to go to the park. We compromised and let him swim in the motel pool, where he happily splashed around for a while before we settled in with a movie and a bottle of wine, then put him to bed.