Carolina Kiwis: Oh, What A Feeling!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

We finally found a car! At the last minute, as we were going to test-drive another one, we decided to check out one last dealer. They had a really clean, low-mileage 2002 Toyota Camry, for only about US$500 more than the 1998 Corolla we almost bought. The car has been in Tauranga basically it's whole life, so it's never seen salt or snow. We take delivery on it tomorrow, and not a moment too soon, as the hospital is only paying for our rental for another two days.

Ro had his first day of kindergarten ("Kindy") yesterday! Here, Kindy is the equivalent of pre-school back home. Kids start "real" school on the day they turn five years old, so there are always new kids filtering into the first-year class. On Ro's birthday, he'll start attending Mount Maunganui primary, which is easy biking distance from our future digs. Now we just have to get a bike.

See link: http://www.mtprimary.co.nz/webcontent14.htm

(Note the school-issue boogie boards)

His mission, should he choose to accept it: kindergarten. This pic will self-destruct in 5 seconds. Scroll faster!

Ro "pumping iron" at Kindy in preparation for primary school

Our little monkey on the bars

Even though he'll only be at the Kindy a few weeks, Ro was getting pretty restless hanging out with Sherry all the time, so we think the socialization will be great for him. It also works out great for us, since it tires him out! We were even able to enjoy leisurely outdoor lunches today and yesterday and do a little window shopping at The Mount and in downtown Tauranga. There seems to be plenty of good Turkish, Mediterranean, and Indian cuisine here and we're not complaining. There's a few Chinese "smorgasbord" restaurants, which serve everything from stir-fry to lamb to fish-and-chips. We've only seen one Mexican place, and it looked pretty sketchy - it was down an alley, and we're not quite sure what they were selling.