Growing up in New Zealand

2007-05-02T03:47:00.000-07:00

This is my family and I was two years old at the time.

I was born in Christchuch, New Zealand, and I was educated at the local primary, Paparoa Street and secondary school, Avonside Girls High. I married in 1973 and moved to a satellite town called Rangiora, which is 18km's north of Chrsitchurch. My children were born while living in this lovely community and I found myself becoming a business woman and a mother. My husband and I purchased an Indoor Plant shop and grew that into a rewarding and profitable wee business, before selling up, to move to Blenheim.
Life in Blenheim, which is in the region called Marlborough and very famous for growing grapes and producing award winning wines, was fantastic. It is the most wonderful place to bring up children. It is safe and warm and friendly, it doesn't have traffic lights but it does have cafe's, vineyard restaurants, movie theatres, sports stadium, golf courses, the picturesque Marlborough Sounds and so much more. My husband and I created a garden centre and landscape supply centre in the late 80's and after working that for 6 years we moved on to just installing in-ground swimming pools and in the mid 90's that business was sold and we developed a backpackers. My husband still runs that business today.
We parted company in 2005 and I made the move to the capital city of New Zealand called, Wellington, which is in the lowest point of the North Island. It is a city of vibrancy, art and culture and is nestled beside an inner harbour and surrounded by green hilly sprawling suburbs, where houses cling to hillsides and the roads are like goat tracks! After coming from a flat and wide open space such as Marlborough, the narrow windy hillside roads compared to the wide, straight Blenheim streets, certainly took a lot to adjust to.

Below is a photograph of the famous cablecar and the view out over the city, to the harbour.

I consider myself to be very fortunate to live in such a wonderful country. We enjoy a casual and laid back lifesTyle, outdoor pursuits and entertaining are an everyday event here as the weather is fantastic in the summer and in the winter we can experience winter sports such as rugby and netball, snow sports such as skiing and snow-boarding. Backpackers and visitors enjoy the sights in many different destinations in New Zealand - Whale watching in Kaikoura, Hot pools in Rotorua or Hanmer, Caving at the Glow-worm Caves, Waitomo, Sailing in the Hauraki Gulf, Fishing in the Milford Sound, Skiing in Queenstown, to name just a few.

Please come and visit us, you will find us to be a multi-cultural society, who embrace and enjoy the company of overseas visitors and would love to show you our little piece of -
** PARADISE **

Tepapa Wellington. NZ

City scape Wellington, NZ

Snow last winter (2006) Timaru, NZ

A scene from rural NZ

A scene from the beautiful Marlborough sounds

One NZ'er in the land of blog

Growing up in New Zealand