We are still in New Plymouth, still on the same camp ground and seem unable to drag ourselves away. To be honest it's perfect for us at the moment. Sam is back from his trip to the museum and he had a great time. Yesterday was almost like a normal day in normal people's lives.
In the evening I went for a meal with about 10 girls and Sam and Will went to the cinema with the boys to watch a film... it's this normality which makes it so hard to leave. Today Sam and Will got up and went for a surf and then we drove to the supermarket to get some supplies. We stopped at a nice coastal spot and made sandwiches which we ate overlooking the sea and then we drove to the local park and hired a boat which we took out on the lake for 1/2 hour. We are now back at the campsite and Will is fixing his surf board, Sam is doing a maths test!! and I am trying to send photos to people and remove some bits and pieces from the computer as it's running a bit slow!
In terms of visas we have made a little progress. We got in touch with the Aussie embassy by telling them it was an emergency and they informed us that to get a 4month+ visa we needed to send in passports and show $12,000 in our account (yeah right) we would also have to pay $140 each to enter so we have decided to go for a 3 month visa and try and extend whilst we are there. In order to do this we needed to confirm our flight dates with travel mood. When we first booked the tickets the flight dates for the second half of the trip had not been released so they said to contact them in the new year to confirm the dates. We emailed travel mood who said it was no longer their responsability and we needed to contact Quantast directly... we tried to do this but they had us on hold for ages and so Mum stepped forward and called Quantas for us...they amended the dates as requested but have tried to charge us!!! So we are now in a battle with Travel Mood to get the dates amended for free as they promised (nightmare!)
We are going to head to the Coromandel next - if we can ever drag ourselves away from this place. Here's a pic of Sam, Ben and Megan at the museum.
Travel Mood seem a helpful company, are they called that as they make your travelling stress levels rise. All sounds wonderful (other than the 'mooders!'!) and meeting another family whilst doing normal things sounds like it has come just at the right time. Will posted on FB some pics of the van, I love it...but where do your shoes go Ruth? Hope your all well (we have a sickness bug...I use the term we lightly, Jay doesnt and wont be coming near till it passes!However G and I are suffering!). The weather is wet, grey and depressing...oh and I am massively behind with my studies...so all in all I would rather swap lives right now! Look after yourself and big hugs xxxx
ReplyDeleteSo glad to know you are all ok
ReplyDeleteI rang Wills mum today who also gave me your blog address so Ive been busy reading it
Wow what a fantastic time you are all having
No gossip here really school going well the boys are cooking now in DT
Wish Samwich a happy birthday on the 23rd
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