Really retired now - all the others have gone back to school and I'm fancy free. I will have to relieve though - to my horror a school which started early rang me two weeks ago for a day's work. I couldn't go because I just wasn't ready and anyway it was the day we got the OFFER on our house. Since then no one's rung and I must say I'm pleased. I will have to break the teaching ice all over again when I get my first relieving gig.
I don't miss teaching at all. I'd like our house to sell this week and then spend a month packing up and sorting out and THEN relieving when we get to Whangarei.
So another landmark on the old retirement journey was the first offer on our house. It was low but just adequate and conditional on the sale of HIS house in an auction in two week's time. The two weeks are now very nearly up and the day after tomorrow we will know our fate.
A funeral in Auckland in the weekend meant we were more than half way to Whangarei so we went up, stayed with a friend and looked at houses: in the city on Sunday and one the coast on Monday. It was very very hot but the heat was not confined to Whangarei fortunately. It was 32 in Rotorua and Auckland felt like Hong Kong. Whangarei was sparklingly beautiful under clear blue skies and the houses at Onerahi on a peninsula jutting into the harbour looked at their best. We saw a few affordable places. We were impressed at how many people had installed new bathrooms and kitchens even in lower cost houses. However, the house we fell in love with - open French windows wafting in a breeze from the harbour was just not practical - postage stamp secion and no room for our vehicled or storage for our gear.
Yesterday was more depressing. It's disappointing how crappy many of the houses at Ruakaka and One Tree Point are. You can get a house at a lower price but you need to spend so much money on them to bring them up to standard. And you just don't get as much bang for your buck as you get in town. We loved One Tree Point. It was the first time we had seen it in good weather and there is actually a white sand pohutukawa lined beach with beautiful views of Mount Manaia and the Heads. Photo of the latter attached.
After we got home one of the agents said she had listed a house in Kamo for well under 300 000 - by a totara reserve and with sweeping rural views. Do we want to give up our dream of water for a much cheaper house. Hmmmm
And in relation to the reitrement theme, a niece in law who lives in the beautiful coastal community of Ngunguru said that there is a great retirement village there with people in the 50 and 60s and it's independent living of course - very close to the harbour/river. Very cheap way to get in there and it looks cool but ....
Saw a good t-shirt the other day: "I'm retired, ask someone else."
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