Garden and Getting Settled

We have now moved into our new home. Of course within days we both had a cold. We did get a surprisingly large amount done despite this. We planted the beautiful (yet just starting) garden you see here, and found the basics we needed to start living in the house. The garden had tomatoes, beans, and strawberries in the main area, and the small one contains hot peppers. And of course we cannot forget our new favorite part of the house... our lemon tree. It will probably take awhile to actually produce lemons, but we love it all the same.
The house is recently renovated so the carpets, tile, bathrooms, and kitchen are all new. It has a bit of a beach house feel to it. (Probably because of its location between two beaches) It was missing a few things that seemed necessary for us to live here comfortably... A fridge, clothes washer, microwave, and a bed. These are the things we set out for the first weekend here. We found a ton of stores for appliances, or white wear, so we started bargaining with one of the places to get a refrigerator, washer, dryer, and TV. TV's from the states DO NOT work in the NZ (pronounsed N Zed). The frequency is different, so we had to sell all of our tv's in the states. The good news is that they have really good free channels here, so we are able to get them through a digital anntena. Back to our bargaining... we were able to not only get them to knock off a third of the overall price, but when we mentioned we would like to ask about what they could take off a price of a phone the salesman just said he would give us the phone if we left. We felt very proud of ourselves.
To address the bed problem we ran into the only store open after 6pm.. the warehouse. It is litterally that too, shelves of just stuff... no fancy displays.. no fancy packaging... just lots of stuff for not a lot of money. We found a very nice air matress there, a microwave, sheets, pillows, extension cords... everything you need. We however throught our sheets and one blanket would be enough for the heat problem. We were very wrong! We had to unpack our clothes and pile them on the bed to stay warm that night. So we got a huge wool cover for the next night... still cold. So we got a space heater, and we slept very warm until its timer would run out that we set (safety first).. but still a good option except for the fact that we were sick. So finally we got the greatest thing of all... an electric blanket! Now, we are very cozy.
I will leave the washer story for tomorrow:)
Thanks for being patient while we waited for our internet to arrive. Love you all and miss you like crazy!