New Zealand - Tauranga

Tauranga is New Zealand's fastest growing city. By our standards it's not really a city at all. It's not even that big a town really. But this is New Zealand and "things are different here" as our friend Molly put it :0) It's in the Bay of Plenty which is on the east coast of the North Island and another place with a potential job for me. This was top of my list of places to live (not an easy thing to write when you haven't actually seen the places!) and on paper it's great. It has one of the best climates in New Zealand, lovely coastline, geek job opportunities for Ben, as well as potential photography opportunities and a location making it ideal to visit some of the nicest parts of the country within a day or weekend.

However, I've got to be honest my initial impression of Tauranga city itself wasn't overwhelming. It's just over a third of the size of Wellington, doesn't have such an impressive harbour setting and is lacking it's cultural vibrancy. But we always knew that was going to be the case. It does have everything you need from a city centre though in terms of shopping, bars, restaurants etc. Armed with a property rental listings we checked out some of the areas that maybe we would live it, but again were not overly impressed.

Don't worry this is the bit where it gets positive!... But then we went over the water, a bridge separates Tauranga from Mount Maunganui ("The Mount") which is sort of a suburb of Tauranga but feels more like it's own lovely, little beach town. We discovered that we could afford to rent a property really close to the beach and the town feels like it's got it's own little community with shops, cafes etc. We're finding that a lot of New Zealands housing is among sprawling suburbs, which mean that the houses are spread out and surrounded by greenery, but to our minds, lacking in a local community feel. We don't want to have to get in a car and drive every time we want to go somewhere. By New Zealand standards The Mount is "over developed" but to us it's small, tasteful and tranquil, with a gorgeous unspoiled beach :0) I'm not sure what that says about us! I even saw a poster up advertising belly-dancing classes, so who needs Wellington?!

So we're now, feeling really positive about maybe living here. We're not dead set on living in The Mount even if we do end up here because there's the commute to think about and lots of other things, and of course if we found something that we loved in the city then maybe we'd take that. But we are feeling positive that we could find something we really like here for a lot less money than we could in Wellington. Plus we'll have the sunshine and the beach :0) And it's a great place for people to come visit us at (hint hint!). I feel like a life in a little town on a beautiful beach is something that is really different enough from what we left behind to have come all this way for. Does that make sense?

Having said all that... I've got to get offered the job first! I've got my interview on Monday, so wish me luck! I've also got some other interviews lined up so it's not as if all our eggs are in one basket or anything, but I have a feeling about this place. Unfortunately the excitement is starting to flip over into anxiety as it all gets a bit more real - but I'm trying to ignore it and Ben's keeping me calm :0)

Despite Tauranga having supposedly the best climate in the country we're currently holed up in the campervan with a tropical storm raging around us! It's Ben's birthday tomorrow and we're supposed to be going out to celebrate but so far running to the loos is as far as we've got and that's got us soaked! The wind is blowing the camper around so I'm really glad we're not in a tent. We've been cooped up all day and cabin fever is starting to set in now! I've promised myself some wine tonight so I'm determined to get some, I just haven't quite worked out how I'm going to make it happen yet!

A few days later...

Well the important thing is - I did get some wine :0) The storm finally died down enough for us to be able to drive to the supermarket and run inside. So wine was bought, as was birthday treat fish and chips. Fortunately the next day, Ben's actual birthday, the weather was beautiful again and it was hard to believe that the storm had happened at all. We spent the day on the beach and then went out for a thai meal in the evening, so it was all good in the end.

I had my first job interview yesterday and it went really well - I think. I waffled a bit too much and could have answered some of the questions a bit better but I think I got away with it! They're not allowed to offer me the job until they've spoken to my referees (which is a bit of a pain with the time difference and stuff - thanks Beth, it's much appreciated) but it seems apparent that they are going to offer it to me.

It's a Community Mental Health Team Occupational Therapist post - for those of you that that means anything to. Basically it means I'd be working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, with people with mental health problems, in the community, so in their own homes rather than in hospital. It's similar enough to what I've done before to not freak me out too much, but different enough to still be interesting. And funnily enough my "patch" would be The Mount! Which is pretty cool as I'd get to go for walks along the beach with my clients and stuff :0) It may be a reason not to live there though. We shall see. Tauranga town seems to be growing on us anyway so maybe we will want to live in the city after all.

I went back again today for a look around the facilities and to meet some of the team and stuff and it was all very plush! The OT who showed me 'round was lovely and actually apologised about the offices being "a bit shabby" but it was way nicer than most other places I've worked. The hospital itself is all brand new so the inpatient facilities look fantastic. The place had a really positive, friendly, relaxed but professional feel to it. I was impressed. As far as it's possible to tell in this sort of situation I feel like it would be a good place to work. So all we need to do now is wait for them to actually offer me the job!

We've just spent our last day in Tauranga (hopefully only for now) lounging on rocks and cooling off with dips in chilly river water pools, right next to a waterfall :0) We're parked up for the night now, next to a gorgeous lake. We'll be going to sleep to the sound of quacking ducks :0) It's back to Hamilton - yet again tomorrow for another interview (even though I think our minds are already made up to take the Tauranga one) to at least have something else to compare it with (and just in case Tauranga don't offer me the job after all!)


It'd be really good to have it all sorted out so we can put it on the back burner for a few weeks and have yet more holiday time! We're itching to get to the south island.