This will be a 12 parter, but I am putting it in here, because it is true, and because the extended work site doesn't get looked at very often. Also, this isn't a book - just stuff about what we saw and did - so it doesn't matter if you read from the beginning. This first section is longer than the others (3500 words) because it has to set up the whole thing. The writing was done at the time - writing letters home - which the recipients saved for us at our request so we would have a record of the year.

Every since we married, it had been our plan to spend some time abroad. University contracts in those days had the lovely bonus of offering and expecting lecturers to take a sabbatical every seven years. Philip was offered a job in Fiji starting the summer of 1973, but our third child was born that year, and she had quite a lot of medical problems, so we were advised against going there. So the next plan was to go to New Zealand, and Philip managed to secure a year long visiting lecturer’s post at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch.

We had no money. We borrowed from Philip’s parents for our tickets - cashed in our life insurance, rented the house to one of Philip’s graduate students, got free train-tickets to London by saving up hundreds of cornflakes coupons. We knew no one in New Zealand, although Philip had arranged through his contacts in Christchurch for us to have temporary university housing when we arrived.

January 13, 1976

Philip had been up during the night with last minute packing. We had to repack and sit on cases to get them closed. It was cold and rainy - good weather to leave behind. When we got to the local train station, the clasp on one of the cases broke and Philip made a temporary repair on the train using his belt. When we got to Piccadilly we got a trolley but our stack of suitcases was so high that they overbalanced going around a corner and everything fell off. We finally got settled in a nice compartment on the London train, relaxed a bit and enjoyed the ride to London. Philip’s father met us in London and helped us get out to Gatwick.

The flight, which began about 5 in the afternoon, was very long but quite interesting. We flew with the sunset - from London north over Scotland and Ireland - and then over to Canada with the orange sky in the west windows nearly all the way. When it finally got dark we were over Las Vegas. We had flown right over Bismarck where we could easily pick out the 18 story capitol building.

When we finally landed in Los Angeles it was night and for us well past our bedtime. We were so tired. We had a lot of bother with having to go through American customs - having our hand luggage rechecked, with a fuss over us having more baggage than we should have done. We were told we would have to get rid of the excess but we'd been allowed on with it, on the very same plane, in London. So Philip very firmly said we were taking it all and if the man didn’t like it, tough. The man shouted, “If the plane crashes it will be your fault.”

I wanted to call Bismarck from Los Angeles but didn't have any American change. Philip couldn't change anything less than £10 and he refused to do that to get a dime. I expect some fellow traveller would have lent me a dime, but I was too tired to ask.

The kids were fussy and crying, we were all so tired and there was no place to sit. Finally it was all over and we were back on the plane. We stopped next at Tahiti but before we were allowed out, the Tahitian officials sprayed the plane up and down the aisles with disinfectant.

When we got out, it was the middle of the night there, and the air was hot and heavy with moisture and fragrance which just about choked us. We sat for a few hours in the airport. The natives spoke French and the place looked interesting. We would have loved to have seen more of it, but that would have to be on another occasion.

Next stop after that was Auckland airport. It looked so shabby - sort of like a roughly made shed. But the airport officials were efficient and with their shorts looked very cool. We had planned to speed up the trip through officaldom by commenting that we hoped Andrea would manage not to vomit for a few more minutes. It worked.

The people were friendly - rechecking our load of bags for us. We had a few hours to spend before our little plane flew us down to Christchurch so we walked beyond the airport to some fields. We marvelled at all the vegetation which seemed so much larger than what we were used to. We were seeing everything through new eyes and despite our fatigue, it was so exciting.

Canterbury is a very flat county - in the middle of the east coast of the South Island. As we flew over it getting ready to land, I already felt at home. It looked just like flying over the fields of North Dakota. (Except of course for the high mountains on one side and the ocean on the other.)

The airport was clean and fresh and pretty. And we were met by two men from the University who took us to the place we were to live temporarily and provided us with a few days’ groceries.

We quickly made some beds and slept and slept, for twelve hours straight. But with our time schedules all out of whack we woke early by local time, and as soon as possible walked around to explore our new town. It was so empty. Everybody was on holiday. The sun shone and we put on shorts to try to get rid of our very white skin.

Philip's friend of the day before, Jim, came over to see what he could do. He and his wife took us shopping and our kids went swimming with their kids that afternoon. We did find a bit of a communication problem. Jim’s boys asked if our kids had their towels, but to us it sounded like tails - and we couldn’t for the life of us make out what it was they were saying.

Jim helped Philip buy a car. We bought a 1968 blue Vauxhall Viva, completely rust free, which we managed to sell for the same amount at the end of the year - after driving over 15,000 more miles.

We got invited out to dinner nearly every day those first weeks. People lent us things. Everybody was so friendly. It was warm and sunny and we were very happy.

We went to New Brighton beach, just on the outskirts of the city, on our first weekend, to find empty beaches of white sand and turquoise water, it was absolute heaven. We later found out that New Zealanders do their gardening on Saturdays and go to the beach on Sundays. So by going to the beach on Saturdays, we seldom saw more than half a dozen other families there. We soon all had sunburned cheeks and noses.

We went to view the house we'd be moving to on the 25th. It seemed very nice and had plenty of space. The biggest drawback was the distance from the University. Nearly all the chemistry lecturers lived within walking distance as the University was in an extremely pleasant part of the city.

We needed to get extra toys for the children. They went from being very happy about being in New Zealand to being very homesick.

21 January 1976

Dear Mum and Dad,

We have now been here 10 days, and the children are still waking at 7 a.m. Perhaps we will encourage that as they will be starting school at the beginning of the week after next. Anyway, it took us at least four days to recover from our flight but I think we are back to normal now.

Christchurch is having the coldest summer on record. The first week was cold and rainy, like a typical Manchester August, but this week we have had a taste of what "normal" January is in the -80-90's rather windy, very hot sun. At midday, when the sun is due North (it goes right to left down here!) it is in a spot nearly overhead, and ten minutes was enough to produce mild sunburn last weekend. We are rapidly turning brown. The children go about in swimming costumes and bare feet most of the day. The evenings get cool around 8 pm, and the nights are cold - two blankets at least.

The town is outwardly rather English - there is a greater proportion of English cars here than in Manchester. The town centre is crowded with traffic and people, with a Victorian Gothic cathedral, and an enormous park. But not so much litter as in an English city, and the cars don't drive so fast. You certainly know you are in a foreign country, but not very foreign.

We are still living in a "transit house", belonging to the University, a wooden, 3 bedroom bungalow about 40 years old, with just enough furniture, pots and pans, etc. to live in. We were met at the airport by the other lecturers at the University who drove us here. They had bought us enough food to live for a couple of days, so we put the children to bed (3 pm) had a cup of tea, and went to sleep ourselves. Jonathan woke up at 4 a.m. wanting breakfast. It was very nice though to have a house and be on our own to settle in. This Sunday we move to a house about 5 miles away, in the south of Christchurch, just north of a range of hills (the Cashmere Hills which closely resemble the Malverns). We hope to be there the rest of the year. I started work this week. They don't want me to lecture much, just get on with my own research. They hope I shall do something environmental and related to New Zealand, so I am in the process of deciding what to do. More next week.

Love from us all.

Philip

January 21

It is strange to have the city close down on the weekend. Like having two Sundays. The city was deserted when we drove through. It’s a lovely town center for a big city. A huge park goes through the middle and a river meanders through with weeping willows drooping their leaves into it. Later we're going canoeing down the river. It’s shallow but has quite a strong current.

Jan 25

Philip has taken our first load of stuff to our new house. He's being a long time so I expect that the other people haven't moved out yet. We went down on Thursday to find out how things worked etc. The owner has only left me six of each of dishes and lots of them are cracked. I've invited four friends to lunch on Wed. so will have to go out and buy dishes first.

People have surely been kind to us except nobody seems to have children the right ages for our children. But school starts in a week so that should either be a big help or a big headache. Jonathan says he doesn't want to go but he always says that. 

We're a bit hard up. We had to spend about 15% of the annual salary on the car which the University advanced to us but that means we have even less each month. We think we'll have about $100 a month after we pay for the food and rent and all the other expenses. We shall have to buy at least four wool blankets and the beds only have two each and its cold at night even in the mid summer and Philip refuses to use their gas heater because they are dangerous so he will want to buy some electric ones or we won't survive the winter. I'm not complaining. We knew it would be an economical year but it’s worth it for all the nice things we shall see and do.

 

28th Jan

Dear Mum and Dad,

We have now moved into our "permanent" home from the University "transit" house we were in before. This house is a large 4 bedroom (1 is shut off) bungalow with a "40 perch" garden (1/4 acre). The house is about 40-50 years old, wooden, high ceilings (12' high and wood panelling up to 4 ft on the walls. It is not the ideal place, but houses are difficult to get and we can have this for the whole year, which is convenient. I have a 5 mile journey to work, this house being about 3 miles due South of the city centre and the University about 4 miles due West of the Centre.

We are just near the foot of a range of hills which run along the South edge of the city - the city itself is on the edge of the Canterbury plain which extends 50 miles to the west and north and south (except for the Cashmere hills). The houses around here are mostly in 1/6-1/4 acre plots, nearly all wooden and all bungalows.

Gardens are very lush - the same plants as in England in the main, but they grow rather larger in this climate being a bit warmer than say Devon. We have struck a bad patch and so far have had very few hot days. The sun, when it comes out, is very hot and we have to be careful not to get burnt.

The garden at this house is mostly lawn, and flower beds in the front (perennials & shrubs, the ground between being covered with smallish chips of pine bark so this effectively prevents weeds from germinating and/or growing and we shouldn't have much work to do with the flower beds.) The back garden has a small vegetables plot 6' x 10' with various things in it and we shouldn't have to buy vegetables for a month or two. We are effectively in mid-summer, so I am planting cauliflower and purple sprouting (if I can find it) which should be ready in the spring (October!)

We are well placed for schools here - 4 primary school within about a mile, and 2 kindergartens. Next Monday is "registration" day, when all these schools open, the teachers are there and we can inspect the school and talk to the teachers, headmaster, etc. School proper begins on Tuesday, and most schools seem to have uniforms of some description (and also desks, set in rows - Stephanie will not be allowed to talk unless she puts her had, etc.) We hope Andrea can get a kindergarten place, but this may be more difficult. I will write again next week and let you know the outcome.

Love from all of us, Philip.

Jan 29

We're having a "norwester" today. That’s a very strong wind that’s hot and dry and blew about 10 lbs of unripe pears off our tree. Time is going very slowly just now. I've had a few days of being homesick. We're in the new house but haven't met any neighbors or made friends. Philip bought me a box of peaches and some strawberries and raspberries yesterday to try to cheer me up.

The wind has blown a lot of the clothes off the line into the dirty garden. We planted melons and corn - pretty hopeful but it not a chance we ever get in England. We are eating lettuce, cabbage, beets and beans from the garden. The green beans dont't need to be planted as they grow off the same vines year after year.

On Saturday we drove up West into the mountains. The car seems okay. We're getting about 36 mpg. As we drove along the first 50 miles it looked like N.D. straight narrow road and flat. We saw a tremendous amount of tree damage due to a tornado.  The huge trees were uprooted about 10 feet along the edge of the road which seemed to be at least partly destroyed.

We ate lunch by a small stream in the foothills. It was pretty dry as its summer but the river bed size showed what it must be like in spring. There are so many different and exciting things - new bird sounds and huge trees all different from what we've seen before and funny insect casings. Then we drove up through two mountain passes - up maybe 3500 ft. And the mountains were beautiful and so empty. It’s like a ghost planet - all this beauty in a national park in the middle of a hot summer Saturday afternoon and nobody around but us.

We’re going out to supper tonight. Hope we meet some nice people.

They don’t offer bridge as an evening course but I noticed an ad in the paper for bridge so they do at least play it here. I may ring up to see if I might teach some privately too.

We’re back now after a very nice time. People of comparable University status here certainly do have a better standard of living - big houses , nice furniture, big yards and still do a lot of foreign travelling.

The norwester is over. We are probably in for a storm now.