A DISASTER AND A CELEBRATION

March is a busy month of celebration for JT and me as we both have birthdays and a wedding anniversary on St Patrick's day; this year being our 20th. For JT's birthday we had a weekend in Brisbane, staying at the Stamford Plaza and enjoying some excellent retail therapy, good food and two nights of blackjack at the Treasury Casino. There may be a financial crisis on but you wouldn't be able to tell from the full restaurants, shops and a packed casino. We had a fantastic time but just loved hitting the wonderful Coolum coastline on our return.

Above and below, views from our hotel room at The Stamford Plaza

It seems not many of our non-Australian friends were aware of the huge storm we had here on The Sunshine Coast. During the height of the storm a container ship off the coast of Brisbane lost 30 containers overboard, all containing dangerous chemicals. One container pierced the ships side and over 200,000 litres of oil discharged into the sea.
The oil slicks came ashore from Brisbane and a hundred kilometres north with the Coolum Beach being the most northern place effected. Our beach was lucky as the sludge you see in these photos being minor compared with further south and being cleaned up over a few days.
Further south, even at Mudjimba just 5 K's away, the beaches have been closed now for over a week whilst the clean up continues. This has been a major disaster in an area known for its pristine sandy beaches.

ENJOYING THE HOT SUMMER AT IKON

IKON: Our new home

Finally we have completed our move to our new apartment at Pt Arkwright, about 1K from Coolum to the North and our golf/gym at the Hyatt 1k South. A lovely spot with bush and coastal views. Because the back of the building is high we are able to leave our bedroom deck doors open at night and get cooling breezes. Each of the nine apartments in the complex has its own pool and this is a real bonus during this hot summer.

Our dining area is at the back of the top (living) floor and gets bush views whilst from the back top deck you can look down the coast to Maroochydore.
Above the dining area and below looking out to the back (top) deck.
The living area is towards the front deck, which looks out towards the beach and coast just across the road. It is about a 100 metre walk to the surf.
The kitchen is between the living and dining areas and like the whole complex is modern and very nice indeed.

Above the Living area from the kitchen side. Below, looking out from Living to front deck.
Downstairs are two bedrooms and two bathrooms (master ensuite) and a media room. Below the master bedroom, which has a good deck with bush views.
Below is the media room which we have fitted with a good Hi-Fi system, HD TV and an Apple Mac. This is John's shed.
Below, the guest bedroom, which has a bathroom adjacent and has sliding doors to connect to the media room.
We are loving these new digs and looking forward to an enjoyable year here on The (sometimes) Sunshine Coast.

NEW YEAR 09 FIREWORKS AT AUCKLAND SKYTOWER

A CHANGE IS GONNA COME

One thing JT and I have never been afraid of is CHANGE. We have been married for nearly 20 years and together 22: in that time we have lived in thirteen different homes, owning eight of those. We have lived in Auckland, Brussels, London and Coolum Beach. So JT was only momentarily surprised when in early December I said, "How would you feel if we sold our Coolum apartment and rented for a year?". This not a day after JT had been telling me how happy she was in the apartment.

My reasoning was that we had too much cash tied up in property and not enough "cash on hand". Whilst both the Auckland and Coolum property markets were slow it was a bad time to sell our higher priced and beautiful Auckland apartment there was a better, but still remote, chance of selling in Coolum.

In her usual "let's do it" way JT said OK.

We were leaving soon for a three month stint in Auckland so immediately contacted a local real estate agent and got the process underway. After discussion we all agreed this Christmas holiday season was a good time to sell as lots of people would be visiting wonderful Coolum Beach area for their vacations and that going to auction would sniff out any potential buyers. We were leaving Coolum on December 16th but the estate agent had scheduled the first open home for the 14th.

On Saturday the 14th we tidied up the Coolum apartment and got out of the agents way as the open home time came around. To fill in time JT and I visited another open home: this one for a slick modern apartment in near by Point Arkwright that we had had our eye on for some time but could not afford to purchase until our Auckland property was sold. We loved this apartment with its beach and bush views. We inquired of the agent if the owner would consider renting it out for a year seeing as the real estate market was so slow at this price level. To our surprise he said they probably would and we agreed to keep in touch . We told him we would "make an "offer" if our apartment sold.

Yea right; my hair might go black again too!

IKON at PT. ARKWRIGHT

We arrive back at our Coolum apartment 15 minutes after our open home had finished to find our agent still there. "I'm glad you're back" Di says. "I think I have a cash buyer for your apartment".

Yea right again!

But she had and a week later the contract was unconditional. We of course are back in Auckland by then for our three month stint.

We contact the Point Arkwright agent and make an offer to rent our dream digs for a year. They accept and that agreement is now signed.

JT says "As we are committed to Coolum for at least another year shouldn't we rent out our Auckland apartment and make it work for us?." "Good thinking number 9" I say; "I will look into it".

THE PARC in AUCKLAND

Next day I'm coming home from the gym and pick up a mailer in our mail box. WE HAVE A CLIENT WHO WANTS TO RENT A THREE BEDROOM APARTMENT IN THIS BUILDING FOR A YEAR; PHONE US IF YOURS IS AVAILABLE.

I phone and the agent looks and likes. The client looks and loves. In three days the agreement is consummated.

Goodbye three months in Auckland. It is now back to Coolum on January 10th to move out of our Coolum apartment and to set up in the new one at Point Arkwright.

A CHANGE IS SURE GONNA COME.

IKON at PT. ARKWRIGHT

AN AUCKLAND CHRISTMAS

JT'S DAUGHTER LEIGH AND HUSBAND GREG PUT ON A WONDERFUL FEAST FOR CHRISTMAS LUNCH AND THE GRAND CHILDREN GAVE US MUCH DELIGHT AS THEY ENTHUSED OVER THEIR GIFTS. JT ABOVE WITH JAMIE, BEN AND ANDY. WE MISSED THE OTHER THREE THIS YEAR AS JAKE AND JOE WERE AT HOME IN WELLINGTON AND GEORGE ENJOYED CHRISTMAS AT PIHA BEACH.
AFTER AN INITIAL COLD SPELL WE ARE FINALLY ABLE TO ENJOY SOME SUMMER NIGHTS AND THE WONDERFUL EVENING VIEWS FROM OUR APARTMENT AT THE VIADUCT.

Eating Out in Auckland

Although Auckland is still our home we now spend more time at Coolum Beach on The Sunshine Coast. We treat our rare visits to Auckland as a holiday and last time we were at our Viaduct apartment we hardly ever ate at home. So we had the opportunity to sample some of Auckland's restaurants, especially those close to home in Viaduct Harbour. We share below our view of those we visited.


AUCKLAND'S VIADUCT HARBOUR

Our favourite restaurant locally in the Viaduct is SOUL. We never fail to get an excellent meal here and find the service warm and friendly. When in Auckland we eat at SOUL at least once a week.

We keep hearing how good EURO is but we have had bad experiences there on most times we have dined. Last time we had a terrible table with one of the two seats facing the wall; I really object to paying top price for a view of a wall, especially in such an environment like the Viaduct. Additionally my fish was dry and tasteless, the wine by the glass more than over priced and the service slow. In my view EURO is just not in the same league as SOUL.We found KERMEDEC'S brasserie to be a good middle of the road restaurant with the food tasty, the service attentive and the prices reasonable. It has excellent views and whilst not a favourite is somewhere we would go to again.
O'HAGANS is a pub restaurant that is well positioned in the heart of The Viaduct and is usually "buzzing" with a party atmosphere. We found the food good and the service warm and friendly. An excellent place for watching those "Big Games" whilst enjoying a drink and pub style food.

PORTOFINO is where we have had two of our worst eating out experiences. We had a disastrous meal at their Mission Bay venue where we waited for nearly an hour for a horrible meal and had an equally bad experience one Sunday lunch time at the Viaduct. Although there were only two other tables with guests when we arrived we waited over 45 minutes and still our single course meal did not arrive. I called the waitress over and warned her we were leaving in 5 minutes if our food was not served. The meal still failed to appear so we went to pay for the drinks and leave; only to be presented with a bill for the non appearing food as well, which of course I refused to pay. We were then "set on" by an aggressive chap who claimed to be the owner and became the recipients of much abuse. I gave him enough money for the drinks and advised him to call the Police if he wasn't happy. He declined to have a Police presence but continued to abuse us as we walked towards our apartment just 100 metres away. Needless to say PORTOFINO is off our restaurant list.

We are keen on Japanese food and consider ourselves very lucky to have SOTO nearby in Ponsonby. We always get an excellent meal here and find the staff, especially the head lady, delightful. Highly recommended.

PREGO has always been good but on our two most recent visits found the service and food had gone up to an even higher level. On one visit we had our three grandchildren in our group and were most impressed with the way in which the staff catered for us all and made sure children and adults were served quickly. The tables were cleared regularly to ensure no surplus objects for children to accidentally knock over were on hand and generally the staff catered for the seven of us without a hitch. We had great time and congratulate PREGO on that extra effort to serve families.

THE EDEN CLOAK ROOM is a new experience for us. We went there to see Daniel and Johnny, two great musicians who belted out one top song after another. The food and service here is very fine and the place has a good feel. We certainly will go here again on our next Auckland visit