Settling In

A hectic week to say to say the least as Cathy and I try to sort out our life back in NZ.  We spent Monday night on land with friends of Jan and Tony who have a lifestyle block (18 acres) outside of Kerikeri.  It was very peaceful and a welcome change.  Cathy had her first bath since March.  We looked at cars, bought food, spent a lot of time getting a cell phone sorted out, and had wonderful discussions with NZ Customs regarding the importing of Tarun to NZ.  Despite many good arguments (well I thought they were good anyways) Customs was very clear about the fact that we had to import the boat to NZ.  I argued that we were not residents of NZ as we are still tax residents of Canada.  We were informed in no uncertain terms that as soon as our feet touched the dock we became NZ residents again as we are NZ citizens, we have to import our boat.  They assessed the value based on the purchase price converted to NZ dollars then depreciated at 10% per year for the time we have owned her.  The bill was not too excessive but it still hurts a bit.  I asked if we could arrange a payment plan with the government and the Customs official we were dealing with said in no uncertain terms “The government does not do payment plans!”  We have another 3 weeks to pay before they chain the boat to the dock.  Hopefully our RRSP will get cashed out and have enough remaining to pay the bills.

We did manage to buy a car on Wednesday.  We looked at and bought a 1998 BMW 318i.  Low kms and a great price.  So now we get to drive around in a red Beemer as befits our new station in life (broke and tied to a dock).

The week has also been filled with free food and social activities arranged by the Opua Business Association.  They put on a welcome to Opua week that included a free seafood supper at the cruising club on Tuesday, a wine and cheese on Thursday, Bangers and Beer on Friday and the final event, a pig roast yesterday with some great door prizes.  We won a nice Garhuer block that we have no need of so I traded it for a 50 dollar voucher from one of the local electrical places.  We need to rewire the boat to 220 so that will be a bit more useful.