January 8th and 9th Invercargill to Winton

January 8th Winton!

Today we got up early and ate a quick breakfast before getting ready for mass.  We went to St. Mary’s Basilica here in Invercargill (yes, Virginia, we got a bulletin to prove it!).  After mass we strolled back through some of the gardens here before getting packed up for the last time on our month holiday.

Karen Gilbert, the practice manager, and one of the other Winton Medical Clinic employees came and brought our car.  The doc before us had four kids so they traded in for a larger car which is awesome for us!  It is kind of like a station wagon with three rows of seats.  It is very nice.  We drove the thirty minutes to Winton and finally arrived at 4 Anne St.!  It is a three bedroom house that has everything we need.  There is a green space behind the house that leads to the kids school (which has a playground).  We are not far from the main street of the town.

After eating lunch we went shopping and stocked up on groceries for the next few days before unpacking and settling in to our new house.  We did go ride the four bikes left in the shed and played at the school playground.  Internet is not working so it will be awhile until we can update our blog or skype.

St Marys

Our new house in Winton.

The living room.

Downtown Winton.

Ursula scouts out the downtown.

Gabe climbs over the fence in our back yard to get to the rugby field.

The rugby field behind our house.  The school is in the background.

January 9th Work

Mom headed off to work for the first time today.    Apparently, they have the view of orientation-smorientation!  Ursula was scheduled with patients from ten am her first day!  Evidently they assumed she would know their computer system already.  Ursula did great and was able to come home for lunch.  The kids had a great day playing outside at the parks right near our house.  Gabriel really enjoyed kicking a rugby ball and was really good at it (he made five kicks in a row over their goal posts-like a field goal).  The boys had a great time playing on these Tarzan swinging ropes.  After all our travels they were happy to play at the park all day. 

Gabe and Tara in front of their school (Winton School).

Gabe and 

The playground behind the school.

The Tarzan swings behind the school.