9. My first house in NZ

15, Sheridan Street

This was my first house in NZ. It had 4 bedrooms and a small garage for one car. It was located near Silverdale Road and less than 10 minutes walk to the Waikato University for Kevin and just around the corner from Hilcrest High where Pearl and Eugene attended form 7.

The best feature about this house was the rear where it backed onto the Ruakura Research Centre. Quite often we saw cows grazing behind the back fence. Some of these cows had a small plastic window installed in their side. Research scientists came regualrly to take samples from the cow's stomach for testing and analysis.

Mercedes 280SE

I had always dreamt of driving a Mercedes Benz in Miri. Many rich timber tycoons owned Mercedes in Miri but none of them would let me drive his Bensi. With 3 teenagers to educate, there was just no chance for me at that time to buy such an expensive luxury car. I went to a car auction in Hamilton in 1998 and bought a 1983 model 280SE for 8k. Finally in NZ, I was able to fulfill my dream. At one stage I owned two dream cars!

2 dream cars!

I still remembered towing my Kestrel, a 17 ft trailer yacht one day to Lake Karapiro and saying this prayer out loud inside the car: I thank thee Lord for this Mercedes and this Kestrel. I was all alone in the car! That was one of the happiest moments of my life. The other happiest moment of my life was when I shot an eagle (2 under) at the 17th, par 4 hole, at the Narrows Golf course.

10. New house, car and boat

8, Ben Lomond Place

As soon as Kevin finished his management degree, I sold the house at Hamilton East and bought another one at Nawton. We have visited at least 20 open homes all over Hamilton before we decided on this one. It has a double garage and space on the front lawn for my boat. The back lawn is huge (836 square meters) and has room for Christine's roses, fruit trees and vegetables.

This house has 2 bathrooms, 4 bed rooms and 3 electric storage heaters. The most attractive feature is the open-plan kitchen which looks large due to the attached family room and dining area. The western side is almost completely glass and so the house is very bright.

back garden

Most of the land scaping has been done by the previous owner. He planted Kawhai, Manuka and Flakes. Christine added a Rose garden and planted a few fruit trees over the years. We added a deck behind the house for use in the summer months. There is also space for practising my pitching wedge, chipping.

Soon after moving into the new house, I sold the 17 ft. Kestrel, bought a Noelex 22, traded the Mercedes for a 1988 model Volvo 760GLE. I quit my full time job at Inghams and started playing golf full time. I was finally taking time off to smell the flowers. Life has never been better.  Since then, I spent so much time on the golf course that my golf handicap came down to 14 at one time. Now I am playing off a handicap index of 14.8  (course h'cap 16).

11. A new deck

new deck

In the summer months this deck is fully utilised. I hung a hammock from the beams and Christine bought some wooden furniture from a home show at Claudelands. Very often we had our lunch outside the house and used it for entertaining our guests from home.

One year all my guests from home decided to come visiting, almost all at the same time. There were Christine's second sister, her daughter, Pei Suan and nieces, Shou Shan and Mei Shan. My sister Cecilia and brother in-law, Jeffrey Chow arrived the same week from Brunei. Ai Hua came from Auckland where she was staying with her son, George. Kevin, my eldest son also came home for a visit that week end. All in all, I had 11 guests in the house and it was strictly standing room only!