(DsLife13)
19 December 1996

We left Vancouver to return permanently to N.Z. on the last day of February 1980: I sent a telegram to an old friend Bryan Leyland telling him we'd be arriving just after midnight on 2 March and asking if he could meet us at Auckland Airport and let us stay on the floor at their place for the rest of the night.  It turned out that the telegram arrived immediately, which was the afternoon of 1 March in N.Z., and the NZ Post person realised the message was talking about a time only a few hours away, so she continued trying to get through to the Leylands in her own time in the evening.  Thus he came from Titirangi to meet us only a couple of hours after my request, when I thought I'd given them a day's warning.  We never did live on earth during 1 March 1980!  They were very hospitable, but looking back it's clear that in our 3-4 days there we overstayed our welcome.

We then moved into a caravan on my sister's place in Algies Bay, and stayed there while (i) getting a car (red Mini), (ii) taking up the short-term job at Continuing Education at Auckland Uni. that I'd arranged before arrival, and (iii) looking for a house to buy; all in Auckland, about an hour away.  We had agreed that, with my wish to (hopefully) use my new PhD to become a Lecturer at the Uni., and Bera wanting to be not too far away from the Uni Library and Symphonies, theatre performances, and similar, we'd have to be close to Auckland. And yet, both of us wanted to be close to nature and NOT too close to people, most of the time.  I also remembered the swimming and sailing I'd grown up with, so hoped to find a place within at least walking distance of the sea. The result was a small, middle-aged fibre-board-clad plain house in Greenhithe, which we bought with money we brought in from Canada (me) and Britain (Bera).  Another  criterion was that the boys initially, then all three after Ruth was old enough to leave day-care, should be easily able to walk to school.  We knew we had to buy a house then, if we were to have an investment that would allow us to have the option of buying a house in the future; i.e. as house prices rose out of reach (otherwise), our house would keep pace. This has actually worked out well: we bought it for $35,000 ($25,000 for the building and $10,000 for the [small] piece of land), and 16 years later we've just last week got the current valuation: $117,000 for the building ( 10% p.a. compound interest) and $118,000 for the land ( 16% interest rate to get that): almost no reliable investment will give you this, over that period of time!

A significant attraction for me in the late '70s was that N.Z was still un-polluted, in contrast to most of N. America, and that the impulses among the people that produced the Welfare State (accepting a slightly lower standard of living so that ALL in N.Z. could share in the jobs and income), were still there, though the actual W. S. was under attack, even then.  Note: I'm not saying "the Welfare State is good"; I've chosen my words carefully (as usual!).

I applied for the permanent position that I was filling in for, in the Physics Department in the 2nd half of 1980,but they advertised overseas and got a high-quality fellow from Britain; its actually turned out that he's done a better job than I would have, _including_ starting up the Peace Institute at the University, so I'm happy he got the job.  I then felt it imperative that I provide long-term support for my family, so approached the nearest Secondary School to Greenhithe, and found them advertising for a Physics Teacher/Head of the Science Dept.  We agreed I was right for the job. 
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