Another simple difference between Australia and New Zealand is the heat. Today has a peak of 25° and the dairy (what Aussies call a corner store) we visited after looking at a farm had a constant stream of people. People would roll up in their cars, get out, pay quite a reasonable price and hop back into their cars carrying a towering three scoop ice cream. In Australia 25° would barely warrant turning on the fan.

In other news, Mr incredible and I have devised a new way of evaluating properties. We’ve itemised things that matter to us and individually rating them out of 10. It’s already helped us clarify thoughts on the property that we visited today. 28 acres for a very reasonable price inclusive of sheering shed, house and milking area might seem great – especially when priced at half of what we sold our home in Sydney for. When we tallied up the scorecard though, the sum of the parts made it starkly obvious that this was not for us.

We have now viewed three properties since arriving and while we could buy any of them, none of them stand out in anyway and the property we hoped would come on the market isn’t likely to now until next year. The highest on the list we’ve viewed could be made into something brilliant, we’re just not sure how much work we want to put into it. It would require a complete inside renovation which is rather daunting. Thankfully we’re not in a position that we have to buy straightaway and will keep on looking happily.