Today I Went to Market and Bought...

This morning started off nice and bright, but later on you would have been forgiven for thinking you were in the middle of the monsoon season.

The order of the day was to find things like beds, sofas and a fridge/telly/washing machine. Our first port of call was the Appliance and Furniture Factory Outlet which was situated on the ever more familiar Hewlett Road, Mount Maunganui, a stone's throw from Turners Auctions. They specialise in factory seconds, both furniture and electricals. Some of the stuff they had in was essentially new but had damaged boxes or was ordered and then cancelled. The net effect is that you get new stuff and a much lower price. We had a good nose round and a chat with the friendly Lancastrian sales assistant. He did confirm that he'd sold to lots of Poms over the years, all of them complaining that their UK spec televisions wouldn't work over here. This made me feel a little better about giving away our still-under-guarantee TV to friends.

Having nosed around a bit we went back to Bayfair and had a look round Harvey Norman. We concluded that they were well expensive and left, despite various sales people trying their best to entice us. Next stop was Discount Furniture in Tauranga, who were having a closing down sale. There wasn't a whole lot left, but we did score a set of reasonably sturdy bunk beds for $550 including mattresses. While we were in the store, all hell broke loose outside as the rain came down in buckets. Trying to insert various bits of bed and mattresses into a car with a boot (WHY did I buy it) with the rain hammering down was not much fun. Sadly we couldn't get it all in and had to make a return journey.

Back at the hotel we unloaded the bed bits, grabbed a quick sandwich and headed back to Hewlett Road, since they closed at 3. We ordered a Samsung 32" LCD Full HD TV, a fridge/freezer, a washing machine, a double bed and mattress and a brace of leather sofas, one three seats one two. This little lot set us back $5740 including delivery and GST. Ouch. Although Westpac allows you to do $10K a day through EFTPOS, not having that amount in your account kind of stops it dead, We left a $2000 deposit, and resolved to empty the savings account a little later.

Back into Tauranga to pick up the rest of the bed, only for the heavens to open again. We managed to get the rest of the bed in, thanks to a handy hole that opens up in the back seat when the arm rest in the middle of the back seats is lowered. On the way back we came across Beds R Us so we stopped and had a look around, but sadly it was a little too expensive, but there were some really nice pieces of furniture in there.

Back at the hotel again, we wandered over to the Warehouse to look at some of the $80 beds they had in there. As we have our own bed in the container, we only really need 6 beds and splashing out loads on new ones seems a bit silly. We decided we'd get four later in the week, although Di couldn't leave without buying a 100% wool king size duvet which was reduced to $54.