Susie and Bruce
Hi there,
We are a recently retired married couple who found ourselves forced into a slightly earlier than planned retirement due to the 2020 situation.
However out of the bad, always comes something good and we are now enjoying our freedom and the exciting venture of exploring our beautiful land!
In my earlier life, I worked in many different office roles from telex to secretarial and also as a temp office worker. In later years I spent 7 years as a caregiver in Auckland which I loved.
Since our move to Kerikeri, I have been the receptionist in my husband's Osteopathic Clinic. Both roles involved close liaison with clients and good listener capabilities including an empathic nature which my husband says I have an overdose of!
In my spare time, I like to write, (am working on a book) and in recent years discovered a love of painting. I even sold a few in exhibitions which was a total surprise to me but great for my confidence!
Bruce, my husband has been a Naturopath and Osteopath for most of his working life and is VERY handy to fix those aches and pains - lucky me!
Bruce is an avid golfer, in fact, much of our travelling itinerary seems to revolve around golf courses...! He is a keen fisherman though the fish aren't often that keen on him. He perseveres though and every now and then we dine of the ocean's bounty!
So with our early retirements, we have taken to the road in our luxury caravan catching up with family and friends and enjoying taking our time doing so.
We have spent the last 10 years renting lovely homes in Torbay on the North Shore of Auckland and latterly 2 beautiful homes in Kerikeri, Bay of Islands.
We have loved these homes as if they were our own and had great relationships with all our landlords over the years. We often leave the homes in better condition than when we moved in and that is a sense of pride that we both live by.
We're keen gardeners and happy to potter around pulling weeds or tending to flower and vegetable beds and keeping things watered.
Bruce is rather a perfectionist and your lawns and edges will be in good hands!
We are both extremely houseproud and are keen animal lovers too. Between us, though in the past now, we have owned 2 Short Haired German Pointers (Gwina and Bodiccea) and Sam, my beautiful German Shepherd. Many cats, too numerous to list - I grew up in a cat-oriented family. Also the usual childhood rabbits, even mice and not so usual large tortoises (in England).
I'd love to show some photos of us back then with our pets but all our photos, (taken long before cell phones!) are in a storage facility. Also, we have been renting for a while now so we chose to be pet-free as it can make rental choices limited.
We will, however, be thrilled to look after your fur babies and revisit that special place in our hearts that only pets can fill!
If possible, we will need room to park up our 8.5 mtr caravan on your property?
So that's us and though we are new to the House Sitting circuit, we do have ample experience looking after homes
and have excellent references from them all. We look forward to caring for your precious pets, home and gardens as if they were our own.
Kind regards,
Susie & Bruce Harper