Hi Nic.....

Not long after you moved to Savannah, I moved to Georgia. I'm temporarily
living in Suwanee (35 miles northeast of Atlanta) and soon to be moving
again. I'll still be living in the Atlanta area, approximately 40 miles
north of downtown. Before you leave we should get together one Saturday.

I'm sorry to hear that you won't be able to get down to Christchurch to see
Reiner and Craig Coussins this year on the south island. Maybe you'll be
able to make it to Hamilton on the north island in 2004 to visit with me at
the NZ convention.

Congratulations on your upcoming marriage and move!!!

Best Always

Gary Marchal
http://www.cajunbonsai.com


"Nicolas Steenhout" wrote:

Hello hello,

For those of you who have been on a while, you may remember me. I moved
from Chicago, IL to Savannah, GA just about a year ago. I love Savannah
and the warm weather. Fantastic. Work has simply been keeping me overly
busy since I arrived, no time for much anything.

However, I'm on the move again! I met a wonderful woman on an online
support group for folks who were widowed young (of all places!). After
talking for nearly a year, we realized that some feelings had developped,
and she came to visit to see if what was online translated in real
life. It did, beyond our wildest expectations. Since I cannot sponsor
her
to move here, I'm moving to her. To New Zealand.

I am able to bring my Big Blak Wunder Dawg, Wix my service dog. She won't
have to do quarantine, but that was quite a bit of hoop jumping and
endless
blood tests.

I am unable to bring my trees :-( I looked into the import requirements
of
some plants (rosa and acer in particular). It's just wild. Tempting as
it
is to sneak something past, it's just daft so, I won't do it.

I'll be transporting my pots, and cross fingers and toes that there isn't
too much damage. Tempted to label them "fragile", but then my cynical
self
tells me that the shipping folks will only be tempted to drop the boxes
labelled fragile!!!

The good thing is I'm going to marry a woman who loves plants, roses in
particular. She's also had her garden go untended for a while after her
late husband passed away, which means we can build a new garden that
belongs to us, that will have rose area, bonsai areas, growing beds, and
all that good stuff.

I'm looking forward to learn about the local trees that do well as
bonsai. I'm looking forward to meet the local folks.

I understand Reiner will be in NZ just as I arrive there myself, alas,
there's no way I can meet with him or go to that conference in
Christchurch :-(

I'll be going to Palmerston North, in the North Island, about 2 hours
North
of Wellington, 7 South of Auckland. I leave Savannah right after Labor
Day
weekend (trying to avoid traffic), drive to Montreal on Sept. 2 to say bye
to parents and friends, then Chicago for a few days. Fly out of Chicago
on
the 18th, stop in Los Angeles, and arrive in NZ on Sept 20.

Sooo, here I am for a while!

Cheers

Nic
Savannah, GA, en route to New Zealand.