And the house rental search is over ...

We managed to find a furnished place to rent in Tahunanui Hills close to Nelson, on the way to Richmond. Our approximate address is Orakei Street, Nelson 7011, NZ. Similar to our San Francisco place, this house is also on a fairly steep hill (which should make hikes and bike rides quite interesting). We are a 10 minute walk from Tahuna beach and playground (which is definitely worth a visit if you have small kids) and a grogeous view of the tasman hills, abel tasman park and beyond.

Our landlords own a sailboat and they are off sailing for the next year or so. Its a 50 year old, 4 bedroom, 1 bath house. We did not see too many furnished places on the market and figured we'd take a place we like. Except for the number of bathrooms, the house is real nice. We'll get a port-a-potty in case both kids have an emergency at the same time :). We move in on Feb 4th and hopefully we'll get lots of visitors.

For people looking to rent a house, we found the listing on Homefind, a service that we would definitely recommend. They charge NZD $80 and give you access to their listings for 6 months. We found a place very quickly with them (with the first listing). In general it is significanly more difficult to rent a furnished house. In general homes out here are much smaller than the US counterparts and a fair number of the listings were for 2 bedroom houses and not suitable for children