An "ecstatic, relieved and excited" family spent the first night in their new home on Wednesday - after a long struggle to find a rental that saw them spend six weeks living in their car in Tauranga.
Priscilla Pukeroa, 25, her partner Anthony Daniels, 52, and their daughter Chardonnay, 4, left Tauranga this week for a new start in the 'sunshine capital', Whakatane.
The family piled their possessions once again into their Mitisibushi station wagon, which had been their only home for so long, and drove to their new home, a two-bedroom stand-alone single dwelling in central Whakatane. "It is not far from the beach and there are trees and that."
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They had already looked online for a couple of nearby schools for Chardonnay who turns 5 in September.