Whoops. Again. It has been a long time since I last posted, and a lot has happened so this post will most likely miss a lot of stuff out. Sorry!
You see what happened was that in the UK I had a bit of time on my hands as we had done quite a lot of the stuff that needed doing. When we arrived in NZ on the 26th October (yay All Blacks!), however, we had a bazillion things to do.
Looking for a flat was one such thing and it took us ages. We looked at 26 different places all over Auckland, eventually finding a lovely place in Remuera. We did apply for another one in Mission Bay but were rejected! How rude!
Other things we had do on arrival were; buy a car, apply for jobs, sort out furniture, buy a kettle, visit schools, visit agencies, eat, sleep, apply for more jobs, and more jobs and even more jobs!
I applied for over 30 jobs, eventually getting one in South Auckland. My wife also got a job, but not in South Auckland. Nice and close to where we live actually, so that is all good.
No we both have jobs, we have also got working visas - not to be confused with Permanent Residency Visas - that allow us to come and go and work in NZ for the next two years. However, our other PR application should be processed at some point making things a bit more, er, permanent. Surprise, surprise my wife and I each had to pay another separate fee for each of our work visas even though we had already forked out over £1000 for our original visa application!
Anyway, the good news is that we have a flat, a car, jobs and visas so all-in-all it has been successful couple of months. Except for the lack of blog posts...
So we are going back to Brum for Christmas, and then come back for three weeks of summer in NZ before starting teaching! Exciting stuff.
More to come - when I get around to it...
Saturday, 17 December 2011
Friday, 30 September 2011
An on it goes...
Huh? How many weeks til we go? 3?! Surely not. We still have items 3, 5, 23, 29, 42, 43, 44, 45, 56, 58, 60, 91, 99, 101, 102, 112, 121, and 101,129,928 to do before we get to New Zealand. There just isn't enough time.
And so goes the conversation in my head. The count down on my computer desktop has just turned from 25 days to go to 24 days to go. We have just had our penultimate pay check from work. People keep saying 'You must be getting excited now'...
Yep, but nervous too.
As the departure day looms, we have been getting more and more nervous. We still have a lot to do and it is looking more and more likely that without a job offer before Christmas, we could be in a whole heap of trouble. A whole HEAP! But ... we are positive people. We will get a job without any trouble - we are both employable, charming, experienced and awesome! In fact, I'm in the process of applying to a school and they have their own swimming pool! Pretty exciting for a teacher from the UK, but probably quite an insignificant bit of information for a Kiwi. Good motivation for me :o)
We have just sent off our ITA to Immigration New Zealand. They have taken the fee, but will not allocate someone to look at our application for up to 4 months! Typical! Hopefully, a job offer will speed up the process, but who knows...
We have a leaving bash planned for two days before we fly, which is going to be really fun, but also probably quite emotional. We are going to miss our friends and family so much when we are living in NZ. We will obviously have Skype and the like to keep in touch, but there is nothing like beating your brother at tennis in real life, or giving your nephew a hug, and the banter we have between buddies just can't be recreated in an e-mail... We just have to remember why we want to go - a better life for our family, more space, good work-life balance - among other things.
Now I'm going to get back to that application. Wish me luck!
And so goes the conversation in my head. The count down on my computer desktop has just turned from 25 days to go to 24 days to go. We have just had our penultimate pay check from work. People keep saying 'You must be getting excited now'...
Yep, but nervous too.
As the departure day looms, we have been getting more and more nervous. We still have a lot to do and it is looking more and more likely that without a job offer before Christmas, we could be in a whole heap of trouble. A whole HEAP! But ... we are positive people. We will get a job without any trouble - we are both employable, charming, experienced and awesome! In fact, I'm in the process of applying to a school and they have their own swimming pool! Pretty exciting for a teacher from the UK, but probably quite an insignificant bit of information for a Kiwi. Good motivation for me :o)
We have just sent off our ITA to Immigration New Zealand. They have taken the fee, but will not allocate someone to look at our application for up to 4 months! Typical! Hopefully, a job offer will speed up the process, but who knows...
We have a leaving bash planned for two days before we fly, which is going to be really fun, but also probably quite emotional. We are going to miss our friends and family so much when we are living in NZ. We will obviously have Skype and the like to keep in touch, but there is nothing like beating your brother at tennis in real life, or giving your nephew a hug, and the banter we have between buddies just can't be recreated in an e-mail... We just have to remember why we want to go - a better life for our family, more space, good work-life balance - among other things.
Now I'm going to get back to that application. Wish me luck!
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Slow progress
Even though my wife and I have been fortunate enough to be on week 5 of almost 6 weeks of holiday, we have made only a little bit of progress in terms of getting to NZ.
You may remember from my last post that we are now simply heading to New Zealand in October and going to look for a job and then we are going to complete the visa process. Hopefully. So, to that end we have a million and one things to do such as empty the flat, write CV's, applications, redecorate the flat, sell vehicles, open/close bank accounts, end contracts and many more tedious and time-consuming things.
To date we have; removed wood chip from the hall and repainted, taken a lot of rubbish to the tip, had a car boot sale (no DVDs left!), opened an NZ bank account, registered with the NZTC, taken clothes and shoes to the clothes and shoes banks and I think that is about it. The problem is, you see, that we have also; been to France for a week, been to Liverpool, been to Cadbury World, read books, slept, watched 'The Real Housewives of Orange County', played tennis and golf, occupied our Kiwi cousin, written blog posts (just one, actually), been cycling, visited friends, looked out of the window, farted, slept some more and a selection of other things too interesting to mention. There is a lot of work avoidance going on here, but the good news is that my wife and I are both excellent last-minute doers. When it comes down to the very last possible minute, that is our time to shine! We will be the most efficient, productive and stressed people you have ever met, but what needs to be done, will get done.
Anyway, stop distracting me! I've got loads of stuff to do... Where did I put my book?
You may remember from my last post that we are now simply heading to New Zealand in October and going to look for a job and then we are going to complete the visa process. Hopefully. So, to that end we have a million and one things to do such as empty the flat, write CV's, applications, redecorate the flat, sell vehicles, open/close bank accounts, end contracts and many more tedious and time-consuming things.
To date we have; removed wood chip from the hall and repainted, taken a lot of rubbish to the tip, had a car boot sale (no DVDs left!), opened an NZ bank account, registered with the NZTC, taken clothes and shoes to the clothes and shoes banks and I think that is about it. The problem is, you see, that we have also; been to France for a week, been to Liverpool, been to Cadbury World, read books, slept, watched 'The Real Housewives of Orange County', played tennis and golf, occupied our Kiwi cousin, written blog posts (just one, actually), been cycling, visited friends, looked out of the window, farted, slept some more and a selection of other things too interesting to mention. There is a lot of work avoidance going on here, but the good news is that my wife and I are both excellent last-minute doers. When it comes down to the very last possible minute, that is our time to shine! We will be the most efficient, productive and stressed people you have ever met, but what needs to be done, will get done.
Anyway, stop distracting me! I've got loads of stuff to do... Where did I put my book?
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