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!
