Pip
2nd March 2007, 09:28 PM
After a couple of days stopover in Singapore (I will do a post on stopovers in Singapore when I get time as we found some very cool cheap/free stuff to do e.g hang on to your boarding pass bit with your seat no and you can ride the hop on - hop off bus all day round Singapore for $3 singapore dollars i.e £1!)
Thankfully as with London, Singapore Airlines staff in Singapore decided to turn a blind eye to our 70 kilos of luggage versus our 60 kilos of luggage allowance!
Anyway we arrived after a bit of a bumpy flight on wednesday lunchtime, and managed to collect our hire car and find our holiday home in Ohoka (about 25 mins out of Christchurch) despite forgetting to print out the instructions we'd been given. We also arrived to a note at our rental from Olivia on this forum inviting us over (she also stayed here), so it was great to feel welcomed!
so far, we are staggered how easy it seems to be to get stuff done here, - on thursday we wrote a list of tasks that we thought would take at least a day, and after 2 hrs, it was finished, so we took the afternoon off and went to the beach instead! :clap
to give you an idea, - we've been here 48 hrs and have managed to:
- get bank accounts, cards, pin numbers and online banking
- get access and keys to our PO box
- get a NZ pre pay sim for our mobiles
- get dial up access for the laptop (Ihug)
- check out some car dealers/supermarkets/estate agents
- go to the beach!
In the UK, we'd be waiting a week just for a pin number!
So - early days so far, but so far we're loving it. We're staying in a holiday home in an Olive grove with a view of the mountains. Getting in and out of Christchurch seems very easy. We've even managed to find a new supplier of Royal Canin fussy cat catfood, which is good as MAF very apologetically consficated my mini bag at the airport as it wasn't on their list.
Olive (cat) arrives on Sunday. I was a little worried as Golden Arrow said she had't eaten for the first four days, but lots of people assure me that this is normal. We went and did her MAF and customs forms today (again, very simple), so we can collect her on sunday straightaway. Again, its weird, rather than us chasing people, people are chasing us! MAF had already left a message for us by the time we arrived about what paperwork we needed for Olive. Today, we got post from the Moving Company requesting all sorts of info, so they can handle our John Mason container when it arrives in mid april!
Right, I've got a very good NZ glass of merlot awaiting me over a sunset with a mountain backdrop! no doubt after a month, I'll have a "what have we done moment", but right now we're enjoying our rose tinted view! Will let you know how Olive is doing when she arrives - I'm expecting her to be very cross! (although having seen how cheap monkfish is here, I think I know how to appease her :laugh )
Thankfully as with London, Singapore Airlines staff in Singapore decided to turn a blind eye to our 70 kilos of luggage versus our 60 kilos of luggage allowance!
Anyway we arrived after a bit of a bumpy flight on wednesday lunchtime, and managed to collect our hire car and find our holiday home in Ohoka (about 25 mins out of Christchurch) despite forgetting to print out the instructions we'd been given. We also arrived to a note at our rental from Olivia on this forum inviting us over (she also stayed here), so it was great to feel welcomed!
so far, we are staggered how easy it seems to be to get stuff done here, - on thursday we wrote a list of tasks that we thought would take at least a day, and after 2 hrs, it was finished, so we took the afternoon off and went to the beach instead! :clap
to give you an idea, - we've been here 48 hrs and have managed to:
- get bank accounts, cards, pin numbers and online banking
- get access and keys to our PO box
- get a NZ pre pay sim for our mobiles
- get dial up access for the laptop (Ihug)
- check out some car dealers/supermarkets/estate agents
- go to the beach!
In the UK, we'd be waiting a week just for a pin number!
So - early days so far, but so far we're loving it. We're staying in a holiday home in an Olive grove with a view of the mountains. Getting in and out of Christchurch seems very easy. We've even managed to find a new supplier of Royal Canin fussy cat catfood, which is good as MAF very apologetically consficated my mini bag at the airport as it wasn't on their list.
Olive (cat) arrives on Sunday. I was a little worried as Golden Arrow said she had't eaten for the first four days, but lots of people assure me that this is normal. We went and did her MAF and customs forms today (again, very simple), so we can collect her on sunday straightaway. Again, its weird, rather than us chasing people, people are chasing us! MAF had already left a message for us by the time we arrived about what paperwork we needed for Olive. Today, we got post from the Moving Company requesting all sorts of info, so they can handle our John Mason container when it arrives in mid april!
Right, I've got a very good NZ glass of merlot awaiting me over a sunset with a mountain backdrop! no doubt after a month, I'll have a "what have we done moment", but right now we're enjoying our rose tinted view! Will let you know how Olive is doing when she arrives - I'm expecting her to be very cross! (although having seen how cheap monkfish is here, I think I know how to appease her :laugh )