[bartons]

Hello,

before any introductions a BIG thank you to everyone posting so much good and extremely useful information on the forum!!! We've been lurking on the forum for months and have found an answer to every single question so far. Thanks!
We are a family of four from Cornwall and just had our EOI selected last week. We are at the stage of getting the house ready for sale/packing boxes/ waiting for the ITA (all paperwork ready apart from the medicals which are booked for next week) and hoping things will move fairly fast.
OH has a job offer in the far north (Bay of Islands),and we are keen to move to the far south (Dunedin), so not sure where we end up eventually.
Next step in the process is telling the kids (4 and almost 7) about our plans, we're not looking forward to this...

Mareike

[zardell]

Hi and WELCOME to the forum.

Sounds like you are better organised than we were at this stage...:laugh

Good luck with all your plans.

Julie

x

[speckythecky]

good luck with telling the kids and deciding where to live.

Dunedin would be my first choice as well but will almost definately end up in Auckland

Welcome to the forum

[Sam B]

Hi Mareike

We've just moved here from Cornwall (3 months ago). We lived in Rose near Perranporth. Welcome to the forum! I hear the weather is lovely there at the moment, I get a pang when friends email me about BBQs on the beaches in the evenings. We're loving it here though.

Sam

[KerryS]

My family are from Cornwall too. I get to go back and visit this winter.(Although hopefully it will still be summer there!) They're from Padstow, and I loved going down there as a child and spending all summer at the beach.

Good luck with your immigration plans.

[willowshouse]

Next step in the process is telling the kids (4 and almost 7) about our plans, we're not looking forward to this...



If I may offer a little advice (I know you didn't ask for it!) ...

I've done this twice .. firstly telling my 8 and 3 year old that we were going to NZ for 6 months, and then telling them aged 11 and 7 that we were coming back to live here.

3 year olds don't understand the distance at all. You can point it out on a map and explain that it's a long way to go but they'll still ask you if they can go to their friends house (in UK) for tea! I think at this age you really don't need to explain too much .. it stresses them out. Tell them it's an adventure so they feel good about the move, deal with each question as it comes up and don't feel the need to over-explain, your child will soon let you know if they need more info.

With my 8 year old I made the mistake of thinking it would all be a breeze .. she missed her friends and I think the fact that we were only there for 6 months prevented her from really forming attachments but anyway .. we bought her a phone card, writing paper, stamps and set up an email account for her .. and we told her we missed our friends too! It seemed to help a lot.

Second time round, my 11 year old is A OK even though she has left behind a very good friend. We were 3 years in the decision making process and asked her opinion as to whether we should make the move on a number of occasions so I think she felt some responsibility to make it work for herself (hope that makes sense). My 7 year old is a different kettle of fish .. I felt that she wouldn't cope well with the enormity of the move so I was careful not to say 'for ever' .. instead we were 'going to live in NZ for as long as we wanted to stay' and we booked flights back to UK within the year so we could always reassure her that she would see friends and family on a definite date. We've had a few wobbles recently - missing friends etc but we just talk it through .. what we like about NZ, why we are here etc and she's doing really well, considering it is a huge move.

Anyway, enough ramble .. hope this helps :) Good luck with it all.

Dawn

[Bruckner]

Just wanted to say welcome to the forum!

Emily

[Joanne100]

Welcome and good luck with everything!

[andrewandjane]

weve just moved here 6 weeks ago from cornwall, didnt take too long from EOI to actually getting here...i was working in camborne untill the week before we left.

hope it all goes well for you

[noice]

hi Mareike, welcome to the forum!

[bartons]

Thanks for the friendly welcome - it was a big boost in a row of days full of plastering, painting and packing!

willowhouse: good advice, thank you - will keep it in mind on Sunday when breaking the news to the kids.

andrewandjane: we live in Camborne. We've probably passed each other on the street before!

SamB: Were you by any chance working for Sure Start Camborne? If so, you've been to our house to help toddler Molly with her first words.

Small world!
Anyway, got more packing to do...

Mareike

[Sam B]

WOW! Small world or what??!!!! Yes, that was me, and I remember you! Ha ha ha. I bet she's chatting away now! Good luck with everything.

Sam

[Kim39]

Well Sam bet that brought a smile to your face, and it is a small world as member Andrewandjane is known to a degree by me as Andrew is a nephew of a guy i worked with.

Mareike. Hi and welcome to our world. You want answers then fire away, and good luck with what is in store for you. You lived not far from my sister, as she first lived in Tregony, and then moved to Tresillian.


Kim

[Patricia]

Welcome to the forum, we used to live in Carharrack not to far from Cambourne is it. we are now on the move again to Auckland as soon as we sell the house.

[andrewandjane]

will have to open a pasty shop out here soon....
seems to be loads of people from Cornwall here,

[StevieD]

Welcome to the forum guys, we wish you luck, at least the kids are at a good age for a move, older they are the more difficult they get.

I think your hardest thing may not be the kids but the grandparents?

Good luck

Steve & Jan

[Karen]

Hello and welcome!

We didn't live in Cornwall (we're from Plymouth) but are living in Dunedin and loving it! They web site reckon Dunedin is similar to Scotland but we both think it's very similar in a lot f ways to the north coast of Cornwall, esp with the scenery and beaches. (In fact we love it here so much that we've just had an offer accepted on a house here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

Anyway, would definately recommend Dunedin to anyone from the Westcountry.

Karen