mgbridges
11th September 2007, 04:32 PM
First of all I should say this is from my point of view, not Martin's, as he has been here since beginning of July. Don't know if I have a huge amount to share but I thought I'd jot down a few thoughts having only just realised that I've been here for exactly a month!
The flight wasn't nearly as horrendous as I expected given that we were travelling with a 5yr old who had never been on a plane before. I'd recommend Singapore Airlines if travelling with children - they made a real fuss of him. I'd also recommend making use of the Lounge in the transit area at Singapore airport if you're not stopping over anywhere on the way. The jetlag wore off after about a week although we had several early mornings thanks to our son!
My first week here was all about getting a few things sorted in the rental - Telecom to fix the phone sockets, getting Sky installed, shopping for a few more necessities and keeping our son entertained (yeah for Chipmunks when its raining) whilst the jetlag wore off. I also got to know the local area a little however, since then its been all about house-hunting!
Its taken a little while to get our head around the differences in the house-buying processes here but we now feel we've got the hang of it. I've seen the inside of over 25 properties so know what I like and what I'm looking for. We've even gone so far as to put in a pre-auction unconditional offer but got knocked back. Maybe the tender we are putting in this week on another property we like will work!
Despite not being here very long we are keen to put down more permanent roots and having our own place is part of that. Also the idea of having all our stuff delivered to the rental, only to have to pack it all up and move again is not one that fills either of us with glee! Never mind the fact the rental has a VERY steep drive which I can see any removal company having issues with. I'm starting to feel like NZ is home but I know it will feel more so once we have a place to call home and all our stuff around us. Our son in particular keeps asking whether all his toys are on the ship so he is obviously keen to get his stuff back!
As we've been busy house-hunting and therefore 'open-homing' at weekends we have tried to make it so its one day doing something different, one day house-hunting. So we've been up to Matakana (which was fab and we want to go again soon), one day visiting the 'Coffee Festival' and then going over to Mission Bay and one day visiting Auckland Zoo. I also made it along to the Auckland get-together which was great - once I identified the group of people in the bar who were from the Forum! :o
The other great thing is that we got our son into the local primary school that we wanted and he is now into his second week there. He seems to be enjoying it although he is being stretched quite a bit more than he was in the UK - a good thing IMHO. I'm beginning to get to know some of the other mums and I'm helping out in the library which is being refurbished over the upcoming hols. I'm sure I'm going to get roped into doing some at the Gala before long as well!
All in all I'm really happy to be here - its clean, its fab to be so close to the sea, folks are friendly, the weather is improving (slowly), in general it seems more relaxed and laid-back than the UK. However, I do miss my family & friends enormously and have had a few very tearful moments. Its also been hard not having a support network around us especially with all the real estate conversations we've been having! I suddenly realised how much I bounced ideas off friends, colleagues and family - especially such big decisions! This is not to say we haven't made any friends and I have only been here one month - when I first moved to London I only really had work colleagues initially!
Anyway, thats about it folks. Any question feel free to ask.
Cheers, Anneliese
The flight wasn't nearly as horrendous as I expected given that we were travelling with a 5yr old who had never been on a plane before. I'd recommend Singapore Airlines if travelling with children - they made a real fuss of him. I'd also recommend making use of the Lounge in the transit area at Singapore airport if you're not stopping over anywhere on the way. The jetlag wore off after about a week although we had several early mornings thanks to our son!
My first week here was all about getting a few things sorted in the rental - Telecom to fix the phone sockets, getting Sky installed, shopping for a few more necessities and keeping our son entertained (yeah for Chipmunks when its raining) whilst the jetlag wore off. I also got to know the local area a little however, since then its been all about house-hunting!
Its taken a little while to get our head around the differences in the house-buying processes here but we now feel we've got the hang of it. I've seen the inside of over 25 properties so know what I like and what I'm looking for. We've even gone so far as to put in a pre-auction unconditional offer but got knocked back. Maybe the tender we are putting in this week on another property we like will work!
Despite not being here very long we are keen to put down more permanent roots and having our own place is part of that. Also the idea of having all our stuff delivered to the rental, only to have to pack it all up and move again is not one that fills either of us with glee! Never mind the fact the rental has a VERY steep drive which I can see any removal company having issues with. I'm starting to feel like NZ is home but I know it will feel more so once we have a place to call home and all our stuff around us. Our son in particular keeps asking whether all his toys are on the ship so he is obviously keen to get his stuff back!
As we've been busy house-hunting and therefore 'open-homing' at weekends we have tried to make it so its one day doing something different, one day house-hunting. So we've been up to Matakana (which was fab and we want to go again soon), one day visiting the 'Coffee Festival' and then going over to Mission Bay and one day visiting Auckland Zoo. I also made it along to the Auckland get-together which was great - once I identified the group of people in the bar who were from the Forum! :o
The other great thing is that we got our son into the local primary school that we wanted and he is now into his second week there. He seems to be enjoying it although he is being stretched quite a bit more than he was in the UK - a good thing IMHO. I'm beginning to get to know some of the other mums and I'm helping out in the library which is being refurbished over the upcoming hols. I'm sure I'm going to get roped into doing some at the Gala before long as well!
All in all I'm really happy to be here - its clean, its fab to be so close to the sea, folks are friendly, the weather is improving (slowly), in general it seems more relaxed and laid-back than the UK. However, I do miss my family & friends enormously and have had a few very tearful moments. Its also been hard not having a support network around us especially with all the real estate conversations we've been having! I suddenly realised how much I bounced ideas off friends, colleagues and family - especially such big decisions! This is not to say we haven't made any friends and I have only been here one month - when I first moved to London I only really had work colleagues initially!
Anyway, thats about it folks. Any question feel free to ask.
Cheers, Anneliese