[Andy&Carol]

Fingers crossed Jade! I'm having five minutes whilst OH gives Ryan (our eldest) a lift to the bus stop. Then it's back to emptying the loft. Wey hey what a fun way to spend a Saturday! Callum's (17) happy 'tho he's just come accross a turntable and a pile of LPs so he's having a retro music session, interspaced with comments like "God Dad/Mum you had c**p taste in music"

Love C

[holland]

Ha ha Carol....enjoy!!!

J xx

[kimifan]

Booked train ticket to London to go and get my visa tomorrow

Having a stress at the postal service as its still nowhere near back to normal after the strike. I daren't send my documents to immigration and risk them getting lost so am going to hand to the nice people at NZ house in person, and have a day trip to the big smoke to boot!

2 weeks tomorrow!!!!!!!

[BkyMonster]

Got breed declarations done for the doggies today, repainted a room in the house, just have a wedding to go to on the 11th of November then back to the house put new carpet down and on the market it goes. :eek:

I still need to collect a bunch of the documents that need certified copies and notarization and go get that done. Perhaps that will be the next project? :)

[holland]

erm....spoke to solicitor, estate agent, collapsed bed, taken shelves down, light fittings, washed ornaments, taken pictures down, collapsed desk and office furniture............I could go on!!!

J xx

[holland]

off to carry on packing!!!

J xxx

[EngiNurse]

Plane tickets purchased. We will be arriving in Christchurch on the 16th (I think) of January, whether or not we have visas. We should, but still...:raebanana

Bought boxes to start packing, put my car :sniff, sniff: for sale on craigslist along with some assorted household goods.

[holland]

:cheers Congrats on booking tickets enginurse.

My hubby knows what you mean about sellng your car, his went overnight literally, he was happy but gutted all rolled into one!!

J xx

[kimifan]

Visited the bank, cancelled direct debits, tiny toiletries purchased, started wrapping christmas presents, ordered photos to put in the album ready for those homesick moments. Not a bad day really

[holland]

packers/shippers are in...you name it we have done it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

J and G xx

[EngiNurse]

Last day at work!! :raebanana

[Mickstim]

Last day at work!! :raebanana

Lovely. Enjoy the feeling!

[james the mechanic]

Lucy handed in her notice at work today. She wanted to say…
‘It’s been a pleasure, but now the pleasures leaving.’
However she also wanted her next two pay cheques, so opted for a more traditional approach.

[Mickstim]

So when are you off James??

[EngiNurse]

Lovely. Enjoy the feeling!
It's more stress than anything right now. :wah

[james the mechanic]

Hi Barb & Michael,
God willing we’re off 3rd of February, job waiting, but no news/ITA from NZIS yet though.
We are more or less ready to go, if only an ITA would land on the door mat.
However we’re now coming ready or not
How are things with you?
James

[holland]

All of our belongings are on there way now...we are sat in a completely empty house, and sleeping at neighbours tonight!

Spoke to water providers, estate agents, solicitors, financial advisor, bank, electric provider and waited 17 minutes waiting to get through to onetel and gave up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

J x

[Mickstim]

Hi Barb & Michael,
God willing we’re off 3rd of February, job waiting, but no news/ITA from NZIS yet though.
We are more or less ready to go, if only an ITA would land on the door mat.
However we’re now coming ready or not
How are things with you?
James


Hi James - still waiting to sell the house! Blue stickers only got another 7 months on them and we thought that was plenty of time, but now may have to go on an expensive holiday to validate them. Aaargh!!! Hope everything comes through for you in time!

Bx

[Mickstim]

Jade - it is sooo exciting for you. Must feel really weird having an empty house now. The deed is done kid - now you have to follow your furniture!

Bx

[holland]

Jade - it is sooo exciting for you. Must feel really weird having an empty house now. The deed is done kid - now you have to follow your furniture!

Bx

Ha ha...I know!

Just cleaning the house and Graham doing various trips to the tip...had to borrow a hoover from mum, and Graham has gone next door to borrow a pan to make a cup of tea!....oh gosh...writing this has just made me realise, we have no flipping cups...........aghhhhhhh

Anyway back to the cloth and flash!

j x

Barb, ive updated blog with all the antics!

[EngiNurse]

Just had my interview with the MBA Program Director at the University of Canterbury. It went quite well, and I'm confident. Having a little wine to celebrate.

Also, our house is half packed, and should be all boxed up tomorrow. Leaving to Los Angeles early next week.

[kimifan]

Finally got round to booking accommodation for when I arrive in Auckland - in 5 days time!! Just have to pack my hold-all for the plane and I'm all set.

Good luck with the interview outcome Enginurse - sounds promising?!

[Mickstim]

Nothing. We have done nothing. We did nothing last month. We did nothing the month before that. Our blue stickers are gathering dust. Frustrated? Oh yeah!!!!

[tigerlily]

Container comes in 2 days. Have bought some clothes for the kids today and a new smart purse for me. Avoiding the stress of being home in a mostly packed home? check!

[BkyMonster]

House is nearly empty. Soon it will be on the market while we cram into the back of it and have the front carpets redone.
Heard from the quarantine and my confirmation letters should be on the way soon. Other than the MAF application and the pre shipping appointments my doggies are nearly good to go! *whew* So far that has been the hardest part.

Now I can worry about selling the house without other worries getting in the way. :laugh

[EngiNurse]

So in the past month, we've:

Packed up the house, rented it out, moved our stuff to Los Angeles, spent a week in Oregon saying goodbye to my family, set up a Skype account, gotten my wife's work visa, got accepted to the UofC MBA program, paid my course fees, got my student visa, packed and weighed our luggage.

:sigh:

All that's left is to book an initial accommodation in Christchurch and open a bank account and transfer some money in. Almost there, which is good considering we leave for the Philippines on Wednesday.

[holland]

Gosh Enginurse...you have been busy!!

I remember those days fondly....NOT!

J x

[katiejay]

OK, here's what positive steps we took....We just did it. No messing about. We just packed our bags and came out here. Boat left with our stuff about a week after we did. We stayed in Christchurch for 3 days - did some tourist stuff and recovered from jet lag. Stayed in a HORRIBLE motel, so I don't recommend it (Addington Accommodation Park), but only for 3 days, bought a car off a used car lot in Moorhouse Avenue, then set off for Dunedin on the Wednesday. Fantastic day's driving down State Highway 1 for 6 hours in the sunshine (bearing in mind it was thick frost the day we left Heathrow), and stayed at a very nice motel in Dunedin, which I definitely do recommend (Leith Valley). Our biggest problem was that we had not pre-booked, so I recommend anyone coming out in December to book as long ahead as you think you'll need. We only booked the Christchurch accommodation, and we found on reaching Dunedin that it's very busy in the run-up to Christmas, university graduations, and the start of the holiday season! So, we could only stay a few nights in Dunedin, and then decided to head off to Mosgiel, where we had planned to settle intitially. We stayed at a very clean motel (the Bonnie Knights, which again I'd recommend), and this was close enough to Dunedin to enable us to get into the city for Chris' interviews, and give us the chance to search for a place to rent in Mosgiel. After 4 days in Mosgiel, we found a truly helpful real estate agent (Jenny from Edinburgh Realty), who has been so kind to us. She found us a temporary rental (a house on the market, so we were able to rent it on a periodic lease - we give 3 weeks' notice, they give us 6). That house sold on Friday, so Jenny (although not a letting agent) has searched and found us another house to rent long-term. The past month has given us time to decide that we like Mosgiel, at least until we can move out to a rural property, we like the schools, the children like it, and Chris loves his new job.
Oh, yes - the work permit! When we flew out, we had nothing planned, except a good recruitment agent (DKW - another recommendation from us!) who lined Chris up with 4 interviews on the first Friday after we arrived in Dunedin. Of the 4 interviews, Chris was immediately offered 3 jobs (he's a welder/fabricator with level 4 qualifications). He picked his favourite, and we went straight to the Immigration office in Dunedin. You can park right outside! They were really helpful, and because Chris' new employer wanted him to start straight away, they agreed to turn a work permit around in one day!! Over the weekend, we completed the forms, and collected the supplementary form from Chris' employer confirming they had not been able to fill the job with a New Zealand applicant. That's all we needed, apart from $200 (£80) and Chris' passport.
Now, there is one complication - because Chris was introduced to the job by a recruitment consultant, they are his contractual employer for his 3 month probationary period. His contract then passes to the company he works for. This means that we'll have to reapply for a work permit for him at the end of February and shell out another $200. However, with a job in NZ, our EOI points total has shot up to 175, so we're hoping this will speed up the ITA and maybe we won't need to renew the work permit (we'll see). Either way, it's only $200, and it got us here!!
I haven't applied for my family visa yet, because as a UK citizen, I can live here for 6 months as a visitor. Therefore, I'll apply for a family visa at the same time Chris renews his work permit - that way I've only had to do this once. If we're luck enough to get the ITA in time, though, we'll go down the residency route for me as Chris' wife.
I've applied for schools for the two children, starting in February, when the next term begins. If we haven't got residency by then, I'll need to apply for student visas for them, which I'll do at the same time as my family visa and Chris' extended work permit. These visas/permits last 12 months, and we hope that our residency will be complete by the time they expire.
So that's how we did it.
Bit long-winded. Bit exciting. But so far all has gone smoothly. Not for everyone, but if your skills are in demand here, it's a fine way to get yourself over here.
Hope this helps....
Katie :raebanana :raebanana :raebanana

[BkyMonster]

Excellent Katie!

Looking forward to getting things in order so I can make the mad leap myself.
*whew*

[katiejay]

All the best with your move - they do make things pretty simple here from my limited experience - easier than the UK anyway - mostly no-fuss. So I hope all goes smoothly for you and look forward to welcoming you to the fold!
Katiexx:cheers

[Kerry and David]

My positive steps taken over the bank holiday weekend were:

House now up for sale and showing on the internet.

Car up for sale

Cleared half of the loft - sorted out LOADS! - Had one pile for charity, one for selling and one for our local freecycle website!

Also joined the Gym to try and keep myself in the healthy BMI range for medicals.

Booked hotel for Reccie trip.

Phew!! Need another bank holiday to recover!!!

K x

[Mels]

Cleared half of the loft - sorted out LOADS! -
Phew!! Need another bank holiday to recover!!!

K x

Know the feeling. We have pretty well filled an entire skip of accumulated rubbish over the last few days.

I've been nagging :roll OH for ages about getting a skip to clear out our rubbish, now he knows what I meant.:yes

Scary bit is we haven't done the loft yet, hadn't realised how big our house was! :exit

Mels

[JayBee]

This bank holiday nagging OH to read through the interview questions they might ask us .... (the last step!!) and making some notes.

Sadly I wasn't able to summon up the courage to look through the last lot of "clutter" most of which belongs to other members of my family!!!

but I'm pleased to say that our loft is empty!!!

[holland]

eww...I remember entering the loft well!!!!

Glad this thread is still running, I found it a good support when going through the process...

[JayBee]

Now that the PR process is more or less complete - time to find a new focus!!
This week then...

Organised for 3 shipping quotes despite not knowing when or where exactly we are going!
Booked a couple of trips to see distant friends over the next few months
Sold another few items on Amazon/Ebay
Advertised some items in the local gazette
Took a few more bags to the tip
Enjoyed the sunshine and did some "impact gardening" in the hopes of improved chances of selling the house!!
Err still can't quite face a couple of cupboards just yet....(there's only two left to sort through!!)
Realised that the IRD process has changed and will have to do that when we get there.
Cut and pasted all the pros and cons for Napier and Tauranga areas onto word document to read at leisure.
Went through all my lists agaaaaaain....

Any other ideas of how to avoid "limbolanditis" more than welcome!!!

[Joolzr]

Feeling a bit dim- should I have one of these?


But enjoying the positive thread....


JoolzR

[dilanium]

Been moving everything into the garage for our lawn sale this weekend. I am so fantastically tired I feel like I can't move. (still have to go back to work, I'm just taking a long lunch today).

I also bought my school books off amazon.com yesterday. :)

[Kiwi-In-Texas]

Good luck with the lawn sale Liz...We may have to have one as well as we have quite a few things we are not taking with us. We are still sorting through stuff and then we will decide what to sell and what goes with us.


Suzanne.

[dilanium]

Thanks Suzanne.

We're not taking much with us, so that means we get to move all our furniture out to the garage tonight!!! I am really not looking forward to it.

[dbonnett]

Thanks Suzanne.

We're not taking much with us, so that means we get to move all our furniture out to the garage tonight!!! I am really not looking forward to it.

Boy, can we relate to this - we have our daughter's dresser on end in our kitchen and the empty drawers in the living room, ready to move for tomorrow's garage sale. It is supposed to rain tonight so everything is tucked away for now. Gotta be up at 5:30 to finish prepping.

Good luck with your sale!

[slider]

Feeling a bit dim- should I have one of these?


But enjoying the positive thread....


JoolzR

A foreign exchange account - to convert your GB£ to NZ$

http://spec.xe.com/inf61 - just been rebranded as fxcm

[dilanium]

Boy, can we relate to this - we have our daughter's dresser on end in our kitchen and the empty drawers in the living room, ready to move for tomorrow's garage sale. It is supposed to rain tonight so everything is tucked away for now. Gotta be up at 5:30 to finish prepping.

Good luck with your sale!

How did your sale go? We did VERY well on our first day. The only concern I have is that some major furniture still hasn't sold.

[Kiwi-In-Texas]

Liz... Have you tried advertising your furniture on Craigslist...We have sold quite a few things on there...Advertising is free and you just may have some luck.

Cheers,

Suzanne.

[dilanium]

Oh yes, much of my stuff is on Craigslist. That's how I advertised for my yard today as well.

The sale today is pretty much closed because it's raining.

[Kiwi-In-Texas]

We sold more stuff on Craigslist when we lived in Dallas than what we are selling on Craigslist here in Amarillo... Sorry to hear you have rain today where you are, it is a lovely day here in Amarillo, Texas...


Suzanne.