[catt]

Well we made it.......currently in St Heliers, Auckland for a couple of nights with our nephew and his wife looking to adjust to the time zone and then off to Tauranga to search for somewhere more permanent.

Flight NZ01 with Air New Zealand was brilliant (except for the actual flight time) would recomend them over Singapore Airlines, inflight entertainment and food was really good and the time passed better than we both thought it would.

Arranged to go to the bank this morning to get stuff authorised and opened and pick up our debit cards and then on to look at some cars.

Must admit i thought i would be feeling spaced out but at the moment (07.57 am) its all good. Will post more when i can :nice1

[Tomsk]

:)Welcome Catt, great news that you're finally here

[limeo]

CONGRATS!!!! I'm sure there are many of us here who are envious ;) myself included!

I concur, AirNZ is amazing. Qantas and NZ know how to treat passengers :) (we're not so lucky here in the states)

[Mels]

great to hear you've made it safely

Mels

[Janey]

Welcome Catt

[andrewp]

Welcome Catt.
:cheers

[Mrs Pony]

yeah! Congrats!!

Good luck with settling!

[JandM]

Congratulations, and all the best. :) You can change your location now!

[Scotty69]

Great to hear that you have finally arrived safely :nice1

[tea drinker]

Glad to hear that you have arrived safe and well :nice1

[Kerry and David]

Pleased you have arrived safely:)

[Gemini]

Glad you're here :D

[clairelouise]

Welcome to NZ!!! :D

[janrzm]

Welcome!::cheers

[nickydwuk]

Welcome to NZ Catt. One less for Luton to worry about. Hope you find a more permanent place soon. :cheers

[DMcG]

Welcome to NZ - sorry about the weather :D

:cheers

Dougie

[NikT]

Kia Ora.

Welcome to New Zealand.:nice1

Nick.:cheers

[Red Devil]

... great news catt, hope all goes well for you :nice1

[Bobbysox]

Welcome from us too, that flight certainly is a long one, it's just nice to know you don't have to do it again. :clap:clap
We will wave to you as you drive past our front door on your way to Tauranga, we own the garden centre in Ngatea, which is on SH2 halfway between Auckland and Tauranga.

Rob and Kaz

[adacakes]

Glad you arrived safe and sound Catt
ada

[SykesFamily]

Glad you arrived safely. Do keep us updated on how everything goes

[Belmont Babes]

Great news Catt. Well done, all the best and will check in to see how it'sgoing.

[dusk]

great news, good luck with all the sorting out :)

[Scibby]

Congratulations! You made it! We're looking forward to your updates.

[catt]

Well we are now in our holiday cottage on the outskirts of Tauranga, its been a good week all in all. We arrived in Auckland early morning last Monday, our nephew and his wife where very welcoming and helpful into the bargain. Tuesday we set up our bank accounts and bought a pay as you go mobile phone, cheap and cheerful but it works and thats the main thing. Wednesday we bought a car.....would be interested in hearing what a Limited Edition RAV4 2007 2.4 would cost in the UK......we just liked this one and think we got a good deal with 3 years warranty, WOF and AA cover.

Our local shopping is in Bethlehem with Countdown local supermarket a small shopping centre behind it and on the opposite side of the road a butchers, bakers, pharmacy and small grocery store come newspaper shop and post office so everything you need. It did seem a lot of money when your talking two hundred and fifty dollars for our first shop but we did the "dont do thing" and tracked it back to UK money and realised it wasnt bad at all for what we had bought. I suppose initially we will do this until we get used to things.

Have been given a contact name by one of the local estate agents who they say will help us in our search for a rental.......decided against buying in the short term thought we would wait and see what happens. Looked on trademe and realinz for rentals and did some drivebys yesterday thought if we looked at houses in the rain and liked them then we would go contact the agents and go back to view the inside :D We are heading out to view some open homes over the weekend although no intention of buying we thought we would take a look around anyway to see what the houses and areas are like.

The cottage we have is really nice, not very big but modern and fully equiped with lovely views over what feels like our own little valley the sunrise an hour or so ago was beautiful with the sounds of the birds and cicadas in the trees, i tried to upload the pics but this connection is way too slow for that unfortunately. Our landlords are very good they came over during the week with a bottle of wine to welcome us and we sat for a couple of hours chatting and fact finding with them........really nice people and very friendly and have organised our dial up internet connection at a a cost of $18 a month which i thought was pretty good if a bit slow as this is what they use.......never thought i would go back to dial up but needs must when the devil drives :laugh...........invited to a sausage sizzle over the weekend as well.

Also looking forward to meeting up with folk from this forum at noon today........looks like the weather is going to be good. The cyclone that was over the whole of NZ for the past 24 hours seems to have left our area and its already getting very warm.

Everything just feels right at the moment.......very relaxed and content will keep you posted :nice1

[JandM]

That sounds lovely.:nice1