[Mildred]

Well my dear old dad when he was alive had his own business. He always brought us kids up to believe that when you shake hands on a deal that is final. I hope my kids grow up with the same ethos as well. Why have we turned into a me me me society instead of treating others like we would like to be treated.

Sorry, no mention about houses but thought I'd add my two penneth so to speak!

[GeorgeM]

If you read my comments again and take note of the emoticons I used, you should be able to see that I'm NOT in favour of this approach

Re-reading your comments I'm afraid that this still isn't obvious to me, but I don't want to argue about it. I'm v v glad that you disapprove. :smile

George M - maybe don't be so quick to judge other forum member's entries.

I admit I was a bit quick to fire in, and didn't feel in a mood to lecture, just to give my POV. I thought that the discussion was taking an unfortunate slant and at least wanted to stimulate some sort of response against the proposed course of action.

Rightly or wrongly I read your response as backing up the plan, and did the equivalent of a 'double' in Bridge. Perhaps I got it wrong, but I thought that a sarky comment was better than a more pointed personal comment. :oops:

Constructive replies like in this case Helen's and Diny (for example) are far more useful than stabs at 'eggs' or 'planes'.

Fair comment. Totally agree.

[jubjub]

First I heard of this little plot of his was reading it on here, can't say I am over the moon with the idea. (Unless the reports do show any issues)

In fact I read it here first that we had even had the offer accepted, I think you all know more than me! ;) (I always log on here while eating my toast and then make my daily phone call!)

I am going with the approach of reports will be great, sale goes through, we move in, no hassle, just hope I like the place when I get to see it next weekend! No need to cause anyone any upset/extra stress. (could do without it myself in my condition!)

Although, our buyers here are still sticking in my throat a little, do you know what they have spent the money on they took off us???? A bloomin holiday! We have started getting their mail and thats what came this morning, a holiday booking confirmation. (and before you ask I did not open it, but I recognise the envelope and the style of the contents!) Humph.

I do think that many people will take their bad experiences here and try and gain recompense for them with their dealings over there, but is this really fair on the society that did not cause the issue in the first place?

[veronica]

I hope the house sale does go through smoothly for you. Theres enough stress in whats going down with just the ordinary migration without house buying and pregnancy. We all want top dollar for what we have and an absolute bargain for what we buy, human nature, but sometimes a quiet life is worth more than the money gained. take care Veronica

[baboonworld]

Eggsactly Babbette - maybe it is just "plane" envy!

[Ria]

With regard to your UK buyers JubJub, call me old-fashioned, but if you've exchanged contracts so can't lose your 'lovely' (word used advisedly) buyers, I'd return their mail to Sender as 'Do not live here'. It's factually accurate and may just cause a little irritation, to your satisfaction.

Before anybody adds anything about values etc. I don't believe in doing something that you know you are going to change/reduce/renege etc once you're sure of your 'prey', but sometimes it's justice for the little guy to stand up/or get a little of their own back on a bully - and let's face it, that's what these people are - politely speaking (I'm sure some would call them far worse).

Just my four pennies worth...

Ria

[Venturello]

Guys, I am not a moderator... just a newbie to the forum, but... lets get back to topic - me at least want to hear more from 'foolsgold99' experience moving to NZ and not about his particular tactics (which I might or might not agree with... :roll: ).

Regards, and thanks for sharing foolsgold99! :nice1

Juan Miguel Venturello

[foolsgold99]

You are correct, this thread has gone waaaaay off topic, anything that involves morals (or lack thereof), is dangerous place to go.

We've had a discussion and are not going to change our offer, unless the survey has issues. The survey is in 2 hours. Mortgage is sorted out. One phone to bankdirect and it's done.

So, what else is happening in New Zealand ??

Not a lot to be honest, I've got into the daily grind of getting up and going to work, living life normally. A lot of my free time has been taken up with house hunting, with that out of the way, I guess it's time to think about having a little fun. Hope the weather this weekend is better than last, I'm thinking about taking a drive somewhere on Saturday / Sunday, or might take a boat out to one of the islands. I'll take some photos and post if I do.

I've been using my Jetstream adsl to download some tv shows from the internet and catching up on some stuff I've missed. Giganews is a really good service, you get everything on there

Things will get hectic next week, when I have a jet lagged wife and dog to deal with. I've heard that dogs can suffer really badly from jetlag, so I'm expecting to be hassled for food and walks at totally inapproiate times. Or is this an urban myth? Anyone taken dogs out to NZ before care to comment

Alan

[GeorgeM]

We've had a discussion and are not going to change our offer, unless the survey has issues.

Good on yer! :cheers

Hope the purchase goes well.

[Diny]

We've had a discussion and are not going to change our offer, unless the survey has issues.

Well done you :clap :clap :clap

Will be watching this thread to hear how everything goes, will be great if you can get everything sorted in time for Jubjub's arrival.

Good luck with the dog :nice1

Diny

[foolsgold99]

a couple of (honest to god real, I promise) issues have came up on the survey, I don't get the written report until monday, but it looks as if, we're going to have to ask for money off, or works to be done.

Not what I wanted

[veronica]

On the house, that justifies having the survey, good job you did.

On the dogs, We bought our two out and Yes, they woke us up at the 5 pm time in the uk for their food, unfortunately it was 5 am here. we just split there days food into 2 meals for a few days gradually making the evening one the biggest meal.

[jubjub]

Well Crown turned up yesterday and did a sterling job packing up 90% of the house, leaving themselves just a bit to do this morning, they were actually finished 2 hrs before container arrived, so that was packed swiftly and despatched within half an hour, its a BH weekend, and I reckon they wanted the pub! :cheers However was all to the good, as it meant I got a good start on my 6hr drive to my mums to stay for a few days.

Apparently we will see our possessions on 17th July, not bad at all. :nice1 Hopefully they dont drop it in the sea at Rotterdam when it gets loaded next Friday!

Happy enough with service so far, let you know how it goes at the other end, and if they can rebuild our great big desk they are miracle workers! :laugh

Off now, better give mum pc back, she gets twitchy if she is away from it too long! ;)

[foolsgold99]

Well today with nothing pressing to do, after a month here. I had a bit of a brain wave, I was going to do something I'd always wanted to do. I was going to visit New Zealand.

Not the New Zealand you get in Auckland, which is a big international city, that could be anywhere in the world. No, no, the other real New Zealand, the one outside of Auckland, with countryside and stuff.

I got up early, and for the first time, took a left onto the north western motorway, and headed away from the city :eek I discovered that the NW motorway only went for another 5km, before ending at a big retail park, Westgate, that I never knew was there. Undeterred I headed north, on route 16. Only 10kms from my house I came to a wine growing region around Kumeu, with Vineyards, and tasting et al, I'm really into all that stuff, so this was a nice surprise. It's not the Nappa valley, but lovely nevertheless. I continued to head north, along the coast for 100kms getting some great views of the Kaipara harbour, until I came to the town of Wellsford. This is where 16 and 1 meet, and it's a stop on the main route to Northland.

I had a bit of a browse round the town, and went into a cafe and had a flat white and a wonderful BLT. I then decided to head south on route 1.

I came off the road at Warkworth, and heading nowhere in particular,and ended up at a little town called Snells Beach. By this time I was thinking like a kiwi, I'd bought my first ever bottle of L&P ;) , and I'd bought some fruit from an old woman at the roadside. Half the cost of the same stuff in Pak n' Save and much better quality. When I got to the beach, the sun came out, and it was very pleasent and warm. I parked at the beach, and walked along it for about 1 mile and back. In all that time, I never saw another person on the beach. Beautiful place I could live there.

After another small detour at Sandspit, I got back on the main road and headed south, had a small stop in Waiwera, which is very nice. Bypassed Orewa, looked ok, but a big and developed. Not what I wanted today.

Took the northwest harbour highway home, and returned to Jafa land to do my shopping.

I really enjoyed it, and it's great to know that there are nice places up north, less than an hour from the city.

[Stu]

Hey man, this is NZ. Drive 30 minutes in any direction and you are nowhere!
If you like reote out of the way, yet not Deliverance -style remote, places, this is for you!
Next thing mate, get yourself a 6wgt fly-rod, a NZ trout fishing licence, and drive off into the country side down south. Stop the car beside any stream you like, flick a fly out and pick up some trout, no worries.

Hell you're in paradise now mate, time to LIVE! :-)
Cheers, Stu

[StevieD]

Wow, you guys paint a great picture! Did you metion Dannewirke in there with the Deliverance comment? (Sorry Jo b :laugh )
Alltogether now, duelling banjos....... dinky dink dink dink dink dink dink dink...... squeal like a pig boy!
Couldn't resist that sorry :uhoh

[jo b]

Ah yes Stevie I'll remember that one.

We are going to live in the Royston Vasey of NZ.

Jo

[jubjub]

I WANNA GO TO THE BEACH NOW!! It sounds real nice.

Had a sad day today, my car went to my cousin, watched it drive away :no

And took dog over to Golden Arrow, met the folks there, they seem very nice, and Lucky is next to a little yappy dog called Scooter, anyone on heres dog?? Hes going to NZ too! (Word of advice if you decide to deliver your dog, take a navigator and a 4x4, its a bit of a rough track in the back of beyond, but we only took one wrong turn, and even that worked out for us!)

So I now have no dog, no car, and no keys to any property, I feel a bit lost to be honest, and have had some relatives over today to say goodbye too.

NZ here I come (nearly)

[foolsgold99]

never mind only 90 hours till you arrive in Auckland

[Diny]

Good luck for the journey .... shall be interested to hear how things go for you.

All the best.

Diny

[foolsgold99]

The survey on the house sucked. Big style.

Not going to go back for a price reduction, going to walk away.

House hunting is now back to the start, still at least we can do it togther :roll:

[veronica]

probably nicer to choose it together anyway. At least here the sale can happen within a couple of weeks if both parties agree to it.

[Babette & Andy]

JubJub - have a great journey, hope the flight doesn't get too uncomfortable for you :? Have you bought some flight socks ? Highly recommend them, even more so when pregnant, stops your legs feeling really heavy and tired.
Thinking of you lots. It must be such a 'double' time for your though:- bet you can't wait to be reunited with your hubby, yet the final goodbyes will be so hard

Let us know how you get on, and good luck with the househunting :nice1

Hugs
Babette

[jubjub]

Yup, got flight socks, and a couple of injections from the hospital as well to prevent blood clots.

Been doing more goodbyes today, just one more set to do on Weds when mum and dad take me to heathrow.

Getting excited now as just want to get there. Can anyone remind me what my hubby looked like???? :uhoh

[foolsgold99]

I think he was tall, good looking and modest :laugh

[GeorgeM]

I think he was tall, good looking and modest :laugh

Funny, sounds just like my wife's husband... :laugh

[jubjub]

Well, I made it, already been to Warehouse and Countdown just to get settled in!

Bump made flight OK too as been for a scan today, my first NZ medical experience and was quite a nice one, friendly experienced staff who appeared to know their stuff.

Flight was OK, although I was spoilt in Bus Class, so got to go to the nice lounge in the main LAX terminal and not the transit "cell" even got a reasonable amount of kip. Shame we cant all afford to travel like that all the time, I know its a one off for me!

Plane was full of Lions tour folks arriving just in time for first game.

Off out to the mall now, jet lag wil kick in soon, so make the most of enrgy while I have it.

Oh and dog arrives in the morning.

[Glenda]

Jubjub, sooooo very glad you and 'bump' had a safe and reasonably comfortable journey. :clap

It must be brilliant being back with your tall, good looking and modest hubby!

When you've got over the jetlag and go out househunting again, don't forget to let us know how you're progressing.
:cheers

[veronica]

Glad you have arrived safely and hope the dog gets here in the same state.

The dog will probably be dehydrated when it arrives.. don't do what we did and just give them a bucket of water to drink out of. give them a cup at a time every 10 mins. one of ours drank about 1/2 bucket in one go and promptly threw up.. :exit

[Marie P]

JubJub

glad you arrived safely.....

best wishes for your future in NZ....

Marie x

[Biddy]

Great thread! Glad you've arrived safely JubJub - hope your dog is OK too. Ours will be joining us in Oct so keen to find out how he travelled
Mike

[jubjub]

Dogs fine, bit confused and clingy, but that will pass (he is like this after kennels anyway). He seems to have suffered no ill effects from his adventure, and is currently conked out in the middle of the lounge. Only took an hour to get all the paperwork sorted, he was so pleased to see us the whle box shook with his enthusiastic tail wagging! And he did the longest pee ever witnessed when we got him home, dont reckon he had done one since LAX.

Been to Piha in the rain today, very pretty place, and the surf was quite impressive. And its still raining, sorry folks, I think I bought it with me from Scotland.

Furthered my NZ shopping expereince with a trip to the local pak n save, been shopping twice in two days and we still need loads of stuff, but dont want to get stuff that will be duplicated when container gets here, so just need to make do with some items missing.

Off out househunting tomorrow and Monday.

[Biddy]

Really glad the dog's fine - good news.
Have fun with the shopping!

[Kim39]

Come on Foolsgold where's the pics? I have read through 8 pages on your new life in NZ and no pics!! come on you been there for 6 weeks now :laugh and you can't be bothered to get those pics on the site. Pull your finger out ;)

You painted a wonderful picture on one of the posts, but don't have pictures to back it up. You know we all look forward to pics,so get them posted.

Seriously. Am glad to see you have settled quite well and just to say best wishes for your new life.

Kim

[foolsgold99]

I've not taken many piccies, will take some over the next week. Here's a couple

We went to the beach at the weekend, and it was so warm in Auckland this morning, that I was sun bathing on the deck, with only a pair of shorts on :P

Here's a photo I took of Sal and the dog, at Panmure basin the other day.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v690/asjohnstone/sally.jpg


We're putting a bid in on a house tomorrow. it's in Highland Park

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v690/asjohnstone/house.jpg

[Babette & Andy]

Hi guys - good to see that Sal, bump & dog have arrived safely. Looks like you've been there forever!!

House looks lovely, keeping fingers crossed that this one works out :nice1 Enjoy the warm weather whilst it lasts - it's pretty nice here too (around 19 degrees).

Babette

[Milliemoo]

oohhhh nice house :clap

Milliemoo :nice1

[foolsgold99]

well, after going through 2 offers and just about coming to a deal on the house in Highland Park, I had one of those 3:00am moments and we started to doubt it.

So... we binned it and went back to a house in Pakuranga and we've got an offer accepted, conditional on LIM and survey. We've agreed to pay $369K. In the back garden it has mature Mandarins, Lemons, Goldfruit, Guava and Red Grapes :nice1

And only 15 minutes to work at rush hour

Photos below

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v690/asjohnstone/front.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v690/asjohnstone/kitchen.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v690/asjohnstone/back.jpg

[Venturello]

And only 15 minutes to work at rush hour


Congrats! :clap that has to be the best part of it!

[jess]

Thanks for the pics. I especially like the back garden and decking. Plus you've got lemons and grapes and guava... yum!

:nice1

Jessica

[jubjub]

Fingers crossed for this house, no survey yet, but hopefully by tomorrow, Alan is doing LIM today at library if he can figure it out!

I have got a car, its a bit strange looking, but hey its functionality is exactly what I need to transport a dog, shopping and a baby come December, Alan is referring to it as the Fisher Price My First Station Wagon, but I dont care! We got it from same place as Alan got his, and got 10% of sticker price, not sure if we could have got more, but were happy with what we paid. They are delivering it today or tomorrow for me, so watch out roads of Auckland, I am on the loose! :laugh .

Also something that had escaped me was registering the dog with the council, and coughing up $68 (varies depending on your council) for the privelege, you have 14 days from dogs day of entry into the country to do this, so will nip up to the offices when I get mobile, have got a form ready to go. When we move next month, I just take his registration disc in and swap it from Waitakere to Manukau council one. Still got a few days leeway luckily!

Cant wait to get our own place, not that this rental is a dump or anything, but there are so many houses crammed into the street, you can hear the person in the next house f*rt. :eek The delights of paper thin weatherboard walls!

Went up to Snells Beach at the weekend, will post pics when I get new batteries for digicam, went through Orewa on the way, Jan you live in a nice bit of the world! Did look out for you but did not see any dancing pink elephants :smile :smile

[jan]

Afraid I was tucked up in bed Jub Jub with the mother of all colds. :no
[/quote]

[foolsgold99]

We've gone unconditional on our offer <gulp>

Looks like we're here to stay. Move in 4 weeks today

[sarahw]

Congrats guys! Just caught up on the thread - glad you're all safely installed now! :nice1

[jubjub]

Heres one of the pics from last weekend, Alan at Snells Beach

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v690/asjohnstone/9b888105.jpg

[Biddy]

Not bad for winter eh?