Kalorix
2nd February 2006, 06:29 AM
Hello All,
My wife, Andrea, and I have been lurking these forums for a few weeks so thought it about time we introduced ourselves. We have two girls of 5 and 2, we all hold British passports, Andrea and the kids hold New Zealand passports and Andrea and I hold Hong Kong ID cards! I am in the process of getting an NZ work visa and then hopefully residency. So how did we get this far? I’ll try to keep it brief.
Andrea left NZ and I left the UK, both after graduating, and met in Hong Kong where we hooked up and spent 12 happy years. Once the kids arrived we both agreed that Hong Kong wasn’t a place we wanted to bring them up so bought a blow-up globe and started sticking pins in it. Then we bought a world map. For reasons which I won’t go into now we decided to be a little radical and move to Santiago, Chile. We’ve been here for 15 months now and have greatly enjoyed our time here. Anya completed her Kinder year in December and now speaks far better Spanish than we do. There lies the problem. We underestimated the language barrier. So we’ve decided to resort to plan B. We said before we left Hong Kong that if things didn’t work out after a year in Santiago we’d head for NZ. We’d love to stay in Chile but it’s really not feasible (I’d highly recommend anyone to visit, hire a car, and drive south to the lakes). That said, we’re now very excited about moving to NZ too. Andrea loves the country and I’ve spent a couple of great holidays on the South Island. We were originally thinking we might head for Auckland, but with a view to buying a house in a year or so we thought we might find more for our money in the suburbs of Wellington. Plus we have a few Kiwi friends we met in Hong Kong who live in Lower Hutt.
So we’re currently in the process of booking flights, getting moving quotes, and finalzing our game plan for arrival and selection of a rental for a year. I’ve got some great info from these forums about neighbourhoods/suburbs. We’re looking hard at Johnsonville and Khandalla but think that we won’t be able to rule anywhere out before a good drive around all of the suburbs and visits to schools. We plan to take an apartment for our first 1-2 weeks in Wellington, narrow everything down, and then commit to a rental for a year. We also hope to identify an area and school zone that we will eventually buy a house in but we’ll see. That might be looking too far ahead.
Now my first question for you - and probably not the last: We have been advised by our airline (Aerolineas Argentinas) that we're entitled to two bags of 32kg each. This is very good news as we have lots to carry. However, our connecting flight on AirNZ from Auckland to Wellington only allows one piece of 23kg each. Have any of you faced this problem and if so what did you do?
All the best,
Keith
My wife, Andrea, and I have been lurking these forums for a few weeks so thought it about time we introduced ourselves. We have two girls of 5 and 2, we all hold British passports, Andrea and the kids hold New Zealand passports and Andrea and I hold Hong Kong ID cards! I am in the process of getting an NZ work visa and then hopefully residency. So how did we get this far? I’ll try to keep it brief.
Andrea left NZ and I left the UK, both after graduating, and met in Hong Kong where we hooked up and spent 12 happy years. Once the kids arrived we both agreed that Hong Kong wasn’t a place we wanted to bring them up so bought a blow-up globe and started sticking pins in it. Then we bought a world map. For reasons which I won’t go into now we decided to be a little radical and move to Santiago, Chile. We’ve been here for 15 months now and have greatly enjoyed our time here. Anya completed her Kinder year in December and now speaks far better Spanish than we do. There lies the problem. We underestimated the language barrier. So we’ve decided to resort to plan B. We said before we left Hong Kong that if things didn’t work out after a year in Santiago we’d head for NZ. We’d love to stay in Chile but it’s really not feasible (I’d highly recommend anyone to visit, hire a car, and drive south to the lakes). That said, we’re now very excited about moving to NZ too. Andrea loves the country and I’ve spent a couple of great holidays on the South Island. We were originally thinking we might head for Auckland, but with a view to buying a house in a year or so we thought we might find more for our money in the suburbs of Wellington. Plus we have a few Kiwi friends we met in Hong Kong who live in Lower Hutt.
So we’re currently in the process of booking flights, getting moving quotes, and finalzing our game plan for arrival and selection of a rental for a year. I’ve got some great info from these forums about neighbourhoods/suburbs. We’re looking hard at Johnsonville and Khandalla but think that we won’t be able to rule anywhere out before a good drive around all of the suburbs and visits to schools. We plan to take an apartment for our first 1-2 weeks in Wellington, narrow everything down, and then commit to a rental for a year. We also hope to identify an area and school zone that we will eventually buy a house in but we’ll see. That might be looking too far ahead.
Now my first question for you - and probably not the last: We have been advised by our airline (Aerolineas Argentinas) that we're entitled to two bags of 32kg each. This is very good news as we have lots to carry. However, our connecting flight on AirNZ from Auckland to Wellington only allows one piece of 23kg each. Have any of you faced this problem and if so what did you do?
All the best,
Keith