[owens clan]

Hello to everyone, we are the Owens clan and this is our first ever post, first of all we would like to thank everyone who ever replies to anyone's post as we have visited this forum on many a time and found answer's to nearly all of our own querries .
Our fammily is me (eddie),the wife (claire),the kids(jacob 4yr's / beth 1yr), and of course the inlaw's( pat and john). We have been thinking of a new start for all of us since feb 2005, after a short talk between us, we all had thought of New Zealand before anywhere else in the world, we then set about finding as much information about N.Z. as possible and thought it better to visit the place before making our mind up, after short discussion (ten rounds , 3minutes each round) myself (eddie) and the father in-law (john) won and on the 9th Sept 05 I flew to Auckland to be joined aweek later by john ,so all in all we spent 3 wk's in a motorhome (4 berth) taveling the north island what a holiday (I mean fact finding mission) we loved it and narrowed our serch of possible places to live and work down to 3 places ( Papamoa, Napier and Levin). After we got back we started our EOI, our main concerns were that we all wanted to go as a whole family unit as claire is an only child so Pat and John want to come with us and yes withstanding all the in-law jokes I do to .
So after a lot of discussion's about what to do we have finnaly got a plan of action ,the house was put up for sale just incase it takes a long time to sell (we got the asking price within 7 days) ,well ok then that was a surprise now to give our notices at work my boss has been great and is sorry to see me leave but understands why we are doing this,claire's work the N.H.S. are not so good and have been funny with her as it gets more near to going.
So back to the plan we want to fly out to Auckland end of Aug 06 and hire a motorhome for 4weeks so claire and the kids can get a small feel of the 3 places we think she would like, as the house is sold and the money is the bank and all our stuff will be in storage ready to follow we hope to find work get a visa and take it from there , if it does'nt go to plan and we end up back in England at the very least we gave it try But we are a strong family in mind and spirit ,and plan to make New Zealand our future home for all our family (yes including the in-laws).
we welcome any comments on our plan (good or bad)
Thank's the Owens clan

[Kim39]

Hello and welcome to our world, the Owen's clan. So you have lurked quietely and have now come out. Good on ya


Kim

[katandbob]

hi we are in same boat as to living at in-laws as sold house first....don't worry too much about having 3mths ref/util bills, the only prob we had so far was opening an account with XE, but had no trouble with Transferz (spelling? hubby sorted that out)

the NZ banks were ok too when we spoke to their reps at the expo, said no probs.

so we are sitting here waiting to fly...with the occasional bout of sadness(leaving daughter/grandson behind)

any how WELCOME and good luck

Kat

[Moorf]

Welcome to the forum Owen clan :cheers

Nice that you have the luxury of being able to visit a few places before putting down some roots, a few of us have ended up in places away from where we initially landed :D

Good luck with your plans, great news re quick house sale (that's a major stumbling block already hurdled for you all!) there's no right or wrong way to get where you want to go, but I do know that once you get here the path becomes a lot clearer :D

All the best

Moorf

[owens clan]

thank's for the welcomes (Kim39, Katandbob, Moorf) will post again soon but as for now Ive got control of the TV and the wizard of oz is on .
cheers

[zardell]

Hello the Owens Clan and

WELCOME TO THE FORUM.

Well, to answer your question, I think its a wonderful plan and I have to say, not dissimilar to ours - the big difference being that we are not planning a recce trip first.

We have narrowed down our choices of places to settle and thanks to the people on this forum, we have a good idea of what these places could offer us, but like you, we are hoping to hire a camper van on arrival and go and have a good look around.

I hope all your plans come to fruition and that now you have joined us here on the forum that you will keep us posted with your updates.

Julie n Steve

xx

[Charlosparky]

Welcome to the forum chaps!!! :nice1

Mmm.. a plan, good idea. I have one of those, somewhere in the cupbard under the stairs behind the xmas decorations i think- oh well, i'll just keep on making mine up as we go along :laugh

[zardell]

Mmm.. a plan, oh well, i'll just keep on making mine up as we go along :laugh


Thats the best type 'cos I've never had a plan work out yet !!

Ho-hum.........

Julie

xx

[owens clan]

Kids think wizard of oz is far 2 long and so decided to rebel and through cuite looks and slight of hand tv remote mising and boomerang on.
so I'm back on line, more replys thanks

[Diny]

Welcome - good to hear your plans. I'm sure you'll all have a great time over here. We're not far from Levin - it's a nice place !!

Keep us posted.

Diny

[Marie P]

Welcome to the forum :clap

Good luck with all your plans .

Marie x

PS There is a Birkenhead in Auckland too you know .

[Tinman]

Hi Owens Clan,
Like you, we have only just started contributing to the forum after spending ages looking at all the posts - it's a bit daunting, but we are quite enjoying it now!
We - as in me, Mike and wife Sharon, plus 14 year old son, Sean - were interested in your first post saying that you were taking your in-laws with you.
Sharon is also an only child and her Mum is now on her own. We would dearly love (yes, that's true!), to be able to include her in our plans to move to NZ but so far have not been able to find out too much of the ins and outs of doing it. She will be 80 next week and we weren't sure if she would be able to come with us, whether she is too old to be considered etc. How have you found it all in trying to include your in-laws? Any tips you can give us as to how to approach it would be gratefuly received.
She's getting so excited, bless her :raebanana

Mike, Sharon & Sean

[Hannah]

Hello Tinman and Owens family, WELCOME to the forum...and do chip in as much as you can, it's great to hear views from different sides of the world (and different stages of the process). I've learnt SOOOO much from this forum - used to feel that every posting i made was a question, but that changes as you learn more and suddenly you, too, are answering them!!!!!

I have no idea about how easy/possible it is to bring parents with you. But i think it's lovely that you are such a close family and want to stick together. In these days where families are often so distant (none so distant as mine - i don't even know where they are!!!) it's heartwarming to hear stories like yours!

All the best, and keep with us...you'll add to the melting pot of ideas, knowledge, experience and opinions!!

hannah