[Wannaway]

Work visas came through today - hurrah! :cheers Leave the UK Monday night for a two week break in Aus, land in Auckland on Monday 8 Nov and start work on Monday 22 Nov. At last! Goodbye UK, hopefully forever!

Have been umming and arring about changing my UK£ into NZ$. See an earlier thread saying that theview is that sterling will mount a fight back. Interestingly HIFX have said to me that the trend has been relentlessly downwards and a sub NZ$2.5 pound is a possibility. I almost bought at 2.60 yesterday, but I think I am going to hold off as we don't need the bulk of the money for some time yet and I just feel that the NZ$ is just having a "spike" at the moment. If it can get back to about 2.80, I think that will be a reasonable level.

Lee & Nicky

[jesselyn]

lee & nicky,

wtg!!! :clap :nice1

jes :angel

[bbq]

lee & nicky,

wtg!!! :clap :nice1

jes :angel

Lee Nicky

& from me

all the best on yer adventures

alex :nice1 :cheers

[sarahw]

Fantastic news - congratulations!

:cheers

[Timbo]

Many congrats Lee and Nicky. You lucky lucky lucky people. Will you keep us all up to speed when you get down under?
I hope all goes well for you.

[lindajax]

Congratulations and enjoy the break in aus
Love
linda x

[Tara Sage]

Congratulations!

Have a fantastic Hols before you arrive I am sure the break is needed.

Tara & Family :nice1

[xanctus]

congrats...and have a nice flight and don't forget to share your excitements with all of us :laugh

[jo b]

Lee & Niki,

Congrats I have opened a bottle of wine in celebration :mrgreen: (any excuse).

Well done out there in time for Summer too :nice1

Where abouts in NZ will you be headed??


Best of Luck Jo

[Diny]

Enjoy !!!!

Diny

[Jules]

Hi All

Our work visas came through today :clap :clap . Shippers come next Tuesday/Wednesday, house should be completed by next Friday, then we need to book the flights :P and we will be in sunny Rotorua being of November

Good luck to everyone
Jules

[Wannaway]

Dear all,

Left UK (finally!) on 25 Oct, arrived Western Australia for a well earned break the following day. Treated ourselves to business class on Singapore Airlines for the London-Perth leg of the trip, a total of 20+ hours travelling and well worth the money when travelling with two small children. My advice is, if travelling with little 'uns and you feel a bit flush, splash out on business class, especially if going Singapore airlines - service excellent, food excellent and seats go almost horizontal so kids slept properly. Also took an overnight flight, so kids slept for about 8 hours of the flight. The flight was actually therefore OK, almost pleasant - even with kids!

How have parents with young 'uns coped with jetlag? Took ours about a week to shake it, just as we left Perth for Melbourne and another three hour time difference!

Leave Melbourne v. early Monday next week for Auckland - our final destination. Feel really weird now that the day we have been planning for for the last six months is now almost upon us. It is going to seem really strange when we touch down, but looking forward to getting a bit of normality back into our lives. Have been living out of a suitcase for over a month now and we need to get back to a routine and have some solid foundations (eg a home to call our own would be a start). Speaking of which, anyone any thoughts on decent areas in Auckland where we could rent a 3x2 (or better still a 4x2) for circa $500 per week, with decent infants schools and, say, within 30 mins commute of CBD?

Documents in support of residency application under SMC should have been submitted over a week ago now, hoping we might actually get the thumbs up before Christmas, which would be fantastic. Still haven't heard from NZQA on professional quals, it has now been over 4 months without a reposne of any kind - that system is an absolute farce and now completely redundant (but my wallet is a little lighter for the experience).

Finally, keeping an eye on the NZ$, seems to have stuck at 2.68. Anyone got any insight on likelihood of it breaching the 2.80 mark before Christmas?

Anyway, still only tuning sporadically, when in Auckland will hopefully be able to get back into the forum on a more regular basis.

Best wishes to all and good luck to all you emigration hopefuls - keep on keepin' on!

Lee & Nicky

[Diny]

Lee & Nicky

Sounds like it's a case of 'so far so good' .... you'll be fine when you get to Auckland. I guess the feeling of 'this is it' must be pretty weird.

The flights sounded very good. If you get a moment can you tell us if the business class seats were much more than economy, am I right in thinking they cost extra thousands?

All the best and keep us posted.

Diny

[Wannaway]

Diny,

Re your mail, originally we booked 4 seats in economy, total cost approx GBP1900 for LHR-SIN. We upgraded to three seats in business class (figured the baby could share one of the three "beds", and which worked OK in practice) and that pushed the price up by GBP4k. That is a lot, but we figured we were travelling one way, its a "once in a lifetime" thing and almost a day travelling with young children is a lot to cope with particularly when you have jetlag to deal with when you arrive. You also get to use the Singapore Airlines business lounges in LHR and SIN, again which makes the whole experience more bearable. Howver, you do also have to bear in mind that GBP4k is over NZ$10k, which is a lot of money to live on when you arrive in NZ.

Lee & Nicky

[Diny]

Thanks for that info guys.

Yeah £4k is a lot of money but I reckon it's money well spent. I've done the trip many times and it's a killer in cattle class. I did it once with 2 babies ages 3 months and 20 months and a really bad case of post natal depression (I mean totally crackers, rocking back and forth chewing hankies and dribbling - the lot).

Thankfully kids are now older and think that the flight is one of the best bits !!!!! They love the in-flight entertainment and the way the trolly dollies make a fuss of them. They even take themselves off to the loo, so the flights are no longer stressful, just very uncomfortable.

When we get to NZ, for a number of reasons I will be returning to the UK at least once a year. I will mainly do the journey without hubby and boys so I think we can go that extra mile and pay for one business class return ticket ..... (well I'll darn well make sure we can if I'm booking the flight ;) ).

Thanks for the info, all the best.

Diny