Huttvalleypom
11th January 2007, 02:54 PM
Hello and Happy New Year to all Forum members!
We are Russell and Claire Underwood who commenced our new life in NZ with our children Greg (9), Darcy (4) and Scarlett (2) on 30/9/2006. Our feet have barely touched the ground since and the Forum has been an interesting and often entertaining source of information to us when we stumbled across it about a month ago.
We emigrated from Congleton, Cheshire UK to settle here in the Hutt Valley, a short distance from Wellington. The experience has been a very positive one so far, although we think it will be a least a couple of years before all that we want for ourselves and are family is in place and we can consider ourselves 'established'. Claire is working as a Registered Nurse at Wakefield Hospital, Wellington and is thoroughly enjoying the experience of being able to provide proper levels of care in a largely stress-free environment after many years in the UK NHS. Russell has recently started looking for a job after a six month period of 'househusbandry' looking after our young family. Our eldest, Greg, has settled wonderfully well at his new school in Belmont and has made loads of friends. Our daughters have now started at an excellent local Pre-School (Nursery), giving Russell the opportunity to rejoin the working World!
There have been lots of positive experiences to date, the most prominent by far being the often overwhelming hospitality and kindness shown to us by all the Kiwis we have come into contact with. We also very much like the Wellington area (despite the grizzly weather!) and feel happy that we made the right choice about which part of NZ to settle in.
We hope we can share our experience of making a new life in NZ in the same helpful way as other Forum members do. We would welcome meeting other Forum members who have settled in this area from whatever part of the World you have come from. Claire is always available for a bit of theraputic shopping and a latte, while Russell is always up for a game of squash and a beer!
Great to join the Forum. Best wishes to those of you who have settled in NZ and the very best of luck to those planning to do so in the future.
Russell and Claire Underwood
:nice1
We are Russell and Claire Underwood who commenced our new life in NZ with our children Greg (9), Darcy (4) and Scarlett (2) on 30/9/2006. Our feet have barely touched the ground since and the Forum has been an interesting and often entertaining source of information to us when we stumbled across it about a month ago.
We emigrated from Congleton, Cheshire UK to settle here in the Hutt Valley, a short distance from Wellington. The experience has been a very positive one so far, although we think it will be a least a couple of years before all that we want for ourselves and are family is in place and we can consider ourselves 'established'. Claire is working as a Registered Nurse at Wakefield Hospital, Wellington and is thoroughly enjoying the experience of being able to provide proper levels of care in a largely stress-free environment after many years in the UK NHS. Russell has recently started looking for a job after a six month period of 'househusbandry' looking after our young family. Our eldest, Greg, has settled wonderfully well at his new school in Belmont and has made loads of friends. Our daughters have now started at an excellent local Pre-School (Nursery), giving Russell the opportunity to rejoin the working World!
There have been lots of positive experiences to date, the most prominent by far being the often overwhelming hospitality and kindness shown to us by all the Kiwis we have come into contact with. We also very much like the Wellington area (despite the grizzly weather!) and feel happy that we made the right choice about which part of NZ to settle in.
We hope we can share our experience of making a new life in NZ in the same helpful way as other Forum members do. We would welcome meeting other Forum members who have settled in this area from whatever part of the World you have come from. Claire is always available for a bit of theraputic shopping and a latte, while Russell is always up for a game of squash and a beer!
Great to join the Forum. Best wishes to those of you who have settled in NZ and the very best of luck to those planning to do so in the future.
Russell and Claire Underwood
:nice1