Pip
2nd February 2007, 09:18 AM
As its been a while, I thought I'd do a quick update post, as I know that I always found reading other people's useful!
Well, with only a few weeks to go, things are really starting to fall into place for us. Was very strange to wake up today and after all this time think, "this is the month when we move to New Zealand!".
Think we're pretty much there in terms of planning, we've got a holiday home for our first month (who are happy to take the cat) that we found from a website link on this site, and have booked a rental car whilst we look for a long term house rental. We've opened a bank account with Westpac (v.helpful) and exchanged some money with HIFX. We also applied and got IRD numbers so we don't pay emergency tax. (amazes me how simple this stuff is compared with the UK!)
Stu was offered a job today by a company that he really wanted to work for, and its in Christchurch. (we had worried that we'd struggle to find his IT specialism type of work outside of Wellington/Auckland) - so thats really good. I'll look for something when we arrive, as my job for the first couple of weeks is to find a house / register with doctors etc etc and spend some time with my best friend who is travelling the world and arriving in NZ when we do.
John Mason come on the 18th/19th Feb to pack and the last few days we are staying with friends, - so just various leaving do's/goodbyes to get through...We've tried to follow the 'we'll be back from time to time' and 'NZ is a great place to visit', but its been pretty difficult for Stu to say goodbye to his granny, especially when she's in her eighties and not in great health ..
Apart from that, only one more week of work to go :clap , but will be very strange as I've been there for nine yrs!
On a different note, we've gone full circle on Stu's car. We started off planning to ship it, then looked into it, worked out it was about £2k for shipping/insurance/re-registration. We looked on NZ autotrader and they seemed to be about the same price, so we decided to sell and buy something else when we arrived. Anyway, when we came to sell it, the best offer we got was from a dealer for about £3K under the price, so at the last minute, we've shipping it (we've had it since new and its got a full service history) and it goes off to the warehouse tomorrow. Many thanks to all who posted on avoiding being ripped off on compliance statements. We e-mailed Wallie at the AA, sent him a photo of the plate under the bonnet and he's confirmed that is sufficient for compliance purposes. (still can't believe BMW tried to charge someone £500! for that)
Anyway it feels like we're into the home straight now (although I know there will be a whole raft of new challenges ahead when we arrive), we are still waiting for someone to rent the UK flat, but I'm sure it will work itself out.
Anyway - not sure what the future holds, but right now we're feeling pretty positive!
p.s and whilst writing this even the cat has just obligingly provided her first sample for us to send to Golden Arrow, right on time......Sorry - that might have been too much info! ;)
Well, with only a few weeks to go, things are really starting to fall into place for us. Was very strange to wake up today and after all this time think, "this is the month when we move to New Zealand!".
Think we're pretty much there in terms of planning, we've got a holiday home for our first month (who are happy to take the cat) that we found from a website link on this site, and have booked a rental car whilst we look for a long term house rental. We've opened a bank account with Westpac (v.helpful) and exchanged some money with HIFX. We also applied and got IRD numbers so we don't pay emergency tax. (amazes me how simple this stuff is compared with the UK!)
Stu was offered a job today by a company that he really wanted to work for, and its in Christchurch. (we had worried that we'd struggle to find his IT specialism type of work outside of Wellington/Auckland) - so thats really good. I'll look for something when we arrive, as my job for the first couple of weeks is to find a house / register with doctors etc etc and spend some time with my best friend who is travelling the world and arriving in NZ when we do.
John Mason come on the 18th/19th Feb to pack and the last few days we are staying with friends, - so just various leaving do's/goodbyes to get through...We've tried to follow the 'we'll be back from time to time' and 'NZ is a great place to visit', but its been pretty difficult for Stu to say goodbye to his granny, especially when she's in her eighties and not in great health ..
Apart from that, only one more week of work to go :clap , but will be very strange as I've been there for nine yrs!
On a different note, we've gone full circle on Stu's car. We started off planning to ship it, then looked into it, worked out it was about £2k for shipping/insurance/re-registration. We looked on NZ autotrader and they seemed to be about the same price, so we decided to sell and buy something else when we arrived. Anyway, when we came to sell it, the best offer we got was from a dealer for about £3K under the price, so at the last minute, we've shipping it (we've had it since new and its got a full service history) and it goes off to the warehouse tomorrow. Many thanks to all who posted on avoiding being ripped off on compliance statements. We e-mailed Wallie at the AA, sent him a photo of the plate under the bonnet and he's confirmed that is sufficient for compliance purposes. (still can't believe BMW tried to charge someone £500! for that)
Anyway it feels like we're into the home straight now (although I know there will be a whole raft of new challenges ahead when we arrive), we are still waiting for someone to rent the UK flat, but I'm sure it will work itself out.
Anyway - not sure what the future holds, but right now we're feeling pretty positive!
p.s and whilst writing this even the cat has just obligingly provided her first sample for us to send to Golden Arrow, right on time......Sorry - that might have been too much info! ;)