Woo - Hoo

"We're going to New Zealand,
Where the Kiwi is king,
and the locals eat a barbie on the sand"

"We're going to New Zealand.
Where the Sheep reign supreme
and Christmas is spent in the sun"

"We're going to New Zealand"

Lots to catch up with

I've been a little neglectful of this blog recently, well quite a lot actually.  It's not that I haven't wanted to commit our news to cyber space, I have thought about it a lot, it's just that I have been so busy my feet haven't touched the ground.

So here comes the long catch up ....

1. The Job Interview:

I had the interview, we tried to do it over Skype but the microphone was in the loft and as I'm such a short arse it was not possible for me to get it.  So Martin (the minister from Auckland) phoned me at 11:30pm his time.  We had a lovely long chat about many different subjects and discussed faith and my position rather a lot.  It was an extremely random interview, we had none of the standard UK questions of "why do you want this job?" or "what can you offer our company?".  Actually it was rather refreshing to just talk.  I did get offered the job but due to a hold up with our visa (more on that in a minute) I've not been able to accept, although at the moment it is still mine as no Kiwi's have applied, let alone accepted!!  Martin has invited R and I to worship in his church when we arrive so at least we can start forming networks.

2. The Visa Delay:

We were hoping to have our visa by the end of August but at the moment it is looking more likely to be with us sometime during October.  This has all been down to the medical examiner, we thought that I would be the problem child (figuratively speaking) with all of my health related issues, but in actual fact it has been R.  7 years ago he had to have an operation to repair his shoulder, since that time it had repeatedly dislocated.  We had to get an MRI done and provide a consultant's letter so that they could work out whether we would cost NZ a great deal of money.  Additionally we had the added complication of the Radiographer not filling in a report to say we had no TB etc etc.  We've now managed to provide all of the additional evidence so fingers crossed.   Also R is fine apparently it is just his shoulder shoulder muscles are not strong enough at the moment, so lots of physio required.

3.  House Decoration / Clearance:

Having now made the difficult decision to sell our house, we've been spending the last few weeks smartening the place up.  For the first time in history we have not only 1 but 2 taps on our bath!!!!!!!!  Following on from the estate agents recommendation we've spent two weeks in the bathroom gutting it and redecorating, so the 1970's wall paper has gone, the strange 'bird' patterned tiles are gone and the dodgy light come heater thing has been eradicated.  

We've also begun the equally hard task of deciding what we can and cannot take, and seem to have spent days surrounding by bags and piles of clothes, and various assorted paraphernalia from old computers, to floppy disks and ancient tools.  I think R has found this task more difficult than I as once I've made the decision for it to go it goes regardless of any other feelings.  

Additionally we've had to invest in some more furniture to accommodate our ever growing Cd collection, as for some reason I cannot do without  music and am always finding new artists.  Although I have the music on the PC for us it's not the same as holding the CD.

Who's A Clever Girl?

Just last week, I was doing the trawl around the job sites in an attempt to find Richard a job when I stumbled across a site called "Youth Train".  They specialise in placing Youth Workers in churches.  On the website I saw an advert for a Youth Worker in a Chinese Presbyterian Church.  I decided to find out more about the position and now I am due to have an interview via Skype, once I have submitted my CV.

Interview Done ... Outcome Pending

Well we had our interview, or should I say Richard had our interview, seeing as he is the principal applicant.  My job at this moment in time is not deemed 'essential ' for the job market.  It does make one feel a rather uninspired and inadequate.

The interview went well although we are still waiting for a decision to be made.  This is all due to the fact that Richard managed to re-dislocate his shoulder a while back playing badminton of all things.  We are hoping that we will have an outcome soon, as all this waiting is proving to be rather stressful.

Interview Immenent

Tomorrow is D-Day.

Interview booked

Telephone primed and ready to go

Fingers Crossed

Good Luck

Case Officer ... Check Part 2

Today we had a response from our case officer ... we know her name Katie Baker and she has requested that we send more proof of the fact that we have been living together for 12 months or more.  I would have thought that photos from the past 12 years, joint bank statements, a mortgage statement, and a letter to us would have been enough (but apparently not). 

We have also been asked to have a telephone interview and have several dates, so once we have decided on which one we'll post it here.

Case Officer ... Check

Last night, upon checking the good old e-mails we found that we now have a case officer assigned to us. 

I am so happy as it is another little bit of progress (and it didn't quite take the full month)  although we have to wait 10 days for them to review all the paperwork, check that what we have said is legitimate. 

Once this is done they will then contact us, so hopefully by August we will be having our interview.

An elephant sat in Berkley Square

Now I know that this post isn't strictly about New Zealand or our adventures but whilst in London on our many trips there recently, we were lucky to be part of the Elephant Parade.

The Elephant Parade is ... billed as the biggest art event London has ever seen. Over 250 painted elephants appeared all over town to highlight the plight of the Asian elephant. Each elephant has been decorated by a different artist or celebrity.

As elephants are my favourite animal I had an amazing time veiwing all of the beautiful fibre glass structures, in Berkley Square, Covent Garden and Oxford Street (to name but a few locations).  Here are a few of our photos of the elephants we saw ...

The first few things that we'll never do again (probably)

This week and the end of last week have seen us commence the things that we're not likely to do again, it has been quite emotional already, and I know as the next few months progress it's only going to get worse.

So far we have done the following for the last time ...

1.  Attended the Try-Angle Awards, Kent Youth Services annual awards event for young people.
2. Been to the Biggin Hill Air Show (although we get to see the Red Arrows again soon)
3. Gone to the V & A museum

These might seem boring to some of you but we're just trying to get as much in as possible.

and the wait goes on ...

Having been to New Zealand House and having recieved the letter explaining that our application has been submitted, we wait again.

I know that it's only been 13 days but I want an answer now!!!  We were told we would know within a month as there was no wait.

I guess I'm going to have to learn a little patience

It is done

Following my last post where I said that we would have to wait at least a week before we could go to New Zealand House ...  Richard managed to find the time so that we could attend Friday morning as he was under the impression sooner rather than later.

So we left on the Javelin at 10am arrived in London, met the advisor, got everything rubber stamped and a case number assigned and we were back in time for me to go to work in the afternoon :o)

We have been informed that we will recieve a letter confirming that everything has been accepted by next week and that we should be able to have an interview with our case officer in roughly five or so weeks.  This is all really good news as it moves us one stage closer to the goal.

Finally it's here

The results from the medicals finally arrived today :o) and everything looks good, nothing dodgy or untoward there.

So now we just need to make some time to go and visit New Zealand House and get the official stamps in the passport.  Unfortunately we cannot even begin to entertain this idea until Richard comes home from Greece. (I thought that we could go this week but we don't have enough time) That said though I'll have a busy week collating all the info and making sure it is ready for when we manage our visit.  Once that is done the fun then begins :o)

Still Waiting

I think that I must be extremely impatient at the moment, as we're still waiting for the medical results. I know that they were only completed on Thursday, but the doctor assured us we would have them within 24 hours.

This is the final piece of the puzzle before we attend New Zealand House, as everything else is ready.

Needles and Pins

Well the medicals are now finally finished following a second visit to Dover today. We had already been once before about two weeks ago and had to return to give more blood so that our blood sugar levels could be checked.

Giving blood is not an experience I want to repeat ever again, the first time they tried three times to get it and today another three attempts were made. Apparently I have deep small veins and as a result it comes out slowly. But I braved it, got it done and now we await the results.

The only glimmer they have given us is that our cholesterol is fine and we don't have senile dementia :0)

House Building Time

Soon after arriving in Auckland, Mark took us out on the pretence of buying a new house for his family (Devious boy). We visited one of the newer house builders in New Zealand, Jennian Homes. We worked out with the consultant that we could sell our 3 bed here and convert the cash to buy 3 acres of land and a Civic ...















This house will be assembled by the builders like a giant Meccano set and should be earthquake proof. All we need to do now is find the land, instruct the builders, sell our house and move. It all sounds so simple but I'm sure it won't be. Anyhow, that's what our next trip is for. We'll keep you updated with the progress.

Expression of Interest

To even be considered in the application pool with th EOI form we had to have 100 points or more. I guess we were the lucky ones as we managed to gain the vast sum of 150 points which meant that we received automatic acceptance and do not need a job offer to gain the visa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first few days at home.

The past few months since we made our decision have at times zipped by and at others crawled so slowly that we wondered what was going on. We seem to have spent our time in a constant state of flux.

The first day we returned to the UK it was snowing and so cold that we were not used to the harsh conditions or indeed the extremely low temperatures. You see, we had left summer and temperatures around 80. As we knew it was snowing at home I made sure that I had trainers and a jumper packed in my hand luggage so that I could change when at Dubai into something a little more appropriate for winter. Richard on the other hand travelled home in his T-shirt and Shorts!!!!!!!!


We arrived home on the Sunday evening and were both due into work on Monday morning!! (how stupid were we?) We had both agreed that we would wait a couple of weeks before making any decision, however, as I sat at my desk at working, tediously catching up with the past three weeks, staring blankly at the wall, my mind began to wander back to the places we had seen and the people we had left behind. I wanted to be able to see the sea, walk on the sand and relax with good food, wine and people. I could just see myself waking up to the beautiful vistas every morning ....
At about 12:30 that Monday lunch time I phoned Richard and told him I had already registered for the Expression of Interest Form and begun to fill it in. I'm not sure what he thought but I think he was pleased.

The start of something big

Way back in January 2010, 3 days after returning from New Zealand, we made the momentous decision to leave everything that we have know for the last 30 years or so, and emigrate to the other side of the world.

This blog is to keep our family and friends updated on our progress and finally when we get there to display some of our adventures in the 'land of the long white cloud'