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'