Hello from sunny New Zealand

Hello to you all from sunny New Zealand!

Firstly apologies for the time that it has taken to get and email sent out to you all.
We’ve been in NZ for a week today and it has been a roller coaster ride!

The apartment that we have rented for the first few weeks didn’t really live up to the expectation of the web advert. The TV has 3 channels that work, the BOSE doesn’t receive any radio stations, the DVD player isn’t plugged into the telly and there are no cables anywhere to make it work, the washing machine has quite a light weight limit, the dryer sounds like it is about to break free and make a run for it and there is no internet connection! This has made it quite a challenge to do the things that we need to do given that Oakley arrives a week on Friday.

On the plus side, we have plenty of room to live in, Max is downstairs and we are upstairs so Kate & I are sleeping brilliantly and Max has Fire Engines to look at as the Fire Station is our neighbour – although I think Kate has been doing more looking than Max!

Life outside of the apartment has been brilliant. I have a 25 minute walk along the water front to get to work so manage to take in the sea air every morning. Kate has been out and about with Max taking advantage of having the time to go to storytelling at Te Papa (the New Zealand national museum) as well as visiting various suburbs looking for houses, play parks, etc. It has been great just looking around and being near to the sea at every turn. That is what we came for! The views are spectacular and the weather is, well, the weather is real! You get proper rain and proper wind with lots of proper sunshine too. The blue sky is really blue and the sunshine is a welcome change to the dull greyness of the UK.

I started work this Monday and to say that I was thrown in at the deep end is an understatement. I arrived at 8.30am on Monday to be presented with my laptop, screen and docking station and a project meeting to attend at 9.30am. With some quick introductions I headed into that to find out that my arrival has been built into an incredible level of expectation that I am the resolution to all current SLA issues which amount currently to more than $NZ 1million. Day 2 had me in back to back meetings with 2 different departments in MAF (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry) dealing with some juicy issues around their SLAs! One meeting was with a rather feisty lady who will need some careful management so that will be fun I am sure. Today has finally given me time to have my HR chat over the phone with Auckland as well as following up on a heap of actions from Tuesday. All in all great fun and I am being made to feel very welcome indeed. Oh – and I have a desk by the window with views out into Wellington City.

Kate has today heard that her nursing qualifications from the UK have been accepted in New Zealand so that she can now proactively look for work. There are so many opportunities here for Kate so that shouldn’t take too long at all.

Max is having a brilliant time. He is sleeping better than he ever did in the UK and that has to be a result of the fresh clean air and all of the walking he is doing. He was a complete star on the flight here. After a very exciting few hours including being fed he slept for about 6 hours on the Hong Kong leg and pretty much did the same thing on the Auckland leg. By the time we got onto the Wellington flight he was so tired that I think he was asleep before takeoff! Since then he has loved every minute of it. Since arriving in Wellington Max has become a professional bus, train and plane spotter and as there are loads of all of them he is constantly pointing and trying to get himself on any type of public transport he can! The trip up the Wellington Cable Car was very funny with the passengers subjected to loud Chu Chu’s from Max for the duration of the journey. He was in his element.

Our admin is going well too. We have managed to sort out Bank Accounts, Tax numbers and a mobile phone so are feeling a bit more settled. The biggest news this week is that we have found a house! We will be moving in to our new rental next week, probably Wednesday. The address for those of you who are interested is;

6 Ensign Lane,
Whitby,
Porirua 5024
Wellington
New Zealand

You can find it on Google Maps here. It hasn’t quite met my desire to have a sea view from my bedroom window but it is a step in the right direction and will allow us to be in the area that we ultimately have found that we really like.

When you arrive down the cul-de-sac the house just looks like a large double garage. You go down the first flight of stairs to a large lounge, kitchen and dining room. There is also the master bedroom with walk through wardrobe to the large bathroom which has a corner bath in it. From the lounge you exit French doors to the deck which overlooks a large garden.
The next flight of stairs down goes to the other 3 bedrooms, one of which will make a lovely guest room with its own decking and a Utility room with shower and toilet and a laundry hatch from the upstairs bathroom. I have reliably been informed that this sends your dirty washing to the fairies who wash and iron it for you. Excellent!
The garden is large and is perfect for Oakley and Max – once the pond, complete with Goldfish has had a fence put around it.
We will post a walk around video to the blog (http://thecalvertsnzadventures.blogspot.com/) as well as other photos that we have taken once we are in.

We currently don’t have a landline for that address but my contact details are at the bottom of this email and Kate’s mobile number is +64 21 633 504.

All in all it has been a really hectic week but it has also been great fun getting to know a little bit about Wellington and the surrounding area. We are now looking forward to having Oakley join us next week which in turn means that this weekend we have to buy a car!
Please feel free to get in touch with us and as soon as we have a landline and Internet connection at the house we will be available for webcam and Skype chats.

We hope that you are all well wherever you are and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Love and best wishes from Neil, Kate and Max
xxx

Neil Calvert
Customer Care Group Manager

Eagle Technology Group Ltd,
Level 5,
135 Victoria Street,
PO Box 1403,
Wellington 6140

Mobile: 021 274 9212
Office: 04 802 1041
Switchboard: 04 802 1400
Fax: 04 802 1410
Email: mailto:neil_calvert@eagle.co.nz

Today is a good day!

So, today we finally heard that our passports, visas and mass of other documentation submitted as part of our Residency application are in the post and should be with us tomorrow!

After the frustrations of the last 2 weeks jumping through the numerous Immigration hoops this is indeed welcome news.

It means that we will definitely be leaving on NZ38 on Tuesday 17th February at 21.05!

Hoorah!

Now the final clear down of the house can conclude hopefully with a tenant in place too - someone is coming to view tomorrow at 11.45am so we have everything crossed that they want it. That really would be the cherry on the top of the icing on the top of the most delicious and moist (favourite word) cake you can imagine.

Although I imagine it is illegal to take a photo of your visa and post it on the internet I think I may have to chance it in order to mark the moment properly...