New House! Bad Bloggers!

Well, it's been a while and we have no other excuse other than the fact we have been trying to get our heads around the NZ house buying system and managed to buy ourselves a house in the process!

Here's a picture of the front....
...it's pretty cool how there are enough trees that you can't see much of it from the road. The lounge (at the front of the house) has floor to ceiling windows so it will lovely, light and airy!

We are so chuffed with it. It has 3 bedrooms, a garage and fairly big front and back gardens. It's already fully fenced (which means no worries before I can get a dog!) and at the end of a cul-de-sac so should be fairly quiet.

So we move in on the Thursday before Easter (13th of April) and will get some more photos up once we are in.

Now we have the momentous task of furnishing the place - eeeek! This is where we start to wonder how good an idea it was to sell all our furniture when we sold up in Glasgow! Oh well, it's too bad, we did and now we have to shop for everything. We already got some couches and bedroom furniture on order and have spent some time this weekend pricing fridge/freezers, washing machines and tumble dryers. Another bonus of the house is the stove and hob are fitted and it also comes with a dishwasher!

Wow, no more dishes! How many times do you think I will end up washing up before I remember we have one? !

So now we have to get the belongings we do have here in NZ packed up. And hire ourselves a van to shift the 2 bookcases and beanbag we own!

Post No. 98 - No getting rid of us!

We went along to the local immigration office on Monday to pay our migrant levy and are now the proud holders of new stickers in our passports.
These stickers prove we are allowed to reside in New Zealand indefinetly. Pretty cool!

It's been a strange week. We feel a certain amount of pressure is gone now because we don't have to cram in everything we wanted to see before June! But a whole lot of other pressure has increased....like the need to get a mortgage, find a decent house, get permanent work. Although, as a wise man has said to me (unfortunately he did not bear the gift of gold!), we have all the time in the world now, there is no need to rush, we should enjoy getting there!

We have a few social things lined up. We were out with the people I am currently working with (and that Graeme got his job through) on Friday for a drink. And yesterday, we met up with some people I previosuly worked with for a BBQ which was fun! Coming up this week, we are going Bowling with Graeme's work and next week we have a Housewarming/Engagement party to go to.

It's amazing how cool everyone is being. We have had lots of responses to the email we sent out saying we got residency and everyone that we have told here so far has congratulated us.

We are able to leave New Zealand now we are resident, for holidays etc, which we wern't sure we were able to. But at this point in time, we have no plans to venture further then Oz as there is still so much we want to see here!

Permanent Residents of New Zealand!

So we submitted the final stage of our application for residency on Tuesday 24th January and were told we should have a decision within 2 months.

You can imagine our surprise when a letter arrived yesterday (not even 3 weeks after the forms were put into the office) saying we had been approved!!!!

We are so excited! We still have to go along and pay the 'migrant levy' and get a new stamp in our passports but once that is done, it is all official, we will be Permanent Residents of New Zealand!

Wow!

It is definetly a strange feeling....its so great to have an answer but we have realised how much stuff we have to do now!

There has been so many things where we have said 'We will do that IF we get residency'. Now we do have it and we have to arrange a mortgage, get money over from the UK, get our stuff from dads loft, buy a house, get our NZ drivers licenses....phew! We will be very busy I think!

So I hope you are all looking forward to a holiday in New Zealand because we are planning to be here for a while and it would be so great having you all over for a holiday! We will let you know when we get a house and most importantly, a BBQ so that you can come over to see us!

Kate and Graeme's new house perhaps?

Post No. 97 - Galloping towards post 100...

..okay, maybe not so much galloping and more of a stroll at a slow pace being nosy at everything as I walk past!

Tirau, famous for corrugated iron

So it's Friday evening and we have cracked open a bottle of wine to celebrate (as if we need a reason!) another public holiday here in NZ. Meaning another 3 day weekend - only 2 weeks after the last one - woo-hoo! Monday is Waitangi Day which celebrates the day that the Treaty of Waitangi was signed founding New Zealand. Sometimes also known as "New Zealand Day" which is an easier mouthful for us 'poms' that haven't gotten used to the lingo yet!

The nights are starting to draw in and while February is supposed to be quite warm and summery, the temperatures are more bearable now then they were last weekend (it was too hot!).

We don't have anything particularly special planned for the weekend, just some relaxing and enjoying being here!

Please note: I did write this post on Friday night and intended to post it then but had a slight glitch with Blogger and only able to post now

Post No. 96 - I forgot to mention....

...whoops, fairly big thing and yet I forgot to mention it yesterday

....our application for residency was submitted on Tuesday.

It is now in the hands of immigration.

Only they can decide if a Glaswegian and an Essex girl are worthy of residency.

Keep thinking good thoughts for us!

Manawatu Gorge

And we will keep showering you with tales of life in New Zealand and interesting (okay thats a matter of opinion!) photos!

Post No. 95 - Goodbye guest, Hello old friend

Isn't life funny?

Now don't all run off scared at the thought I am about to get philiosophical..it won't last long, I promise!



We said goodbye to our guest today, he's heading back to the UK - at the ready with a jumper, fleece and closed in shoes (and socks!). He hardly felt like a guest anymore because he had intergrated into our lives and routines in the two months here and it worked (which was a little surprising). But home he had to go.
So now we are back to two. Strange!

So we left the airport having watched the tiny little plane (think it seated 24) take off and went to the shopping mall in town for some bits.
We were sat in the food court enjoying an early dinner when G started to stare very intently at the point beyond my shoulder and then started calling someones name.
I was a little surprised because we don't know all that many people just yet!

It turned out to be someone he knew from Glasgow who had come to NZ before us.
How strange, when this person hadn't been headed to Palmy when he left and we just so happened to spot him on a day when we had returned to living just with the kiwis and no-one from the 'home land'!

I'm sure you all think I am slightly mad but it made me think!
You can live on the other side of the world to where you grew up and lived yet still see someone from 'home' walking through the mall (sorry, should that be shopping centre!)

So there you have it. My reason for thinking life is strange....also it was 30 degrees at 3pm this afternoon and now we have a torrential storm...more strangeness!

Post No. 94 - Action Weekend!

Sorry its been a while since the last post. Its been a little busy round here.

'Stormy Point Lookout' - you can see why it is so named!

We survived the medical tests and got all our immigration stuff together. We were planning to take it to the Immigration office last week but there has been a slight delay and we are hoping to submit this week instead. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Today is a public holiday in Palmy - it's Wellington anniversary so myself and Graeme got the day off. Its been lovely to have a long weekend, especially as our guest leaves this Wednesday. We have spent some quality time with him before he leaves. I can't believe its been 2 months - where did that 2 months go?

The weather has been pretty great this weekend - it was almost up to 30 today - hot, hot, hot! Yesterday we headed an hour North of Palmy to Mangaweka where we went White Water Rafting! I had never done it before and it was so much fun! Only a Grade 2 but a great place to start. Unfortunately there are no pictures of us on raft but here is a picture of the Rangitikei River where we were rafting:


And today we went to the Manawatu Gorge and did about an hours walking into the track (plus the hour back to the car). It was absolutely spectacular and very steep a lot of the way.



So there you have it - what we have been up to this weekend. Nothing quite as exciting planned in the near future...except submitting our application for residency of course!

Post No. 93 - Back to work tomorrow

We have enjoyed a lovely 2 week break from work, lots of relaxing and chilling out!
This week we have stayed fairly close to home. We were hoping to get across to Hawkes Bay but the weather forecast hasn't been that great - some very strong winds and rain storms.
We still managed to get out and about on a few local walks, to the shops to buy a few things in the sales and today we went to Owlcatraz which is about 30 minutes from Palmy.

We were expecting to see lots of owls due to the name and were quite disappointed as we only saw about 5 (and there were only 2 different types). They did have some fabulous names though such as Owlvis Presely and Owl McPherson!

Deer

The whole park kept us amused for a couple of hours. We were taken on a tour where we saw some wekas, some ducks, some large cattle, an alpaca, some deer, the owls (of course) and we also did the glow-worm caves (scary! pitch black and you have to be quiet!)

Alpaca (looks like a llama to me!)

And so, its a quiet evening and then back to work tomorrow. Going to be tough getting back into the routine - up early and out the door by 7.45, home at 5.30ish. Will be very tired by the end of the week methinks!

Also, the big thing this week is that our medicals for immigration are booked - eeeeeeek! Those of you who know how well I do with needles and blood will realise that I am already in a high state of panic and will probably faint come Wednesday when they try and prick me with the darn thing! I will try my hardest to be brave and will update you after the deed!

Oh and on a final note, Elvis - if you are out there - Happy Birthday!