cherry

OhMy God ,we have been accepted for immigration and have booked tickets to Wellington leaving on the 24th of Oct.Just the pasports to arrive back and they are taking approx 2 weeks to process.I am still in shock and so happy but sad to leave all my friends,I have a job to go to at Petone but nowhere to stay or live yet.I will need a car and a bank account ,lots to do and now only 5 weeks to do it in.The container is booked and will follow us there .Any tips /advice welcome from you experienced expats out there.

Liz & Co

Congratulations - are you drunk yet?

My advise would be to try and achieve one thing each day - no matter how small - it all adds up!

5 weeks will go very quickly, don't put too much off until tomorrow.

Winnie

Congratulations! I can remember the feelings well, panic, excitement, elation and sad at leaving your friends. There's only one tip I can think of, rent when you first arrive so that you can look around and decide where you want to live before buying. You'll love it in Welly, and Petone is a beautiful place. Good luck..............and welcome.

poppets

well done, welcome to welly

cottageinthesky

Congratulations - Petone will be a great place to start your new life in Wellington - great cafes, great vista of Wellington harbour and.... a job as well!! Look forward to your arrival.

cherry

Thank you all and as a bonus the passports arrived special mail today ,just 5 days after being told we were accepted.Its been a long 6 months since our EOI was first accepted and a lot of cost involved but hey Wellington and the Hutt Valley where we shall make our new lives awaits and we are looking forward to buying our home .They say life begins at 40 ,well not for me it began at 56 when the day before my birthday we gat the go ahead.
The container is going to be loaded in 4 weeks and we fly out on Oct 24th

danny.f

My advice is to sod the car-fly! It's much quicker.

nickcharliepark

Hi

CONGRATULATIONS!
We have been here for 5 weeks now! Its great. We arrived with no where to live and a hire car booked. The hire car was really useful actually, we picked it up at the airport and returned it to Auckland 4 weeks later. It gave us chance to buy our own. If you do this, book before you fly and 'GO Rentals' were great. To keep costs down book a slightly older car. They are fine and two thirds the cost.

Somewhere to live was easy enough also. We drove into a motel and asked about availability. We booked a week initially and then stayed there until our rentakl became available. They did us a good rate because we stayed a couple of weeks. They are ideal because they have kitchens/ laundry facilities and useful owners that can advise you!

Bank, open an account online and then ring the branch when you get there to collect bank cards/books etc. We did this with National bank and they have been greta so far.

Hope at least some of this is useful, having just been through it I am excited for you. This is our first time on the forum from our own computer - our container arrived last week - it was like christmas!

Good luck


Nick

karonious

#
So pleased for you!!
Hope our experience mirrors yours - just heard earlier today our medicals have passed (last sticking point), so we will be in your shoes soon!!
Hope so, meant to start work on 9th Oct, now at least 13th Oct due to hold up on Visa

cherry

[QUOTE=nickcharliepark]Hi

CONGRATULATIONS!
We have been here for 5 weeks now! Its great. We arrived with no where to live and a hire car booked. The hire car was really useful actually, we picked it up at the airport and returned it to Auckland 4 weeks later. It gave us chance to buy our own. If you do this, book before you fly and 'GO Rentals' were great. To keep costs down book a slightly older car. They are fine and two thirds the cost.

Somewhere to live was easy enough also. We drove into a motel and asked about availability. We booked a week initially and then stayed there until our rentakl became available. They did us a good rate because we stayed a couple of weeks. They are ideal because they have kitchens/ laundry facilities and useful owners that can advise you!


Thanks for the reply and the advice,we are looking into a bank account right now and we have the money to buy a house sooner rather than rent for too long as we sold ours 3 yrs ago ,had a villa in Florida with the proceeds and sold that last year for a nice profit so we should be able to easily afford a nice place in the Wellington area/Hutt Valley.I would love a pool again but we shall see as other things have priority.I am apprehenive and nervous about this move at my age but will do it.We have been living in a flat that went with my wifes job as a Scheme officer at a residential sheltered housing so it has been a help to our savings for our future.An adventure begins.