M_and_M

I only started the whole process with a little look in November.

I am currently impatiently waiting for NZQA (having paid the acceleration fee) have most of the full visa filled in (ITA received on 7 Jan!) have a temp visa filled and ready to go, house up for sale, and employers brought start date forward by 6 months!

Am in mass panic, handing in notice at work on Monday (notice has to be in before I will be awarded the temporary visa - leap of faith or what!) parents are blaming me for everything and anything as they struggle to come to terms with the whole thing.

Worst part? I will have to leave hubby in the UK till the house sells!

Freaking out right now! It's all going just a bit too fast!

scottishstacey

exciting! where are you heading to?

M_and_M

Southland- Invercargill

scottishstacey

nice! all the best of luck

Synky

Fingers crossed for smooth sailing through the process!

You say DH is going to stay until the house sells - we talked to estate agents and they were happy to show the house etc with us in another country and would have a friend stop in regularly. It was something we worried about.

MrsFychan

we had a nightmare with the house sale with us both being over here, we had family members going in regularly but they can't put their lives on hold and whilst they were away for a week we had the buyers surveyor turn up to discover a leak from the downstairs toilet, luckily it wasn't a cause to lose the sale but a very tearful couple of weeks before we got the go ahead to exchange.
also if you leave the property without anyone staying over night you have to change the insurance to vacant property. Something we wasn't aware off so no insurance to cover cost of repairing damage caused by leak. luckily family member is a builder and did it for cost for us.

If we did it again I would stay until the house was sold as the time difference also makes things take a bit longer

Pom_Chch

Every time you feel nervous just google pictures of New Zealand, it made me feel better looking at what was waiting for me on the other side!

Best of luck and don't worry too much, it'll all be worth it in the end

M_and_M

Pom, I like that!

Re hubby he can't come anyway, even if we did leave house empty because first, the visa isn't complete, the house contents move isn't sorted and we need the money from the house sale to pay for it all. Till then it will be with help from my flexible friend!

Synky

It is something to think about but not sure I could go to NZ without hub and the kids. Thanks for to insurance tip.

chippy64

That was what happened to me - unfortunately, it took 14 months . But, I've been here a year and it has meant that my OH had sorted house etc in ChCh, so I was able to walk into my new life on arrival. Not gonna lie though - it was bloody hard. Here's hoping you have a speedy sale

M_and_M

Gosh - 14 months!?! I do hope it doesn't take that long for my hubby!

I am anticipating it being very tough. When I realised I had to take the post up 6 months sooner than i expected that was a real shock. Am expecting it to be very hard, on the other side of the world on my own.

I am lucky in that it turns out someone we know's parents live in Invercargill and have offered to put me up initially so I will not be totally isolated, which will be nice.

I think my first stop will be a phone shop to get an iPad and phone so I can communicate with him back in the UK!

MrsFychan

for us it took just 2 weeks to sell the property from the day we decided to up and make the move. Unfortunately as with the UK things can go askew and despite buyer stating they could move within 2 mths, 3mths later and on day of exchange they called the estate agent and said they could not afford the house. . Great just before Christmas.
We had booked all the movers and had a rental agreement over in NZ so we had no choice but go.

Myself and the kids still did not have visas so we came over on visitors with a return flights booked for 6mths later. Lucky for us another buyer was found within 3 weeks, but as you may have read that wasn't a smooth running process either. so in all house went on market at the end of Sept 2011 and was finally not ours at the end of March 2012.

I believe there are members on here living in Invercargill, maybe give them a shout out and they can make transition and time without OH easier for you

M_and_M

That's the trouble with house sales, there is so much that is out of your control, and there's nothing you can do about it, not helped by the current house sales climate, which is not so good to say the least.

The estate agent knows the position we are in so hopefully he will make an effort.

It was clear to me that I needed to try and make this happen because jobs do not come easily, specially when I am still in the UK without a visa (yet!)

I will seek out Invercargill members for sure, once I arrive. Thanks for that. I assume that thread would be put in the 'anything else' section?

MrsFychan

Put it in the The Kakapo Friendship and Social Club.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=191

We found making contact with people in NZ and the area we were going to before we left the UK made things so much easier. Some great friendly people out there

TommyLuck

Reading things like this ...

... always makes me sad

Good luck with everything, it's all go.

FWIW - I decided I was moving to NZ with my OH and toddler in about April last year. Due to a couple of factors we're not arriving in NZ until July and ever since last July I go through peaks of pure excitement, then troughs of sheer panic wondering what happens IF it doesn't work out ...

I think it's natural. Not easy leaving the OH behind, but needs must. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, etc ...