P18PPS

Seeing as there seem to be many people "landing" at the moment, I thought it would be fun to share some of our experiences during the first few weeks on arrival in New Zealand, and to get everyone to chip in on their "mis-haps"...

We - man, woman and 2 daughters aged 8 and 1 - literally "chucked" away our old lives in 3 skips, getting rid of anything non-essential. Friday before leaving the UK we had an empty house except for 8 suitcases, containing our entire lives - everything else had been sent in a big blue container 2 days previously. 11am Friday, still not exchanged contracts, 12pm still no news, 12.45pm phew, call from solicitor - money arrived - down to the pub quickly. Saturday evening leaving do at local rugby club. Sunday lunches and visits to all parents to say goodbyes. Monday morning tranie van down to Heathrow with half the family to see us off - oh dear, should have checked baggage weights before arriving.
Arrived having never visited the country before at 6am on a Wednesday morning - the 26 hour flight was difficult with a young baby. On arrival were some friends from Sydney who surprised us with "welcome P18PPS world tour 2005" banners. Ohhed and arred at sites to the city - amazed at amount of people jogging at 6.30am on a September morning. Arrived apartments (arranged by company), had brekkie and hit the streets of Auckland - travelled down "K" Road, via prostitutes, massage parlours - nothing seemed to matter - WE ARE HERE!!!
Found new office address, had lunch, visited bank to activate bank accounts, visited tourist info to get hire car sorted.... wife and kids headed back up "hill" whilst I picked up hire car.... ooops.
Continued in spirit of:
hire car place didn't pick me up
then hire car towed away
building work started on apartments (commenced 7am every day)
no help from uk bank to transfer money
oh no - I've got a week long training course in Oz - wife knows nobody here..
.......
then there's the wh = f rule nobody told us about;
All roads lead to Newmarket - which is impossible to get out of once you're in;
Some rental properties are like squats - but dirtier;
.......
Then there's:
finally got a place to live;
ohh we're close to the beach;
never-ending supply of weekend destinations;
ABSOLUTELY LOVING IT.....
.......
Ongoing there's:
keep working at it;
friends are hard to find, but good ones are worth the wait;
good things come to those who wait - and work bloody hard!!
......
This is about our lives thus far in godzone - we'd be interested to hear everyone else's experiences.

westies

Great to read your story, we take off in 16 days, so will add our story when we get there, hopefully no mishaps though, although unlikely to go without a hitch

livewire

Lol, laughed at the comment about Newmarket. You can see the motorway but getting to it - that's another matter

You're so right about giving it time, there's a helluva lot to adjust to. A year from now you'll probably feel like you've been here forever.