helinuk

We moved here to Bay of Plenty 12th October and haven't really had time to post a proper thread so here's an update.

We sold our house in UK in April and moved into a little rental house for 6 months. After putting our dog onto a flight on 5th oct. and several goodbye meals with friends and family we flew off from Heathrow 7th Oct. this was with Singapore airlines. Our favourite airline over the years and we appreciated using the business lounge (even though we were travelling economy)for probably the last time as hubby no longer uses SQ for business travel. We stopped over in Singapore to catch our breathe and stayed in the Carlton hotel, very nice and convenient to MRT and a Singapore sling at Raffles. We caught a ferry the next day to Bintan and stayed at Clubmed for 2 nights which was idylic even though the monsoon rains and thunderstorms appeared each afternoon it was still warm.
We went straight to Changi for our flight on 11th had allowed plenty of time, 3 hrs before flight, but when we arrived at the gate to board the plane an announcement was made that there was a technical fault and a new plane had to be sent so we had another 3 hrs to wait and by this time it was 2.30am. We were so glad to get on board and fly to Auck.
We collected our hire- car, a Toyota previa, (and managed to fit 6 suitcases, handluggage and 3 people in it )and stayed at a motel near to the kennels our dog had been boarding at for a week. It was fine for one night, clean, friendly, convenient and basic.
The next morning we collected the dog who was very excited to see us. The previa came into it's own when also found we could fit the made to measure kennel into the car- we put a suitcase into it and I had the dog at my feet and we drove to Tauranga. Lovely Am Loolah and 2 sproglets were awaiting us with key to the bach and food and Bolly in the fridge!(Caroline had asked the letting office side of Eves if they had a rental that would accept a dog and this came up!)It was a lovely little bach used as the owners main home, and when she travels she lets it out either through Eves or a bach website. There was a conservatory at the back to keep the dog out of the house most of the time although he was allowed into the kitchen when I was cooking. The owner has a dog and was happy to let us have our dog there.
The bach was a 5 min walk to the Mt beach so we enjoyed daily walks on near deserted beach and if we could have found a property to rent long term, or even a house to buy we would have stayed in the area.
We set out the next week to set up bank accounts that we had set up from UK , with Westpac. The girl who dealt with us was very patient and went through debit and credit card accounts, home insurance and Kiwi saver. When we went into the bank again she came out of her office to chat to us and find out how we were settling into Tauranga. The service was exceptional!
Knowing we had to return the hire car after a week we bought a 3 yr old Honda CRV at the end of the week from the honda garage in Tauranga.
We appreciated meeting the Tauranga /Papamoa folk at several "do's" Am loolah arranged and generally felt very at home!
We went house hunting and job hunting that week and then drove down to Wellington for our daughter to attend an interview at the drama school, Toi Whakaari. It was an amazing Maori welcome, speeches, haka and hungi - tea. Then in the evening we attended the 3rd Yr students performance of a Tom Stoppard Play "Arcadia" . They were extremely good, their English accents were very credible! If any of you enjoy theatre look out for the plays the drama school put on, at $20 a ticket I'd say it's good value theatre.
Daughter then had her interview the next day and we drove back to BOP on the sunday.
The next seven days were nail biting waiting and daughter heard she'd got in on the degree course for performing arts management so we could breathe a sigh of relief she was sorted out!
Hubby handed in his CV to the language school at the Mt and was interviewed on the spot! He is teaching afternoons only at the moment which will allow him to decide if he wants to do that fulltime or look for a job in his original profession of engingeering.
We found this house after several weeks of going ouit with an agent, it's in Omokoroa.From putting offer in to "settling" was only 2 1/2 weeks. It was vacant so that helped! Our container arrived on 22 Nov. spent one day on the port, customs asked to xray it along with 2 others from the 7 NZvanlines took off the ship and the NZ VL man suggested that was OTT and we escaped the xray machine! They were very busy and asked if they could deliver to us on sat.24th so we said yes please! Perfect timing!
The NZ VAN LINE GUYS WERE AMAZINGLY HARD WORKERS! Yes I put that in capitals because after all the negative stuff I'd read from this forum I was expecting the worst. We had 7 guys unloading the van into the correct rooms and then after a short break unpacked whatever we asked them to do. They stayed 4 hrs. They took away the packing and have said that when we finish unpacking our boxes they will return to collect the rest. Thanks to Mike Britten of Vanlines!
We had several breakages of glass, top to TV cabinet and shelf of dresser, and a scratch on the front top of our rosewood dresser. We can't find the nuts and bolts of daughters bed?! But apart from that all is good.
We wake up each day to the amazing views of Omokoroa inner harbour and the Kaimai ranges and watch the sunset over the Kaimais at night.

We have IHUG telephone , free calls to nz, with free broadband for a yr but with a limited download for $60 ish a month.
Our neighbours have been round to say hello and one came with pikelets for our tea, the other called me over last week and gave me avocadoes from her garden!
Briefly- we have so far had cockroaches, spiders (similar to daddy log legs)and flies in both the bach and the house.- I'm not complaining. The weather has been warmer than we had expected and the locals say it's been the hottest November on record. We've had rain and spectacular storms too but it's still warm.
We registered with a Dr and library yesterday and posted our xmas cards from the suburb down the road called - (I kid you not )- "Bethlehem". If you ask at the post office they stamp the cards with a special Bethlehem stamp.

Food is costing us a similar amount to UK, petrol is cheaper, our dog had to be registered in the Mt - Tauranga council area and again yesterday here for Western bay of plenty - they transferred the payment so we didn't pay twice, ($65 through to next June)
I'd better get off here and do some more unpacking before hubby gets back from Tauranga! ... oh bother he's just come in and caught me online ! ah bless him he's bought me a dustpan and brush and added a bar of chocolate to it because I was feeling unwell this morning- (just a virus thing)

Hope that's been of interest to anyone about to move here.
Helen

kwprwn

Busy busy bee

sounds like all is going to plan

SarahB

Hi Helen, gosh that was a good long read! I hope you are feeling a bit better now!

You seem to be liking it here so far.... thats good.

Not much news from here..... we havnt done anything or been anywhere for ages now as Hayley had one winter virus/infection after another. She has been well now for a week.... thats just about a record! lol My parents arrive on 8th January so looking forward to that. Thomas is now 4 and driving me nuts.... he gets out of his bed during the night then hes tired the next day and boy hes a grotbag. Hes at Kindy right now and starts morning kindy which is 5 mornings a week at the end of next month.... I cant wait! lol Hayley can stand now and just starting to walk... now the fun starts! Vince is still enjoying being a Fire Fighter.

Im just going through a bit of a homesickness phase.... I think it must just be the time of year. I'm sure it will pass.

Hopefully see you again one day.... you're more than welcome to come and see us if you're ever up this way.

Keep in touch,

Sarah x

helinuk

Hi Dawn hope you are ok I haven't been on expats much these 2 months hope you are ok?

Hi Sarah,
lovely to hear what is going on in your family. Ah bless - Hayley standing- she'll be into everything now
We might be up your way before xmas, one of my kiwi friends living in Singapore is over here visiting her mum in Bucklands beach-Howick area so I might come and visit her. I'll PM you if we do come by.
Hxx

kwprwn

All is well with us...currently planning to move to Fremantle as hubby has a job there now...thes men cant stay still for 5 mins Currently looking at feb for him and then maybe later that month subject to visa (nice visa people)

karonious

Helen - that sounds idyllic. So pleased for you. So glad we were able to meet finally before I left for Wellington.
Best wishes that it continues in the same vein
Karen X

helinuk

Fremantle- as in Perth OZ? lucky you it's lovely there. We had a holiday there once - Rott nest is an interesting place to visit but take your fly spray - we went in December and we were covered in flies !

helinuk

thanks Karen great to meet you too. Hope all is well down there in Welly.

kwprwn

Yes as in OZ....flies :eek ah well have to deal with that

Currently feel like a headless chook...as they say here

I havent been there so it will be all new to me, hubby was there for interview last month and said it was lovely and my sister said that too

P2L

Hi stranger

So glad to here that you have all found your feet so quickly and are enjoying life in the BOP!!

We are all doing really well here; the girls are looking forward to the end of term and the DS is still full of questions usually starting with 'why'!!!!!

If ever you're down on the 'main island' then give us a look up, it woulkd be great to see you again
Sarah xx

helinuk

Hi Sarah
good to hear you are all fine. I'd love to come down to north of SI at some point so would love to see you all again.
H xx

Am Loolah

Hi Helen, glad things are all falling in to place for you. Keep meaning to call/text but am bit busy with pre-Christmas rush with work and mum just arrived.

Will meet up soon for a coffee. Bout time for a meet-up maybe down the Mount?

helinuk

Sounds good to me
If I can get over this virus thingy I'll organise a BBQ house warming over xmas - you must bring your mum over this way too .

11ThousandMilesFromHome

Lovely to hear your story...if you've got any more i for one would love to read it

helinuk

Hi Mandie
how's it going? What are you up to?