chauxfleur

... ago I landed in Christchurch. Didn't know a soul, had heard really mixed things about the place on here and was more than a little dubious about how it was going to work out, as well as all the topsy turvy heartache of leaving friends and family behind.

Well it turns out that it is working better than I could ever have expected. I love ChCh, even though it's a bit broken and bruised.

Yes, the site of road cones makes me want to kill people, and having to find daily new routes through and around the city as the gates and hoardings change constantly is a challenge but right now I'm sat in my office in the middle of the Red Zone looking forward to getting on with the actual rebuild - seems like the last 12 months have been spent mainly propping things up and then knocking them down again! The ground (touch wood) has calmed down and the endless aftershocks of last January feel like a thing of the past.

You may as well get your sick buckets ready - this is one of those sickly sweet fairy stories that you never think will happen to you

I landed on the morning of Friday 4th November and was invited out for drinks with work that night, so jet lagged and confused I ended up in the Carlton Bar (truck) and met a lovely man who is now well on the way to being Mr. Chauxfleur (and no, it wasn't like that, you smutty minded buggers).

Our household now consists of us, an earthquake kitten called Humphrey (he came to live with me on 23rd December last year...) and a 9 month old labrador cross puppy who is the best thing that has happened since moving here. We're hoping to move further out of the city soon either up towards Bottle Lake Forest or completely the opposite direction near to Lincoln so that we can add to the family with another dog.

I was hell bent on learning to surf - I managed to stand up once, and that was quite enough for me... and one more time than I managed on a snow board at Mt Hutt over winter!

We've had a bit of an explore; went to Wellington for Easter last year - without understanding the Easter licensing laws, so not quite the boozy weekend with friends we thought it would be; Queenstown for the weekend; and all the usual tourist trap travels to Tekapo, Akaroa, Hamner, Picton, Blenheim and so on. Everytime we think that we've seen everything that this fantastic country has to offer, something else pops up to blow our socks off, and Mount Hutt is winter is the most breath taking place.

The only cloud in our otherwise disney-esque sunny sky was that work was a bit rubbish for both of us, so early last year we both changed jobs, and both of us for the better.

I was really worried about making new friends as a lot of people on the forum talked about how "clique-y" kiwi's could be. I haven't found that at all, made heaps of new friends. Lots of expats at first, then changed jobs to work at a local company and now work with mainly New Zealanders and it's great, friendly and sociable bunch.

Christmas was a bit tough as it was the first one without any family or friends visiting, but Skype made life a lot easier and we had a great time exploring the South Island a little bit more.

It's hard to imagine how things could have gone much better, it's tough to leave home but Christchurch has been such a postive and happy move for me that I can't have any regrets.

I don't know whether this will be where I live forever, leaving the UK certainly opened my eyes to the possibilities of other places. A stint in the Middle East to save up some money; a stint in Canada to get Oil and Gas work onto the CV; maybe Aussie because it seems daft not to when we're so close... Maybe one day even back to good old Blighty. Our options seem pretty wide and varied, but for now we're going nowhere.

x

Sue

What a wonderful update, so glad things are going so well and congrats on the new man.

Thanks so much for sharing, it really is a great way for those yet to make the move to read peoples experiencing and see how they settle in.

Happy New Year to you and I hope that 2013 is as good to you as 2012 was

Snap Shot

A good story coming out of Christchurch...good. Hope future updates are as positive.

Synky

That certainly makes me feel positive about possibly moving to ChCh.

TommyLuck

Excellent stuff.

Here's to the next 1 year, 2 months, 4 days and 30 minutes ...