Monday – a relaxed Bank
Holiday. I went as far as the local
retail centre to purchase some gym kit in the sale and we went online to get a
taste for how much work we need to put in to Simon’s visa application. There are a few pieces of paperwork we will
need his parents’ assistance with from the UK, but we completed the process as far
as we could for the moment.
It was a lovely sunny day, so we
took a drive to Clark’s beach for an afternoon trip out.
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| Giant 'baby' gull! |
I caught up
with some blogging, realising that I will have to be careful how much I can
post while we still don’t know if we’ve been accepted by New Zealand or not!
The reason that we are being very careful with who we share our news is mainly
down to our jobs in the UK and the fact that we are ‘friends’ on social media
with so many colleagues and Managers. If
word got out that we were intending to stay away before we have a chance to
hand our notice in, it would look very bad. Plus, if this all falls through for
one reason or another, we would try to avoid the embarrassment of everyone
knowing and be able to head home with our jobs still intact!
Tuesday – I ventured to my first
spinning class in a while. I could just
about walk properly again. It felt good,
I’ve always enjoyed spin classes, but here it costs $5 extra per class on top
of your membership. They didn’t make that clear when I signed up….!
An important part of the Visa
process – we registered at a local doctors’ surgery that is accredited to carry
out immigration medicals. We paid $400
(about £200) each up front for the pleasure of a full immigration visa medical
which we are booked in for tomorrow and Friday.
It turns out that Si’s car is
not going to be ready tomorrow after all, so we’ve had to extend our rental car
hire from the airport for another 24-hours.
This gives us more time to investigate insurance. Buying car insurance must be one of the most
mundane and confusing things you have to do in life. Especially as here
there are no ‘Go compare’ type websites like in the UK, so you must go through
the process of inputting the data about your vehicle time and time again. We also don’t know which are the best, most
reliable companies in NZ and which are the ones to avoid. After several hours of searching and
comparing I had a headache but I think we’re nearly there….
Si made one of his cracking lasagnas for dinner to cheer us both up.
We are doing a lot of boring visa-type and life admin at the moment
instead of the fun stuff we have been used to over the last year and a
half. But, we’ve gotta save those
pennies!
Wednesday – Immigration medicals. The staff at the doctors were very welcoming
and friendly, so the fact that we were there for at least a couple of hours
undergoing tests, blood donation and chest x-rays was not such a chore. We had both been quite nervous as this was
quite a hurdle to overcome. Ignorance is bliss as they say. We worried that a
previously undiagnosed condition may be picked up for either one of us to put a
halt to our plans. But, after today’s prodding and poking, we know that neither
of us has tuberculosis, as our chest X-rays were clear. So now we just have to
wait to see the doc on Friday for our final results.
Back at the cottage I started looking
up volunteering opportunities online and got very excited. There is so much to
do in this country and especially around Auckland. I had been concerned that most
projects would be found on the South Island, far away from where we need to
base ourselves for Simon’s employment, but no. It looks like I will have to
make careful decisions because there are so many worthwhile conservation and
animal welfare projects to choose from. To clarify, Simon would like me to just
focus on volunteering whilst he brings in the dough, which, of course, I’m only
too happy with! But, I am also aware that we will not know what the cost of
living will be until we are well and truly settled in and I am fully expecting
to take on some part-time work, especially if we want to benefit from all of
the expensive things we’d like to do here, like diving for example. So, time will
tell how we cope financially.
Thursday – We went to collect
Simon’s car only to discover that it was still not ready. However, they have given us a temporary VW
loan car to get by with, meaning that we were able to return our hire car to
the airport as planned.
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| An ivy-covered statue by the entrance of the SPCA |
While we were out and about we visited
the SPCA which has its main NZ HQ near the airport. Luckily, our current living arrangements
meant that there could be no danger of leaving with any additions to our furry
family! We looked around the dog and cat
kennels and even had a chance meeting with an Inspector. Of course, we got into discussion about his
job and the differences between the role here and what I used to do in the UK
(many years ago). It seems that here the
Inspectors have quite a few powers, like entry and seizure of animals in
situations where they are suffering.
Awesome, that was always tricky to deal with in the UK! He even mentioned that they may be looking to
recruit soon and gave me his card.
On
the one hand I am tempted back into something with a sense of familiarity and
doing something that makes a difference. But. On the other hand, I know that I
left the RSPCA for a variety of reasons and I’m not sure if going back to
something I have already done would be wise in the circumstances.
Luckily, none of this matters for now as I can’t work until I’ve got a Visa so
there’s plenty of time to chew things over.
We went into the volunteer co-ordinators’ office and discussed a few of
the voluntary roles available. My previous experience could make me an asset
but, again, I may try something completely new first and test the waters before
signing up for the SPCA.
We went for a drive around some
of the local green spaces - Ambury regional park and Kiwi esplanade:
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| A huge flock of oyster-catchers by the waterfront on Kiwi esplanade |
I made it back to a pump class
at the gym. I must keep it up at least
once a week now or I’ll be back to square one, namely unable to walk after a
class!
Friday – we returned to the
surgery to finalise our medicals with a ‘comedy’ doctor. By that I mean that he
had certificates on the wall commending his achievements as a stand-up
comedian, of course! He didn’t seem to
want to talk about it though. We both got seen together to be told that we are
both ‘normal’, which was news to us, but a huge relief. Next hurdle overcome.
The process is entirely electronic here, so the surgery has sent our results
online to immigration and they get matched up to our applications when they
arrive.
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| Auckland Skytower against a bright blue sky as we detoured through the City |
Relieved, off we went to collect
our cars. Simon’s first. It was looking the part, very shiny and very fast and
powerful! However, on the way to collect my car we noticed a vibration in the
ride at 90kph, so that will need sorting!
When we arrived to collect mine,
we found that they have put on four new tyres, done the bodywork, changed the cam
belt and spruced up the alloys as agreed, and we will be sent a new vent
through the post when it arrives! I’m happy, some of that was completely
unexpected. It wasn’t as clean inside as we’d both hoped but that can be
resolved.
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| My shiny new wheels parked outside our new gaff |
It was time to drive home…. in Friday
rush hour traffic. But I didn’t really mind, the queues gave me the chance to
program all the radio stations onto the stereo in my new car. We now both have wheels and clear medicals,
it was time to celebrate! Also, we now have our TV installed and I get
half-price Netflix with my mobile phone network, so we treated ourselves to
that to really make the place feel like home!
Steve popped into the house for
a few beers and a chat in the evening which we hope will become a regular Friday night
social.
Saturday – On Steve’s
recommendation we got up and headed to Whangamata beach, an hour and a half
away. Even better than that, the drive
to get there involves brilliant windy mountain roads that Simon really enjoyed in
his new wheels (while I clung on to the FMH for dear life!). Now, like me, you
may have read that place name as ‘Wonga-matter’, so let me put you straight
when I explain that the correct pronunciation is ‘Fonger-mattaaaaa’. This is
because ‘wh’ in Maori is spoken as a soft ‘f’ and ‘a’s are spoken as ‘aaah’
rather than ‘ay’. We have a lot to
learn.
We arrived about noon to the
beautiful beach where we had a wander along the sand. There was so much space despite it being a
glorious warm day. Most people were
there to make the most of the surf. We also strolled into the town to
browse in some of the surfy shops and have a bite of lunch. We went back to the beach to relax for another
hour or so but I’m ashamed to say that neither of us went for a swim. I intended to, but the sun kept going in and
I knew that I’d feel cold as soon as I got out to dry and anyway, I was really
enjoying watching the surfers/stand-up paddlers!  |
| And this is Autumn, right?! |
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| The meeting of the sea and the mouth of the river |
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| This dog was having a great time running in and out of the surf - look at the smile on his face |
We left at 4pm to drive back, via the shops
to collect some beer and dessert for a meal at the neighbours tonight.
We took the short walk over at
7pm where we enjoyed some beers and got chatting. The Hurrells had put a beef fillet on the BBQ.
It was delicious, and was accompanied by stacks of rice, salad, potatoes and other
trimmings. We were spoilt! The conversation continued but we also broke
out a pack of cards so that we could teach them how to play shithead. We ended up staying until about 1130pm and
drinking far too much wine. A lovely
evening.
Sunday – we’d intended to be get
up early to force our body clocks into NZ timing, but after last night’s
socialising we slept in until 9ish before only moving as far as the couch to
have a Netflix box set marathon of Peaky Blinders. What Sundays were made for
I’m sure.
Neither of us went out, we did
what we needed to around the house to prepare for having a guest this week. To repay just some of the hospitality and
generosity we enjoyed at the Edwards earlier this year, we are putting up Nick
this week as he is flying over to do some training at Continuous, Simon’s
future employer. Simon is collecting him
bright and early from the airport and going in with him to be introduced to
some of his colleagues and have some orientation training. Si can’t get paid at the moment, but it means
that he will hit the ground running when he finally can commence working,
rather than having to start whilst being completely clueless!
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