Were off bye....!!!!

Ha Ha Ha we are nuts sometimes, or maybe its just me and my crazy impulsive nature making Stephanie do on the spure of the moment things.

WE bought flights to go and check the place out .... Nuts.....we fly with Air New Zealand.....

Departing - Mon 04 August 2009
Returning - Fri 28 August 2009

We were sitting around in the study last night and chatting about NZ and I had come across some very convincing reasons not to go to NZ online, people were making some very good points and they were coming from quality newspapers / publishers.

We have so much information swilling around inside our heads about the move and alot of this information is based on opinions of third parties, and they vary in detail and enthusiasm greatly, it confuses and annoys you as you don't know these people and cannot be sure if you would respect there view point if you knew them personally and it seems to be the case that whether or not you like NZ is down to you and you alone no-one else can compensate for what you see and feel yourself, through your own experiences...

So to make sure we don't waste up to £13,000 moving over blind (if we got the chance that is...)we have decided to spend £4000 in going over and seeing it our selves.

So its booked and we cant wait, we've planned it so that we Can save up and pay for the flights before we depart and will plan the trip to meet people we have met online from blogs and to also tour the whole island to get a refined understanding of the places and options we are foolishly trying to get a full understanding of from 12,000 miles away - (never a good option)

I could spend hours trying to defend the fact that we've just spent serious money which we could have saved, but in the long run we think its the best plan.

What it cost us -

We paid £818 per person return full cost no extras.

The taxes etc were - £587 So in total its cost us £2223.20p

Were not sure if this is supper cheap but it was the best deal at the time with a reliable Airline, flying via Hong Kong which is the cheaper option albeit 1 hour longer option.

We will be arriving in the winter but as were considering Christchurch at least I will see how good Mount Hutt is for skiing, which will be a big draw for me as Mount Hutt is only an hour and 30 minutes from the city.....bring on weekend skiing....and the summer biking....sweet....

So although we may get soaked were not bothered.

Laterz

I love life at present ha ha - shit I need some overtime....

Waiting waiting.....yawn...

Waiting and some more waiting...mind you we could be expecting to much to soon...some facts about exchange rates and money for today's date -

£1.00 = $2.72 (16/1/2009)
£1.00 = Euro 1.12 (16/1/2009)
£1.00 = US $1.49 (16/1/2009)

£130,000 Highest House value - $353,805.00

£110,000 lowest house value - $299,495.00

Now this is important stuff as it will determine if we sell or not, if it takes along time to sell that may not be the worst problem as long as we get a fair price when it does sell.

We haven't worked out what we owe on the house yet but being realistic we would probably end up with about £70,000 in our hand after all bills paid. This is $190,500 at today's rates. Meaning that we would get a small mortgage between us in NZ for approximately $100,000 split between two of us which equals £36,800 divided by two £18,000 each....over however long.

Allowing us to buy a $300,000....well that's the plan anyway which I'm sure will backfires at some point. Thing is were not looking to equal what we have here really, were going for the rustic-ness of it all, we don't want all the trimmings and flash kitchen, we want to get into growing our own food and being more at one with the imediate world around us..and so the exact quality of the house we end up in will be in relation to those ideals, it wont in my view have to be stunning or spic and span but authentic to our needs...our new needs.

That's all for now.

Qaulifications recieved.

Stepahnie sent off her qualifications to the NZQA to have them verified we were concerned this may take a while, but from the online progress option which informs you of where your details are at in the chain, she has already had them -

File opened
application materials have been allocated to someone.

Now we assume this is quick, we hope, as soon as they are completed and verified we can sent off the the EOI and Stephanie will be graded and able to apply for jobs, and if she gets one we are in for sure.

Thats all for now.

Here we are...

The first of many video blogs...



So thats us, if anyone else is considering emigrating to NZ this year and are at the same early stages as us feel free to say hello...im sure it would be of mutual benefit when things get tough later on, also if youve emigrated recently within the last year why not give us your thoughts.

Cheers....

Gary and Stephanie..

Sending off the NZQA Teacher forms.

Today Stephanie sent off all of her qualifications and certificates and evidence of employment within teaching to the NZQA based in Wellington at a cost of £15.00, it has taken her several months to get all of the documents required.

The hardest part was the waiting for references from previous employees, they have all in all been very helpful and some of the references were exceptional so we are hoping this puts us in a good position, the forms have been sent to Wellington NZ and when they have been verified and the forms accepted she will be informed online allowing her to complete the Expression of Interest on full.

We are hoping the the verification will take no more than 5 weeks but as its the new year there may be a back log of mail so who knows how long it will be. The reason and advantage of sending all the documents off early are that it shows your committed to the move and that if and when we are invited to apply, it will speed things up a great deal having it all done already.

Also when she is verified it will mean that i can apply for the professional teaching registration in NZ which means employers will take her seriously and she can begin applying for roles before hearing from the immigration service thus possibly helping the process as any job offer in your application adds 50 points to your application we already have 130 at present so it would guarantee an entry..... or so we think.

There is a separate cost for this service and the cost for us was $445 NZ, (£430)....so teachers pay more ha ha...

So now one of many waiting stages.....yawn....