Month: February 2016

After three weeks of living out of a suitcase and reminding mum what it was like to have my mess scattered all over the house it was finally time for me to head out to Auckland to join Chris.

I was really pleased that Mike was fit enough to join me and mum on our trip to the airport, it meant a lot to me.  I had been dreading saying goodbye for weeks and it was just as difficult as I had expected. I was really lucky to have Chris’ mum and dad come to the airport to see me off too, and to be honest, it made the goodbyes a little bit easier as they stayed with me for a bit after mum and Mike left. I will have to take Chris’ mum to the airport more often as she made for the easiest trip through airport security I have ever had – we were chatting for so long that I was the final person of the day to go through security and they were all waiting for me!! Thankfully there was still plenty of time before the plane was called for boarding.

After 3 flights and over 24 hours of travelling I finally made it to the other side of the world. I caught the SkyBus into town and met Chris outside his work.  We then caught another bus which took us to our beautiful house in Titirangi. There was even some Lindt chocolate waiting for me in the fridge – thanks Chris! We had a wee walk to the shop to get an ice-cream and had a chat with our neighbour, Steve, who seems really friendly. After all my travelling I was desperate to get some sleep and managed to fall asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow! Unfortunately the sleep was short-lived as Chris managed to press the ‘PANIC ALARM’ next to the bed, which looks exactly like a light switch!!

The picture below shows the sunrise, as viewed from our spare bedroom. Taking bookings now!

During my second week at work I attended a conference in Queenstown. It is an amazing place; the town sits on the edge of a lake surrounded by mountains and is very beautiful. We arrived on the Monday afternoon and I went for a run/walk up a hill with a colleague, which gave us a good view of the lake.

The conference, which ran from Tuesday to Thursday, was good and it was useful to meet lots of peope so early on. On the Wednesday and Thursday mornings a group of us went running before the talks started. I found running there much more comfortable than in Auckland. Although it still got very hot during the day, the overnight and early morning temperatures were much cooler.

After the conference finished on the Thursday we had time to go up in a gondola to get a good view of the area.

One of the things I found strange was the lack of security at the airports for domestic travel. Nobody checked my passport and there was no rush to get through security (some flights didn’t even have security).

After getting back to Auckland I had the weekend to get the house ready for us to live in (Gemma was arriving on the Monday). I had to move my stuff from the hotel I had been staying in across the city to the house using public transport, which took two journeys. The bed got delivered on the Saturday and was easy enough to put together (although there were quite a few screws left when I’d finished). I also bought folding chairs and cutlery, etc. for us to use until our container arrives.

The journey over went smoothly although it was very long and tiring. Getting through the airport and finding the hire car was easy enough and I bought a New Zealand sim card so I could use Google Maps to get to the hotel. The hotel I’m staying in for the first three weeks is fine and has everything I need. It’s very close to where I will be working too, which is handy.

On the morning of my second full day I was taken on an orientation of the city, i.e. I was driven around and shown places that might be of interest to us. It was very useful and gave us ideas about where to live and also places to visit.

Pretty much straight away I started looking for a house to rent, which involved searching online and driving around potential areas. I did quite a few house viewings in the first few days and they were very varied. Most looked nothing like the pictures online and weren’t in very good condition and some of the roads didn’t look particularly nice either.

We had seen one online before I left that looked good and it was still available so I viewed that late on Thursday afternoon. We put our application in for it (along with a couple of other families) and found out on Friday that we had been successful. Assuming signing the contracts goes OK this week we will have the keys from Saturday (6th).

I’ve managed to go out for a few runs and a couple of swims so far. There is a decent pool about 10-15 minutes drive from where we will be living. It’s a 50m pool that seems to mostly be set up as two 25m pools and it always has lane swimming, as there is a separate recreational pool. One thing I have noticed is that it is very hilly here so it is going to be good for running and cycling. I’ll be doing most of my running early in the mornings before it gets too hot.

I’m looking forward to my first day at work tomorrow now.