Back in the day...

So way back when - I'm not even sure when - Sue and I started mooting the idea about going abroad to live. Do you remember all those shows about making the leap? 'No going back' was our favourite on Ch4, that is were the seed was firmly planted and we kicked the idea about after that for a year or so.

Then one day as Sue was doing a spot of surfing she found the teach nz website and after further navigation discovered that NZ had a shortage of English teachers. For those that dont know Sue is a fully qualified English secondary school teacher. Then we started geting excited.

We had thought about locations and never really agreed to somewere - France and spain appealed but the language barrier was an issue for us. We would not want to live in a massive ex pat community, rather get into the culture and the people but felt we would struggle to learn a language in time. We had all travelled to the states and decided, great place to visit maybe not to live, and the Australian proposition was just not doing it for us - but that is not completly discounted as of yet. Anyway back on track - NZ it was to be. So we started looking and both started falling in love with the country and the idea.

Then when we started looking further it felt like we had a marathon to run. EOI, PR, NZQA, points, visas, locations, jobs, career breaks, schools, flights, containers, banks, insurance. To be honest we were totally flumoxed. We floundered along trying to fill in the EOI as we thought that was what we had to do after attending a fair at Sandown race course and speaking to a someone from NZ imigration.

It was not until we went to a presentation by education personel at a hotel in West Brom that everything beame absolutey crystal clear. We did not realise that we had to do the NZQA first and we did not necessarily have to apply for PR or even submit an EOI.

More soon people...

PR = Permanent residency
NZQA = New Zealand Qualifications Authority
EOI = Expression Of Interest

October 2006

Well it really is the last 200 metres to go now - just over 3 weeks and we are of. Really hiting home now and a healthy dose of nerves is certainly setting in.

Sue and I were in the pub the other night and we agreed that what we have done is monumental but because we have been planning the move for so long it seems second nature. It's relentless though, literally every time you decide to do something what seems like a mamoth task presents it self. Transfering money was the latest thing - seem to have negotiated that mine field now but with its fair share of heart ache. Will post up a more detailed account of money maters later.

We both felt that near the end would be a good place to start with this blog - so over the next three weeks we are going to give a potted account of how we arrived were we are now and then once were over there - then it's all NZ baby.

I just want to say now that the good people over at www.emigratenz.org/forum/index have been amazing and if anyone reading this is thinking about doing the NZ thing then read it, search the forums and you will find what your looking for. If you dont ask and you will get help.

Thanks

Dan