An emigration update

We've been in New Zealand just over two years now. With that two-year anniversary came the expiration of our returning resident's visas (RRVs) - the visas that allowed us to come back into the country if we left for any reason. The expiration is a standard thing; everybody who arrives on permanent residency gets two years to start off with (the residency permit itself is indefinite, but the returning visa is limited).
We didn't like being in a situation where we could find ourselves having to fly back to Ireland for some sort of emergency and then having trouble getting back into New Zealand. So, once we had accumulated some cash again following the Christmas splurge, it was time to apply for indefinite RRVs which do not have an expiration date.
Turns out this is a very easy thing to do. We each filled out a form, added our credit card details (the current charge is $140), and handed it to the immigration office in Christchurch along with our passports. Less than a week later the passports were couriered back to us with indefinite RRVs stuck inside them. We easily met the residency requirement - at least 184 days in New Zealand in each of the previous two years - so it was really just a formality. Now we can leave for a holiday or a visit home secure in the knowledge that we won't have to jump through hoops to get back to Christchurch again. That's a comforting thought.

A full year in New Zealand

Yes folks, we have now been here for a full calendar year. It has been an amazing year - saying goodbye to friends and family, travelling, new jobs, new house, making friends on this side of the world - and we have loved nearly every minute of it. (The jetboat crash we could have done without!)

It would be impossible to describe all the memorable things that happened to us over the last 12 months, but I would like to share just one photo that helps summarise it in my head.

This was taken in Bluff, at the very far south of the South Island. Look how far away from everywhere we are! But look how happy I am!
Actually I am squinting a bit as the sun was in my eyes - but trust me, I was happy. Moving here has been one of the best decisions I ever made. Our quality of life has gone up, our surroundings and lifestyle are generally better, and this country has some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen or imagined. No country is perfect, and New Zealand has its problems just like everywhere else, but Skry and I absolutely love it here.

Here's to a great year, and to many more great years in the future!

We got our stuff back!

I am happy to report that Pickford's successfully delivered the boxes from our shipping container to our new place, and we now have most of them unpacked and the place is starting to feel like home. It's so great to have cooking equipment again - I am so sick of eating junk food and takeaways! Never thought I'd say this, but I really enjoyed making my own dinner from scratch last night.

It hasn't all been good - some of our things got broken en route. Three bookcases have the back panel smashed up, my favourite lamp had all but one of its six bulbs broken, some picture glass and CD cases have been broken, and my brand-new woollen winter coat was screwed up into a ball and used as packing for a wine rack. Oh, and an unframed poster-sized photo enlargement was folded in half and used to pad my sewing machine. The packers were even more incompetent than I had realised. We'll be putting in a formal complaint and request for compensation once we've opened all the boxes and figured out just how much was broken or damaged.

While I was at work today, Skry let the cable guy into the house, and we now have cable television, a landline (but no handset yet so we can't take calls), and internet access. I am so happy to have the net at home again!

Back in the office

Today was my second day in the office. I have already realised that I don't much like being back at work! At least, not working for other people. I don't mind putting in long hours and a hard slog when it's for my own benefit, but I'd forgotten just how pointless it seems to be working for somebody else. But the long-term plan is to get back into self employment in some form or other, and right now I'm glad to be working for what seems to be a decent company and in a decent role. It sucks to be back in the old routine again, but it would suck a whole lot harder if I didn't have work, so I'm not complaining!

Skry and I move into our new rental place on Saturday morning. We already bought a new three-piece suite and a bed for it, since we don't have either of those things being shipped over, so I hope all the furniture fits in okay. It's a nice, newly decorated 3-storey 3-bedroom townhouse, so it is quite spacious, but rooms always look bigger when they're empty. Oh well, if there's no room for the dining table then I will happily eat off my lap as I recline in the fully adjustable reclining armchair with footrest thingy and lovely soft stuffing. It'll be a sacrifice, but I'll try to cope...

And in another piece of good news, our imported goods (almost the entire contents of my house, plus lots of Skry's things) passed MAF inspection, meaning that even my unwashed bicycle and wicker basket weren't deemed to be a threat to the eco-system here. We have been charged NZ$245 for the inspection, so I suppose MAF opened and went through several boxes, but my bike is worth way more than that and it was the thing I was most worried about. If all goes well now with Customs, we should have our furniture and all our personal possessions delivered to the new house on Tuesday. That'll be so great!

Back to reality in Christchurch

So here we are, travelling done (for now!) and ready to face real life. Here's what we need to do:

• get jobs
• get a mortgage
• find a house that can accommodate all our stuff
• get Pickfords to deliver everything that has been shipped over

I'm working on the job front - I had an interview with one place yesterday (a follow-up to a telephone interview I did for them a couple of weeks ago) and was offered a job as a Senior Analyst there and then, which was nice. I don't have full details of salary etc. yet, so I haven't accepted it yet and am interviewing somewhere else on Wednesday, but it's certainly nice to feel wanted.

Hopefully once we're both gainfully employed it won't be too hard to get a mortgage and house sorted out. Phil and Lou have been fantastic, letting us stay with them for so long, but I know they'd love their privacy back, and we'd love to have somewhere big enough to unpack our things too. I miss my Le Creuset saucepans! The ship with our container arrived in Lyttleton this morning, so we can get our stuff as soon as we have somewhere to put it. In the meantime, we have to pay some hefty fees for storage (about $300 for a one-off storage fee, plus $50/week after that, and GST on top of those fees too which will bump it up another bit), so there's an extra incentive to find a good house as soon as possible.

We Leave Norn Iron

Trying to type really quietly here because it is 2.40am and Skry is asleep in the bunk above me. I have been awake since just after midnight. The joys of jet lag!

We left Belfast first thing on Friday morning, for an 8.45am flight. It was so sad for me to leave my house for the last time, but at least we were on our way. My parents surprised us by driving all the way up from Co.Wexford just to spend ten minutes with us at the airport, which was really amazing of them. I was so shocked to see them spring out from behind a pillar when we came through the entrance! Of course there were tears shed, but it was worth it to see them one last time before we left.

Having said our goodbyes and left Belfast, we had a couple of hours in Heathrow before our flight, which was a good thing because Skry's details had disappeared from the ticket database! The Virgin Atlantic staff were fantastic and got us sorted out no problem, but it did take quite a while. Anyway, we still had time for a quick meal and then boarded our flight to Japan. Virgin are great to fly with - the staff are always so pleasant, and the on-board entertainment was perfect. We had our own seat-back tellys with 50 movies to choose from, plus television shows, music, games, and information. There was so much going on there that we didn't notice the time passing at all, and it felt like only a couple of hours before we were landing in Narita. Of course that was 10am local time and we hadn't really slept all night, so we were pretty groggy, but it could have been a lot worse!

Packing woes

So Pickford's, who came out months ago to assess our possessions and arrived yesterday to pack and remove them, have decided that we gave them the wrong information about what we were moving, or something. We told them exactly what was coming with us, and they gave us an estimate and a price ages ago, but they must have measured it up wrong or something. Either way they are here for the second day now, wrecking our plans for a relaxing afternoon with friends, and I bet we'll get a huge bill as well for the "extra" stuff that was here all along.

On the plus side, the guys that are doing the packing are very thorough and it's saving us a lot of hassle to have somebody else box everything up. It would have taken us ages to do it all ourselves, and I'm hoping it's worth it to just throw money at the problem and have it solved. It's just annoying to have to spend all this extra time in the house supervising work that was only meant to take one day and is now taking two. Skry bore the brunt of it today and let me stay in town for the afternoon, which was great, but it has been a real inconvenience for both of us.

As I write, the Pickford's team is clearing away the last of the things from downstairs, so I'll have to go down now and make sure they haven't packed away our suitcases by mistake! It wouldn't do to have our passports put into long-term storage two days before our flight. Fingers crossed...

Only a week to go.

Only one more week left in Belfast! I am feeling very mixed emotions at the moment. Of course I am excited to be visiting Japan and then starting a whole new life in a different country. But it is really hard saying goodbye to people, but it's not just the people, and at least there's a chance they'll come out to visit us. But every time I'm in a place that I enjoy, like a restaurant, I think, "This is probably the last time I'll ever be in here". And I'm really sad about leaving my little house in Sydenham. I have been so happy here for the last six years, and I get quite tearful to think that I'll never be back in it again after next Friday. I fell in love with this house when I saw it on the internet, before I even visited it in person, and as soon as I stepped through the door I knew that it was the house for me. It has been my cosy little home for so long, and I'm really going to miss it.

Of course it is very stressful at the moment trying to get all our things ready for packing, and there is still quite a bit to do there, so that isn't helping me feel any cheerier either. It's all the annoying stuff like clearing out the storage area under the stairs, and sorting out what is to be left in the house after Pickford's have been and gone on Tuesday, that has to be tackled still. I'm not even sure how to approach that, because we don't have a single empty room or area where we can put things aside, but it'll have to be done somehow.

I guess this post is mostly about the downside to exciting life changes. Sadness, stress, and deadlines. So, you see, it's not all good!

Our flights are now booked.

This is really happening. The flights have been booked, and we leave the Emerald Isle on Friday November 30th. That is less than four weeks away!

We are flying to Tokyo first, to spend a few nights there. I already have us booked into a hostel, and there is an acquaintance of mine living there at the moment who will hopefully be able to meet up with us and show us around a bit. We arrive in Tokyo on December 1st and leave again on December 4th. By the 5th we should be in Christchurch.

I can't believe it's only four weeks!!!!

I got my passport back!

Thank you NZIS for being so speedy with the processing. I got my passport back today, with my visa in it, and Skry's went in the post today and should arrive tomorrow. We are good to go!!

With that in mind, I have spent most of today shopping for flights. It looks very likely that we will fly out to Tokyo on November 30th, spend three nights there, and fly to Christchurch on December 4th. I wasn't terribly excited by the thought of visiting Japan until I realised that I have an acquaintance over there, and she has been giving me all sorts of advice. She will also be able to meet up with us there if we keep to these dates, so that would be fantastic! I am quite excited about it now, and am just waiting to see if we can get a better deal on the flights before I go ahead and book them.

Oh, and we had an absolutely fantastic anniversary dinner at Beatrice Kennedy's last night. The service was wonderful as always, the food was delicious, the staff encouraged us to take as long as we wanted over our meal, and we got a window seat view of the Hallowe'en proceedings. It was perfect. I hope all our anniversaries are that good!

Things are getting better.

Good things that are happening today:

It's our first wedding anniversary: one whole year of being a respectable married couple. Well, a married couple, anyway! We are heading out to Beatrice Kennedy's tonight - it's the same restaurant where we had our post-wedding feast this day last year, and I expect it'll be just as good tonight.

I got an email from my immigration officer, letting me know that my final payment is being processed, so it should only be a short while before I get my passport back.

We finally took delivery of the kitchen unit doors and worktop, which were meant to be here over a month ago.

The estate agent came out to value the house. We will have to put it on at a much lower price than we could have done a few months ago, and it probably won't sell for a while, but he said it should actually be a good thing that we are leaving in a few weeks and the house will be lying empty, because it'll look bigger when people come to view it.

And, last but not least, I found a cool-looking spider sitting in his web outside our living room window. I have no idea what kind of spider he is, but I like his pattern.

Oh for crying out loud

We posted our passports to London using first class, signed-for delivery, last Monday. I just logged on to the Royal Mail site to check what day they arrived with NZIS, and this is what I found:

Your item with reference DL889157397GB was delivered from our SOUTH WEST LONDON Delivery Office on 29/10/07

Those passports should have arrived with NZIS on the 23rd, not the 29th. I am furious - this has set us another full week behind on getting them back, and we can't take any trips away without them. We might as well completely give up on our plans of going anywhere else in Europe before we leave this hemisphere for good.

I am not impressed with Royal Mail.

Our passports are in the post

So, still not much happening on the house doing-up front (Skry is taking care of all that), but we did get our passports in the post to London this morning. They have to be sent away - with a hefty fee - to have the actual visa stickers put into them. This should only take a week or two and we'll have them back again and be able to travel whenever we want.

I blogged on here a while ago about Photoshopping my passport photo rather than going to a photo booth to have them taken. I didn't make myself look different, just fixed a few minor flaws, but I was wondering if the end result would be satisfactory. Turns out that it was, which is good. I'll definitely do that again whenever I need my next replacement!

Passport photos

Everyone dreads getting passport photos taken, right? They're usually unflattering and often make the bearer look like a terrorist or an imbecile. Things got a bit better with those digital photo booths where you could see the photo before hitting Print, but even those usually just gave you two or three attempts before forcing a printout.

Since I have to get a new passport anyway, I decided to take matters into my own hand and make my own photos using my digital camera, Photoshop, and the services of Photobox. They offer a set of 8 passport sized prints for 99p, which is very good value.

Irish passport requirements say that the photo can have a light grey or cream background instead of white, so I was able to set up my makeshift studio in the living room. All that magnolia paint has its uses, although strangely enough it turned out grey in the photo anyway. Having taken a few snaps and made sure the pose fit the requirements (neutral expression, face forward, all edges of face clearly visible), the next thing was to fix a few minor imperfections like hairs sticking up, the start of a few tiny wrinkles, etc. I should still have this passport when I am 42, so I want to look as youthful and fresh-faced as possible!

I'm still not absolutely thrilled with the end result, but that's mainly because I look so dour. Since smiling is forbidden, I don't know what else can be done with that - it's all very well to say "smile with your eyes" but I don't seem to quite have that knack!

The passport people prefer black-and-white pictures, so I am getting those printed, but I thought I'd show off the colour version as well so you, my loyal readers, can compare and contrast. All that remains after that is to see if it gets rejected for some frivolous reason like the length of my face being 36.5mm rather than the specified maximum of 36mm. I did measure and it is fine on my machine, so I just hope Photobox print it exactly as sent. I'll keep you posted.

Skry got his visa approved!

Yes folks, at long last, both the Adamsons have their PR visas Approved In Principle. All we have to do now is get those passports over to London for the stickers. Which reminds me, I need to get to the post office to pick up an Irish passport application form... Hope I have some passport photos still lying around as well, because frankly I am a bit heavier right now than I'd like to be, and I don't want a reminder of that for the next ten years! A photo from six months ago would do nicely for this particular occasion.

The man from Pickford's

The man from Pickford's, Ron, came to the house yesterday to see what we want to move to New Zealand, and let us know what services they offer. He went through the whole house and we told him what we wanted to get transported over in the Autumn, and he also viewed a stack of boxes that I want to get put into storage now.

The first thing he said about the boxes that are already packed was, "Those boxes won't do at all - we need double walled cartons for international transport". I only bought "those boxes" a few days ago, from Belfast Self Storage, after talking to a Pickford's girl on the phone and asking was it okay for me to pack some things myself. I made it very clear that I would be packing them in order to have them stored for a while and then shipped to New Zealand, so I wasn't at all impressed to hear that I had wasted £35 and a load of time. Happily, Ron agreed that I had been misinformed, and said they can take the boxes as they are for temporary local storage, then they'll re-pack them for transit and I won't be charged for the cartons they're re-packed into. Phew.

He is to email me tomorrow with a quote for their services, but the things for temporary storage can go into a big crate that costs £12 per week. We don't have enough to fill that crate yet, so I have some more packing to do, but hopefully we'll have a much clearer house in another few days. Clearer, that is, until Skry gets all his stuff from his old house in Killowen Street - it has been languishing there since we got married because there wasn't any room for it here.

It'll be interesting to see what the quote is for the rest of the packing and transporting. I'm expecting something in the region of £3,500 - £4,000, but I should find out tomorrow. That sounds like a lot, but it's a whole lot cheaper than replacing everything we own!

19 minutes a day? I don't think so

So it turns out that the 19 minutes a day is totally unachieveable, at least in this house. We let it get far too squalid over the last few weeks, and 19 minutes barely makes a dent. It took me 45 minutes in the bathroom alone! I think that plan is only for people who already have a sparkling clean house, and possibly a maid.

I did make a dent on the packing, though, albeit a small one. Yesterday I looked on the internet for self-storage places locally, and found Belfast Self Storage just a couple of miles up the motorway from here. I nipped round yesterday morning and got a selection of boxes and some packing tape. Since then I have filled five boxes with books, one with bed linen and blankets, and one with childhood memorabilia that I'd be really sorry to lose.

By that point it was becoming obvious that I had more boxes than would fit in my car to take back to the storage facility, but there may be a solution to that as well. Pickfords had seen that I submitted a request for storage information on their site, and phoned to get more details from me. We are most likely going to go with them for shipping to New Zealand, and it turns out that they can also collect boxes now and store them for us until we're ready to leave. A rep is coming over next week to look at how much we have in the house that will be coming with us, and go through our options. It would be so handy to have someone just come and take the stuff rather than having to hire a Man with a Van to ferry it about. I'll wait and see what their prices are like, but this is promising.

I got my visa!

I got a letter from NZIS today - my visa is "Approved in Principle"! At last!

The only things left to do now are pay the £105 levy and send my passport to London to get the visa stickers put into it. I am so relieved. It took nearly a full year to get to this point, but at last I'm past the final hurdle, assuming that I get the passport to London before the end of November.

Skry still has to get his police reports re-done, and have his telephone interview, but hopefully that will go as smoothly as mine did.

Now that it's official, I have also handed in my notice at work, and will be finished there by the end of June. Looking forward to a summer of doing my own thing...

Skry's not sick after all

Well this is nothing that we didn't already know, but the NZIS doctors have said that Skry isn't sick after all. He sent over the results of the blood tests, and they are happy that he's in good health and he doesn't need to have the ultrasound. This is a huge relief to both of us, of course, and also means that he doesn't have the expense and further delays of more tests. Great news.

At last, things are moving!

On Monday I got a phone call from NZIS in London. Apparently I do have a case officer, and she emailed me nearly three weeks ago, but I never got the mail. She arranged a telephone interview for me for Tuesday, and forwarded the mail a second time. Once I got it, I realised why it had been junked the first time - the sender name and subject line looked exactly like spam. I wish they had put "NZIS" somewhere in there. Anyway, the email said that I need to get a different type of police certificate. Apparently the PSNI (Northern Ireland police force) don't check the national database, just the local one. And I also need to send a recent payslip from work, as apparently my reference letter didn't have a date on it.

Yesterday lunchtime I had the telephone interview. The woman was very pleasant and didn't ask anything that I had no answer for, but I wish she had been able to tell me how I did. She can't tell me anything until I send in the missing documentation. Still, I can't see how I wouldn't at least get a work-to-residence visa if not full PR straight away.

Skry had his blood tests yesterday, too. At least they're out of the way now - just the ultrasound scan to go - and hopefully he'll soon be able to get going again with his own application.