STOP PRESS!....Breaking News…Wednesday 5^th April…..

Liz & Andy now have permanent residency in New Zealand. Passports collected today with blue sticker permits and returning residents visas (in case we want to leave and come back!) And now to Adam….

LETTER from NEW ZEALAND 4*

*With apologies to Alistair Cooke

Kia Ora, Haere mai and greetings from Aotearoa. (Land of the long white cloud).Thought it was time for another go at feeding the monster, at this rate I’ll end up looking like Alistair Cooke. It would be worth it if I had his literary gift.

Well what has been happening? Firstly some more little snippets about NZ. An update to my earlier musings about the decommissioned frigate, Wellington: a storm has caused it to break into three bits and they appear to be wandering around the seabed, so a little care and maintenance is being done to secure them.

Another article I read the other day succinctly highlighted the problem NZ is having with getting a decent broadband service. Basically you walk into a bar and the barmaid hands you a tall cold glass of beer, you look at and take it in both hands, it’s a hot day, you’re thirsty and can’t wait to take a big drink, but the barmaid stops you. You have to drink the beer through a straw; she explains that there are a number of straws, all different sizes and prices. You select the straw you can most afford and get ready to drink. But wait, she stops you again, you can only drink a certain amount of beer; if you want any more you need to either use a smaller straw or pay for every extra mouthful…. That sums up the current state of broadband service in NZ. Things are beginning to look up as the government is starting to put pressure on the provider to loosen up the system and allow other operators a better chance of providing a decent service.

So, on to us.. What has been happening? Well, I mentioned previously that we’d been selected from the pool and invited to apply for permanent residency. It sounds easy, ha! We’ve managed to put all the paperwork together (thanks Sandy!) and the application is now with the immigration service, to administer. So here’s hoping all is well.

Liz and I had another session in front of the camera. This time it was al fresco, walking along the harbour front on a warm sunny evening like minor royalty. We had attracted a fair bit of attention and I couldn’t help it….I started making comments like, “Charles and Camilla would love it here.” and such like, causing a minor stir among the older blue rinse brigade. At one cheesy point we had to walk from Scotland to New Zealand (in our socks - across a giant map of the world, close-ups of my size 13’s marching across Africa). All in the name of (insert your own word here)

Things are slowly settling in the house, still got some problems. We’re getting a dehumidifying system installed within the next few weeks which apparently cuts down the condensation and improves the heating of the house. (It does get cold here, however not to the extent it does in Edinburgh - Liz would argue that moot point, when it comes to no central heating or double glazing). The deck furniture is now in place and a monster barbeque sits waiting for a warm evening for me to incinerate some previously good bits of meat in my first barbeque attempt. Much to Liz’s disgust, I’ve discovered Trash Palace… This is the local civic amenities dump - with a difference - where they sort and resell ‘stuff’. See Link http://www.trashpalace.co.nz/

I wanted a workbench type thing for the garage and this is what I got there. Guess how much..

$10… (Under 4 quid) I hope you are impressed Anton. (If you recognise any of your tools, it’s not my fault!)

Adam is still honing his skills in the graphic design world, applying for jobs as they emerge. Unfortunately, I think the colleges are pumping out graphic designers over here and the competition is tough, however his portfolio looks good and he should score soon.

I’m still enjoying my work. The good news is, I get a lift to work most mornings, the bad news is the guy picks me up at 6:00 a.m., however I don’t really mind as I’m home again for 4.30. This is my attempt at stitching some pictures I took from the floor that I work on. It gives you an idea of the view…(That's the WestPac Rugby Stadium in the middle)

We have Jim & Lorna from Edinburgh visiting this weekend, they are over for a wedding and are ‘popping’ (7 hour drive) down to see us. It will be good to catch up on what’s been going on back in Edinburgh.

We’ve had Sky TV installed - of course as soon as we get it, the b*&^dy SKY satellite breaks down and thousands of people had no TV for about 14 hours. This is known as ‘The Anderson Phenomenon’ and Babs knows all about it.

Well, that’s it for now folks. I’ll send an update if we hear anything from the immigration people.

LETTER from NEW ZEALAND 3*

*With apologies to Alistair Cooke

Kia Ora again from the southern hemisphere. Once more to the keyboard, exactly one month to the day (by sheer chance!)

Well what has been happening? Firstly some little snippets about NZ. One thing that’s very evident to incomers to NZ is the genuine willingness to help that the Kiwi nation fosters. An article in the paper the other day was entitled something like ‘Not My Problem’ and it highlighted the difference between NZ & OZ when it came to attitude and helpfulness. The example given was of a woman arriving late at the wrong hotel for an important conference. She was distraught and in need of help. The OZ receptionist’s attitude was ‘not my problem’ and the observation was made that if this had happened in NZ the woman would have been comforted, taken to the correct location and handed over to someone there to further assist her. This was an attempt to highlight the differing attitudes and the author of the article ended with a comment similar to ‘it’s probably due to the Oz ancestors having a predilection to stealing things whilst NZ ones don’t’, (naughty).

Another ‘bit’ in the paper caught my eye, and it typified the fun attitude of the kiwis. Recently the decommissioned frigate, Wellington, was deliberately sunk off the south coast of the North Island as a diving attraction, and as a living reef and home to marine life.[a link for anyone interested] What isn’t so evident is that, as well as 3000 tonnes of warship, 24 bottles of ale have been stashed inside the ship ‘bow to stern’ by Bennetts Brewery. Any diver who is lucky enough to find one and returns it to the brewery will receive 24 bottles as a reward. Only two have been found so far (I just thought this was worth mentioning).

So, on to us.. What has been happening? Well, we submitted an expression of interest (EOI) to the immigration service regarding getting permanent residency and have been selected from the pool last Wednesday. Its just a preliminary first step towards being allowed to remain in NZ indefinitely. Quite a few more hoops need to be jumped through before anything is definite, so we will keep our fingers crossed. The NZ immigration service is called the Department of Labour in NZ and on a related note, we were approached by them to be a case study for the immigration website and some road shows up and coming in Dublin and Glasgow. What the heck, I thought, why not. A quick sit down and a chat to a camera?? No, a film crew arrived at the house, once again, very nice lads, one kiwi and one English (now that didn’t necessarily make him a bad person!). During the filming, I kept pointing out that Scotland had just beaten England at Murrayfield!!). I now hunt down English people here just to remind them. They filmed us in various scenarios, looking at the view, enjoying a glass of wine and just getting on with life. Then we had the interview part. I have to say at the outset that Adam had made it very clear he was having none of it and Liz was more than a little reluctant and decided to say nothing..(Ha!) Being a gregarious lot, naturally the wine and beer was opened and consumed. Well, a couple of glasses of wine and Liz was on a roll, they eventually ran out of tape and the crew left sometime after nine o’clock having been fed and watered, promising to return, with partners for a barbeque once I got things set up (that’s a whole other training issue!). As part of the process, Liz and I are to be filmed enjoying a glass of wine in a pub or café one evening and walking around the city enjoying what it has to offer. All this activity will eventually be cut down to three, two-minute films on their website, under the headings of ‘Work, Live and Play’. I’ll keep you all updated with website links once the ‘stuff’ is online.

Things are taking shape in the house, we are awaiting the arrival of our deck furniture as I type this. Liz is hard at work turning the house into a lovely home that we can enjoy and entertain in. I have to say that we are currently looking at heating, insulation and such related things, as we experienced our first visit from the type of weather that hangs around Antarctica the other day and not having the luxury of double glazing and central heating, it came as a bit of a shock (especially first thing in the morning!).

Adam is happily reunited with his ‘stuff’ and is now able to update his CV and, now that we are settled, able to have a serious look for work.

We are settling in well here and beginning to make friends, getting invites and going to barbeques. Life is good and getting better… However, I can’t get the TVs to work, and I think the big aerial on the roof has been tweaked to allow for Sky digital, oh well, I’ll just have to get Sky installed…

LETTER from NEW ZEALAND 2*

*With apologies to Alistair Cooke

Kia Ora. Well, here we are again. First, I must apologise for the delay, and further apologies to Alistair Cooke: it’s been pointed out that his ‘letters’ were weekly! Sorry, things have been moving at a pace and I’d be spending all my time adding bits and pieces to the letter.

Right, first things first: a quick overview of New Zealand and its people, then on to the things that we have achieved since the last update.

New Zealand is all the good things that people back in UK think it is: a beautiful country with spectacular scenery and warm friendly people to complement it. I can’t praise it enough. Of course, it has its problems like other countries, and strives to address them, but the genuine atmosphere of friendliness cannot be underestimated. The weather has been glorious, with the odd rainy day (and many windy ones); we have been out and about exploring, travelling up the Kapiti coast, a beautiful nearby coastal region with rolling hills and expansive bays. While exploring up the coast, we have found a new Japanese café that sells wonderful “kiwi-afied” Japanese food. By coincidence, the owner opened the day we landed in New Zealand and I think he and his family will do well here, because their food is excellent. We have been to a couple of barbeques and outdoor parties and met some lovely people who are always willing to offer advice and share their experiences to help overcome our ‘newness’. The Rugby 7s tournament has just finished and it certainly reinforced the fact that the Kiwis know how to party, so much energy and fun without a lot of violence or disorder.

Now on to the personal stuff: well, we now own a piece of New Zealand - quite a big, beautiful piece, with sea views and wooden decks (or ‘dicks’ as they are pronounced here!) and a balcony (some photos attached). We have bought a house in Whitby, a small place about 27 km up the coast from Wellington, around the same distance as Livingston is from where we lived in Edinburgh (for the locals). It is a beautiful area with all the street names linked to James Cook and his journeys. We will miss living in the centre of the city, as it’s very convenient; however the extra commuting will be more than offset by actually being able to see the sky and being able to tell if the sun is shining. We’re all looking forward to some peace and quiet as well, and having our own green outdoor space will be fantastic (although Liz is muttering about getting someone in to do the “giant garden” – it’s not really, just seems like it after our last one). We move next week on 10th February (we get the keys on 9^th) and our container is coming on 10^th as well. To compensate for the commuting and transport, we have bought cars: I was banned from getting another Jeep (too uncomfortable for the passengers!) so I’ve settled on a Honda CRV and Liz has acquired a Rav4 (she loves them!). With all the upheaval, it will be good to be settled in our own home, it feels as if we are on an extremely long holiday.

I have been working for two weeks now and I’m still finding my feet. It's a good place to work and the organisation has a good reputation on the employee relations front.I’ve already flown down to Christchurch (South Island) and spent a few days meeting the teams down there.

Adam is still chilling out and also applying for jobs, but the holiday season is just coming to an end here, so he’s hoping that more companies will be taking on staff in the near future.

Well folks, that’s all for now, I'll try and get the next one done a little sooner, although settling into normality might make them a little boring....



The outside...


View from the front balcony


Rear deck



Dining area

Hallway

LETTER from NEW ZEALAND*

*With apologies to Alistair Cooke.

I thought I might do an occasional blog update in the form of a news letter. If this turns out to be boring wordy ramblings, please let me know via the comments.

Well, holidays are over, time to get down to some serious stuff, house hunting, car catching and generally bedding in for the next couple years.

Firstly the closing chapters of our festive period adventures.

We didn’t leave Melbourne under a cloud, there weren’t any; it was 35 degrees in the shade. My lucky hat came through again and we were upgraded once more to business class. Thank you Emirates, now Liz is totally spoiled for any other type of travel and it will probably cost me a fortune in the long run. We arrived safely in Auckland and, unfortunately fell foul of the airline bureaucracy. Having booked flights in advance with sufficient time to allow for any delays, we found ourselves with a four hour wait for a one hour flight. The nice Air NZ girl on the way out suggested that I ask for an earlier flight if seats are available, what a good idea. Unfortunately the man on the Air NZ desk didn’t think so. “Who have you just flown with?” asks the man. “Emirates”, I reply. Well, wrong answer! “Sorry can’t allow you an earlier flight, this option is reserved for our loyal customers and frequent flyers”, states the man. Okay, now I am a very reasonable person as you all will attest, so I explained very nicely that in the last 2 weeks I and my family had flown many thousands of miles around the world and chose to use Air New Zealand, also flying internally using them, in order to connect up with our ‘air miles’ flights with Emirates. This had no effect on Mr Efficiency, those were the rules. (The rest of this rambling has been removed on the advice of Liz, it’s turning into a rant apparently!) Well never mind, we made it back to Wellington.

What about Wellington, well here is an excerpt from some correspondence in the local news paper: it sums up the ‘windy’ element of the city.

‘It’s a little breezy today. In other countries, this kind of breeze would be called a hurricane and people would be told to stay indoors and nail things down. Here they expect you to go about your everyday business and simply suggest you put a few lead weights in your coat pocket to keep yourself vertical.’

To be truthful, this is the beginning of summer here and, apart from one 140kmph windy day, it has been nice weather (and breezy, says Liz). We are finding our feet more now, and actively looking for somewhere to buy. Not knowing the various suburbs we have taken to buying bus/train tickets and hopping on and off of various transport systems just to see where they go. The train ride up to Johnsonville was interesting, the rail line in NZ is of a narrow gauge variety and the trains trundle up and down the (very) steep hills, with wilderness-quality undergrowth almost brushing both sides of the carriages. I noted with interest that when the Auckland and Wellington lines were build back in 1898, they ended up with a height difference of 700 feet between the two lines; the famous Raurimu Spiral was designed and built to accommodate this. This link will show those who have an interest in it (John Manchip?) how it worked. http://www.websnz.com/ttt/nzr/nzrrs.php3

The rail and bus travel shows us some parts, however we’re going to hire a car and explore the areas that are off the immediate bus and train routes. Buying a car at the moment would cause needless expense as there is no parking around our apartment (without paying silly money).

Last week we went for lunch at the harbour front in a really nice restaurant. However the girl at the bar requested a credit card to be retained until the meal was paid, even if you were paying cash! I queried the wisdom of this in view of the ability to ‘skim’ the card; the girl observed that it was strange that it was the people from Europe who had a problem with this. I explained that it was standard practice not to let your card out of your sight (and the reasons why) and without a hint of irony she informed me that this wouldn’t happen in New Zealand as you would go to jail. We survived the ordeal and had a nice lunch anyway.

It cannot be denied that the people are very friendly and helpful, even in the banks; you are treated as a valued customer with all the friendliness of a long lost friend. It takes a bit of getting used to, coming from the UK.

I’m still in love with the library (given the price of books in the shops!) and the library used-book sale is now at the 25 cents a book, 5 for a dollar (40p) stage. I keep appearing with armloads, I can’t help it, I’m still suffering withdrawal symptoms from the de-clutter of my stuff when we left UK. I have to promise to get rid of them when I’ve read them.

Well I think this is enough for now, I’ll have to see how this sits within the blog, don’t want pages of stuff in each update.

Following some requests for “more foties”

Here is a small selection taken today. These were taken outside our apartment building (the green one with the trees)

* if you click on the images you get a bigger picture.

This is across the street; the civic square area is preparing for the New Year celebrations

These are within 100 yds of the apartment

This is a littler further down the street.

We hope this gives you folks a little glimpse of our new surroundings… More later, time to go out and party (13 hours before you lot in UK!)

Happy New Year to everyone and hope 2006 is good to you.

P.S. Sorry for the photo formatting!

‘Twas The Night before Christmas…. (And it’s roasting…)

Well we’ve made it to Melbourne (upgraded to business class - Liz, having tasted it, now wants it every time we fly). We found our way to the suburbs, and yes it’s rather warm. The idea of Christmas and blazing sunshine is an unusual concept for us northerners.

We have survived Christmas day and associated events, going for walks in 35 degree heat, one observation; I’ve never seen so many pregnant women in one place in all my life. (Must have been a power cut or rubbish TV about 8/9 months ago.)

Liz is sitting out the back in tropical surroundings, sun hat & cream, in her element. Adam is enjoying the shade along with the rest of us. Richard has become a master of the barbecue, producing all sorts of concoctions from it.

Richard & Yvonne’s house is lovely, equipped with all the mod cons of suburban life.

Very different from the 27^th floor apartment in Melbourne CBD. Richard & Yvonne will be glad to get their house back to themselves for a while, until Sylvia & Tom roll in in February.

We fly back to NZ early tomorrow (Thursday) and will settle into a routine while we look for somewhere more permanent to live.

Peace Has Broken Out

A rash of calm and tranquillity has broken out around the Anderson family. After all the hustle and bustle of getting here, followed by the circus of getting some decent accommodation, we have finally moved into a nice apartment in the city centre. It’s in the old Dominion Post Newspaper building, very big and imposing. The whole building has been designed in the art deco style, the apartments have 20’ high ceilings, floor to ceiling windows and furnished in the art deco style, I keep expecting Hercule Poirot to knock on the door. These are a couple of shots of the apt, one of Liz navigating the dial-up email on the laptop and one of Adam ‘chilling’ as usual.


We are right across the street from the Wellington Central Library and joined yesterday, mountains of books, CD’s and DVD’s are available, a very impressive set-up. Having got ourselves settled, we are now in the process of preparing to jet off to Melbourne for Christmas. One of the good things is that we have a settled base to return to without having to start the search all over again when we get back. The weather has been very good; however people keep saying, “it’s not normally as sunny as this” which is a little disconcerting.

On the general administration front, we have managed to open bank accounts and Liz has been practicing the use of EFTPOS in the shops, which she is pleasantly surprised with, I believe. My ‘baby’ (the Jeep) has been sold and so as not to appear unfair here is a picture of Liz’s ‘baby’ which is also in the process of being sold.



It’s hard to believe that it’s Christmas, sun, barbeques and Christmas carols are a strange mix, however, we are here now and going to make a go of it for the next two years. We hope everyone has a good Christmas and we will do our best to keep in touch.

Well We've Arrived…

We have made it to the windy city. After an epic journey of god knows how many films, TV programmes, and music choices interspersed with bouts of eating and drinking we have fetched up on the shores of New Zealand. It will come as no surprise to learn that, as usual, most of what the travel agent and airlines tell you bears no resemblance to reality. i.e:

“Yes sir we will process your (200kgs worth) of baggage at Edinburgh and you won’t see it until you get to Wellington.” Except, of course when you have to collect it at Auckland and cart it around the Airport getting it past customs, then re-depositing it in the domestic flight Section.

“You can get extra leg room.” Ha! That’s a whole other story.

“You’ll have plenty time to get between terminals at Heathrow” Yea right!

“You’ll spend the two hour refuelling stop at LAX in the new fully equipped Transit lounge.” No, you spend most of the time being herded around like cattle, getting fingerprinted and photographed…then deposited in a small area, given crisps and apples whilst being constantly reminded to “maintain visual contact with your belongings at all times, failure to do so will….” But enough of the journey…

And so to Wellington. We have just spent our first full day here and are getting our bearings. We had an initial hiccup with the accommodation in Leeds St, (In dire need of cleaning). The company apologised for the problem and promptly moved us to better accommodation in Boulcott St. We currently have a two bedroomed apartment until Monday then we move into two one bedroomed apartments (Adam is delighted with that arrangement.)

http://www.whatsnew.co.nz/428.0.html

It will take a while to get used to things. i.e. summer weather combined with Christmas carols, Santa and festive decorations.

The next part of the ‘plan’ is to search out a more permanent rental situation for when we get back from Melbourne, But that’s Monday’s job, in the mean time it’s chill out weekend…….More later.

This Time Next Week!!

Well, this time next week (Saturday 3^rd December) the packers will be hard at it and the container will be causing havoc with the neighbours. We’re still in the throes of de-cluttering and organising piles of ‘stuff’, mostly moving bits and pieces from one pile to another, then back again. (Attic empty, garage full). Got travel and medical cover sorted, also the internet banking. The calendar is pretty full now with visits and various appointments, it’s unbelievable to think that we’ll be on the other side of the world in less than two weeks. Unfortunately, we are now at the stage of being unable to accommodate everyone’s wish for us to visit them before we go. We will be keeping in contact with all who wish it. The broadband internet goes on the 1^st of December, however we’ll have dial-up via the laptop for the remaining days for email purposes, so no large files please, (Paul Marshall!).

My pride and joy (below) is also away.

Now reduced to driving Liz’s shopping trolley.

Moving Along...

Things are moving along, we are now preparing for the packers to come, getting the cars sold and generally running around like headless chickens. Liz has managed to secure some accommodation for us for the first 2 weeks. That will take us up to the time we head off to visit Richard & Yvonne in Melbourne for Christmas. Hopefully we will also sort out some longer term accommodation during the first 2 weeks.

This is the place we are staying at:
http://www.whatsnew.co.nz/430.0.html

Richard is currently as war with the current incumbents of his back garden, spiders. They seem to be putting up a fair fight, however hopefully he will have won the war by the time we get there….

This for those who have an interest in Australian spiders. Try looking up wolf & mouse spiders, these appear to be the main protagonists, (Not for the faint hearted!)
http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/#spiders

First Contact

This is the first bit just to get something on the blog. It's pretty hectic at the moment, painters, plumbers and de-cluttering going on all at once. Not selling the house, renting it out for a few years, to keep the options open. 4 weeks to go before we fly out.

The place has scrubbed up nicely.

We'll try and keep this blog up to date.