[quote:950ff1c713="cal"]Hi All,

We have finally got the visa and after a very emotional Xmas will be taking a one way flight to NZ ;o)

I am just wondering whether any advise can be given on a multitude of questions ranging from rental properties both short and long time, removal companies and also schools???

We are hoping to find somewhere on the Whangaparaoa Penninsula and as such thought of Orewa College for High School and Wgp school for the primary... what are your thoughts, if any???

Flights are also an issue; from various threads on this and other forums I gather that well priced flights are few and far between... also that it is cheaper to go through an agent rather than book direct with the airline (I don't really understand this as I would have thought eliminating the middle man would save money). In addition with the flight being so long and with four children I was looking for an excellant service (Cathay Pacific was very disappointing when we flew over for a holiday at Easter). Emirates have been highly recommended but when I phoned trailfinders in Manchester I was told that I would have to fly: Manchester to Heathrow, Heathrow to Dubia, Dubia to Singapore; and quite possibly Singapore to Brisbane before finally landing in Auckland from Brisbane!!!! I haven't telephoned anywhere else yet to check this information - Can anyone shed any light on it?

I will probably think of hundreds more questions over the next few weeks, so I apologise in advance to the moderators, if I scare off all your visitors!!!

Cal ;o)[/quote:950ff1c713]

Cal,

You can get stats/results for all NZ schools off the web (cannot recall the URL right now). Everything that you will want to know is probably in one of these numerous spreadsheets.

You really want to look at these closely...as there are indicators that most aspirant kiwis would use to avoid certain schools/colleges....

Alan.