I agree the Edinburgh one was not that great, especially after having been to the London one which is absolutely massive and has stalls from nearly every region, recruitment agencies, a lot more companies, banks and so on so if you can get down to it well worth having a look. Speaking to the guys from the Fitzroy Engineering/Yachts stand they said that this was the first Edinburgh expo and they where just doing it to see if it got the interest so not as many companies registered to show at it, the next expos in October (I think) aren't showing an Edinburgh one so I perhaps they can't get enough companies showing to warrant doing another there
Yes we aim to find a house in NP, or maybe one of the smaller communities just outside (Oakura or Inglewood sound lovely), I look at houses daily on Open2View.com to daydream about when we are finally over there, we just need to find out about which are the nicer areas and which have the better schools, as a very nice person I have been in contact with regards to banking has informed me that a lot of the schools in the NP area are now zoned so you have to live in the right area for the right school etc. We have a 7 year old son who is just in his last term of year 2 here in the UK so by time we get to head out should be near to finishing his full school year here and then once we can get a school and house sorted in NP he will be able to have some time at his new school to settle into it before NZ summer holiday comes around .... at least that is my thinking anyway hehe
I will certainly keep in touch and updated, and will keep fingers crossed for you that things start to happen soon.
Ali