Thanks for the welcome,
Besides myself and the better half we have twin sons of 21 only one of them has expressed an interest in joining us on this quest, both are at University and the interested one is studying Business and advertising.
Myself I am 51 and am self employed as a computer repair engineer since 2003, I would like to be doing something simular if possible in NZ, I am an A+ certified professional, iv'e taken and passed all 4 Cisco networking simesters with acreditation letters for all four,for passing with more than an 85% score, but not the CCNA certification (expensive and couldnt see the point!), Iv'e also passed the Cisco equivelent of the City and Guilds qualification for building and supporting IT systems, and the NVQ level 2 in computer systems, software and support. Iv'e also done a few other odds and ends, CLAIT and IBT2 and a basic Microsoft networking course.
Hopefully these qualifications will help with the skilled migrant route.
My Wife is a canteen assistant, she prepares meals for upto 300 people, she also orders ingredients etc, sorts and prepares factory sales( its a pork products factory) she also has the basic and supervisors intermediate certifications in food hygene.
If all else fails I also have a Brother nd his family living in Rodney who would sponser us but i'd rather not burden them with that unless we had no other choice.
We were looking at two years to complete everything and be heading for the aeroplane
but thats open for debate and sooner would be better.
We have'nt decided on a destination area as yet, the North Island seems to be calling, Auckland is ok but we wouldnt want to live there, we hav'nt seen the South island but we're quite happy to go where the work is at least to get ourselves planted.
Hope this info helps give you an idea on which route we should be looking at.
Thanks for your interest and help.
Catweazle.