It's finally going to happen!

[Cindy]

Hello everyone! We're taking the plunge and leaving for NZ in late May from Colorado, USA. I've been searching and thanks to this forum, I've gained wealth of info in preparation for our coming move/visit? Not sure what will happen as we're crossing our fingers that our fact finding mission/trip will hopefully turn into us staying. I look forward to hopefully connecting with members living in Auckland as potential job placement for my hubby may be easier there.

Cheers,
Cindy

[Taffy]

Good on you for having a go! There's a few members here in the Auckland area, so no doubt a few will be happy to meet you!

[MotherBear]

Cindy and a big welcome to the forum. You've been around a little while but this seems an appropriate place to officially welcome you.

Good luck with your plans and fingers crossed that your hubby finds an ideal job.

[Cindy]

Thanks for the warm welcome Taffy and MotherBear. In the five years we've been talking about moving to NZ, we've finally set a date. Now the overwhelming task of where are we going to store our belongings, how to break the news to families, what to take with us (paperwork, interview attire & NZ weather attire, carseat for daughter?, etc...), should we do a straight shot with Air New Zealand or should we take a stop at Singapore using Singapore Air and how much luggage should we have and all in 32 days from today. I'm okay, really I am. *takes a deep breath and laughs with tears in my eyes*

Then the hard part of unpacking and repacking as we're bouncing back and forth from Welly to Auckland looking for a job, the unfamiliarity of location/public transportation and difficulties with Kiwi's understanding our American accent and vice versa all while dragging my 3 year old daughter along. I'm expecting a bumpy ride for the next couple of years, I just hope my hubby is strong enough to handle the adjustment (not good with any type of change) as I was surprised when he agreed to try this (totally out of his character). I guess he's finally given up on the US. Thanks again for the nice welcoming response.

Cheers,
Cindy

[ebianca]

Welcome Cindy!

Sounds like your gonna have a ball.

I'm sure you're 3 year old will be fine- you will be surprised how well they adapt.

We made the move a couple of weeks ago with a 4 and 2 year old. We flew Air NZ (from UK, via LAX) and they were great, very helpful with luggage and the kids in and of the plane. We took our car seats with us and took them in the cabin with us- we could only use one of them on the seats as the other was a booster seat. Personally we didn't really need them on the plane and were just extra hassle as we could have checked them in for no extra charge (which we did when we got our connecting flight to Welli).

All the airlines have films and stuff for the little ones to watch.

Do you have any preference over location or you just going to go where OH can get a job?

Anyway, welcome again and any questions just fire away with them- there is usually someone around to offer a helpful answer.
Beth

[Cindy]

Beth, thanks for the tip. Now that I know the better way, I will definitely check the carseat instead of taking on board the plane. She's been on short two hour flights before and she usually sprawled out on our laps anyways and the carseat will only be in the way.

For work reason, my hubby is looking into either Welly or Auckland. He needs to look up all the post production studios for film/tv/radio but from our research I don't see much of it or at all in South Island. Even with Wellington, the only large post production studio that comes up is Park Roads (Peter Jackson's Studio?) and maybe Marmalade (mostly for radio).

I prefer NZ over Australia but if OH can't find a good job offer in a couple months, we're going to have to look into OZ.

For now, I'm going to look at this trip as a fact finding/job search mission and try not to be too hopeful as I know that being there for the first time could change my entire views on living in NZ.

Cheers,
Cindy