General Advice Wanted

[LC100]

My partner has just accepted a job offer in Auckland. As his significant other and mother of his 2yr old, I get to go too! We go next Jan/Feb. Has anyone got any advice or experiences relating to where to start with the organising?!! It would be great to hear from anyone who has recently done the same. Also if anyone lives in the Ponsonby, Herne Bay or Grey Lynn area and would be willing to chat about their life their that would also be greatly appreciated....

[MotherBear]

Hi LC100, ?

Oooh, that?s a big question. ?Not knowing how far you?ve already gone in the immigration process, after ensuring that all the formalities are in place to facilitate your application for entry in NZ i.e. you have the correct visa, you can prove that you have been together with your partner for at least 12 months, you have medical and police reports in place etc., my advice would be to do as much research on NZ as humanly possible and these forums are stuffed full of information. ?

Answers to questions like these below would help us to clarify the situation and give as much help as possible without repeating what you already know or giving you the wrong type of information.

Do you have a house to sell?
Have you been to NZ before or will this be your first time?
Will you be shipping your worldly goods or are you going with just a couple of suitcases?
Will you be taking pets with you to NZ?
Do you think you?ve got sufficient money behind you to get you off to a good start?
Will you be renting in NZ or buying your own place?

Feel free to ask any specific questions and we?ll do all we can to assist. ?Hopefully someone can fill you in with some details about your chosen areas.

Congratulations to your partner on getting the all-important job. ?Hopefully that will give you a good start to your new life. ?

[LC100]

Hello Mother Bear - thanks for the quick response.

I think that the company in NZ will be "fast tracking" the visa at their end.

As for the other stuff:
We are going to rent our flat here in London for first couple of years.
We have just come back from a 2 week trip to NZ organized by my mans new employer.
We will need to ship items - but would also like to take some stuff as excess baggage or fly as cargo.
We looked into house prices while over there and saw a mortgage adviser and it seems as though we are taking enough ? to put down at least 50% deposit on house, if not a bit more, depending on how extravagent we are!
We will probably try to rent a house for first few months while looking to buy.

Look forward to hearing from you.

lisa

[MotherBear]

Hi again, Lisa

Well, you seem to be doing very well so far and your man?s company is doing him proud if they?re organising the visas and have paid for you to visit NZ before taking the big step. ?I haven?t heard of many companies doing that so let?s hope he?s got himself a great employer.

It?s quite a wise move to rent out your property while you determine whether NZ will be for you in the long term. ?If it doesn?t work out at least you?ll have somewhere to come back to without having to jump on the property ladder again. ?

If you visa is already under way, I guess timing is going to be the important thing. ?You could start organising some boxes for packing and begin to slowly dismantle your home ? a good chance to have a sort out. ?It?ll give you some idea of how much stuff you?ve got, how much you may want to sell, give away, give to the charity shop or chuck out and what you want to take with you. ?A lot of people bring in a shipping company to do all the packing so, if you want to go down this route, you could call them up to arrange for quotes. ?If you want to start looking for a shipper, try the Master Website List at the top of this same category, it?s a sticky right at the top. ?If you scroll down there?s a list of shippers? websites there to choose from. ?
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You could also start making a list of things to do, so you can check them off when they?re done e.g. things to cancel like papers, TV licence, gas, water, electricity and phone, council tax, mail order catalogues, Internet provider, Sky, mobile phone provider, insurances, the list is endless. ?Be aware it can take ages with some of them to get it into their heads that you DO actually want to cancel these things and it may be better to do this earlier rather than later or it could follow you to NZ . ?If you have Direct Debits etc. it might be less hassle at the end if you revert to paying the last bill or two manually rather than through the bank. ?Also note that a lot, if not all, of the cancelling will have to be done by the person in whose name the bills are. ?It would be best to keep a record of who you?ve cancelled and when in case of problems later. ?Better still, get them to confirm that they?ve received your notification.

Make a list of people to notify change of address, get a redirection of mail form ready, sort out banks and building societies if you have Standing Orders or Direct Debits that will need cancelling. ?You could even prepare and print out letters to companies/people re change of address etc. and have them ready to post at the appropriate time. ?

If you need medical or dental records to take with you, you could apply for those. ?Sort out any piles of old paperwork, bills etc. to see if you can thin them down. ?If you?re shipping any garden/outdoor/camping items that you won?t be using until you?re in NZ, give them a thorough cleaning, using Jeyes Fluid if necessary, so that they don?t cause a problem when the shipment reaches NZ. ?I?m not sure if you are aware of the strict regulations relating to shipping stuff to NZ as that?s a whole new thread in itself. ?
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You many want to open a new bank account in NZ and this can be done before you even arrive there, so all you need to do upon arrival is visit the bank to activate your account and collect all the bits and bobs that go with it. ?

I don?t know if you have any idea when you?re likely to be flying down to NZ, but you could research air routes and flights as to which will suit you best. ?It used to be that Singapore Airlines would give a generous baggage allowance for immigrants, but I think that?s altered now. ?You are allowed 2 x 23 kg. cases each (in Economy, 2 x 32 kg. each if Business Class) when you travel on Air NZ via Los Angeles so that means you could take a bit extra with you in the hold. ?Going via Los Angeles isn?t always the most popular route but some people do it because of the extra baggage allowance. ?I believe that sending extra baggage is cheaper when sent as unaccompanied baggage (is this the same as cargo?) rather than excess baggage, which can be pretty expensive. ?It could mean that it would arrive on a different plane, but if you?re living in Auckland it shouldn?t be too much trouble to go back to the airport to collect it. ?Or you might like to check these out. ?They deal in excess baggage handling.

That?s a few things for you to consider going on with. ?No doubt I?ll dream up some more, or other folks will have some good ideas too. ?

On a different note, this isn?t personal info about your requested areas unfortunately and there?s not very much, but it might fill in some gaps.

Here?s a link to a little bit about Ponsonby and if you click on the blue links for Herne Bay and Grey Lynn in the box it?ll bring up similar info on them.
Grey Lynn Community Centre
Grey Lynn Annual Park Festival

This link is a general one for http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/] Auckland City Council [/url] and it tells you a fair bit about how Auckland works.

[Glenda]

Very good news, Lisa. :)

Mother Bear seems to have covered all points. Just a few thoughts ...

When opening a NZ bank account from the UK, allow at least six weeks.

Renew your UK passport if it is likely to run out in the next year or two - it is a lot easier and cheaper.

Take UK bank statements showing your old address, plus plenty of photocopies of your passports which may be needed to open a telecom account etc.

Be generous with the post redirection period application ... it is cheaper for relatives to send to your old address and have their post (and parcels) redirected.

Make sure you rent/buy a warm home, preferably north-facing.

[LC100]

Thanks Mother Bear and Glenda!

THis has given me lots of things to be getting on with while waiting for the actual departure date. No doubt I'll be back when I havemore specific questions...

Lisa

[selchie]

I'd recommend that you begin going through your belongings and sorting out stuff that you really don't want or need. This could save stress as the time to move grows nearer. I'm doing a bit of this as we wait, finding things that I don't really need to keep, even if we don't go to NZ. Years ago, I moved all my belongings without sorting out the dross, and wound up getting rid of a bunch of it on the other end. Of course, some of the stuff you don't need anymore could make for good yard sale items once you're in NZ. Sort it anyway.

Make a list of non-obvious people, organizations, etc. who should be informed of a move. My list includes organizations to whom I give money, or from whom I get infrequent mailings. I suppose even my dentist and optometrist should be on the list.