People & Places
From Wales to New Zealand
After much hard work they can now get out at the weekends to enjoy the country they now call home. Phil and Su Price fill us in on how they went from Wales to NZ
We qualified under the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) after submitting an Expression of Interest (EOI) at 110 points. After that, everything seemed to fall into place. Su was offered a job teaching at Cornwall Park District School in Auckland, starting in October 2005.
We submitted our application for permanent residency and after a few phone calls from the NZIS in London we were issued with residency visas which was fantastic. We were actually enjoying a warm day on a local beach in South Wales when we got the call, which was appropriate!
Our passports and literature actually arrived in the post on the day our removals company were packing our container. The lads knew right away what was in the big silver packet and we all celebrated with a beer in the garden of our house in Cardiff. We used PSS. They had come highly recommended and lived up to their reputation. The crew that packed us were marvellous and they were great to have around the house, full of stories and we certainly missed them after they had left along with all of our belongings. The supervisor, Richard, had to dash back home when his son was admitted to hospital but he still called us to let us know and had already arranged cover. We would like to thank Richard, John, Craig, Nick and Mark for doing such a wonderful job.
Our container left the UK three weeks before we did and arrived in New Zealand on time, giving us a few weeks to find a house to rent, which we did. By the way, I was amazed to learn from the removals lads about the number of people that don't prepare themselves for the move abroad.
Some people have even forgotten that they were coming that day, and many leave sorting through their possessions until the pack-up day. My advice is to start as soon as you can, you'll need time for plenty of other things come moving day.
A few months ago Emigrate New Zealand ran an article about Jayne Parsons who has a homestay in Auckland and before leaving the UK we had arranged, via email, to stay there for the first few weeks. Jayne and her daughter Jennie met us at the airport at 5.30am on September 10th on a cool Auckland morning. She had even done a name card which was so cool, as I'd always wanted to be met that way! We chatted about all sorts of things on the way to their lovely house in Bucklands Beach and we were soon settled into our studio apartment. The apartment was perfect, it had a large living space that doubled for us as both a bedroom and sitting room, great bathroom, and an extra bedroom that we used for storage. We had our own entrance and could come and go as we wished. The house is 180 metres from the nearest beach. From the harbour you can catch the ferry into Auckland's Central Business District, which is a lovely way to go in for the day, or everyday for that matter.
Staying with Jayne proved a godsend. Through Jayne we were able to achieve so much in our first few weeks in a new country. She took us shopping for a car at the Ellerslie second hand car market which takes place every Sunday morning in the car park of the racecourse. We got introduced to all of the supermarkets, the best buys, the places to eat out and places to buy electrical goods – you name it we were able to find it much quicker by asking Jayne. Jayne was also useful when it came to house hunting, she advised on areas to checkout and those to avoid. Everyday in the papers you will find listings of rentals, a number of houses are rented via agents and getting updated lists for specific areas is easy to arrange. We focused our search within an easy commute of Cornwall Park School and spent time each day exploring the areas and calling in to the local agents.
Once we had made our minds up on the areas we arranged to view about eight or nine properties one Saturday. We looked at all types of houses from the traditional NZ villas to the newly built bungalows and townhouses. The house we found is less than five minutes drive for Su to school and borders Cornwall Park where we walk, run and relax. The house is lovely and the landlady and neighbours are smashing, I know we will enjoy living here. Our container finally arrived a few days after we moved in and once again Jayne was a star and lent us some essential bits of furniture to tide us over. Our furniture looks like it was made for the house and we are so glad we brought everything with us. Our advice to anyone emigrating is to bring all of your furniture as getting settled is an expensive process and any money you can save will probably be needed for something else.
White goods are readily available and reasonably priced here. Once again Jayne came up trumps and told us to take cash with us when we went to buy and to ask for a discount. We saved NZ$300 on the items we purchased. Your UK television sets can be used if you put the signal through a video/DVD/skybox from New Zealand. Some DVD and videos are compatible here but not many, we have a relatively new DVD player but it's not compatible with the frequency here although it can still be used to play films and tapes. We took our stuff to a TV repair guy whom Jayne had used, he was great and sorted us out – but be careful though, some charge you for 'taking a look' – make sure you've looked yourself first.
Su had already secured a post and it was then up to me to get a job, just as I was getting used to the life of a house-husband. I am a salesman and have worked in the hygiene industry in the UK for sometime. By registering my CV with Seek.co.nz plenty of leads came through my inbox.
The papers are also full of jobs and by registering my CV with the many recruitment agencies this also created activity. Eventually I had my first offer only three days after starting to look seriously. However, I decided not to join the company and was then offered a great job working for an Auckland-based supplier of hygiene products. In the job I will look after customers in Auckland as well as resellers throughout the North Island. This is going to give me a great opportunity to explore more of the country, albeit from the windows of my company car.
Life has never been better. The first three months were hard graft and certainly no holiday but we now love our life here. We sorted out our car, our home, our finances and our jobs, all before we could think about having a 'day off'. Now every weekend is an adventure, we load the car with a picnic seek the parks and coastline of this beautiful place.
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