This is Paige and I at Marks christmas party. Was a great evening.

Mark & I

Marks Christmas party

Myself & mark Carly Paige Billie-jo and Jaden

My Mum 60th birthday

Update so far

The Officer who has been allocated our case has been in touch to say that the Doctor who did our medicals put down the wrong date on Marks form so that had to go back to him for him to re-date it, also they needed confirmation from marks work for how long he has been working for the company and how many hours he works. This now holds things up longer and we probably wont know now until after Christmas if we have been successful. This stage is awful. Just waiting, waiting!!! Anyway we have had a weekend at St.Ives and stayed at Tregenna Castle hotel for Marks Christmas party. We took all the children because of it hoping to be our last one here. They loved it. We have had Carly's 18th birthday, and I'm still getting over that, we went skating, I now know how Bambi felt. My Mum turned 60 this year so we all got together and had a meal out, the following weekend Jaden my son turned 5 and he wanted a party so I had to organise that in record time. In between going shopping for pressies, O and I dont break up from work til Wednesday. Will put some pics for you to see. So the next time I will be writing will be next year, God that sounds weird. Its count down now to Christmas Day. Merry Christmas everyone who reads this. All the best to you all in 2007.

House for Sale

23.10.06
Spent most of today tidying up as we are having a valuer around this afternoon to see how much the house is worth. It will then go on the market next week, now things are happening I'm getting nervous and excited, just cant believe that we are doing this. Told my friend Jean yesterday and she cried. OMG. What have I done!

Will get back to you and let you know how things go.

To view the house click on to the link site below.

My House

Orewa Beach

Coromandel

mount Ruapehu

Jaden fishing

top of sky tower

Paige

Just arrived Aukland airport

Our Holiday

We spent all of August out in NZ, Our first visit was Auckland which I wasn't overlly excited about. We rang some friends who moved out a year ago and got some tips from and went to stay for a couple of days with, Hi Rachel, Andrew and kids. We only visited the North island because we wanted to see as much as we can of where we would like to live. We chose Orewa, It is a small North Island town, about 30-45 minutes from Auckland. The beaches are fantastic, the people are friendly and the atmosphere is relaxed. You can get into the city either by ferry or by the bus. We loved it, it had a great feel about the place. We travelled all the way down to Wellington, and we met up with some friends who lived in the same town as us back in Wadebridge, Hi to Debbie and Paul and their children Lucy and Billy. We went all over and done some first time amazing things. (Didnt have the nerve to do a bungee jump tho)

Here are some pics for you.

The emmigration Process May~ Sept 06

Our one inch thick of application ( I'm not joking) came the next morning after our phone call yesterday. O my God they want to know everything and you have to back everything up you say with evidence. After mulling things over for a few weeks we decided to complete the EOI ( Expression of Interest) and send it off back to emmigration. In the meantime we decided to visit New Zealand, I couldnt live there with out at first visiting. Tickets booked for the 7th August until 4th September. Soo excited.

EOI came back we had 105 points without a job offer and 145 with one.

Mark had several iterviews out there ( Good idea to book plenty up) and they all offered him a job on the spot, Mark has to now decide which firm he would like to work for.

In Sept we were invited to apply for residence. Another pack arrived, this time two inches thick (only joking) almost tho.

Sept 28th. A list of doctors on hand I rang the nearest to us. Off we went for our medicals the children were chuffed they were missing a day off school ( Mark dreading it as he's never given blood before) I promised him lunch. It took a whole day.

Results back, all is well. Sent them off to emmigration.

Now its the waiting game.

Paula and Mark

The Idea~ March/April 2006

We always knew we would move somewhere abroad but never knew where. Having 4 children the destination had to be the right choice for all of us. When I suggested the IDEA of moving to New Zealand to Mark he looked at me blankly as if to say 'that it was not an option'. I dissmissed the IDEA for a few weeks but it was gnawing in the back of my mind and brought the subject up again this time involving my eldest daughter Carly, who was all for it and asked so many queastions that we then logged on for more information. Mark even went out to buy 'Billy Connollys Tour of NZ' (which is excellent by the way) and it gives you an overall look of nz. We then involved the next daughter Paige to see what she thinks about the IDEA of moving half way round the world, She was just as euthsiastic as Carly as was bubbling with questions to which we were able to answer. We did a lot of research before we took the plunge to contact 'Emmigration.' We had a phone chat for about an hour and came away full of ethusiasm and written down answers to the many questions I asked, one of them being ' how long will it take before I can get my parents out with us'
( remember they dont even know yet).