Back to a regular rhythm

The Bed
We bought a new bed frame with a Tempur mattress. After sleeping on borrowed mattresses on the floor, we were delighted when the new bed was delivered. After George got home from work, we started to unpack the parts and realized that they did not give us any bolts. It is not an IKEA bed but it definitely reminded us of it... We collected the bolts in the shop on the next day and slept heavenly in our new bed. :-) Although the colder it gets, the harder the mattress becomes; but after laying on it for some minutes, the mattress warms up and it molds itself to the shape of your body (but is still supportive!). We noticed that we are tossing and turning a lot less then we did before.

Customs/MAF
It took customs 3 weeks to calculate how much import tax we have to pay. After waiting and calling them to check every now and then, they came up with 663,66 NZ dollars...quite a devils number. Well, just get is payed and deliver our belongings!
The MAF (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry) had a look on the packing list and checked about 20 items such as garden tools, garden furniture, tools, shoes, vacuum cleaner, flower pots, but also Christmas and other decorations and some random items. Of course, everything was clean and fine. Just pay another bill of 360 NZ dollar to cover their effort....

Unpacking
Our stuff finally arrived on Tuesday 29th April. It is exactly 7 months since we moved out from our home in Den Bosch. The container arrived on the 7th April. It was 6 weeks on the move from Rotterdam to Singapore and than down to Christchurch. But it took more than 3 weeks from the harbour to our house. If you calculate the speed for the last 3 weeks...20m/h!!! How frustrating is that...
But ok, the stuff is here and the house is suddenly filled with 194 boxes and packages. Obviously we packed our stuff quite well, the only damage we have is one broken flower pot and 2 broken glasses. All other things seem to be fine and in working order.

Esthers' Job
Tomorrow 5th May, Esther is starting her new job as a GIS Analyst. She had 3 interviews and got 2 job offers out of them which is great. One with the Christchurch City Council and one with Davis Ogilvie, an engineering company. Comparing both offers, the one at DO was the better offer. Also, she will work 4 days a week, which leaves a day more spare time. Davis Ogilvie & Partners (www.dop.co.nz), is an engineering company with about 140 employers. For NZ, this is quite a big company but compared to Arcadis (former employer in NL with 8000 employees) it is rather small. GIS is still a small part in NZ, but it is a growing field.

Permanent Residency
We also applied for the Permanent Residence (PR). At this moment we hold a Work Permit for 3 years, we needed that in order to be able to start working. The PR application can take a couple of months to be approved. The checks will be a lot more thorough than for the other permits. So, another envelop with lots of papers and original diplomas etc. including our passports were dropped again in the drop off box at the Immigration office.

Autumn has finally started. We even had some snow on the Port Hills last night. The gas heater is working hard. But we still have enough lemons on our tree in the garden!

Looking back at the last six months, we actually achieved quite a lot. We haven't done too bad and are allowed to be a bit proud at our selves! It still feels like the right decision to be here and we have no regrets at all.