2008 New Zealand

I don't think there are too many people who fly across the world on their own, leaving their nearest and dearest, at the age of 57, to not only work in a country they have never set foot in, but also with the intention of settling there.


In hind site it feels like sheer lunacy !


NZ terrafirma

And it would have been lunacy if there had not been a reason behind my madness. But after all the horrid things that had been happening; being able to count over ten people I knew either first or second degree whom had been murdered, and more whom had been high jacked, shot at or attacked, we'd had our Epiphany, which was that we no longer felt that South Africa was a safe place for our grandkids to grow up in. Sure, our daughter and her hub were emigrating and they had given us a 'wake up call'. And hence there was Evi winging her way on a series of aeroplanes to her destiny.


Arriving on NZ terrafirma,  I was utterly exhausted after all the flying, sleepless nights, 14 hours stuck at Hong Kong airport, combined with the intense sobbing I'd experienced. I must have looked an abomination and I felt a complete wreck....I was eternally grateful to be welcomed and fetched by my husband's cousin and wife, who'd been living in NZ for the past 15 years. A soaking glorious bubble bath, a delicious meal and a magically large soft bed helped, plus a phone call home to SA so say I'd arrived... But in truth the jetlag, jelly legs, nausea, dizziness and fatigue lingered for 3 weeks.


I stayed with G and R a few nights, which was great to get set up and I'll be eternally graterful. What do you need to do on arrival ?
Get to a Mall that can accommodate all of the below !

1. Bank the traveller's cheques you have with you, so open a bank account and get an EPTPOS card ASAP.
2 Buy a mobile phone, as using your SA phone with International Roaming until you get a phone is exorbitant.
3. Get an email/skype modem stick for your laptop so that in 24 hours you can be emailing and skyping home.
4. Get a GPS so that you can find your way around.
5. Of course you need accommodation and a car, but we luckily had set that up via SA, so I had a zippy green sports car waiting for me, plus the down stairs of a double storied house, just ten km from my office. 


Not my green car !

All I had to do was learn to drive an automatic, as in SA I had only driven a manual my entire life.... then I had to find my accommodation using the GPS, and get settled. I was commencing my new job a week after my arrival. (That had been offered to me when in SA and I'd had an interview, telephonically (by candle light due to load shedding !!) a few months before.>>>>>> :)  )

Evi on Island New Zealand... a new planet for me !

    A new life

  A new planet

        A metaphorical rebirth >>>>