today i made a visit to http://www.immigration.govt.nz, signed on to my account, and what did i see? a residency visa staring back at me! "Visa Resident 207724058 - Please apply for transfer of this visa when the passport expires. The holder may travel to NZ and on application shall be granted a residence permit. This returning resident's visa is current for two years from the date of issue of the original residence permit"

wooohoooo, it's even more official now :-P then i went to my bank account online and saw that they have charged me the migrant levy! that's it! now i just have to wait for my passport to find its way home. this was a bit exciting for me.

otherwise, not much new going on. i have been continuing to sell things. a lot of trying and not as much selling, but slowly things are going away. i will probably have a yard sale in a few weeks to try and clear things out. i went through a lot of clothes over the weekend. i'm really getting rid of a lot, i probably need to get rid of a lot more, but i've made a good start.

oh, i found a cheaper place to start off in NZ! Newtown Heights Lodge has rooms for only nz$140/week. This involves shared bathroom and kitchen, but my own private room. they also have tv room. i think that is a pretty good deal. i may be there a few weeks, it just depends.

yes, i think i will leave it at that for now.

jon

My Passport is still in London (best as I can tell) but everything is still progressing smoothly (as best as I can tell) with receiving my Passport and Permanent Residency. So...what do I have to write about?

First, a little on progress. The job search is going nowhere right now, so let's just leave that out. But the living situation seems pretty good. I've been in touch with a few real estate agents about rentals. It's too early to get something, and one agent strongly suggested I wait until arriving before deciding on anything. I will probably take her advice. That is one of the nice things about the agents as well, they really seem to be helpful. The same agent that suggested I wait until arriving to find a place also referred me to another agent (with another company) because she thought the area she covers would be better for me. I found that to be refreshing and would never expect the same here.

So, now I've found a motel pretty close in to downtown that has $210nz weekly rates. That is probably cheaper than the weekly rates I'll be paying for my apt. when I find one, so seems like a pretty good deal. Of course, it may not be the nicest motel ever, but it does sound as though it will be okay.

My other progress is in trying to get rid of all my possessions before moving. That is progressing slowly, but progressing nonetheless. I sold my 20" LCD monitor and my Osterizer Blender to a co-worker. I have sold almost all of my DVDs and a decent chunk of my CDs. I think starting tomorrow I will take my CDs in to my work and try to sell to my co-workers and hope I don't get in trouble for it. I made a little webpage with many of the things I'm trying to sell pictured. Soon I need to start going through all of my clothes and trying to cut down on the clothing load I'm taking with me. That will be difficult. I like my clothes.

What else? Well, the emotional strain of the move is starting to show itself. The idea of leaving family and friends (even though I never see them here) is starting become more real. I was IMing with my niece the other day. She is coming down for a couple of days on her break in April. That will be our goodbye. I started getting a little teary eyed thinking about it. I'm still trying to find the time and money for a trip down to SC to see my mom, sister and nephew before I leave.

All in all, things are going quite well, the most disturbing trend is insomnia. I've had insomnia for a long time, but it had been improving over the past year or so. Now it is getting much worse. So many thoughts are constantly whirring around in my head, it is definitely a challenge to herd them all into their little corral to allow me to sleep.

It is a very windy afternoon here in NYC. I hear that Wellington gets a lot of wind, so this is just more practice.

Take care all,

Jon

Hello my thousands of dedicated readers,

I have taken the big step. I bought my one way plane ticket. I will fly away on the 3rd of May to start my Kiwi life. I arrive in Wellington on the morning of the 5th. Still trying to figure out where I will be living when I arrive, but that is progressing. The job thing...I'm more or less resigned to showing up without work. I will apply for some more jobs before getting there, but I figure it will probably have to wait until I'm there and can attend in-person interviews before I actually get offered work.

Things are good.

Jon

NZIS received my Passport. They said final visa stuff should be processed within 2-3 weeks. Hopefully that means by the very beginning of April I will have my Passport back.

My plan now is to leave either the 3rd or 10th of May. I believe I'll be able to get a one way ticket for about $900. I think i'll try to buy it before the 12th of March on Air NZ so that I get the larger baggage allowance. It is being reduced for all flights purchased after the 12th.

Still no job. That will be dealt with in time though. If I have to move without a job, it will be okay. I can temp.