Friday, September 01, 2006
Some background
So here is some background, since I've already been in NZ for a few months.
I got a really great job offer down here, and flew down for an interview. I decided to take the job, so I quickly had to sell my car, find a new home for my cat, and get rid of most of the 'stuff' I had accumulated for so many years. Looking back, I should have sold most of the good stuff on eBay - oh well.
So I somehow managed to jump through all the hoops of bloodtests, paperwork, chest x-rays, medical exams, more paperwork, and huge fees. I got the visa quickly, and things were moving smoothly. When it came time to fly out, it was also pretty smooth; well except for Air Canada. They wanted to charge me $165 extra because I was taking my bike in a bike box, even though I had already paid $50 in Nova Scotia, I was lucky to get out of there just paying an extra $50.
Arriving in NZ was nice, but it took forever to finally get over the jet lag. I was at work the next day, and glad to be (I don't want to mention any specifics about me or my job, for obvious reasons). I get to do all sorts of interesting things with Linux and hacking around with our source code, and trying new things. Its really a great place to work.
I was in a tiny one bedroom motel room for a month. My area has a pretty good rental market, and it looked like I could rent a complete house for a reasonable price. Having come from a small apartment in Canada, in the same house as 5 or 6 party animals I thought it would be great to have a place of my own. The thing is, unlike Nova Scotia, most house rentals are handled through real estate agnecies. 95% of the good rental houses that I was interested in were handled by 'The Professionals'. The agent I had to deal with was worse than useless, which made it nearly impossible to find a house to rent. I finally found another rental agency that had a nice flat for rent, up in the hills surrounded by native bush. Even though the flat was small, it was clean and quiet, and I didn't have to use the un-professionals, so I took it.
For the month I was in to motel room, it was easy to underestimate the amount of household things I didn't have. Once I moved into the flat, it was undeniable! I didn't have a bed, a couch, and dishes, or even a chair! Its was beyond bare. Luckily a coworked hooked me up with almost everything I needed. I also went on a mini shopping spree for the essentials. Its amazing how much some of this stuff costs! Certain things in New Zealand seem to be much more expensive than I'm used to, like beds! I knew I had a bed coming, so I didn't want to fork out $2000 for a new one. It turns out air mattresses are fantastic, I slept on one for a month and a half without any problems.
I started to become a trademe.co.nz addict! This is a clone of eBay, and extremily popular in NZ, maybe too popular. Some people end up paying more for things than they cost brand new, I must admit I got caught in this trap when I bought my 1st vacuum cleaner. I won't go into details, but the vacuum was total crap. I bought a tv, washing machine, dryer, fridge, dehumidifier and few small things off trademe and saved a huge amount of money (and lost a bit on the vacuum, arg!).
One of the big reasons for me moving to NZ was the outdoors, and I haven't been disappointed. This place is amazing, a few hundred metres up my street is a fantastic park. Its huge and perfect for a guy like me. It has rolling hills and some sweet singletrack for biking, and tramping (aka hiking). The hills in the distance look even better. If I look to the south on a clear day, I can see the huge mountains of the South Island. I can't wait to do a little roadtrip there next summer, that'll be great! My brother and I did a mountainbiking roadtrip of British Columbia, Canada using an Enterprise GM rental cargo van. Its was cheap and fun, but I'd love to go a little more high-end next time (though there is something fun about doing a huge trip on the cheap).
My work paid for my personal items to be shipped from Canada, which took a couple months. Its was great when they finally arrived. Sleeping in a real bed was like heaven, my couch was pure paradise, and the rug 'really tied the room together' (bit of a movie quote there, sorry!).
So that brings me to today. I'm mostly setup, but I still need a few things. I was bummed out for a little while, because a month or two after moving here my asthma really flared up. I thought I had beaten asthma about 14 years ago, and hadn't used an inhaler since. The great thing is that lately the asthma has been going away (allergies too). Right now its only excercise induced, and very mild. Asthma attacks are a serious pain in the ass, so I'm thrilled that its going away. I'd love to know what aggrivates it!
Well I think thats a long enough post without any photos.
I got a really great job offer down here, and flew down for an interview. I decided to take the job, so I quickly had to sell my car, find a new home for my cat, and get rid of most of the 'stuff' I had accumulated for so many years. Looking back, I should have sold most of the good stuff on eBay - oh well.
So I somehow managed to jump through all the hoops of bloodtests, paperwork, chest x-rays, medical exams, more paperwork, and huge fees. I got the visa quickly, and things were moving smoothly. When it came time to fly out, it was also pretty smooth; well except for Air Canada. They wanted to charge me $165 extra because I was taking my bike in a bike box, even though I had already paid $50 in Nova Scotia, I was lucky to get out of there just paying an extra $50.
Arriving in NZ was nice, but it took forever to finally get over the jet lag. I was at work the next day, and glad to be (I don't want to mention any specifics about me or my job, for obvious reasons). I get to do all sorts of interesting things with Linux and hacking around with our source code, and trying new things. Its really a great place to work.
I was in a tiny one bedroom motel room for a month. My area has a pretty good rental market, and it looked like I could rent a complete house for a reasonable price. Having come from a small apartment in Canada, in the same house as 5 or 6 party animals I thought it would be great to have a place of my own. The thing is, unlike Nova Scotia, most house rentals are handled through real estate agnecies. 95% of the good rental houses that I was interested in were handled by 'The Professionals'. The agent I had to deal with was worse than useless, which made it nearly impossible to find a house to rent. I finally found another rental agency that had a nice flat for rent, up in the hills surrounded by native bush. Even though the flat was small, it was clean and quiet, and I didn't have to use the un-professionals, so I took it.
For the month I was in to motel room, it was easy to underestimate the amount of household things I didn't have. Once I moved into the flat, it was undeniable! I didn't have a bed, a couch, and dishes, or even a chair! Its was beyond bare. Luckily a coworked hooked me up with almost everything I needed. I also went on a mini shopping spree for the essentials. Its amazing how much some of this stuff costs! Certain things in New Zealand seem to be much more expensive than I'm used to, like beds! I knew I had a bed coming, so I didn't want to fork out $2000 for a new one. It turns out air mattresses are fantastic, I slept on one for a month and a half without any problems.
I started to become a trademe.co.nz addict! This is a clone of eBay, and extremily popular in NZ, maybe too popular. Some people end up paying more for things than they cost brand new, I must admit I got caught in this trap when I bought my 1st vacuum cleaner. I won't go into details, but the vacuum was total crap. I bought a tv, washing machine, dryer, fridge, dehumidifier and few small things off trademe and saved a huge amount of money (and lost a bit on the vacuum, arg!).
One of the big reasons for me moving to NZ was the outdoors, and I haven't been disappointed. This place is amazing, a few hundred metres up my street is a fantastic park. Its huge and perfect for a guy like me. It has rolling hills and some sweet singletrack for biking, and tramping (aka hiking). The hills in the distance look even better. If I look to the south on a clear day, I can see the huge mountains of the South Island. I can't wait to do a little roadtrip there next summer, that'll be great! My brother and I did a mountainbiking roadtrip of British Columbia, Canada using an Enterprise GM rental cargo van. Its was cheap and fun, but I'd love to go a little more high-end next time (though there is something fun about doing a huge trip on the cheap).
My work paid for my personal items to be shipped from Canada, which took a couple months. Its was great when they finally arrived. Sleeping in a real bed was like heaven, my couch was pure paradise, and the rug 'really tied the room together' (bit of a movie quote there, sorry!).
So that brings me to today. I'm mostly setup, but I still need a few things. I was bummed out for a little while, because a month or two after moving here my asthma really flared up. I thought I had beaten asthma about 14 years ago, and hadn't used an inhaler since. The great thing is that lately the asthma has been going away (allergies too). Right now its only excercise induced, and very mild. Asthma attacks are a serious pain in the ass, so I'm thrilled that its going away. I'd love to know what aggrivates it!
Well I think thats a long enough post without any photos.
# posted by Chris LeBlanc @ 5:11 PM 
