The time has come, the movers have been and I'm homeless as the keys have been handed in and I'm throwing myself on the mercy of relatives. On Bank Holiday Monday I begin a 27 hour flight to New Zealand arriving about midday (their time, about midnight ours) on Wednesday the 27th.
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| Not a lot of this in England |
Aotearoa means the land of the long white cloud in Maori and is quite the most beautiful place I've visited, beating the tombs of Egypt easily.
My new job starts on the 1st of September and I'll be working in and around Auckland which is the largest city in New Zealand and has well over a quarter of the population of the two islands pretty much living there. Essentially it means if you want to be alone, you don't have far to go to be terribly, terribly alone.
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| My grandchildren |
To me it was the England which ought to be, they're bloody choosy who they let in and if you don't have a skill they want, forget it. The only unskilled they'll allow are Chinese, muslims need not apply.
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| My new place of work |
It's friendly and the leftards are firmly kept in place, that's not to say they don't have moments of lunacy, but frankly compared to this country it's not too bad.
I love England, but I no longer love what it's been allowed to become. I'll miss you all and the blog will stay open for a while to let you know how I'm doing.
Take care.
QM
14 annotations:
I like the look of the place you will be working - that will be the centre of London in 10 years time with a minaret!.....
Laurie -
Thanks for all your work mate, and good luck.
I will miss your postings. For what little it is worth, I once thought that I was alone. I have seen radical change where I live, and it has not been all for the better. And I am not blaming the 'Johnny come latelies' either. My local council has gone from being a half decent Conservative one, to a near bonkers Lefty ;o(
I'd love to come and join you but, I have commitments here I cannot break from.
NZ seems a really nice place, and the Kiwi's I've met here seem a decent bunch. You'll fir right in there, of that there can be no doubt.
Cheers. And once again thank you and good luck.
Good luck and enjoy your wonderful new life :)
"A great emigration necessarily implies unhappiness of some kind or other in the country that is deserted."
you will be much missed.
Good luck for the future QM. In '96 I took early retirement from my job and applied for, and was granted, NZ residence status. I went there with good intentions but chickened out, and came back home. I guess at the time there wasn't enough difference to persuade me to make the move. Now, nearly 20 years later, I have family commitments preventing me jumping ship, and age is working against me anyway.
I do hope you will continue to post, even if only occasionally, just to let the rest of us know how things are working out. And don't forget to see the South Island - the scenery is far more breathtaking than you'll find around Auckland!
All the best for the future Quiet Man. I would love to say that you're wrong and this country will get better, but I'm afraid I can't. For those like me, with family and age against moving somewhere like NZ, all we can do is try and stem the flow for as long as possible.
Penseivat
Very best of luck.
I wish you all the best. I tried to get a visa to retire to NZ but thanks to the points system the only way I could get in was to start up a business that employed at least two locals. As I was looking to give up work not start again, they wouldn't have me. Can't say I blame them really.
I'm ver there myself in November. Start off with a couple of days in Auckland then on a circumnavigation on one of my favourite ships, the Caledonia Sky, Hoping to say hello to Flaxen Saxon in Wellington on the way.
I'd say good luck, but you already had that by getting in. Wish it was me...
All the very best, QM. And thanks for your blog over the years - a beacon of good old common sense & straight talking. After a few weeks, what is happening to the UK may well seem like a terrible dream from which you have had the good fortune to awake from!
Hi QM. A message from Flaxen Saxon in Wellington : He says he can't access your blog for some reason but would like to say hello one expat to another expat to be!
His blog is at http://flaxensaxon.blogspot.co.uk
His email address is fancymcclean@gmail.com
I'll look into the problem, it's probably a bit of code I've added to enable editing.
Thanks - it is always a relief to know that someone has made the jump successfully. Do not underestimate how important it is to hold up a beacon of hope.
My very best wishes for your and yours in your new life.
Damn, just missed you again. Safe flight.
Have fun in Auckland. Great place except for the traffic... Lived there for 5 years before moving to sunny Wello. If you need any advice re living in NZ etc, get in touch. I moved here 14 years ago with my family- best thing I ever did. Good luck.
Thanks Flaxen Saxon, just made it to Singapore as I'm writing this. Drinking iced tea and sweating in the 22 degree heat :-)
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