If you apply for your ENS PR (employee nomination scheme, in other words a company here gives you a job and then sponsors you for permanent residence) while you are still in SA (called off-shore), you need to be out of the country when the visa is 'awarded'. We applied for our work visa as well as the ENS PR while we were still in SA, so we had to leave the country for a few days so that our permanent residence visas could be finalised. As this formed part of our visa requirements, Geoff's work paid for all our flights, as well as accommodation in a hotel in Rotorua for 2 nights.
So... back in time we go again. Some more photies in this post for those of you who get bored reading too much stuff :-).
On Wed 16 Dec we got up bright and early, made sure we had our passports, and we hit the road to the airport. As it was a work day, we had to leave quite early in order to get to the aiport in time with rush hour traffic along the way. (They call one section of the freeway "Monash Parking Lot" because it gets to a standstill if anything out of the ordinary happens! Phew, some days homeschooling REALLY pays off - don't have to leave the house for my daily work!)
We landed in Auckland round about 5pm, rented a car, and drove to Rotorua - about 3 hours from Auckland. (Geoff also made some work appointments at two mills close to Rotorua, that is why we stayed there for Thu and Fri.)So while Geoff was it work during the day, the kids and I painted the town red (apart from learning how to breathe sulphur air all the time - makes a rotten egg smell quite pleasant!).
On Thursday we visited Whakarewarewa Maori village.
Quick language lesson here - Wh is pronounce F in NZ - so I'll leave it to you to pronounce the name of the village with a straight face :-).
That was quite interesting. A few Maori families actually live in this village, you pay an entrance fee (and not cheap, but once in a lifetime is OK) to go into the village, and then you can go have a look at the thermal geysers, the boiling hot mud pool, a show put up by one of the families, shop in one of the 3 or 4 little Maori owned shops there, etc.
This is part of the family who did the 'show', they also live in the house that you see here.
Swimming or bathing in this pool would NOT be a good idea...
This hot water geyser spurts out boiling water most of the time.
We also spent some time driving around the lake and looking for the thermal hot spots, and then we went to the 'lake front' - I had a good book, and the kids played around in the park.
On Friday afternoon after lunch with Geoff's NZ colleague we drove back to Auckland via Tauranga and then Maunganui where we stopped over for a quick windswept (hello Gordons Bay!) play on the beach for the kids. Geoff sat somewhere in the shade with his laptop working, and I had - you guessed it - my book.
We got to Auckland at about 7.30 pm, had supper at Victoria Park (in the wind, it was quite chilly) and was then met by Bridget, Holly, Amy and Chris for a walk up (and down) Franklin Street - well known for their Christmas lights every year.
On the Saturday the children got to taboggan at Snow Planet for free (helps being from South Africa, and to never have seen snow before!!). They had a ball of a time, and only gave up when they were frozen! They weren't dressed appropriately, and had to borrow clothes and boots, and looked quite cute in the oversized clothes.
Gian after a successful ride...
Mieke and Gian - by now quite frozen :-).
After the unexpected Snow Planet visit we headed for North Head.
View of Auckland (Sky Tower in the middle there) from North Head.
Geoff and Larry having a go at taboganning down the hill on a piece of cardboard. Unfortunately the pieces of cardboard were waaaaaaaay too small, and they didn't get very far!
After North Head we headed for Auckland Domain Park where we had lunch and Geoff, Bridget and Mieke visited the museum. Gian, Larry and I opted for ice cream instead. :-)
Sunday morning we were off to the airport again, and we landed in Melbourne as Permanent Residents. What a feeling! We then drove straight to church (via a takeaway place to get something to eat) and joined in our first Christmas Carol evening church service in Australia as PRs!
And now I have some chores to do...
Our next trip back into time: Our first Christmas in Aus!!
