I Officially hand in my notice.....

Well there has been time to reflect in the last few days as to where this is all leading, we have two of our teenage son's also going to pastures new in a month or so to start a life in the British Army. I cannot image where the time has gone as it only seemed like yesterday that they were still young boys and not the ever demanding teenagers they are now. But they have a long road ahead of them in their young lives and so much to learn and look forward too, with the pitfalls of adulthood in front of them, but even though we are going over 12,000 miles away to start a new life and career of our own we shall stand by them whatever they get up too. Now onto work related matters I finally got around to typing up my notice period to the company I work for and posting it off to finally start the countdown to my remaining 30 shifts left to do and then that is me done, time then to catch up with all other matters Kiwi related to set us on our way to handing over the rental property and doing other outstanding tasks on my "To Do List" that is growing longer by the week.

Also we shall be celebrating "20 years of marriage" can you imagine that one !! You no longer serve 20 years in prison for murder, your out at the 15th year mark on license, so we shall make time for ourselves and book a table at some nice restaurant somewhere in the city of Lincoln and spend some quality time like man and wife should these days. So I shall keep you all posted as to what we got up to on our 20th anniversary.

New Zealand Bound Hopefully October 2006

Monday 19th June.

Today we are moving with haste to get all the right information for our ITA pack, Meds are done and just waiting for the return of our results and xray's are complete, still waiting for the Police checks but good news is we had confirmation back that we are well within the 40 day wait now so should have them back some time early August. Trying to keep focused now and have a week off to get all the other things needed on the check list, work experience paperwork and references from my previous employers and all other outstanding that I can put into our folder. The three children are getting excited now and have started to ask more questions again about New Zealand, this is a a good sign now as previous weeks we had the doom and gloom of leaving there little world behind them that they have got so used too for over 22 long months now.Chatted to my good friend in Auckland on skype this morning and he is exicted too about our move in October so hopefully fingers crossed everything will be in order for that date, he has been our there now for a good 5 years and has now finally accepted Auckland as home and not the UK as this seems to be the case for a lot of other Pom's that find it hard to adopt there new homeland. But I'm sure we will settle down along the way and will find the first 12 months a littel rocky as many have done before us, we have done this trip once before so exictement awaits us all. Looking on other blogs who have already made the journey and keeping up with them from day to day is also exciting and finding out most in Christchurch have had a good southern snap of cold and the snow is on the ground down there is strange as the UK has had a good two weeks of glorious sunshire here.

Medical Booked in Oxford

Getting Your Medicals Done.......

Thursday 15th June 2006

Today was the day we had to get our medicals done and we chose from the list of panel doctors on the immigration site and we decided to go for Oxford and The Manor Hospital which is part of the Nuffield Hospital Group, We were introduced to Dr Armstrong who came over very well with the initial telephone interview we had and felt very confident with our appointment. Was even given the 4 digit under ground car park number free of charge which was a big help with all the added stress of trying to park at Hospital's, so can only say this is a big bonus for starters as we had to travel from Lincoln which was in itself a 3 hour drive.Most panel doctors we called could not give us an appointment until mid July so taking into account the time it takes for results for your bloods and xray's a 3 hour journey to Oxford would be worth it in the long run, by my reckoning we have saved around three to four weeks alone in waiting time for appointments. Our journey down to Oxford was pretty stress free until we got to the dreaded M1 near Leicester where we came upon road works at Junction 21a which put at least a half hour on our journey time already, we had an 11:00am appointment and it was about to get worse, when we got to The Manor Hospital in Oxford within time for our appointment but to fail at the last hurdle we had forgot our passports for the xray's. We then had to go through this whole process once more the following day to get our Xray's completed, one of the stipulations of the Xray Dept was they would not verify our Xray's without attaching our photographs onto the application and checking against the passports, one costly mistake which we never want to repeat I'm afraid.........But apart from that we can recommend The Manor Hospital for panel doctors, very smart hospital as part of the Nuffield Trust of Hospitals and very prompt and on time appointments, the kids were kept entertained with toys and we were kept happy with tea and coffee and newspapers to keep us amused with very little delay to our appointments. So now all we need is to crack on with our ITA application and a trip down to London to see the consulate with our paperwork.

Time to Submit Expression Of Interest

Pushing on with EOI:
Well, Its all systems go now that our EOI has been processed and was successful and showing selected on the NZ immigration website, so they have now sent out our pack for (ITA) Invitation To Apply for residency which arrived in the post Monday 12th June 2006. With my job offer arriving also today from the RNZAF we can now start to put together the ITA pack which has a checklist to work through which makes things a little easier, we have had to go down the (SMP) Skilled Migrant Programme route as we are applying for Permanent Residency and have a short window of opportunity to get this in as my drafting date has been approved for October 9th 2006. Now the big push is on to gather all the relevant work experience, original certificates for my qualifications, with medical checks and police checks to get in order which should be possible to do within three to four weeks hopefully no delays.We have our medicals booked for Thursday 15th June at The Manor Hospital in Oxford which is part of the Nuffield Hospital Group and spoke to a Dr Armstrong who came across very calm about the whole process, even gave me the code number for the underground car parking which surprised me......must be part of the package I assured myself. Reality is starting to kick in now, here we are starting the whole process all over again just like it was way back in 2003 but this time its not a two year working visa I am going for. This time its Permanent Residency on the back of a job offer from the RNZAF, myself and my wife Sherren think this is a worthwhile and challenging career move which will see us both through the remaining years of our working lives rather than spending them back in blighty. It often scares me to think would I rather be working until I am 68 in blighty for my pension rights, or could I spend 15 years in the RNZAF which will make me 59 and retire in a beautiful part of the southern hemisphere !! Enough said I think I have answered that one..........

The Jones Family New Zealand Bound 2006

Our Minds Are Made Up

Monday June 12th

Take a look at the picture
blue sea, sandy deserted beach,
what more can you ask for !!

Most of our nearest and dearest family members will still be pondering why we want to return to New Zealand ! We've fielded this question now for some time and after all the heartache and decision making which has took us over two years to make we have finally made that decision.The Reason:The crooks of it is this: Well, because our journey in 2003 to New Zealand was for such a short period of our lives, We're still committed to the cause; we have found a better quality of life; and all family members are in need of adventure. New Zealand gave gave us that adventure so much more in such a very short time back in 2003, even then for that short period of time we grew to love the country we had only just brushed the surface of this beautiful landscape we had all got to know so well. There is so much more to see and embrace and such beauty, the people, the low density population growth, and most of all the slow paced life style that had captivated all of us.The Process:
Way back in 2003 we were persuaded by a good friend of ours back in the IT world to embark on a trip of a lifetime to New Zealand (Auckland) he assured us then, once our minds were made up and his job offer accepted, we would not regret the steps we had taken to change our lives. That journey would be captivated by the ever changing lifestyle, the warm embrace of the New Zealand people; the unprecedented economic boom within a landmass that had not enough people to support its own growth.
The Dream:We initially set off on a journey to New Zealand way back in 2003, but unfortunately returned to the UK due to unforeseen family circumstances that led us to return for a sabbatical, also financing the move back to the UK was a huge strain on our savings at the time. But we never gave up hope that one day we could return to the land of the big white cloud, but having said that the journey we've all experienced so far on our return to UK has been an experience none of us have regretted for a moment. We have all gained so much from our extended family members we never knew we had, and will continue to embrace them into our lives forever wherever we settle. In this short space of time we have all done so much within a two year window, who knows what the future holds for the "The Jones family & The Norris family" we have all got to know each other so well in many different ways, from our first family holiday to Portugal in 2004 to our first passing Christmas and New Year; to passing birthdays; however having said all that we have now decided a great opportunity has come our way to return to New Zealand and myself return back into military uniform by way of joining the RNZAF. I initially applied to join way back in 2003 when we entered New Zealand, and was successful with recruitment in 2006. The RNZAF have now confirmed my drafting date and we are now set for a return in October 2006, so we are nearly at the finishing post we just have to finalise medicals and PR which shouldn't take too long.