April 23, 2025 • 42 mins
Immigration is hard—there’s no sugarcoating it. Our first week in Auckland New Zealand was filled with excitement, uncertainty, and a fair share of stress. But with a bit of preparation, a flexible mindset, and the determination to keep pushing forward, we made it through.
The Challenges We Faced:
- Housing Hunt
- Initial Expenses
- Navigating Systems
- Emotional Toll
How We Got Through It:
- Buffer Budget
- Adaptability
- Community + Online Resources
- Never Giving Up
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
} { There are over 100,000 people who immigrate to New Zealand every year with the intention to make New Zealand their home, leaving behind everything they know as normal day-to-day life and having to learn new ways of doing things, new norms, new cultures, and different values. There are many people who struggle with this transition and find it challenging to adjust and settle so they can call and make New Zealand their home.} {\pard \line \par} {The purpose of this podcastis for me to share my journey and our challenges with the hope that you can learn from me and my family and have a softer landing. There will be good days and bad days, but with time, more good days. I believe we have made the right choice for our family. I want to try and help you do the same.} {\pard \line \par} {But hopefully with a softer landing. This is soft landing, and I am your host, Brett Collette. Welcome to this podcast, designed for anyone thinking } {\cf1
(01:00):
} { about preparing for, or who has just immigrated to New Zealand. Subscribe now so you never miss an episode drawing from his personal experience. This series will guide you through the process of preparing for your move and helping you navigate the challenges of immigration.} {\pard \line \par} {So welcome back. It's so nice to have you join me again on my podcast. I'm I'm still so humbled and so honored to get so much of the feedback and to hear people that, that are actually taking the time to listen to my podcast and some of them giving some feedback and showing methat it's, actually helping, which really.} {\pard \line \par} {Gives me motivation to want to carry on sharing my story and help you guys. So it's just a big thank you for taking the time to listen to me. and I truly hope it is helping. and I'll, as long as I can hear that it is, and I'm getting that feedback, I'll keep doing these podcasts for as long as I can.} {\pard \line \par} {with that said, if, you, this is your first podcast, of mine that you're listening to and you haven't heard my others. I know that's only the third one, but please go back to number one. Start there. } {\cf1
(02:00):
} { I'm trying to tell my journey and my story of us moving to New Zealand and I'm trying to do it in chronological order.} {\pard \line \par} {so it'll make a lot more sense if you hear it from the first one. And while I'm busy talking through it, I'm just trying to share with what went well for us, what didn't, the lessons we've learned. So hopefully you can learn from us. and when you're moving across, to New Zealand, you can have a softer landing and it'll be easier for you.} {\pard \line \par} {That's the whole purpose, of this podcast. With that said, so at the end of the last podcast, I prettymuch got to the point where we had just finally got to Auckland and finally got to the hotel. So that's where I really want to pick up with, our journey and continue. So just trying to think back, and I know it's just over two years ago and I was trying to run it by my wife before I started the podcast today, just to try and get my dates and timing right, because I promise you that first.} {\pard \line \par} {Wow. Probably the first six months, even to a year is a lot of it can be a real blur. There's so much that's going on and really don't underestimate how difficult it is } {\cf1
(03:00):
} { to immigrate. it's hard. This is one of the hardest things I've ever done, so I think I. It's easy now, two years later to forget a lot of what you went through, but while you're going through it is tough and it gave me a chance to think back and look at the calendar and try to think what did we actually do in that first week when we arrived in Auckland?} {\pard \line \par} {And let me just try get my timing right and. E even after I went through that and I said to my, geez, there's actually so much we went through. Icannot believe our first two weeks. I dunno how we did it. So let me pick up with that. So just so that you can try and understand. So we had just arrived. I think we left South Africa.} {\pard \line \par} {It was a Wednesday evening that we left, but now you gotta remember time zones. So we're flying ahead and we're going. To New Zealand, and we are actually going to lose some days now because New Zealand is a bit ahead of us. So it turns out that we actually, after traveling for however many hours, 27, 30 hours, we } {\cf1
(04:00):
} { ended up landing on a Friday morning.} {\pard \line \par} {And as I said on the last episode, it was the early hours of the morning. So we landed at the airport, oh, midnight, one in the morning, something like that. And there was all our troubles that I spoke about on the last episode at the airport. I think it must have been close to oh three or four in the morning when we finally got to the hotel.} {\pard \line \par} {So it was like the longest morning ever. Now the thing was, because it was a Friday and we had just arrived, I. My, my thinking was, do Itry catch up on a little bit of sleep or do you just carry on? So what actually happened was my wife and the kids, they did get a little bit of sleep in the hotel once we had gotten checked in and into the room.} {\pard \line \par} {But I opted to rather just push on through because there was some stuff that I really wanted to do on the first day that we arrived. Mainly I wanted to get to a bank. So as I explained to you in the previous podcast, you, I was able to open up a bank account when I was still in South Africa. So I opened up a } {\cf1
(05:00):
} { BNZ bank account and I had transferred some money across into that account, but the only way you could get access to that money was when you were in country.} {\pard \line \par} {You had to go into a branch and you had to take through your identification and proof of residence, documentation, proof of income, a couple of things that they're asked for and present that to them so you can prove. That I am who I say I am so that they can activate the account, give me a temporary card so that I could actually get access to those funds and that account, that I had opened from South Africa.} {\pard \line \par} {So Ireally wanted to do that. What we also realized when we got in country is that. I landed on a Friday, so it was gonna be the weekend. I wasn't sure if the banks were gonna be open and available on the weekend, hence I wanted to do it on the Friday. And not only did I want the money straight away because we needed some dollars and everything that we had transferred across there, but I was worried I didn't want to wait until the Monday.} {\pard \line \par} {And what we also found out is on the Monday, the 6th of February was actually a public holiday in, New Zealand. It was white tangy day. } {\cf1
(06:00):
} { So we were worried that we probably wouldn't be able to get to the banks till Monday, so we'd only be able to get to the banks by the Tuesday. So I had to push on through and I had to get to the banks.} {\pard \line \par} {so I woke up, no, it didn't wake up, sorry. I just pushed on through the kids and my wife went to sleep and, I, went and tried to find the bank. What was good is we had organized the car. So I did have a car at the hotel, so I had transport straight away. So that, really did help me. So I was in a position where I could just be independent andI could start on my way doing, as per our checklist that we had put in plan, put in place.} {\pard \line \par} {And one of the first things was getting to the bank, so that, that did help. One of the things you would want to do is if you haven't been able to organize a car like I have. You've gotta try and then start thinking about either friends that can help you get around or help you get to a point where you can actually get your own transport so you can be independent because there's gonna be a lot of things that you need to do.} {\pard \line \par} {And you'll see when } {\cf1
(07:00):
} { I'm talking through my first week, a lot of the stuff that we had to do, when I got to the bank, it was pretty straightforward and easy. Showing them the documentation and everything, identification. They were very efficient, giving me a temporary card. what they did do though, is the actual proper permanent card that you would only be available a couple of days to a week later.} {\pard \line \par} {Now, what they did say to me is they could, courier it to the house, to, to where you stay. But my challenge now was, yeah, I did have an address where we were goingstay, but because of the floods and everything like that house. Is no longer available, so that wasn't gonna be my address. I didn't have an address.} {\pard \line \par} {So the alternative was the bank said that they would keep the card at the branch and they would notify me when it was ready and then I'd have to go back and fetch the actual permanent card. And that at the time, that was the only option that I actually had. What did help with the rental document and everything we had signed is I did have an address of where we, that I could use for where we } {\cf1
(08:00):
} { were potentially gonna stay or just a, an address.} {\pard \line \par} {In New Zealand, 'cause often they ask for an address. what you could do there is just use a friend's address. if you don't have an address or maybe you could have work used your work address. I don't know, I dunno how sticky there'd be on that. But we used the rental address of the rental that we were waiting for the mortgage or the bond or the deposit back from because it had been flooded.} {\pard \line \par} {But I could use that and I just opted to tell them to keep the card at the bank. Which I'd have to goback and fetch. in hindsight, it probably would've been better to go to a branch. Closer to where we ended up staying. and you'll hear when I talk through the podcast where we ended up, whereas this branch was near the airport, near the hotel that we were staying in.} {\pard \line \par} {So when I had to go back a week later to fetch it, it was a bit out of the way. So it wasn't nearby where we were staying or nearby where I was working. Didn't think about that. it was actually near to the airport, so it was a bit of out of the way, task to go fetch the card a } {\cf1
(09:00):
} { week later when it was finally ready.} {\pard \line \par} {Anyway, that aside, I got to bank, got my temporary card. Now I could have some, access to that cash that I had in that bank, account. And we had to get back to the hotel, with the family who were waking up, obviously get food, do all that kind of stuff. But then starting, our biggest problem was where are we gonna stay?} {\pard \line \par} {Because the idea was we were only gonna stay in the hotel for one night, and then we were actually gonna start moving into that rental that we had secured. And that rental we secured was even, it was actually even partly furnished.So it was really gonna help us. so that was all part of our planning and we had even arranged.} {\pard \line \par} {In the street we were saying we found another family that were, that had immigrated to New Zealand but had been there for a few years. We touched base with them on some Facebook groups and they said, oh, that'll be great. They'll organize a care pack, which is some food and everything like that. So when we arrive at the rental, we'd have some food ready.} {\pard \line \par} {so it'd be a little bit of a softer landing. But now, because we were notified like literally an hour and a half, an hour before we boarded } {\cf1
(10:00):
} { to leave South Africa, that it had been flooded and was non inhabitable. That had all fallen through, including that family that was gonna help us and food and everything like that, because they just stayed in the same street.} {\pard \line \par} {So the big task, my wife and I was, we need to figure out where we gonna stay as a family now that we are here. What we opted to do is, the first thing was we extended our stay in the hotel. So we said, okay, we'll probably need to book for another two nights. So it gives us a little bit of time to start trying to find.}{\pard \line \par}{A rental or a Airbnb or somewhere else to stay. We can't continue staying in the hotel because it was expensive. It's not cheap. this is where it comes back to what I told you in the last podcast. you need to have that risk, budget, that buffer. So this is where really where we're starting to eat into our buffer, because this was unplanned for, the, additional cost of staying in the hotel.} {\pard \line \par}{It's not just the hotel cost, but it was also the food. Food is very expensive here. So paying for food in the hotel. Was also becoming very expensive. We } {\cf1
(11:00):
} { needed to get into a place where we could go shopping at a normal shop and buy some normal food and just cook for ourselves and be self-sufficient and be self-catering.} {\pard \line \par} {We couldn't carry on using, restaurants and everything like that. It was just far too costly. I. So what my wife and I opted to do is we obviously went on to real estate and I will do a podcast on how to find rentals and everything. It's very different here on, on, trying to find rentals and actually securing them the way you have to write up your cvs and go through a process.} {\pard \line \par} {But a bigthing that's different with the rentals here is they, advertise it when it's a. Pretty much almost available. So the turnaround in getting into the, rentals is, quick in our experience. it's not similar to where we were back home. There, there'd be like a month of giving notice and then you'd have quite a bit of time to prepare to get into the actual rental here.} {\pard \line \par} {Within 10 days, two weeks, you could potentially get into that rental because it's actually available. So obvious, obviously going through the process of getting, approved, paying the deposits, } {\cf1
(12:00):
} { all of that would have to happen, which I'll talk about in another, podcast. But. The turnaround could be quite quick.} {\pard \line \par} {So when we were trying to find another place to, to rent out, there were a couple of options, but bearing in mind, we had just arrived now post having a whole lot of floods. So there was a lot of people looking for rentals at the same time because now they potentially didn't have a home to live in, be it.} {\pard \line \par} {Their actual home or home that they were renting had become un uninhabitable. So they were tryingto find other places. So there was quite an influx of people trying to find rentals. So that made it a bit challenging. and trying to find something. There wasn't like a lot to choose from. So biggest couldn't be choosers.} {\pard \line \par} {We had to take whatever we could. We were able to get two places secured for a viewing over the weekend. So like I explained, it was a Friday now. So now we've been able to get contact and we, my wife is brilliant at the way she's actually researched and been able to do these rental. It's actually } {\cf1
(13:00):
} { incredible the way we were able to get into a rental so quickly, and the way you could get approved.} {\pard \line \par} {But that podcast will be invaluable, I think. Anyway, she was able to get us a viewing and it was just a viewing just for us over the weekend. And I, if my memory serves me correctly, it was either the Saturday or it was the Sunday that we were able to meet up with the agent to go view a place, that we were gonna stay, which was near the house that had got flooded.} {\pard \line \par} {So we could still potentially. Send our kids to the same schools that we had done researchon. So a big thing when choosing your rentals, a lot of the time if you've got children, it's gonna be based on where and what school you wanted to send your kids to. 'cause they're zoned for those schools unless you're going private, which will be different again, I will do another podcast on schooling, which is a whole different game as well.} {\pard \line \par} {so we found this rental that we could go see, but now what we were worried is. You still gotta be able to pay your deposit to security. You gotta be, they, gotta, the agent's gotta take all your information, almost } {\cf1
(14:00):
} { like a cv, send it off to the landlords. They gotta accept you. So it could take a few days before you given Yep.} {\pard \line \par} {the approval that you've been, accepted and the payments and deposits and everything go through. And then the timeline to move in. So now we weren't a hundred percent sure on when that would be, and I knew I was also starting work on the Wednesday. 'cause a big push for us to get here was even my job were pushing me to a point where saying, Hey, if you don't get here soon.} {\pard \line \par} {The opportunity's gonna fall away. So I couldn'tdelay starting on the Wednesday with everything that was going on. So over that weekend, it was it was crunch time to find somewhere else to stay. Yes. We had extended for the hotel until the Sunday slash Monday morning. We'd be checking out, but we needed to find somewhere else to stay that was cheaper and where we could start being self-catering.} {\pard \line \par} {So what we opted for was Airbnbs. The problem with the Airbnbs without timing was because it was post the floods. A lot of other people were using up all the Airbnbs, so we couldn't find one } {\cf1
(15:00):
} { close to the area we wanted to stay in. So it was an Airbnb, but again, we just take it and we opted to just take it for a week.} {\pard \line \par} {So it was gonna see us through from the Monday. To the following weekend because we were hoping that the rental that we were trying to secure would come in that time, and if we could potentially extend the Airbnb for another week if we had to, or potentially move to another Airbnb. But ideally, let's try getting into the rental, that we were trying to secure in a quick turnaround time in a week.} {\pard \line \par} {So I onlytook the Airbnb for a week, from the Monday to the Saturday. What it also meant was now we're on the Friday going into the weekend, over and above having to view the rental, which we did, and we accepted it. It wasn't ideal, it wasn't exactly what we were looking for, but we thought it, we can make it work.} {\pard \line \par} {it still was close enough to the area that we wanted, the schools that we wanted, so we thought, fine, just take it. So when I said Take it. Apply. So we had to apply, put all our information forward, see if we'd get accepted. we } {\cf1
(16:00):
} { explained our situation to the agent. The agent was very accommodating, and luckily pushed through very quickly and told us within, I don't know, almost a day, not even that we had been approved, we would just need to pay the bond.} {\pard \line \par} {This again, is where your extra cash and buffer comes. Into play because now this became a cashflow issue. What had happened is you usually have to pay four weeks rental upfront, as well as pretty much the equivalent of fourweeks rental deposit. Now, our deposit from our house, the, rental that had flooded, they still had that deposit.} {\pard \line \par} {They hadn't returned that money to us yet. They were going to, and we would get it soon, but we wouldn't get it in time to be able to use it to put it down as a deposit on the new report. So this is where we had to have buffer to be able to now pay another deposit gain and I think it was two or four weeks rental upfront and wait on the other, } {\cf1
(17:00):
} { deposit or bond to come back from the previous rental that had flooded at the same time.} {\pard \line \par} {We were eating into our money now with. Extending the hotel stay and taking a week in the Airbnb, which is not as expensive as the hotel, but it's not as cheap as renting. And renting is not cheap by any means, We were really burning cash, and it was really costing us a fortune. But what could we do?} {\pard \line \par} {This? This is the type of stuff that can happen. I guess ours is worst case scenario,but I just reiterating how important it would be to have that buffer and that extra money available as well as, understanding. You're gonna have to show some real grit here. The going through this, you're gonna get these curve balls, you're gonna get these challenges and it was.} {\pard \line \par} {Never to give up, just put your head down, pull together and say, okay, what next? And you just keep pushing and plowing on through. So we got the rental secured that came back to us. We got the } {\cf1
(18:00):
} { deposit with the extra buffer that we fund, using that to be able to secure the bond or the deposit again.} {\pard \line \par} {Big thing was trying to push them to say, when could we move in? Luckily, they said to us we could get the keys on the Friday. So that meant we had the, we could stay at the hotel until the Monday morning, check out of the hotel on the Monday morning, go into the Airbnb on the Monday, stay at the Airbnb until the Friday, check out of the Airbnb on the Friday and getinto our rental on the Friday.} {\pard \line \par} {and then. Stay there. So that, that, that was the thinking. Now the problem was the rental that we got is not semi furnished, so it had nothing in it. So yeah, staying in the Airbnb, at least you've got the bare necessities, like a bed, a fridge, a washing machine, the things that you need just to be able to live.} {\pard \line \par} {Okay. Now the rental didn't have any of that. and again, we didn't budget to buy a fridge, dining room set. I think it } {\cf1
(19:00):
} { was, that other rental that flooded had a bed as well. So it had a few things that was really gonna help us for a bit of a softer landing. So now again, our budget is getting stretched because we had to buy all these other things for this rental.} {\pard \line \par} {Now it was timing. How quickly can you get these things and get them delivered to this rental that we are moving into on the Friday? So this is where the public holiday actually benefited us. One thing we've learned here in New Zealand, whenever there's a public holiday,be it Easter, be it Wang Day or any other public holiday, they run a lot of specials at a lot of the shops.} {\pard \line \par} {So we were able to then on over the weekend and including Wang Day, the public holiday on the Monday, a lot of shops were open. Go shopping for a fridge, a kettle toasters, some basic kitchen, utensils, pots, pans, plates, whatever else. trying to get, beds, just the basics that you would need.} {\pard \line \par} {And we actually got quite a few deals on a lot of things and were able, was able to save a little bit, } {\cf1
(20:00):
} { although it wasn't budgeted for, but it was at a reduced rate. And then pushing them to be able to deliver. Within that week to the new address on a Friday so that Friday was gonna be hectic. We are moving out of the Airbnb and we're getting stuff delivered to the new rental and we'd have to open it and get it up and running so we could actually sleep in the rental that night and live.} {\pard \line \par} {So this was like project planning 1 0 1 to the nth degree and really hoping all the stars will align, so everythingwould work out okay. What was lucky is we were able to get, deals on a bed. Only one bed though could get delivered before. By the Friday when we were moving in the other bed, it was gonna take up to two weeks.} {\pard \line \par} {'cause sometimes they've gotta make up these beds and everything like that. So just keep that in mind. It does take a while to get the bed. What we did do though, in our 30 kg, 30 kg luggage that we brought across on the plane, I brought blow up mattresses and a pump. so what we were able to } {\cf1
(21:00):
} { do when we moved in on the.} {\pard \line \par} {Friday into The Wrinkle is they had delivered the one king size bed. My wife and the kids slept in the kings size bed, and I used the blowup mattress and just slept on the blowup mattress until the other bed would arrive for my son and my daughter, and then we could go back to beds for everybody. So that was something we learned, worked well.} {\pard \line \par} {Having a blowup mattress in your luggage. Which helped us on this side, especially since I didn't even know how we brought it because I think we had everything ready at the rental. So luckily we did bring that.other thing that we also brought in our luggage, which worked quite nicely is, my wife was so grateful is we packed in two coffee mugs and some teaspoons and everything like that.} {\pard \line \par} {it seems silly, but it was just nice to be able to have. coffee mugs and everything available to us that we could use straight away while you didn't have your own stuff and you still had to buy it and everything. So that was another thing. Side tip, we did that too. So getting back to where we were.} {\pard \line \par} {So now we had at least got through the weekend at the hotel. We were burning money though at the } {\cf1
(22:00):
} { hotel. Burning money with buying food at the hotel. But we knew we were gonna get into the Airbnb on the Monday. did mean that what we could also do is over that long weekend, go shopping for a whole lot of stuff, trying to plan it to get delivered to the rental by the Friday.} {\pard \line \par} {So at least we were starting to get that all lined up so that we can move in on the Friday when we moved out of the hotel, checked out of the hotel on the Monday morning and went into the Airbnb. We had a few challenges at the Airbnb, just trying to get in and everything like that, but that wasnothing major.} {\pard \line \par} {It was just trying to get the key outta one of these code things. But we finally got the key, got in, then we had some issues with the, wifi and trying to get that up and running. Yes, this is a big one. When you land, pay as you go for your phone, as in buying data on an ad hoc basis, it is far too expensive.} {\pard \line \par} {You need to get yourself a contract as soon as possible, and you don't have to sign a long term, 12 month, whatever contract they do, like a contract of a month to month. But then the data is so much cheaper and you need your data for doing } {\cf1
(23:00):
} { research for GPS. Getting around, especially in a country, you have no idea where you're going.} {\pard \line \par} {So we were still struggling. Paying for data in that week or those first few days. And it was also burning our money because it would chew up that data so quick, quickly. 'cause it was so expensive. So over that long weekend, over and above shopping for. a fridge and beds and everything else. We went into one of the cell phone shops, so we went to One New Zealand, which is theequivalent of Vodafone, back home or Vodacom, back home in South Africa.} {\pard \line \par} {But anyway, you just go to any, cell phone shop, tell them you'll just need your id, your proof of income or your contract, your employment contract, and we were able to open up a contract. I don't think it even took us an hour, maybe less, but we'll straight away be able to get a, sim card, on that contract.} {\pard \line \par} {They could even transfer the number of the temporary number that you'd bought at, } {\cf1
(24:00):
} { what they call a dairy or a little, shop here. they could even transfer it if you didn't want a new number. But we, that was one of the biggest things is just get your contract, your cell phone contract up and running.} {\pard \line \par} {'cause that helps you with data GPS getting around and everything like that. So we did that in that week as well. Moved into the Airbnb on the Monday. Now the big thing was to try and go shopping and try buy some food. for the first time I opted to stay at home with the kids and my wifeopted to go shopping, for the food.} {\pard \line \par} {she would know better. I. The challenges she really had going shopping. One, we were going shopping post them, having a lot of their floods. So a lot of the shelves were empty. So hopefully you won't have that issue when you arrive. But it did make it difficult because there wasn't as much stuff available on the shelves.} {\pard \line \par} {Over and above that, what is very difficult is when you're coming to a new country and you go to a shop, the brands are different, the lay } {\cf1
(25:00):
} { layout of the shops. You wouldn't be used to it in a new area, but. At least generally they'd put the same sort of things together and you'd work it out. But you would have to read labels, you would have to read everything.} {\pard \line \par} {It what would be usually a quick shop where you could go in and you just know what you wanna get, know what brands, what stuff to buy now is gonna take you way longer because you just don't know the brands. You don't know what's available, or what's the right thing to buy. The other problem that my, my wife had is I've gotsomething called Celiacs as well.} {\pard \line \par} {So I'm a gluten intolerant. I can't eat anything with gluten in it. So I made it even more complicated because now she had to not only read labels of everything that she's trying to buy, but also try to find something that I could eat that wasn't going to, be a problem for me with my cdx. I think that first shop was probably one of the most stressful shops for her.} {\pard \line \par} {Also, we, she did end up going to a shop that was in the area near the Airbnb. And the Airbnb that we were staying at was out of the way. It was } {\cf1
(26:00):
} { what we would call on the west of Auckland, which is not where we want to stay because I was gonna be working in CBD. Now, the Airbnb was all the way in the west, and where we actually wanted to stay was in North Shore all the way.} {\pard \line \par} {North. So we didn't end up where we wanted to stay in the Airbnb, but the rental was back in North Shore. so anyway, she was at one of the shops on the west there and she had a tough time, the, first shop, but she got it done. She got us some food and whatever else so that we could actually eat.} {\pard \line \par} {It was very basicstuff, but who, cares? As long as you, you had some food in your belly, the kids were fed and they could go to sleep, would be fine. That was on the Monday. Now, what we had to try do is I actually had to start work on the Wednesday. The next challenge that we were gonna have was how am I going to get into the office?} {\pard \line \par} {'cause we only had the one car. Now I wanted to leave the car with my wife and the kids because she still wanted to go around shopping and buying some other stuff and getting us ready for the rental on the Friday. What we opted } {\cf1
(27:00):
} { for, and I'm glad we did this. As part of our plan was I was the primary for the visas and everything coming across and I had a job secured.} {\pard \line \par} {We opted not to, get my wife into the job market straight away. We said for the first year we would budget that. It would just be. Me working so that for the first year what she can do is try to settle the family so she could try and make it a home, get the kids into school, get them settled, get us all settled.} {\pard \line \par} {So the plan was not for her to work straight away. This worked well for us. But again, thiswill come back to budgeting, it'll come back to expenses, money, all that kind of stuff. I will do another podcast on budgeting and everything. And show you how we planned with our budgets, for, the first six, 12 months.} {\pard \line \par} {Then post the six, 12 months on one salary versus two salaries. What's important? I will do a different podcast on that, but we opted for her to be able to stay so that she could. tricycle living, but that meant she had to use the car. So that meant I either had to get her to drive me all the way into CBD and drop me off and } {\cf1
(28:00):
} { pick me up, or I had to start learning how to use the public transport.} {\pard \line \par} {Now back in South Africa, public transport is not something that worked very well. the public transport here in New Zealand. The locals will complain about the public transport a lot and say it's bad. But if you compare it to, depending on which country you're coming from, I'm comparing it to South Africa.} {\pard \line \par} {It is a million times better. It is unbelievable in my mind, and it does work well. That said, it is daunting using public transport for the first time inyour life if you've never used it before. Bearing in mind, I'm a, a. A middle aged man in my forties, and I've never used public transport, so it felt like a real dummy trying to use this for the first time.} {\pard \line \par} {So we opted on the Wednesday, my first day of work for my wife to, drive me into CB, D and pick me up in CB, D so that we could work out how public transport works, and I'd use it the day after. So from the Thursday. The other challenge that we had is. Once we got into the Airbnb, starting on the Tuesday, started with the } {\cf1
(29:00):
} { kids and then with my wife, we all ended up actually getting sick.} {\pard \line \par} {So a big thing with flying, especially post COVID and everything like that, when you're in an airplane, unfortunately that's where you're in a little pod and. Viruses and germs get shared and we got sick and it started with the kids and then it started with my wife. The challenge you have in the first week of getting sick is the way the medical works here in New Zealand.} {\pard \line \par} {Again, another podcast I will do is you've gotta get registered depending onwhere you're staying with specific doctors to be able to deal with gps and get bookings and everything like that. Also, what the challenge is. There is a little bit of a wait for doctors and gps here. You can't book and generally get to see a GP in the same day.} {\pard \line \par} {Usually it's within 24 to 48 hours, if you're lucky. So it can take long. So now you can imagine we've just arrived in the country. We, within our first week, we've just got a rental secured. We haven't been able to go register with a medical center near } {\cf1
(30:00):
} { the house that we're gonna be renting. So we couldn't take the kids to a doctor and my wife couldn't go see a doctor.} {\pard \line \par} {I couldn't go see a doctor. So the challenge was now they were starting to run temperatures. They were really getting sick. My wife was feeling like, beat up and run over by a bus, but we had to just keep pushing on and plowing on through. So when we had to go into work on that Wednesday and drive me into CB, D.} {\pard \line \par} {We couldn't leave the kids at home, so now you have to take sick kids, put them in a car with my, my, my wife driving us in,and then she had to go all the way back and all the traffic. it must have taken at least 45 minutes to an hour to get me into C, b, D. Then she had to drive all the way back. I can only imagine.} {\pard \line \par} {She showed a tremendous amount of grit as well. This was extremely difficult for her. And then come back later in the evening, afternoon, five o'clock, whatever, pick me up with all the kids who are sick, who actually need to be in bed getting better. It was horrible. Pro tip though. One of the things that we did, again, my wife before we left, she made sure she } {\cf1
(31:00):
} { saw a GP in South Africa and she got a whole lot of medication, prescribed.} {\pard \line \par} {and she brought it along with, on the plane, just make sure you've got all your scripts and everything when you do, travel with it so you can show that it's, you can prove the script, and that was given to you by a doctor. So she did bring a whole lot of medication so she could self-medicate to try and help alleviate the symptoms and everything that her and the kids and, were going through.} {\pard \line \par} {And I was a bit delayed, but I did get sick by the Thursday, so that was the other challenge. So besides her driving me inand with the sick kids and everything on the Wednesday and doing my first day of work, by the Thursday, I started feeling sick. So I can tell you the Thursday at work, I felt like death warmed up.} {\pard \line \par} {It. But again, now you're trying to weigh up it probably be right decision, wrong decision. It's just, you're so worried. It's taken so long to get here. The work was already telling you that the job was in jeopardy. If you didn't start soon, now you started and the second day of being there, you don't wanna tell them you're sick and start staying at home.} {\pard \line \par} {So you had to go in. But I tell } {\cf1
(32:00):
} { you, I was sweating. I felt like death warmed up and I probably made other people think it was probably the worst thing to do, but you were just so worried that you, just had to push on through and get it done. So that was the sick, us being sick and a family being sick and trying to do all of this in the first week.} {\pard \line \par} {And this is only the first week. We haven't even been here a whole week. So it, was really, I look back to this and I think, I don't know how we, hell, how, the hell we actually got through that week anyway. That was the Wednesday. She drove me into C, b, D and back and picked me up. We said, we can't keep doing this.} {\pard \line \par} {The kids aresick. She's gotta be able to stay at home. She's gotta be able to have the car. I gotta start trying to use this public transport. So we did a little bit of research and found out that there's buses that could take us in. Now I've gotta work out how to use buses. So with a little bit of research, and I will do a separate podcast on maintaining cars and buying cars and everything as well as the transport here and all that work, how it works.} {\pard \line \par} {But what I was able to do is find, there was a bus station near the rent, the Airbnb that we were staying at. So she could drive, drop me off at the, bus station and I should be able to get a bus into CBD and a } {\cf1
(33:00):
} { bus back. And then she could either pick me up from the bus station or I could walk or take a connecting bus back to the, Airbnb, so I was gonna try this for the first time. So on the Thursday morning is when we woke up, she still had to put the kids in the car, but at least it was only to the bus station. It wasn't all the way in C, b, D, so it'd be quicker drop me off at the bus station, and this is when you found out okay, you actually need, at that time, you needed a card for public transport and you have to load money onto that card to be ableto use the buses and everything like that.} {\pard \line \par} {So I assumed I'd be able to buy one of those cards at the bus station. No, you can't buy them at the bus station. You actually have to go to a dairy, which is like a little shop, a little cafe or whatever to go buy one of these cards. When you buy it, it comes preloaded with $5 on it, and then you can top up more money onto it.} {\pard \line \par} {There's an app that you download that, a app that you download on your phone, and that's where you manage the card. you register the card and you can load money onto the } {\cf1
(34:00):
} { card so that you can use it. That's how it worked. Back then recently, within the last, I don't know, it's six months, maybe a year, I don't know, they've changed it where you can actually now use your credit card or your debit card and tap, not having to have one of those prepaid cards or loaded cards.} {\pard \line \par} {So you can do that now, which is at least more convenient and easier. So I could have just used my credit card or my debit card to, be able to tap and get on the bus. But anyway, my situation back two years ago. I was at this bus station nowbeing dropped off wanting get on the bus, but now I don't have a card.} {\pard \line \par} {So without a card, you can't pay and they won't take cash. And you couldn't tap at that stage with a credit card. So how was I gonna get on? So this is where you had to just suck it up, humble pie, ask for help. I spoke to, there was a, security person walking around at the bus station. She said to me she had a spare card, gave me the card, but it had no money on it.} {\pard \line \par} {So at least I got a card. Now in hindsight. She had that card and it was at negative $20. So that } {\cf1
(35:00):
} { really wasn't gonna help me because if I had to preload it, I'd have to pay the $20 just to get it clear and then add extra cash onto it. So actually what I needed to do was I needed to get to a dairy, and I needed to buy a card with $5 on it and then add extra cash onto it.} {\pard \line \par} {Luckily, a nice lady, I can't remember her name or anything at this time, but she came to me, so I was looking like a lost soul and helped me and got me onto the bus, spoke to the bus driver, said he's new to the country, just help him. And they let me travelinto town for free without tapping. She even offered to tap for me so it could double tap on her card, and he said, no.} {\pard \line \par} {The bus driver said, it's fine. Don't worry. Just come on. Got all the way to work on the Thursday. And at my lunch break I went and found a dairy in town and I was able to buy a card and then I was able to load some extra money on it so that I could then use that card, to, to travel on the buses and get back to the Airbnb.} {\pard \line \par} {So that was one of the things that I've also learned was, a bit of a challenge. } {\cf1
(36:00):
} { Got back to the Airbnb on that Thursday, so now I was getting a bit confident. I said, okay, Friday morning I can use the buses again. Going to town. What my wife was gonna do on the Friday though, is now we had got access to the rental.} {\pard \line \par} {She was going to, meet up with the agent, get the keys for the rental. She was gonna take all our stuff while I was at work on the Friday and move from the Airbnb unit all the way to the rental that we have up on North Shore. Bearing in mind she was doing this with a sick family herself being sick.} {\pard \line \par} {Doing it all by herself.All the stuff and all the bags would not fit in one trip in the car, so she would've to do multiple trips back and forth. Also, we went anywhere close to North Shore. If once you here, you'll see the distance wise, it's probably at least, oh, I dunno, half an hour, 40 minute drive from where we were in the west all the way to where we wanted to be in the north.} {\pard \line \par} {So she had to drive back and forth multiple times on the Friday to get us out of the Airbnb and get us all the way into the rental. What I was gonna do is I took the bus. Into CBD on the Friday } {\cf1
(37:00):
} { from the Airbnb, and then was gonna take a new bus, different buses to go all the way back to the rental that we had up on North Shore, which is what we did.} {\pard \line \par} {And it did work. And then what I would do is on the Saturday morning, I would go back to the Airbnb, clean up everything that, we had to do, keep it clean, and then hand over the keys, hand the Airbnb back so that we could then now finally be in the rental. That we were up on North Shore, so we did get through all of that.} {\pard \line \par} {But I can tell you it was one hell of a first week wherewe were finally in a rental, up on North Shore where we wanted to be near the schools that we originally wanted to be. So we finally now had a home. They did deliver our bed for us. the air mattress did also help so that we had extra so that I could sleep on the air mattress.} {\pard \line \par} {They delivered the fridge, they delivered the washing machine. We got all of that by the following weekend. We took all the food that we'd bought to the Airbnb, up to the rental and went shopping nearby at another shop. Now started learning how to get that done } {\cf1
(38:00):
} { on that with the shopping. What my wife said also worked well for her is because she didn't know the brands and didn't know everything going into the shops and even with the kids because once I was working, she had to go in with the kids.} {\pard \line \par} {They would just want a whole of stuff and it would, it made it twice as hard to go shopping. So what she ended up doing was using online shopping even, although it's a little bit more expensive for the delivery. You could actually sit down and read and spend more time on all the stuff that you wanted.} {\pard \line \par} {And if youwere living on a budget, what she could do is it would add up for you as you're shopping online, and she could take away from here, reduce this. Whatever she had to do come within her budget. Although it spent a bit more time, it was in the quiet at home doing online, that worked well for her.} {\pard \line \par} {and then they would just sh deliver the groceries to the door. there isn't a charge for that, but. With helping her being able to figure it out budget wise, it was worth that charge in our mind. And also for her to be able to spend the time reading through all } {\cf1
(39:00):
} { the different brands of stuff that you actually don't know and that you weren't with the kids.} {\pard \line \par} {she just found that easier. So that's how she did a lot of shopping. was online, but we finally got into that rental. We are finally, now in the area we wanted to be. That took us through to our. Next weekend. So we'd been there for a week. I've now got into my job, I'm starting my job and that's when in New Zealand they decided to send a cyclone iWay.} {\pard \line \par} {So that was something new, nevermind that we've lost,our first rental to floods. Now we end country and Cyclone Gabriela had decided to hit. and that was gonna be hitting where we were. By the Tuesday of that week. So I'd literally just been in the country for a week, got to the next weekend in a different rental, and now we had a cyclone hitting us.} {\pard \line \par} {So work was telling us we needed to work from home, which was also a challenge because I didn't even have a desk, a chair, or anything to work at. I literally had a blow up mattress. A bed in a fridge. } {\cf1
(40:00):
} { So it was very challenging. Working from home. I took a couple of boxes from stuff that was delivered and bags and everything like that.} {\pard \line \par} {Try to make a make. Shift desk sitting there working online from a rental in New Zealand for my first week while a cyclone was hitting us. So I can tell you our first week and a half was an extremely challenging week. this is our journey. This is how it was for us. you, you can't predict what's gonna, what your challenges are gonna be.} {\pard \line \par} {I'm justtrying to share our story, our journey, and what we had to work through and how we overcome it. The big thing that I'm just trying to share today is, yeah, there's a few tips that I'm giving you here and there, and you, your challenges will be different, but having a plan, like I mentioned before, is important.} {\pard \line \par} {Having that extra buffer budget. Very important 'cause you don't know what's gonna hit you. and then just sticking by each other and never giving up and a hundred percent } {\cf1
(41:00):
} { showing that gr you just gotta push on through. Maybe as parents it's easier because you've got kids and you just cannot give up.} {\pard \line \par} {You don't have a choice for your kids, but you just gotta push on through, plow on through, and it's amazing what you can actually do and how. unbelievably strong and resilient. you can be. It's, it's incredible. I look back now and I think, geez, how I did it, would I ever wanna do it again? No.} {\pard \line \par} {that's the whole point of this. I wanna try and make it easier for you guys out there. Hopefully you won't have it as hard as.What we've had, and I'm sure there's people that have had it even harder than us. but it can be done. If we've made this work, you can definitely make this work. So I think I'm gonna leave it there, for today.} {\pard \line \par} {I'll pick up from when we, were now finally in our first rental on the North Shore. and can continue with, talking through our journey and where we went to from there. Maybe all if I can ask is, if you're finding value in this podcast, please follow me and please also share it. the idea is to reach as many other immigrants as possible to try } {\cf1
} { There are over 100,000 people who immigrate to New Zealand every year with the intention to make New Zealand their home, leaving behind everything they know as normal day-to-day life and having to learn new ways of doing things, new norms, new cultures, and different values. There are many people who struggle with this transition and find it challenging to adjust and settle so they can call and make New Zealand their home.} {\pard \line \par} {The purpose of this podcastis for me to share my journey and our challenges with the hope that you can learn from me and my family and have a softer landing. There will be good days and bad days, but with time, more good days. I believe we have made the right choice for our family. I want to try and help you do the same.} {\pard \line \par} {But hopefully with a softer landing. This is soft landing, and I am your host, Brett Collette. Welcome to this podcast, designed for anyone thinking } {\cf1
(01:00):
} { about preparing for, or who has just immigrated to New Zealand. Subscribe now so you never miss an episode drawing from his personal experience. This series will guide you through the process of preparing for your move and helping you navigate the challenges of immigration.} {\pard \line \par} {So welcome back. It's so nice to have you join me again on my podcast. I'm I'm still so humbled and so honored to get so much of the feedback and to hear people that, that are actually taking the time to listen to my podcast and some of them giving some feedback and showing methat it's, actually helping, which really.} {\pard \line \par} {Gives me motivation to want to carry on sharing my story and help you guys. So it's just a big thank you for taking the time to listen to me. and I truly hope it is helping. and I'll, as long as I can hear that it is, and I'm getting that feedback, I'll keep doing these podcasts for as long as I can.} {\pard \line \par} {with that said, if, you, this is your first podcast, of mine that you're listening to and you haven't heard my others. I know that's only the third one, but please go back to number one. Start there. } {\cf1
(02:00):
} { I'm trying to tell my journey and my story of us moving to New Zealand and I'm trying to do it in chronological order.} {\pard \line \par} {so it'll make a lot more sense if you hear it from the first one. And while I'm busy talking through it, I'm just trying to share with what went well for us, what didn't, the lessons we've learned. So hopefully you can learn from us. and when you're moving across, to New Zealand, you can have a softer landing and it'll be easier for you.} {\pard \line \par} {That's the whole purpose, of this podcast. With that said, so at the end of the last podcast, I prettymuch got to the point where we had just finally got to Auckland and finally got to the hotel. So that's where I really want to pick up with, our journey and continue. So just trying to think back, and I know it's just over two years ago and I was trying to run it by my wife before I started the podcast today, just to try and get my dates and timing right, because I promise you that first.} {\pard \line \par} {Wow. Probably the first six months, even to a year is a lot of it can be a real blur. There's so much that's going on and really don't underestimate how difficult it is } {\cf1
(03:00):
} { to immigrate. it's hard. This is one of the hardest things I've ever done, so I think I. It's easy now, two years later to forget a lot of what you went through, but while you're going through it is tough and it gave me a chance to think back and look at the calendar and try to think what did we actually do in that first week when we arrived in Auckland?} {\pard \line \par} {And let me just try get my timing right and. E even after I went through that and I said to my, geez, there's actually so much we went through. Icannot believe our first two weeks. I dunno how we did it. So let me pick up with that. So just so that you can try and understand. So we had just arrived. I think we left South Africa.} {\pard \line \par} {It was a Wednesday evening that we left, but now you gotta remember time zones. So we're flying ahead and we're going. To New Zealand, and we are actually going to lose some days now because New Zealand is a bit ahead of us. So it turns out that we actually, after traveling for however many hours, 27, 30 hours, we } {\cf1
(04:00):
} { ended up landing on a Friday morning.} {\pard \line \par} {And as I said on the last episode, it was the early hours of the morning. So we landed at the airport, oh, midnight, one in the morning, something like that. And there was all our troubles that I spoke about on the last episode at the airport. I think it must have been close to oh three or four in the morning when we finally got to the hotel.} {\pard \line \par} {So it was like the longest morning ever. Now the thing was, because it was a Friday and we had just arrived, I. My, my thinking was, do Itry catch up on a little bit of sleep or do you just carry on? So what actually happened was my wife and the kids, they did get a little bit of sleep in the hotel once we had gotten checked in and into the room.} {\pard \line \par} {But I opted to rather just push on through because there was some stuff that I really wanted to do on the first day that we arrived. Mainly I wanted to get to a bank. So as I explained to you in the previous podcast, you, I was able to open up a bank account when I was still in South Africa. So I opened up a } {\cf1
(05:00):
} { BNZ bank account and I had transferred some money across into that account, but the only way you could get access to that money was when you were in country.} {\pard \line \par} {You had to go into a branch and you had to take through your identification and proof of residence, documentation, proof of income, a couple of things that they're asked for and present that to them so you can prove. That I am who I say I am so that they can activate the account, give me a temporary card so that I could actually get access to those funds and that account, that I had opened from South Africa.} {\pard \line \par} {So Ireally wanted to do that. What we also realized when we got in country is that. I landed on a Friday, so it was gonna be the weekend. I wasn't sure if the banks were gonna be open and available on the weekend, hence I wanted to do it on the Friday. And not only did I want the money straight away because we needed some dollars and everything that we had transferred across there, but I was worried I didn't want to wait until the Monday.} {\pard \line \par} {And what we also found out is on the Monday, the 6th of February was actually a public holiday in, New Zealand. It was white tangy day. } {\cf1
(06:00):
} { So we were worried that we probably wouldn't be able to get to the banks till Monday, so we'd only be able to get to the banks by the Tuesday. So I had to push on through and I had to get to the banks.} {\pard \line \par} {so I woke up, no, it didn't wake up, sorry. I just pushed on through the kids and my wife went to sleep and, I, went and tried to find the bank. What was good is we had organized the car. So I did have a car at the hotel, so I had transport straight away. So that, really did help me. So I was in a position where I could just be independent andI could start on my way doing, as per our checklist that we had put in plan, put in place.} {\pard \line \par} {And one of the first things was getting to the bank, so that, that did help. One of the things you would want to do is if you haven't been able to organize a car like I have. You've gotta try and then start thinking about either friends that can help you get around or help you get to a point where you can actually get your own transport so you can be independent because there's gonna be a lot of things that you need to do.} {\pard \line \par} {And you'll see when } {\cf1
(07:00):
} { I'm talking through my first week, a lot of the stuff that we had to do, when I got to the bank, it was pretty straightforward and easy. Showing them the documentation and everything, identification. They were very efficient, giving me a temporary card. what they did do though, is the actual proper permanent card that you would only be available a couple of days to a week later.} {\pard \line \par} {Now, what they did say to me is they could, courier it to the house, to, to where you stay. But my challenge now was, yeah, I did have an address where we were goingstay, but because of the floods and everything like that house. Is no longer available, so that wasn't gonna be my address. I didn't have an address.} {\pard \line \par} {So the alternative was the bank said that they would keep the card at the branch and they would notify me when it was ready and then I'd have to go back and fetch the actual permanent card. And that at the time, that was the only option that I actually had. What did help with the rental document and everything we had signed is I did have an address of where we, that I could use for where we } {\cf1
(08:00):
} { were potentially gonna stay or just a, an address.} {\pard \line \par} {In New Zealand, 'cause often they ask for an address. what you could do there is just use a friend's address. if you don't have an address or maybe you could have work used your work address. I don't know, I dunno how sticky there'd be on that. But we used the rental address of the rental that we were waiting for the mortgage or the bond or the deposit back from because it had been flooded.} {\pard \line \par} {But I could use that and I just opted to tell them to keep the card at the bank. Which I'd have to goback and fetch. in hindsight, it probably would've been better to go to a branch. Closer to where we ended up staying. and you'll hear when I talk through the podcast where we ended up, whereas this branch was near the airport, near the hotel that we were staying in.} {\pard \line \par} {So when I had to go back a week later to fetch it, it was a bit out of the way. So it wasn't nearby where we were staying or nearby where I was working. Didn't think about that. it was actually near to the airport, so it was a bit of out of the way, task to go fetch the card a } {\cf1
(09:00):
} { week later when it was finally ready.} {\pard \line \par} {Anyway, that aside, I got to bank, got my temporary card. Now I could have some, access to that cash that I had in that bank, account. And we had to get back to the hotel, with the family who were waking up, obviously get food, do all that kind of stuff. But then starting, our biggest problem was where are we gonna stay?} {\pard \line \par} {Because the idea was we were only gonna stay in the hotel for one night, and then we were actually gonna start moving into that rental that we had secured. And that rental we secured was even, it was actually even partly furnished.So it was really gonna help us. so that was all part of our planning and we had even arranged.} {\pard \line \par} {In the street we were saying we found another family that were, that had immigrated to New Zealand but had been there for a few years. We touched base with them on some Facebook groups and they said, oh, that'll be great. They'll organize a care pack, which is some food and everything like that. So when we arrive at the rental, we'd have some food ready.} {\pard \line \par} {so it'd be a little bit of a softer landing. But now, because we were notified like literally an hour and a half, an hour before we boarded } {\cf1
(10:00):
} { to leave South Africa, that it had been flooded and was non inhabitable. That had all fallen through, including that family that was gonna help us and food and everything like that, because they just stayed in the same street.} {\pard \line \par} {So the big task, my wife and I was, we need to figure out where we gonna stay as a family now that we are here. What we opted to do is, the first thing was we extended our stay in the hotel. So we said, okay, we'll probably need to book for another two nights. So it gives us a little bit of time to start trying to find.}{\pard \line \par}{A rental or a Airbnb or somewhere else to stay. We can't continue staying in the hotel because it was expensive. It's not cheap. this is where it comes back to what I told you in the last podcast. you need to have that risk, budget, that buffer. So this is where really where we're starting to eat into our buffer, because this was unplanned for, the, additional cost of staying in the hotel.} {\pard \line \par}{It's not just the hotel cost, but it was also the food. Food is very expensive here. So paying for food in the hotel. Was also becoming very expensive. We } {\cf1
(11:00):
} { needed to get into a place where we could go shopping at a normal shop and buy some normal food and just cook for ourselves and be self-sufficient and be self-catering.} {\pard \line \par} {We couldn't carry on using, restaurants and everything like that. It was just far too costly. I. So what my wife and I opted to do is we obviously went on to real estate and I will do a podcast on how to find rentals and everything. It's very different here on, on, trying to find rentals and actually securing them the way you have to write up your cvs and go through a process.} {\pard \line \par} {But a bigthing that's different with the rentals here is they, advertise it when it's a. Pretty much almost available. So the turnaround in getting into the, rentals is, quick in our experience. it's not similar to where we were back home. There, there'd be like a month of giving notice and then you'd have quite a bit of time to prepare to get into the actual rental here.} {\pard \line \par} {Within 10 days, two weeks, you could potentially get into that rental because it's actually available. So obvious, obviously going through the process of getting, approved, paying the deposits, } {\cf1
(12:00):
} { all of that would have to happen, which I'll talk about in another, podcast. But. The turnaround could be quite quick.} {\pard \line \par} {So when we were trying to find another place to, to rent out, there were a couple of options, but bearing in mind, we had just arrived now post having a whole lot of floods. So there was a lot of people looking for rentals at the same time because now they potentially didn't have a home to live in, be it.} {\pard \line \par} {Their actual home or home that they were renting had become un uninhabitable. So they were tryingto find other places. So there was quite an influx of people trying to find rentals. So that made it a bit challenging. and trying to find something. There wasn't like a lot to choose from. So biggest couldn't be choosers.} {\pard \line \par} {We had to take whatever we could. We were able to get two places secured for a viewing over the weekend. So like I explained, it was a Friday now. So now we've been able to get contact and we, my wife is brilliant at the way she's actually researched and been able to do these rental. It's actually } {\cf1
(13:00):
} { incredible the way we were able to get into a rental so quickly, and the way you could get approved.} {\pard \line \par} {But that podcast will be invaluable, I think. Anyway, she was able to get us a viewing and it was just a viewing just for us over the weekend. And I, if my memory serves me correctly, it was either the Saturday or it was the Sunday that we were able to meet up with the agent to go view a place, that we were gonna stay, which was near the house that had got flooded.} {\pard \line \par} {So we could still potentially. Send our kids to the same schools that we had done researchon. So a big thing when choosing your rentals, a lot of the time if you've got children, it's gonna be based on where and what school you wanted to send your kids to. 'cause they're zoned for those schools unless you're going private, which will be different again, I will do another podcast on schooling, which is a whole different game as well.} {\pard \line \par} {so we found this rental that we could go see, but now what we were worried is. You still gotta be able to pay your deposit to security. You gotta be, they, gotta, the agent's gotta take all your information, almost } {\cf1
(14:00):
} { like a cv, send it off to the landlords. They gotta accept you. So it could take a few days before you given Yep.} {\pard \line \par} {the approval that you've been, accepted and the payments and deposits and everything go through. And then the timeline to move in. So now we weren't a hundred percent sure on when that would be, and I knew I was also starting work on the Wednesday. 'cause a big push for us to get here was even my job were pushing me to a point where saying, Hey, if you don't get here soon.} {\pard \line \par} {The opportunity's gonna fall away. So I couldn'tdelay starting on the Wednesday with everything that was going on. So over that weekend, it was it was crunch time to find somewhere else to stay. Yes. We had extended for the hotel until the Sunday slash Monday morning. We'd be checking out, but we needed to find somewhere else to stay that was cheaper and where we could start being self-catering.} {\pard \line \par} {So what we opted for was Airbnbs. The problem with the Airbnbs without timing was because it was post the floods. A lot of other people were using up all the Airbnbs, so we couldn't find one } {\cf1
(15:00):
} { close to the area we wanted to stay in. So it was an Airbnb, but again, we just take it and we opted to just take it for a week.} {\pard \line \par} {So it was gonna see us through from the Monday. To the following weekend because we were hoping that the rental that we were trying to secure would come in that time, and if we could potentially extend the Airbnb for another week if we had to, or potentially move to another Airbnb. But ideally, let's try getting into the rental, that we were trying to secure in a quick turnaround time in a week.} {\pard \line \par} {So I onlytook the Airbnb for a week, from the Monday to the Saturday. What it also meant was now we're on the Friday going into the weekend, over and above having to view the rental, which we did, and we accepted it. It wasn't ideal, it wasn't exactly what we were looking for, but we thought it, we can make it work.} {\pard \line \par} {it still was close enough to the area that we wanted, the schools that we wanted, so we thought, fine, just take it. So when I said Take it. Apply. So we had to apply, put all our information forward, see if we'd get accepted. we } {\cf1
(16:00):
} { explained our situation to the agent. The agent was very accommodating, and luckily pushed through very quickly and told us within, I don't know, almost a day, not even that we had been approved, we would just need to pay the bond.} {\pard \line \par} {This again, is where your extra cash and buffer comes. Into play because now this became a cashflow issue. What had happened is you usually have to pay four weeks rental upfront, as well as pretty much the equivalent of fourweeks rental deposit. Now, our deposit from our house, the, rental that had flooded, they still had that deposit.} {\pard \line \par} {They hadn't returned that money to us yet. They were going to, and we would get it soon, but we wouldn't get it in time to be able to use it to put it down as a deposit on the new report. So this is where we had to have buffer to be able to now pay another deposit gain and I think it was two or four weeks rental upfront and wait on the other, } {\cf1
(17:00):
} { deposit or bond to come back from the previous rental that had flooded at the same time.} {\pard \line \par} {We were eating into our money now with. Extending the hotel stay and taking a week in the Airbnb, which is not as expensive as the hotel, but it's not as cheap as renting. And renting is not cheap by any means, We were really burning cash, and it was really costing us a fortune. But what could we do?} {\pard \line \par} {This? This is the type of stuff that can happen. I guess ours is worst case scenario,but I just reiterating how important it would be to have that buffer and that extra money available as well as, understanding. You're gonna have to show some real grit here. The going through this, you're gonna get these curve balls, you're gonna get these challenges and it was.} {\pard \line \par} {Never to give up, just put your head down, pull together and say, okay, what next? And you just keep pushing and plowing on through. So we got the rental secured that came back to us. We got the } {\cf1
(18:00):
} { deposit with the extra buffer that we fund, using that to be able to secure the bond or the deposit again.} {\pard \line \par} {Big thing was trying to push them to say, when could we move in? Luckily, they said to us we could get the keys on the Friday. So that meant we had the, we could stay at the hotel until the Monday morning, check out of the hotel on the Monday morning, go into the Airbnb on the Monday, stay at the Airbnb until the Friday, check out of the Airbnb on the Friday and getinto our rental on the Friday.} {\pard \line \par} {and then. Stay there. So that, that, that was the thinking. Now the problem was the rental that we got is not semi furnished, so it had nothing in it. So yeah, staying in the Airbnb, at least you've got the bare necessities, like a bed, a fridge, a washing machine, the things that you need just to be able to live.} {\pard \line \par} {Okay. Now the rental didn't have any of that. and again, we didn't budget to buy a fridge, dining room set. I think it } {\cf1
(19:00):
} { was, that other rental that flooded had a bed as well. So it had a few things that was really gonna help us for a bit of a softer landing. So now again, our budget is getting stretched because we had to buy all these other things for this rental.} {\pard \line \par} {Now it was timing. How quickly can you get these things and get them delivered to this rental that we are moving into on the Friday? So this is where the public holiday actually benefited us. One thing we've learned here in New Zealand, whenever there's a public holiday,be it Easter, be it Wang Day or any other public holiday, they run a lot of specials at a lot of the shops.} {\pard \line \par} {So we were able to then on over the weekend and including Wang Day, the public holiday on the Monday, a lot of shops were open. Go shopping for a fridge, a kettle toasters, some basic kitchen, utensils, pots, pans, plates, whatever else. trying to get, beds, just the basics that you would need.} {\pard \line \par} {And we actually got quite a few deals on a lot of things and were able, was able to save a little bit, } {\cf1
(20:00):
} { although it wasn't budgeted for, but it was at a reduced rate. And then pushing them to be able to deliver. Within that week to the new address on a Friday so that Friday was gonna be hectic. We are moving out of the Airbnb and we're getting stuff delivered to the new rental and we'd have to open it and get it up and running so we could actually sleep in the rental that night and live.} {\pard \line \par} {So this was like project planning 1 0 1 to the nth degree and really hoping all the stars will align, so everythingwould work out okay. What was lucky is we were able to get, deals on a bed. Only one bed though could get delivered before. By the Friday when we were moving in the other bed, it was gonna take up to two weeks.} {\pard \line \par} {'cause sometimes they've gotta make up these beds and everything like that. So just keep that in mind. It does take a while to get the bed. What we did do though, in our 30 kg, 30 kg luggage that we brought across on the plane, I brought blow up mattresses and a pump. so what we were able to } {\cf1
(21:00):
} { do when we moved in on the.} {\pard \line \par} {Friday into The Wrinkle is they had delivered the one king size bed. My wife and the kids slept in the kings size bed, and I used the blowup mattress and just slept on the blowup mattress until the other bed would arrive for my son and my daughter, and then we could go back to beds for everybody. So that was something we learned, worked well.} {\pard \line \par} {Having a blowup mattress in your luggage. Which helped us on this side, especially since I didn't even know how we brought it because I think we had everything ready at the rental. So luckily we did bring that.other thing that we also brought in our luggage, which worked quite nicely is, my wife was so grateful is we packed in two coffee mugs and some teaspoons and everything like that.} {\pard \line \par} {it seems silly, but it was just nice to be able to have. coffee mugs and everything available to us that we could use straight away while you didn't have your own stuff and you still had to buy it and everything. So that was another thing. Side tip, we did that too. So getting back to where we were.} {\pard \line \par} {So now we had at least got through the weekend at the hotel. We were burning money though at the } {\cf1
(22:00):
} { hotel. Burning money with buying food at the hotel. But we knew we were gonna get into the Airbnb on the Monday. did mean that what we could also do is over that long weekend, go shopping for a whole lot of stuff, trying to plan it to get delivered to the rental by the Friday.} {\pard \line \par} {So at least we were starting to get that all lined up so that we can move in on the Friday when we moved out of the hotel, checked out of the hotel on the Monday morning and went into the Airbnb. We had a few challenges at the Airbnb, just trying to get in and everything like that, but that wasnothing major.} {\pard \line \par} {It was just trying to get the key outta one of these code things. But we finally got the key, got in, then we had some issues with the, wifi and trying to get that up and running. Yes, this is a big one. When you land, pay as you go for your phone, as in buying data on an ad hoc basis, it is far too expensive.} {\pard \line \par} {You need to get yourself a contract as soon as possible, and you don't have to sign a long term, 12 month, whatever contract they do, like a contract of a month to month. But then the data is so much cheaper and you need your data for doing } {\cf1
(23:00):
} { research for GPS. Getting around, especially in a country, you have no idea where you're going.} {\pard \line \par} {So we were still struggling. Paying for data in that week or those first few days. And it was also burning our money because it would chew up that data so quick, quickly. 'cause it was so expensive. So over that long weekend, over and above shopping for. a fridge and beds and everything else. We went into one of the cell phone shops, so we went to One New Zealand, which is theequivalent of Vodafone, back home or Vodacom, back home in South Africa.} {\pard \line \par} {But anyway, you just go to any, cell phone shop, tell them you'll just need your id, your proof of income or your contract, your employment contract, and we were able to open up a contract. I don't think it even took us an hour, maybe less, but we'll straight away be able to get a, sim card, on that contract.} {\pard \line \par} {They could even transfer the number of the temporary number that you'd bought at, } {\cf1
(24:00):
} { what they call a dairy or a little, shop here. they could even transfer it if you didn't want a new number. But we, that was one of the biggest things is just get your contract, your cell phone contract up and running.} {\pard \line \par} {'cause that helps you with data GPS getting around and everything like that. So we did that in that week as well. Moved into the Airbnb on the Monday. Now the big thing was to try and go shopping and try buy some food. for the first time I opted to stay at home with the kids and my wifeopted to go shopping, for the food.} {\pard \line \par} {she would know better. I. The challenges she really had going shopping. One, we were going shopping post them, having a lot of their floods. So a lot of the shelves were empty. So hopefully you won't have that issue when you arrive. But it did make it difficult because there wasn't as much stuff available on the shelves.} {\pard \line \par} {Over and above that, what is very difficult is when you're coming to a new country and you go to a shop, the brands are different, the lay } {\cf1
(25:00):
} { layout of the shops. You wouldn't be used to it in a new area, but. At least generally they'd put the same sort of things together and you'd work it out. But you would have to read labels, you would have to read everything.} {\pard \line \par} {It what would be usually a quick shop where you could go in and you just know what you wanna get, know what brands, what stuff to buy now is gonna take you way longer because you just don't know the brands. You don't know what's available, or what's the right thing to buy. The other problem that my, my wife had is I've gotsomething called Celiacs as well.} {\pard \line \par} {So I'm a gluten intolerant. I can't eat anything with gluten in it. So I made it even more complicated because now she had to not only read labels of everything that she's trying to buy, but also try to find something that I could eat that wasn't going to, be a problem for me with my cdx. I think that first shop was probably one of the most stressful shops for her.} {\pard \line \par} {Also, we, she did end up going to a shop that was in the area near the Airbnb. And the Airbnb that we were staying at was out of the way. It was } {\cf1
(26:00):
} { what we would call on the west of Auckland, which is not where we want to stay because I was gonna be working in CBD. Now, the Airbnb was all the way in the west, and where we actually wanted to stay was in North Shore all the way.} {\pard \line \par} {North. So we didn't end up where we wanted to stay in the Airbnb, but the rental was back in North Shore. so anyway, she was at one of the shops on the west there and she had a tough time, the, first shop, but she got it done. She got us some food and whatever else so that we could actually eat.} {\pard \line \par} {It was very basicstuff, but who, cares? As long as you, you had some food in your belly, the kids were fed and they could go to sleep, would be fine. That was on the Monday. Now, what we had to try do is I actually had to start work on the Wednesday. The next challenge that we were gonna have was how am I going to get into the office?} {\pard \line \par} {'cause we only had the one car. Now I wanted to leave the car with my wife and the kids because she still wanted to go around shopping and buying some other stuff and getting us ready for the rental on the Friday. What we opted } {\cf1
(27:00):
} { for, and I'm glad we did this. As part of our plan was I was the primary for the visas and everything coming across and I had a job secured.} {\pard \line \par} {We opted not to, get my wife into the job market straight away. We said for the first year we would budget that. It would just be. Me working so that for the first year what she can do is try to settle the family so she could try and make it a home, get the kids into school, get them settled, get us all settled.} {\pard \line \par} {So the plan was not for her to work straight away. This worked well for us. But again, thiswill come back to budgeting, it'll come back to expenses, money, all that kind of stuff. I will do another podcast on budgeting and everything. And show you how we planned with our budgets, for, the first six, 12 months.} {\pard \line \par} {Then post the six, 12 months on one salary versus two salaries. What's important? I will do a different podcast on that, but we opted for her to be able to stay so that she could. tricycle living, but that meant she had to use the car. So that meant I either had to get her to drive me all the way into CBD and drop me off and } {\cf1
(28:00):
} { pick me up, or I had to start learning how to use the public transport.} {\pard \line \par} {Now back in South Africa, public transport is not something that worked very well. the public transport here in New Zealand. The locals will complain about the public transport a lot and say it's bad. But if you compare it to, depending on which country you're coming from, I'm comparing it to South Africa.} {\pard \line \par} {It is a million times better. It is unbelievable in my mind, and it does work well. That said, it is daunting using public transport for the first time inyour life if you've never used it before. Bearing in mind, I'm a, a. A middle aged man in my forties, and I've never used public transport, so it felt like a real dummy trying to use this for the first time.} {\pard \line \par} {So we opted on the Wednesday, my first day of work for my wife to, drive me into CB, D and pick me up in CB, D so that we could work out how public transport works, and I'd use it the day after. So from the Thursday. The other challenge that we had is. Once we got into the Airbnb, starting on the Tuesday, started with the } {\cf1
(29:00):
} { kids and then with my wife, we all ended up actually getting sick.} {\pard \line \par} {So a big thing with flying, especially post COVID and everything like that, when you're in an airplane, unfortunately that's where you're in a little pod and. Viruses and germs get shared and we got sick and it started with the kids and then it started with my wife. The challenge you have in the first week of getting sick is the way the medical works here in New Zealand.} {\pard \line \par} {Again, another podcast I will do is you've gotta get registered depending onwhere you're staying with specific doctors to be able to deal with gps and get bookings and everything like that. Also, what the challenge is. There is a little bit of a wait for doctors and gps here. You can't book and generally get to see a GP in the same day.} {\pard \line \par} {Usually it's within 24 to 48 hours, if you're lucky. So it can take long. So now you can imagine we've just arrived in the country. We, within our first week, we've just got a rental secured. We haven't been able to go register with a medical center near } {\cf1
(30:00):
} { the house that we're gonna be renting. So we couldn't take the kids to a doctor and my wife couldn't go see a doctor.} {\pard \line \par} {I couldn't go see a doctor. So the challenge was now they were starting to run temperatures. They were really getting sick. My wife was feeling like, beat up and run over by a bus, but we had to just keep pushing on and plowing on through. So when we had to go into work on that Wednesday and drive me into CB, D.} {\pard \line \par} {We couldn't leave the kids at home, so now you have to take sick kids, put them in a car with my, my, my wife driving us in,and then she had to go all the way back and all the traffic. it must have taken at least 45 minutes to an hour to get me into C, b, D. Then she had to drive all the way back. I can only imagine.} {\pard \line \par} {She showed a tremendous amount of grit as well. This was extremely difficult for her. And then come back later in the evening, afternoon, five o'clock, whatever, pick me up with all the kids who are sick, who actually need to be in bed getting better. It was horrible. Pro tip though. One of the things that we did, again, my wife before we left, she made sure she } {\cf1
(31:00):
} { saw a GP in South Africa and she got a whole lot of medication, prescribed.} {\pard \line \par} {and she brought it along with, on the plane, just make sure you've got all your scripts and everything when you do, travel with it so you can show that it's, you can prove the script, and that was given to you by a doctor. So she did bring a whole lot of medication so she could self-medicate to try and help alleviate the symptoms and everything that her and the kids and, were going through.} {\pard \line \par} {And I was a bit delayed, but I did get sick by the Thursday, so that was the other challenge. So besides her driving me inand with the sick kids and everything on the Wednesday and doing my first day of work, by the Thursday, I started feeling sick. So I can tell you the Thursday at work, I felt like death warmed up.} {\pard \line \par} {It. But again, now you're trying to weigh up it probably be right decision, wrong decision. It's just, you're so worried. It's taken so long to get here. The work was already telling you that the job was in jeopardy. If you didn't start soon, now you started and the second day of being there, you don't wanna tell them you're sick and start staying at home.} {\pard \line \par} {So you had to go in. But I tell } {\cf1
(32:00):
} { you, I was sweating. I felt like death warmed up and I probably made other people think it was probably the worst thing to do, but you were just so worried that you, just had to push on through and get it done. So that was the sick, us being sick and a family being sick and trying to do all of this in the first week.} {\pard \line \par} {And this is only the first week. We haven't even been here a whole week. So it, was really, I look back to this and I think, I don't know how we, hell, how, the hell we actually got through that week anyway. That was the Wednesday. She drove me into C, b, D and back and picked me up. We said, we can't keep doing this.} {\pard \line \par} {The kids aresick. She's gotta be able to stay at home. She's gotta be able to have the car. I gotta start trying to use this public transport. So we did a little bit of research and found out that there's buses that could take us in. Now I've gotta work out how to use buses. So with a little bit of research, and I will do a separate podcast on maintaining cars and buying cars and everything as well as the transport here and all that work, how it works.} {\pard \line \par} {But what I was able to do is find, there was a bus station near the rent, the Airbnb that we were staying at. So she could drive, drop me off at the, bus station and I should be able to get a bus into CBD and a } {\cf1
(33:00):
} { bus back. And then she could either pick me up from the bus station or I could walk or take a connecting bus back to the, Airbnb, so I was gonna try this for the first time. So on the Thursday morning is when we woke up, she still had to put the kids in the car, but at least it was only to the bus station. It wasn't all the way in C, b, D, so it'd be quicker drop me off at the bus station, and this is when you found out okay, you actually need, at that time, you needed a card for public transport and you have to load money onto that card to be ableto use the buses and everything like that.} {\pard \line \par} {So I assumed I'd be able to buy one of those cards at the bus station. No, you can't buy them at the bus station. You actually have to go to a dairy, which is like a little shop, a little cafe or whatever to go buy one of these cards. When you buy it, it comes preloaded with $5 on it, and then you can top up more money onto it.} {\pard \line \par} {There's an app that you download that, a app that you download on your phone, and that's where you manage the card. you register the card and you can load money onto the } {\cf1
(34:00):
} { card so that you can use it. That's how it worked. Back then recently, within the last, I don't know, it's six months, maybe a year, I don't know, they've changed it where you can actually now use your credit card or your debit card and tap, not having to have one of those prepaid cards or loaded cards.} {\pard \line \par} {So you can do that now, which is at least more convenient and easier. So I could have just used my credit card or my debit card to, be able to tap and get on the bus. But anyway, my situation back two years ago. I was at this bus station nowbeing dropped off wanting get on the bus, but now I don't have a card.} {\pard \line \par} {So without a card, you can't pay and they won't take cash. And you couldn't tap at that stage with a credit card. So how was I gonna get on? So this is where you had to just suck it up, humble pie, ask for help. I spoke to, there was a, security person walking around at the bus station. She said to me she had a spare card, gave me the card, but it had no money on it.} {\pard \line \par} {So at least I got a card. Now in hindsight. She had that card and it was at negative $20. So that } {\cf1
(35:00):
} { really wasn't gonna help me because if I had to preload it, I'd have to pay the $20 just to get it clear and then add extra cash onto it. So actually what I needed to do was I needed to get to a dairy, and I needed to buy a card with $5 on it and then add extra cash onto it.} {\pard \line \par} {Luckily, a nice lady, I can't remember her name or anything at this time, but she came to me, so I was looking like a lost soul and helped me and got me onto the bus, spoke to the bus driver, said he's new to the country, just help him. And they let me travelinto town for free without tapping. She even offered to tap for me so it could double tap on her card, and he said, no.} {\pard \line \par} {The bus driver said, it's fine. Don't worry. Just come on. Got all the way to work on the Thursday. And at my lunch break I went and found a dairy in town and I was able to buy a card and then I was able to load some extra money on it so that I could then use that card, to, to travel on the buses and get back to the Airbnb.} {\pard \line \par} {So that was one of the things that I've also learned was, a bit of a challenge. } {\cf1
(36:00):
} { Got back to the Airbnb on that Thursday, so now I was getting a bit confident. I said, okay, Friday morning I can use the buses again. Going to town. What my wife was gonna do on the Friday though, is now we had got access to the rental.} {\pard \line \par} {She was going to, meet up with the agent, get the keys for the rental. She was gonna take all our stuff while I was at work on the Friday and move from the Airbnb unit all the way to the rental that we have up on North Shore. Bearing in mind she was doing this with a sick family herself being sick.} {\pard \line \par} {Doing it all by herself.All the stuff and all the bags would not fit in one trip in the car, so she would've to do multiple trips back and forth. Also, we went anywhere close to North Shore. If once you here, you'll see the distance wise, it's probably at least, oh, I dunno, half an hour, 40 minute drive from where we were in the west all the way to where we wanted to be in the north.} {\pard \line \par} {So she had to drive back and forth multiple times on the Friday to get us out of the Airbnb and get us all the way into the rental. What I was gonna do is I took the bus. Into CBD on the Friday } {\cf1
(37:00):
} { from the Airbnb, and then was gonna take a new bus, different buses to go all the way back to the rental that we had up on North Shore, which is what we did.} {\pard \line \par} {And it did work. And then what I would do is on the Saturday morning, I would go back to the Airbnb, clean up everything that, we had to do, keep it clean, and then hand over the keys, hand the Airbnb back so that we could then now finally be in the rental. That we were up on North Shore, so we did get through all of that.} {\pard \line \par} {But I can tell you it was one hell of a first week wherewe were finally in a rental, up on North Shore where we wanted to be near the schools that we originally wanted to be. So we finally now had a home. They did deliver our bed for us. the air mattress did also help so that we had extra so that I could sleep on the air mattress.} {\pard \line \par} {They delivered the fridge, they delivered the washing machine. We got all of that by the following weekend. We took all the food that we'd bought to the Airbnb, up to the rental and went shopping nearby at another shop. Now started learning how to get that done } {\cf1
(38:00):
} { on that with the shopping. What my wife said also worked well for her is because she didn't know the brands and didn't know everything going into the shops and even with the kids because once I was working, she had to go in with the kids.} {\pard \line \par} {They would just want a whole of stuff and it would, it made it twice as hard to go shopping. So what she ended up doing was using online shopping even, although it's a little bit more expensive for the delivery. You could actually sit down and read and spend more time on all the stuff that you wanted.} {\pard \line \par} {And if youwere living on a budget, what she could do is it would add up for you as you're shopping online, and she could take away from here, reduce this. Whatever she had to do come within her budget. Although it spent a bit more time, it was in the quiet at home doing online, that worked well for her.} {\pard \line \par} {and then they would just sh deliver the groceries to the door. there isn't a charge for that, but. With helping her being able to figure it out budget wise, it was worth that charge in our mind. And also for her to be able to spend the time reading through all } {\cf1
(39:00):
} { the different brands of stuff that you actually don't know and that you weren't with the kids.} {\pard \line \par} {she just found that easier. So that's how she did a lot of shopping. was online, but we finally got into that rental. We are finally, now in the area we wanted to be. That took us through to our. Next weekend. So we'd been there for a week. I've now got into my job, I'm starting my job and that's when in New Zealand they decided to send a cyclone iWay.} {\pard \line \par} {So that was something new, nevermind that we've lost,our first rental to floods. Now we end country and Cyclone Gabriela had decided to hit. and that was gonna be hitting where we were. By the Tuesday of that week. So I'd literally just been in the country for a week, got to the next weekend in a different rental, and now we had a cyclone hitting us.} {\pard \line \par} {So work was telling us we needed to work from home, which was also a challenge because I didn't even have a desk, a chair, or anything to work at. I literally had a blow up mattress. A bed in a fridge. } {\cf1
(40:00):
} { So it was very challenging. Working from home. I took a couple of boxes from stuff that was delivered and bags and everything like that.} {\pard \line \par} {Try to make a make. Shift desk sitting there working online from a rental in New Zealand for my first week while a cyclone was hitting us. So I can tell you our first week and a half was an extremely challenging week. this is our journey. This is how it was for us. you, you can't predict what's gonna, what your challenges are gonna be.} {\pard \line \par} {I'm justtrying to share our story, our journey, and what we had to work through and how we overcome it. The big thing that I'm just trying to share today is, yeah, there's a few tips that I'm giving you here and there, and you, your challenges will be different, but having a plan, like I mentioned before, is important.} {\pard \line \par} {Having that extra buffer budget. Very important 'cause you don't know what's gonna hit you. and then just sticking by each other and never giving up and a hundred percent } {\cf1
(41:00):
} { showing that gr you just gotta push on through. Maybe as parents it's easier because you've got kids and you just cannot give up.} {\pard \line \par} {You don't have a choice for your kids, but you just gotta push on through, plow on through, and it's amazing what you can actually do and how. unbelievably strong and resilient. you can be. It's, it's incredible. I look back now and I think, geez, how I did it, would I ever wanna do it again? No.} {\pard \line \par} {that's the whole point of this. I wanna try and make it easier for you guys out there. Hopefully you won't have it as hard as.What we've had, and I'm sure there's people that have had it even harder than us. but it can be done. If we've made this work, you can definitely make this work. So I think I'm gonna leave it there, for today.} {\pard \line \par} {I'll pick up from when we, were now finally in our first rental on the North Shore. and can continue with, talking through our journey and where we went to from there. Maybe all if I can ask is, if you're finding value in this podcast, please follow me and please also share it. the idea is to reach as many other immigrants as possible to try } {\cf1
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