A Trip Home

Pohutakawa - the NZ Christmas tree

Last November we spent the month in New Zealand (actually Vicki spent somewhat longer involuntarily, read on …). The purpose of this return was two-fold: catch up with family and friends that we hadn’t seen for 2½ years and for Vicki to apply for a UK visa. Due to some forward planning I have dual nationality (thanks Mum and Dad!) but Vicki is “just” a Kiwi. She has been able to stay in England on a 6-month visitor’s visa, but last time she got one it was made very clear that this was the last ... and don't leave the country as she might not be allowed back in! Consequently we’ve seen less of Europe than we had planned. The only answer was to apply for a “proper” visa which would allow her to stay for a longer period and work. Unfortunately this can only be done from your home country and would take £1,000 ($2300 NZD) plus about 10 working days to process the application (as of when we were planning this trip).  So a month seemed to give plenty of time for both our objectives – oh, how wrong we were.

Our first stop was in Christchurch, staying with our very good friends Kerry and Dave. While we thought we had plenty of time it was a struggle to get around all our friends. Not quite all as it turned out. We managed to spend some quality time with my daughter Izzie and Vicki’s son Andrew. Though as Andrew was in the process of setting up his own business as a surfing instructor Vicki spent more time in front of her computer setting up his website than with him. Still, he seems to have had a successful start (with a huge response on TreatMe) and is doing something he enjoys and is very good at.

The old bakery at Blue Spur township

We then moved down to Dunedin to stay with my mum and see my other daughter Georgia, who had just got a first class Honours Degree in Archaeology. She was starting a holiday job before returning to commence her Masters. And we finally got to meet her boyfriend, Michael. They have been together for a number of years but we’d only seen a few photos. He passed the test though - seemed human, no two heads or arms scraping the ground.

NZ back country - in the eye of the beholder?

Ex-residents

It was a good chance to catch up with my mother too as she is now 93 and still living in her own house. As always when there we go on plenty of day-trips, either down the coast or into the hinterland. And always I am impressed by the sea and beaches and the pockets of unmolested bush, rare as they are outside national parks in NZ. Sadly a lot of the rest of the countryside is bare grass paddocks for sheep or cattle where pretty much anything larger than a thistle has been removed. It is very barren and only kept going by the regular diet of fertilisers. The less fertile areas are planted with exotic forests grown for their timber, or ravaged land where the bulldozers have felled them all.

We then headed up to Nelson to stay with Vicki’s parents. The Nelson area is a favourite of ours and it isn’t surprising that it is such a popular holiday area as there are more sunshine hours than most of the rest of NZ, lots of variety in the landscape, and a plenty to see and do.

 

Coffee & cake at the Mapua wharf - Nigel, Julie, Joan, Ivan

Kina Beach

 

Vicki, myself and Julie at Mapua, Nelson

Typical NZ car (not)

Brook Stream, Nelson

Boatshed Cafe, Nelson

Maurice, a local gunsmith

Andrew with his first clients

As we got closer to the time we were due to fly back the worry levels increased as Vicki’s visa still hadn’t arrived, nor her passport which had gone with the application.  All the UK visa agency in Manila would tell us was that it had been received, and their website now said that 1/3^rd of applications were being processed in 15 days, 2/3^rds in 25 days and the rest … clearly it wasn’t going to happen in time to catch our flight so Vicki had to forfeit her return ticket. I headed back on the long and lonely flight to the northern winter at the beginning of December, while Vicki spent more time with Kerry and Andrew in Christchurch, and then in Nelson with her parents and sister.

The visa, and passport, arrived in Christchurch on December 17th.  Vicki flew to Christchurch the next morning and onto London that afternoon, so was here for Christmas with a shiny multi-year working visa in her hands. All turned out well in the end though a LOT more expensive and stressful than anticipated.