Episode 4 - and now that you have been here a while what do you think ..

So what do I think of New Zealand?
- Beautiful - really some amazing nature, it is a group of Islands and stretches from some nice nearly tropical ares down to some really bloody cold areas
- Cold - prevailing wind in New Zealand is generally from the NorthWest which is at least from a warmish area but once those cold winds from the South kick in - it cools down very quickly. Very much like a baby - if its not wet it has wind - or both.
- Very country like - even though people see themselves as advanced they are a behind and that gap is increasing.
- Decision making - not a strong point - Ido not understand why (yet)
- Housing - unbelievable expensive - looking at the salries and the cost of housing - over the top

Politically an interesting country
- 4.something million people - mostly Pakeha (white) with Maori and other Pacific islanders, large number of Asians making up the rest.
- a large number lives in Aussie
- 3 year term - who thought of that - the in power party also have the eye on the clock to make sure they get ready for the next elections
- Labour was in power for a number of years - and as one of the adverts show - New Zealand you are soft, no smacking of your kids, people are on the dole, housing for the "less fortunate" and it is possible to earn more on the dole than somebody who has a full time job - what is the incentive?

Economy
- largely farming - very much dependent on the the farming sector and exports
- export is mostly raw product
- Competitive - NO - weird - is all their competitiveness been taken up by their rugby teams
- Infrastructure - almost everything is in need of an upgrade

Good things
- family is important
- mostly respect for other - very low crime levels - whoo hoo
- these guys can gargle - after rugby drinking must be the national sport
- cars are quite affordable

Do I like it here??
Well honestly, it is a difficult country, nor for sissies - wind, cold, lack of sunshine (and when it shines with the hole in the ozone layer you get seriously burnt).
Will we be staying - the jury is still out. Trying to build - the builders do not have work but it seems they are all kit builders anyway. Do not try and suggest something new - they are used to their way of building ...

Anyway - enough for now - watch this space.

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Episode 3 - the quest for the land of the long white cloud

Ok - so here we are finally having arrived in NZ. - after much gnashing of teeth, stress, lost and found luggage etc.

Wellington - is a very nice place. Hmm - I remember having said that of the semi-cute girl who lived next to us when I tried to sit her up with a friend.

Wellington is nice yes, exciting - no. Not in the Dubai, New York, San Francisco kind of way - more in a place where if you have enough friends you would enjoy it but really it is another small'ish city, close to the sea with expensive housing, coffee shops galore (ever blogged why I hate Starbucks - pretentious, expensive, cold, weak coffee etc. but that is a story for another day), a few touristy places - Te Papa, the Cable Car, Zoo ... sure there must be more??? Oh yes - apparently we just had the driest summer in 10 years - whoo whoo!!!

Jobwise - hmmm - jury still out on that one but lets say this - I will not be dying of a heart attack soon. Pretty clever people but they do not live to work so I am finding my self just trying to slow down a little bit - no wonder SA'ns is seen as arrogant - we just want to get things done, all this discussing stuff is a bit of a waste of time.

Nature - quite beautiful but after the problems we got from MAF (ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries? - more abut this later) I though it would be a natural paradise but it has quite a few non indigenous plants and animals taking over the nature round Wellington. Also a well known fact - New Zealand has no indigenous mammals (ok - so maybe a bat or two) which for someone from Africa is very strange - no snakes either so the chances of getting eaten is virtually Zero - no wonder they invented bungy jumping as a way to introduce some stress into their lives. Hopefully I will get to do that soon.

Anyway - where are we with the visa stuff, work visa is in the passports, next hurdle Residency visas - Yawn .... lets just say this - hopefully things are happening which I am not aware off.

More later ...

Episode 2 - the quest for the land of the long white cloud

OK - last episode - finally got a telephone interview. Now first thing you have to remember is that the timezones are diff rent - something like nine hours. So if you want to set a good example and be flexible (important - all employers are looking for flexible employees ..) you have to get up latest five o'clock in the morning all bright and bushy tailed, ready to impress.

So - my first interview arrived, and as it is over the phone one-on-one it is easy to be cool and collected, no body language or little facial ticks to give you away. So quickly a second interview was arranged - this time with a panel of people, and that went quiet well too - large IT firm, involved in outsourcing, amongst lots of other things, and this was the direction been discussed. However - when we came to the salary part - my expectations and theirs was slightly far apart - so that opportunity faded into the ether. Good experience though and the first interview I attended in sleeping shorts.

Back to sending CV's, replying to adverts but I changed my line of attack slightly - I contacted the advertising employment agencies directly by phone. Again up every morning - very early and contact the agencies with the promising job adverts - no some of these adverts are just fishing expeditions - i am sure there is no real jobs behind the advert but some of the others was more real.

So soon i had a number of promising leads set-up however a second truth dawned on me - I will have to visit for face to face visits. Only things is - it is a few thousand $'s for flights, accommodation and car rental and no promise of success - or even getting a n interview ...

So I bit the bullet, booked the plane tickets, and started making and calling the agents to get interviews set-up. Ha - slight mistake - it finally dawned on me that some of the adverts was ghost adverts - all flash and no job behind it. So I booked three days in Aucklabd and two in Wellington and started packing my bags - with only two real interviews planned for the whole week.

More about my firts visit to NZ later.

Where we currently are - Work Visa requests are in, now the nail biting is in full swing - hopefully I did not have some or other forefather whose really bad deeds will come back to hunt me. It wa actually not such a difficult process - once you understand what paperwork is needed - big thanks to the agents who warned me two months ago to get my police clerances for South Africa going (<--- big hint for anybody who is planning to imigrate - little things like that can derail the whole process - ask somebody who has actully done the process)

More later ...

New Zealand Quake Causes Heavy Damage - just what I need!

OK - sometimes you wonder at the timing of things - just getting all set-up to move, having sold yourself and the family on the new country and you get a little wake-up call ... see the attached video.



Anyway - lived in the middle-east, worked in Africa in some really interesting countries and not scared yet. Read about what to do in a earthquake though - LOL.

Nice web site for NZ related videos. Also ha some other NZ videos - e.g. tasting NZ Wines which is more to my liking that this shanking, rocking and rolling ...

Goodbye to Dubai

Having spent the last few years in Dubai, in complete amazement of the mad rush of buildings getting constructed, roads and fly overs popping up within a month or two, people arriving and leaving, prices of housing, food, entertainment etc shooting through the roof we have decided it is time to look for something better.

First option of course was to go back to South Africa - but as the good old ANC Government still uses a non-racist racist policy to decided who should have jobs, who should be allowed in colleges and Universities and has no clue whatsoever on what to do about rapidly escalating crime that option was a non starter (watch this page for a good old rant on this subject later).

Next on the list Australia and New Zealand - OZ quickly feel out of the race as they decided age really is the ultimate decider as to how productive people can be. Thanks for that one - I will be now joining your neighbors and sporting rivals - watch out for the guy with the NZ jersey and springbok cap when you play us.

Of course that left New Zealand - smallish group of Islands (two big ones and some lesser island) sitting at the other side of the world from every-one else who think they are important. First steps was to find out all about immigration rules etc. - great web page Immigration New Zealand which at first has so much information that it literally takes days to get your head around the different options (maybe that is part of the sifting process - testing for perseverance and tenacity)

Anyway - I got the old CV dusted and updated, found a few web sites with NZ connections and send out a few replies to adverts and waited for the replies to start streaming in - and waited, and waited and had some serious damage done to my self esteem. This nothing happening phenomena, as anybody who has tried any of the so called job-sites before can tell you - is perfectly normal. It is also part of the learning process - job agents are very much like housing agents - they wait for a seller - me with my 'skills' and an employer with his opening and 'expectations' - to match. Of course been in the computer field looking for a computer job sometimes is a very high expectation of non technical people to understand the words I am using in my CV, and the ones the prospective employer are using actually means the same thing e.g storage ~ data management, operating systems ~ management systems tec.

(I expect a postgraduate student should be able to write a program which interfaces with a few thesaurus web sites that can do a better job - watch this space - the site should be up and running soon. Also for anybody thinking of stealing this idea - I formally announce it today 20 December 2007 on the world wide web in this blog - and I will sue your arse.)

Eventually I got a telephone interview - which was a start but the expectations of the employer and me did not quite match up ...

more re. this in the next action packed blog episode.