Sorry I've not been on for a while, been busy but haven't, if you know what I mean!
We're slowly settling in. I'm pretty much settled at work and Mr Manks started a new job this week working at the airport as an aircraft refueller (yay!). The location of his job drove us to look for a house in the Southern 'burbs or central.
We were not optimistic about finding somewhere, basically due to us having a dog. The first house we looked at (in Karori) specified "pets allowed" but was just awful. The second house, in Island Bay, was modern(ish) - just 10 years old and built by the owners, who live on the back lot of the subdivision - same style of house, built at the same time.
The landlady mentioned as we walked around that she didn't want "animals or kids" as she'd rented out to tenants with a cat before and it had wrecked the stairs carpet. Our hearts fell as we hadn't mentioned our dog to her. We built up a good rapport though and they mentioned they had a dog too.
At the end we said we liked the house but didn't think they would like us because we had a dog. She completely changed her tune! Turns out she just didn't want a cat! They had other viewers and we had other houses to see, but we had a call with them later that day to clarify a few points, then went round to see it again the next day, met the landlord as well and signed it! We move in two weeks :-)
So our new life is gradually coming together. Dog has had her first pre-export vet visit in the US (and passed - phew!). She has another visit on Monday, then the following Saturday, then she should fly to LAX on the 29th, leaving the US on the 30th. I pointed out to Mr Manks that, as he's working at the airport, he might be able to go and say hi to her through the crate door when she's offloaded! I'm sure he will but I know it will kill him! Then off to quarantine she goes in Levin. I know what we'll be doing on 5th December (as we move house on the 4th)!
Our container did have an ETA of 4th December, but that fact has conspicuously gone missing from the MSC website now. A bit of investigation work online now has me suspecting that it might not arrive until the 13th now after we'd gone and sorted a house for around the same time our container arrived. Still, our kind landlords are lending us bits and bobs to keep us going in the meantime. And they only live next door so if we need to borrow anything, it should be pretty easy to get!
Will feel much more at home once our stuff arrives! We've been living in a central, fully-equipped studio since our third week. It's served us really well as it's so close to everything, but it's (small) size is getting to us now. We're both used to our own space, so the next two weeks are likely to be very long!