Hello All,
It's been a while since I have had the
opportunity to post as it has been Mark having all the adventures.
Since Mark leaving in April, I have been teaching, coaching and
tutoring. I spent the summer and fall visiting friends in Wolfville,
Ottawa, family in Cape Breton and friends in Saint John. I also took
a week to coach at our provincial synchronized swimming camp, and a
week to laze around in the sun on the traditional “Wilcox Ocean
Park Week”.
When Mark had left, I was still unable
to apply for my work visa due to my recent health issues. We were
instructed by my physician to wait until late August to ensure that
I was healthy before applying for my own work visa. Everything came
back with good health, and the first Friday in September I sent off
my application to Washington to be processed at their North American Embassy. The visa itself was a
while to be approved as it had to be sent on from Washington to New
Zealand for additional screening and potential approval.
The good news is that
the work visa was approved!!
I have since booked a flight to New
Zealand, leaving 30 days from today, on December 12th and
I will be arriving in Auckland on the 15th of December - just in time for the Holidays! I
am very lucky to have much better flights/connections than what Mark
had on his flight. To start with, my flight leaves Saint John at
lunch time rather than 5:30 in the morning and each of my layovers
are no longer than 2 hours (where Mark had a 12 hour lay over on the
west coast).
The next 30 days are going to be a
whirlwind! I am going to continue teaching until the end of November,
and I will be coaching until I leave for NZ. I have started my
“to-do” lists, and I have even crossed off a lot of items in the
last week. I am currently looking for employment in NZ and am hoping
to get into a few school relief teaching (supply teaching) once I
arrive.
Mark and I can not even begin to
express how excited we are about my arrival in Auckland, nor can we
express enough gratitude for all of our friends and family that have
made a very difficult 18 months a whole lot easier with love and
laughter along the way.
How many to-do lists are necessary? Could it function as just one big to-do list? Or do you have different to-do lists for each milestone in your preparation? Wouldn't it be even more exciting if you mentioned that Christmas there is during their summer season so you get to go back to all the nice warm weather? These are just a few questions that come tom mind after reading the new post on your great adventure.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I thought I would leave you a comment here in your chronicles of New Zealand Adventure rather than just as a comment to you post announcement on facebook. I also wonder how many other people realize that you can post here? It seems only your mother and Jeff Vautour seem to have figured it out.
-Geoff Wilcox
Also, feel free to make fun of me for my typos.
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