Catch Up

What a month.

The movers came and packed up our stuff in Fitzroy. We had 100 pieces, plus what has and will be flown.






Shannon and I flew to Auckland, and into some less than perfect weather.


We had about 5 days before flying to Raleigh for Christmas. We've chalked it up to a successful week because we found an apartment. In some way (watching a listing, drive by, call, viewing) I think we were involved in 44 places.

That's the dormant volcano that you can see from one of the porches.




We signed the lease on a Thursday, and flew out on Friday (Christmas Eve) so we went out of town, to the north, to see what we found. We wound up on a black sand beach, just north of town. Really pretty drive.



Not so great weather, but it wasn't looking at apartments, so it was pretty great.

And then it was off to Raleigh. Where, unlike in Auckland, and we were wearing shorts, it snowed. Not a lot. But, it crippled Raleigh, like snow does. It was good to see some family and some old friends, but it was only nine days before I flew back to Auckland.


I saw a repainted Continental/United Express plane in Raleigh. Despite the fact that at this point, I had a foot out the door at United, this is still a strange sight for me. Obviously, United is somewhat ingrained in my life.


Ever since I've been back, I've been trying (and am still trying) to buy a car. It's not like there aren't any cars, or they are all overly expensive, but a manual, hatchback (or wagon), non-lowered, Subaru is next to impossible to find because nobody in Tokyo wants a stick, and most of the cars that we're willing to pay for are imports. Tax policy wonk information - New Zealand has zero import duty on cars, which I believe makes it one of the few countries in the world who can say that.

Anyway. A few days later, Shannon dropped in on her way back to Australia. We spend a good bit of time ignoring our responsibilities to find a car, and headed north again. We didn't even make it all that far out of town, but I've got a good feeling about the north island. I'm excited to really get out there. Rolling hills, nice beaches, and I hear there are some significant mountains south of Auckland.

Then Shannon had to go back to Melbourne. So here we are. Another January, anther move, another couple months apart. One day, we will move together. I'm certain of it. This sucks.

To pass the time, I started my new job. It's been a week, but it's gone reasonably well. I'm only mildly over my head. I think it's going to be pretty interesting.

Now, it's a waiting game for our stuff to be released by MAF. The word is, they have selected what they want to inspect, but haven't indicated when they might actually inspect it. Who knows how much trouble we'll have with it. We tried to get things clean, but who knows what is "clean."

More to come, I guess. Maybe tomorrow I'll solve the car problem?