Introduction

It is New Years Day 2005 and my family and I are about to embark upon a life-changing journey.

For those of you who do not know us, let me do the introduction now. I'm Joanne, age 38 full time mum to Ethan (5) and Freya (3) my partner, Chris, is a self-employed welder whose first love is motorbikes. The family dog is Scooter.

So, what is this life changing journey? We are holding our breath and taking a huge step into the unknown, well, not exactly the unknown - New Zealand. We are emigrating to New Zealand.

It all began with a traffic jam. Actually, that is not strictly true. The very beginning was when I left New Zealand over 7 years ago after spending nearly 2 months backpacking through Godzone (kiwi nickname for New Zealand) My diary entry of 15 May 1997 reads...
Last day in New Zealand. I am so sorry to be leaving, New Zealand has far exceeded even my high expectations. There are some places I did not get to see...maybe next time

I always knew I would go back there. Chris joined me on my travels later in Oz, so he has never been to NZ. We looked into the possibility of immigration, but at that time a degree was the only option for us. So I enrolled with the OU to study part time towards a degree, this would take at least 6 years. I am now 18 months into my studies and enjoying it immensely.

The traffic jam sparked of a chain of events that have led us to where we are now.....

In September 04 Chris sent me a text saying that he would be late due to heavy traffic on the motorway. I sent him a text back which read..."no traffic jams in New Zealand"

That same night Chris logged onto the New Zealand Immigration website. He had done so many times in the past just to keep upto date with any changes. A new visa category had been recently created - Skilled Migrant Visa. We were in with a chance!