Friday 21 January 2011

Tuesday 18 January 2011

3 weeks!!

3 weeks till I fly and my biggest worry of them all is upon me: how to get my money over!! Obviously I'll take cash, but then I need to get roughly £800 over there into my NZ bank account. I think I'm just gonna do travellers cheques instead of faffing on and on about International Money Movers which Lloyds recommended. The only other option is literally getting the cash out of the hole in the wall when I'm out there incurring roughly a 5% charge which is £40.

Now I heard that I need to apply for an IRD once I'm out there and it takes 8-10 days to come through and I'm not allowed to work until then. I might ask my relatives if I can come stay with them to start with. But they're in Wellington and I don't know if I'll physically need to be in Auckland to sort this all out. ARGH!!

Anyway, very excited!! Not gonna panic about the money thing, but getting paid would be super right now. But I have to wait till Wednesday.

Monday 10 January 2011

One month to go

With one month to go, the inevitable anxiety is starting to take hold. I couldn't sleep last night worrying about all the things that could go wrong. I have to take a train to York, then change for London Kings Cross, then take the underground to Piccadilly, then to Heathrow Terminal 3, then fly to Sydney via somewhere, don't know where, then another plane from Sydney to Auckland, then get a bus to the hostel, where I'll probably collapse. I arrive on the Saturday night, and I don't have anything to do on Sunday, so I feel I should probably plan something to do so I don't start thinking "what the hell am I doing here?" Monday morning I have to get over to the travelworks people and get all my stuff set up so at least I have a definite plan then.

I keep remembering the way I felt when I went to uni. I was so nervous, I thought everyone would be friends already and no-one would bother trying to get to know me. All this paranoia and stress, and I know I'll feel the same when I get over there. I think my biggest stumbling block is myself. I got over those feelings of being overwhelmed at uni, so I'll get over it in NZ. I've just got to keep my head. Relax. Don't be afraid to ask the stupid questions. And for god's sake, enjoy it, you ponse!

I think once I've got some money I will feel so much better. So with my dad's money (£400), my last wages from the hotel on 25th jan (roughly £600), then all my weekly wages from the evening job (roughly £250) that'll be £1250. I'm going to exchange £100 for NZ dollars cash, take £20 down for the journey, and the rest I'll put on travellers cheques. It sounds like a lot, but I just know it'll go fast so I'll need to get working soon. It'll be roughly £200 for the Intercity bus thing so I should have roughly a grand at the start. Then on 25th Feb I'll get the very last of my wages from the hotel, roughly £250 so that'll really help.

Stuff to do:
print off the bank statement for proof of possession (remember to move it into other account)
make sure my wonderful friend Taz has taken over my phone contract (another headache)
organise dad's money transefer and get travellers cheques
update CV

Just writing all my worries down has turned my dread back to excitement.