M&J

Because we didn’t have much time before Martina would have to start work and we definately didn’t want to sit at home all the time we still used this not so fine day for a trip. So we jumped into the car and were heading north which is the region of Auckland we lived in last time.

Shortly after exiting the motorway everything seemed familar and we unerringly found the first beach: Browns Bay. The weather was quite good at first. Windy, though still sunny. But slowly it started to get more and more cloudy (you can see that on the photos) and the wind was picking up as well.

But because a bit of wind can’t scare us we were on our way to the next beach. Long Bay Beach was one of the places we were formerly visiting regularly as well and you can find some pictures on our old NZ webpage. This time no shoots of the beach directly but of the picnic and barbecue area behind it. You can’t see it on the photos but there one can find some brick barbies so you only have to bring coals and your meat to be ready to go. Some of the seating areas are even roofed. And then there was one of the outdoor picture frames (you see what I mean on the photo) one can find in many places in NZ… the Kiwis do something to entertain their tourists ;).

Since we were “aired” quite well at both beaches we were heading back home to the city center where we warmed us up with a nice cappuccino.

A beach trip with such a weather is nothing for softies but nice nevertheless.

Love,
Martina & Juergen

Ihr wollt sicher auch wissen, wie das hier mit Jobsuche so von statten geht. Also das ist etwas anders als in Deutschland. Die meisten Firmen hier sind nicht groß genug, um eine eigene Personalabteilung zu haben. Somit beschäftigen sie sog. Recruiter (Personalvermittler), um geeignete Kandidaten zu finden. Die Stellenanzeigen findet man hier in Zeitungen, aber noch beliebter ist hier mittlerweile das Internet, vor allem mit der Seite www.seek.co.nz, wo gerade im IT-Bereich fast alle Stellen ausgeschrieben sind.

So nun noch den passenden Job suchen. Das ist häufig gar nicht so einfach, weil die Jobbezeichnungen hier sehr unterschiedlich zu den Deutschen sein können. Auch steht hinter der gleichen Jobbeschreibung nicht immer der gleiche Job. Somit habe ich erst ein bisschen suchen müssen, bis mir klar war, dass ich wohl sowas wie ein “Business Analayst ERP” in Deutschland war und auch erst mal wieder sein will.

Ich habe mich dann bei mehreren Recruitern beworben und bin auch innerhalb von einem Tag zum ersten Mal angerufen worden. Sie wollten dann alles mögliche noch wissen, was eigentlich schon im CV (Lebenslauf) drin stand. Aber lesen, können sie wohl net . Als dann geklärt wurde, was ich machen will, dass ich in Neuseeland arbeiten darf und ich sofort einen Job suche wurde ich zu einem ersten Gespräch bei den Recruitern eingeladen.

Mittwoch 18.5.: Ich hatte zwei Interviews mit Recruitern. Beide meinten, dass sie Kunden hätten die vermutlich interessiert wären und sie würden sich dann bei mir melden.

Freitag 20.5.: Eine Recruiterin hat einen Vorstellungstermin für mich bei einer Firma organisiert.

Montag 23.5.: 1. Vorstellungsgespräch mit der Geschäftsführerin meines möglichen Arbeitgebers. Sehr nettes, offenes Gespräch und ich hatte ein gutes Gefühl

Dienstag 24.5.: 2. Vorstellungsgespräch mit meiner direkten Vorgesetzten. Wieder eine Frau und wieder ein tolles Gespräch. Als sie mich nach meiner Zukunftsplanung fragte, antwortete ich ehrlich dass ich in den nächsten Jahren Kinder haben wolle und dann auch wieder arbeiten wolle. Und es war kein Problem für mein Gegenüber . Da das Gespräch auch gut lief, wurden meine Referenzen angefragt. In Neuseeland ist es üblich, dass man ehemalige Kollegen/Chefs kontaktiert, um ein besseres Bild über den möglichen Mitarbeiter zu bekommen. Arbeitszeugnisse interessieren niemanden. So habe ich meinen ehemaligen Chef und einen Kontakt von einem früheren Kunden angegeben. Nun musste ich nur noch warten, bis die Referenzen geprüft wurden. Zusätzlich musste ich noch einen Persönlichkeitstest online machen. Hier wurde gefragt, wie ich mich eher sehe und was ich eher nicht bin. Ich habe schon lange nicht mehr so viele englische Wörter gesehen, wo ich nicht genau wusste, was sie bedeuten , aber Dank leo.org hat das auch geklappt.

Donnerstag 26.5.: Ich hatte noch ein 3. Vorstellungsgespräch. Hier wurden die Ergebnisse des Tests besprochen und noch weitere Details. Ich habe bereits auch Infos über die Arbeitsweise der Firma erhalten.

Freitag 27.5.: Leider fehlte noch eine Referenz und somit wurde mir zuerst kein Vertrag angeboten. Aber der zweite Recruiter hat sich gemeldet und mir ein Vorstellungsgespräch für nächsten Donnerstag angeboten. Tja große Firmen brauchen halt etwas länger. Ich habe den Termin mal angenommen, weil ich ja noch keinen Vertrag hatte. Freitag Nachmittag habe ich einen erlösenden Anruf erhalten, dass mein neuer Arbeitgeber mir trotz der fehlenden Referenz ein Angebot machen will und somit habe ich den Vertrag bereits unterschrieben.

Montag 30.5.: Habe gerade eine SMS bekommen, dass die Referenz da ist und die Geschäftsführerin den Vertrag unterschreibt und mir zusendet. Ich fange nächsten Dienstag 7.6. an zu arbeiten. Mein Dank geht an meine Referenzen Jenny und Joachim. Mission 3 completed.

Das nicht alle Kiwis so schnell sind, erfahrt ihr dann wenn wir euch über Jürgens Jobsuche erzählen. Er hat heute einen Vorstellungstermin. Drückt ihm die Daumen .

Diesmal waren wir wieder im Westen Aucklands unterwegs. Wir haben uns in den Waitakere Ranges (Waldgebiet) zwei Wanderwege ausgesucht. Zuerst sind wir den Fairy Falls Track (Feenwasserfall) gelaufen. Der Hinweg war sehr schön, es ging immer leicht bergab und wie ihr auf den Bildern unten sehen könnt sieht es in einem neuseeländischen Wald fast wie im Dschungel aus. Als wir am Wasserfall angekommen sind, kam uns dass wir wohl leider den Weg auch wieder bergauf zum Auto müssen. So ist Jürgen schnell und Martina ein bisschen langsamer und mit tiefrotem Gesicht den ganzen Weg wieder zurückgegangen.

Anschließend waren wir auf dem Pukematekeo immerhin 336m hoch. Von dort aus hat man eine tolle Aussicht über Auckland. Dort wo ihr den Skytower seht wohnen wir ungefähr.

Da wir vom Laufen und der frischen Luft noch nicht genug hatten, sind wir dann noch in den Cascade Kauri Park gefahren und noch den Auckland City Walk gelaufen. Kauri ist ein Baum, der bis zu 5000 Jahre alt werden kann. In dem Park gibt es Bäume, die mehr als 1000 Jahre alt sind und die sind echt rießig, auch wenn man das auf dem letzten Bild nur erahnen kann.

Wir hoffen die Bilder gefallen euch, wird die Woche hoffentlich noch mehr davon geben.

Liebe Grüße, Martina und Jürgen

On Thursday we’ve been taking a “one day holiday” and made an excursion to Piha. Ok, all who are now thinking why do the need a holiday, just hunting for a job and starting to manage everyday life is no real holiday.

One of the good things with Auckland is that within 40 minutes you can get to places where you will find nearly no people and the landscape is totally different to the city. Piha is around 1 hour away from Auckland Central. Already the drive there is an adventure because as soon as one is leaving the last city district of Auckland one is alreay in the middle of nowhere.

In Nowhere the roads tend to get smaller and the recommended 70km/h feel too fast for the raising number of curves. Thus we now know why one needs almost an hour for the few kilometres (about 40km). But as soon as we arrived above Piha we knew for what we’ve been enduring the curves .

Already the view off the lookout bay was gigantic. The weather was quite cloudy at that time with a light drizzel (quite common for Auckland). Hence we jumped back into the car and drove down to the beach. Piha may be a busy surfer’s paradise in summer however on our visit there was noting seen of that. Only a few lost tourists on the way.

During our time in Piha we had the typical weather mix at the sea with clouds, drizzel, rain and thank god also some sunshine .

We have taken some photos so see for yourselves. Also our car has made it onto some of the pictures. Since Wednesday it is now all ours .

Now you know why this trip was like a holiday.

Lots of love and see ya
Martina and Juergen

Wow, again another week is over. Therefore it is time for an update to our page.

On our first night we could experience how a storm feels. Because we are living directly at the waterfront on 16th floor it was quite loud and did sound unpleasant. But thank god we couldn’t really feel it :). Hence I was sleeping rather uneasy the first night but which hasn’t happened since.

Getting up in the morning with a view onto the harbour when the sun is setting or is already up is stunning and still feels more like a holiday. Probably also because we both are not working yet… but we are working on that ;).

Juergen had an appointment with a recruiter (you can’t really do without them in IT here) and he is taking care of introducing Juergen to one/some of his clients. Otherwise we also sent lots of applications, been busy on the phone and all in all did our best. We as well tried to refresh old contacts and went to lunch with Matt (Juergen’s former Siemens colleague), Tom (my former colleague of MGL) and Joachim (a friend of the “Neuseelandforum”, a fellow German). It was very interesting getting different opinions on job hunting in NZ and we also got a tip of Joachim or rather Peter (another friend of the forum) for a job position with one of New Zealand’s banks. They have been in touch with Juergen immediately after he applied on Friday for a little afternoon chat on the phone. We hope to be able to give a positive feedback on this issue within the next two weeks.

There are positive news to report from our car as well. We already received it on Wednesday. Spotlessly clean, looks almost new :). As it turned out it is a 2006 model (in the contract it said 2005) but that’s even better for us as the price stayed the same :). Thus we now also have wheels, a white Mazda Axela (photos will follow seperately). Because our bank account has a transfer limit of 1000 NZD a day at the moment we honestly pay 1000 NZD per day to the car dealer until the complete sum is reached. But as we paid half the amount cash that doesn’t seem to be a problem. We seem to be trustworthy.

We used our new wheels to do some shopping out of the city center. Besides a few little things that were missing in the apartment we also purchased a sofabed for visitors. Delivery on Tuesday. Hence we are prepared for guests after that. I am excited who will be our first guests.

On Saturday we were meeting with Nancy and Nick. We know them from our first visit to NZ. We could get used to how it might be when we have our first kid as they brought their little son and he kept them both quite good on their toes. Thankfully we don’t have kids just yet ;). In the afternoon we went to the beach to have a little walk. The weather was nice and sunny and we are almost starting to get a little tan… slowly but maybe we get a little colour before winter starts. A few pictures…

Today we have been to a french farmers market. There one can get european style bread so we had to buy one. So far we didn’t really miss German bread and sausages but we might come to that point. Luckily we know at least one bakery and butchery in Auckland though they are about 30 minutes drive away from our flat.

This evening we plan on going to a pub enjoying some harty english food certainly including some beer. We are looking forward to that.

Love, Martina

P.S.: Who would like to skype with us some time either take our Skype IDs off Facebook or drop us a short email. We are mostly online on the weekends between 9-11am german time. We can also arrange personalised appointments on request :).

As mentioned in the last post we found our dream flat and got it as well :). We now directly live at the harbour up on the 16th floor.

We were moving in the very same day and tried to make ourselves at home. The good thing with a furnished apartment is that almost everything you need is already there.

We have a well equipped and large kitchen. Hence Juergen can unfold himself perfectly and already has fun with cooking. Today we have Schnitzel with potatoe salad. As you can see we have a dining table with 4 chairs, thus guests are welcome. In the living room nothing is missing as well. Besides the very comfortable sofa also Leon (our teddy bear) together with Erna (the sheep) foud their own spot. With an LCD TV and a stereo we have plenty of entertainment as well.

There is nothing spectecular in the bedroom that you don’t have… maybe besides the fantastic view on the Auckland harbour. Which was already especially nice this morning. Otherwise very nice room with a Queensize bed, wardrobe and a dresser.

The guest room is more of an office at the moment with some desks and some storage space. Here we will add a sofabed so that guests are able to sleep over at our place. But for the beginning it is good as it is. The clou in that room is that there is a window to the bedroom so that daylight can shine through and one don’t have to turn on the light every time. When we have guests we can close a sliding door in front of the window so that both sides have their privacy.

In front of the bathroom are built-in wardrobes which nicely cover up the laundry area with a washing machine, dryer, etc. Very lovely and it always looks tidy when the doors are closed :).

The bathroom itself is internal with a combined bath tube and shower and a large washbasin. Here we have an overhead light so that during the day we don’t need to turn on the lights. Everything is there besides a hair dryer. So we have to buy one because ours is still on its way to NZ (dumb idea putting it in the container ;)).

We hope that some of you are now inspired to visit us sometime. We will have the flat for a minimum of one year with the option to stay longer. How long, well we don’t know yet.

We have attached some photos so that you are able to make a picture of your own. Because pictures say more than a thousand words…

until next time, Martina and Juergen

We still owe you a summary of the first few days. A lot has happened.

Wednesday: We have viewed the first apartment unfortunately it was looking a lot better on the photos than in reality. But we should have expected that. But to no avail so we had to arrange more viewings. Otherwise we already toured Queen Street a bit so that we know where to spend our money in the future. Well, there are a lot of possibilities… There was nothing much our hotel room had to offer but at least affordable internet connection. Therefore Juergen was busy applying for newly published jobs. On one application he received a quick answer by email but deflating it was a denial. But still they were asking for further details like years of job experience, preferred working area, expected salary level, etc. Hence another foot in the door of one of NZ’s bigger IT recruiters with a feedback on another application still pending. As Wednesday is as well our wedding anniversary we have had dinner in the Skytower. The Skytower is the highest building of the southern hemisphere and a special place for us as we celebrated our engagement there. At “Orbit” you can not only enjoy a fine meal but also a spectacular view on the city.

Thursday: We did wake up quite early. No not because of the jetlag but because in the club beside our hotel has been a affray which was also seen on the TV news the next day ;). But that’s not all our hotel has to offer: a super small room with a lot of humidity especially when you’re waking up in the morning because we can’t open our windows at night. Well no worrying we have to get out and be busy searching for flats. We had the whole day planned out. At 9 we fetched our rental car. At 9.30 we had our first viewing. The apartment was quite nice but was rented out during the day. Well we couldn’t phone our “referrees” that fast. After the viewing we had to quickly get to Turner’s car auctions. As our desired car was finally for auction the first bid was already higher than our limit. So we went to the next auction. There we were bidding for 2 cars after all. But we didn’t get any of them. A tiny bit frustrated we were driving to another car dealer becaus we were destined to buy some wheels today. The next car dealer was a picture perfect one. A bit sleazy and somewhat shady. We decided to make another try. We were driving to Glendield (this is also where the fine german bakery is situated ;)) and had a look at “Wheels on Wairau”. Arthur (our car dealer) showed us a lot of vehicles, but none of them felt like ours. At the end he said that they did get a new one freshly off the boat from Japan and that we are welcome to have a look at it but it hasn’t been serviced or polished yet. Well there it was, our car. A white Mazda Axela. We made a test drive and bought it spontaneously. We are getting the car next week freshly polished and serviced. Mission 1 completed. So that we wouldn’t get bored we had another viewing on the afternoon. The apartment was quite ok but it was definitly missing the ocean view and it was a tiny bit too far away from everything. But the agent (Val) said that we would be her first choice and that we shall hand in the filled application form as quick as possible.

Friday: Well, still someting to do. Yep we were sill searching for an apartment. We told Val that we didn’t wan to apply for the flat just yet as we wanted to look around a bit more. After all the apartment wasn’t exactly what we were searching for. So we viewed another flat today. But that one was a total letdown. By that Val´s apartment was still on top of our list as we would probably get that one. We couldn’t view another flat directly at the harbour as the agent couldn’t get a hold of the current tenant. Hence we’ve been strolling around for the rest of Friday, beeing lazy and enjoying that we are close to the sea.

Saturday: We had a viewing appointment at 10am for our “dream flat”. We have been a bit nervous because the apartment had all we were looking for. Details will follow in a seperate post with pictures :). Jane showed us the apartment and then left us alone so that we could together decide if we are interested. We were just smiling at each other and were immediatly on the same page that we wanted to have exactly this apartment. As Jane returned she wanted to know if we want to move in as we were the best candidates so far. We agreed and she asked when we want to move in. There was nothing to think about. “Dream flat” or “Nightmare hotel” (maybe a bit exaggerated) wasn’t a difficult decision. Thus we completed the formalities and then moved down Queen Street with bag and baggage. Mission 2 completed.

More on the apartment and our first night etc. in the next post.

Lots of love from sunny Auckland, Martina and Jürgen

Hallo,

wir haben von euch erfahren, dass in Auckland am 3.5.11 ein Tornado war ;)

Der Tornado war ca. 30 Minuten von hier entfernt und uns ist nix passiert. Der Tornado hat für uns auch keine weiteren Auswirkungen.

Details über die letzten Tage gibts heute Abend (bei euch morgen früh)

Grüße, Martina

Today we arrived overly punctual at 5.30am (Auckland Time) at the airport and shortly after 7am we have already been in our hotel room. Our permanent residency visa was already paying off at the airport as we could use the same queue as “real” Kiwis and so passed it really fast with a smile on the face looking to the “other passports” queue ;).

After that we slept 2 hours so that we would hopefully make it through the day without dropping asleep at noon as we have to avoid the jetlag. Because our accommodation is right in the city center we can reach all necessary locations on feet. After the late breakfast (10.30am) we went shopping.

The appartment “hunt” hasn’t been too successfull today. At least we now know that loads of furnished flats are only rentable until mid of August because the landlords want to make big money with the Rugby Worldcup afterwards. Prices are likely to rise more than a 100% (crazy but entrepreneurial Kiwis). Tomorrow we will view the first apparments (more on that the next few days).

Otherwise we had typical Auckland weather today. It was raining cats and dogs and we have been wet to the bones in about 5 minutes. But as it was still relatively warm that hasn’t been too bad. And as quick as the rain starts here it may stop a few minutes later… at least most of the times (as well today).

As a reward for staying up the whole day we have just been at the best Burger restaurant of the world – BURGERFUEL – and granted ourselves some really nice burgers with fries. Hence our stomachs our tired now as well and we can finally go to sleep. Yep, it is now 7pm but we are proud that we hung in there for so long.

Lots of love and until next time…

Hello @ll,

today is finally the day. At 3.45pm we will leave from Munich heading for Auckland. We are really looking forward to it especially because the last few days haven been veeeeery busy.

Martina is already home from work for 3 weeks but her holidays have mainly been packing, driving stuff to the buyback center and packing again. Thats how we have been killing time the two weeks before Easter. When you are considering to move and do not have to, just leave it :).

On the 23rd of April we had our farewell party with family and friends at our most beloved greek restaurant “Afroditi” located in our hometown Buckenhof. Very delicious food and a very nice circle of people. As we had to say goodbye to the first few people after the party the first teardrops were falling especially on Martina’s face. That was continuing the follwing days. On Monday leave-taking Jürgen’s mum. On Wednesday morning (or better said at 4.00 at night) we farewelled Peter (Martina´s brother) at the airport into their honeymoon before the big “saying goodbye wave” hit us on Friday and Saturday (Jürgen’s dad, Martina’s dad, Granny, Mum and her sister Eva).

On Thursday all our packed stuff was fetched by the relocation company. That went absolutely smooth and unbelievably fast. What we have painfully packed in the course of 2 weeks was safely stowed in their truck in about half an hour. Let’s see when all the stuff is arriving safely in Auckland.

What is left for today is having breakfast, closing the suitcases and hoping that they are not heavier than the allowed 23kg each. After that we are chauffeured to the Munich airport and as described above the plane finally takes off at 3.45pm.

We are wishing all readers a nice time and that you will always have fun reading along ;). The next post will be written in our new home.

Take care, Martina and Jürgen