The deal is sealed

We now have a place called HOME

Now let the decorating game begins.....

Our house......SOLD!

Yeah, finally finally......

Now we can move on.........

And the search of new home begins...........

Life in Auckland....is good!

It’s been two months living in Auckland and I have no complaint whatsoever (ok, except the apartment we currently living in but that’s just temporary anyway, so doesn’t count!).

I don’t know if it is just us, we have found that living expenses here in general is surprisingly on par if not cheaper than in Wellington. One of the worries we had prior to the move was the transportation (to work). We thought we may not be able to drive to work anymore due to the terrible traffic (that everyone has warned me about) and the exorbitant parking fees. Then guess what? Our parking fee here only costs us the humble $5/day as compare to the crazy $12/day in Wellington! Even the parking fee right in the CBD is no more than those in Wellington. As for the notorious traffic jam, well we are yet to experience it as our apartment is only a mere 10 mins drive to our office and we have early start/finish working hours.

Here, we are spoiled for choice, be it food, Asian grocery stores, Asian hair salons, clothing, cosmetics brands and whatnot. There are many Japanese/Korean cosmetics that I used to source through Ebay can now be found right in the stores. Top that off with designer brands LV, Gucci, Dior, Loewe, Prada etc (Chanel when are you coming?) to freshen up my eyes.

And just last weekend, we were thrilled to have big bowls of delicious noodles for just $6.50 each, $4 cheaper than in Wellington! Gosh!

We have also learned that, a friend of ours who own a house in a nice area pays less rate to the council. Their house value is worth much more than ours in Wellington and yet their rate is almost half of ours. House price is generally a bit higher here which is expected (Hey, it is Auckland!) but I am sure we will find one that we can afford.

Comes to the weather, Auckland wins, hands down! Needless to say more.

Daycare for Athan – cheaper, better, cleaner, more systematic and professional.

International travel? Cheaper, easier and less troublesome. No more transit to Wellington.

And why the hell did I live in Wellington for the past 9 years?

Our new place!

Moved into our new place today. We are renting it for a year, hopefully we will be able to get our own house by then.

The apartment is brand new, but it is pretty small and crammed, only 2 bedrooms. I guess this is what we will have to make do for now.

Love my new lacey tights!

Auckland!!

Arrived into Auckland around 4pm today.

This is where we stay for the next 2 weeks or so till we got our place sorted out.

Auckland countdown T-1 days All along the way

With a truckload of stuff, we headed north.

Stopped at Levin at our favourite Thai cafe for lunch. Their pad thai is the best!

Spending a night in Taupo to break our long driving journey to Auckland.

Huka falls behind us

The next day, a brief stop at Hamilton for a buffet lunch at Genghis Khan. A place where you pick all your raw ingredients to create your very own dishes and the chefs cook it for you. They have huge selection of food and spices, all you can eat salad bar and desserts. Much much better than the Wellington one.

Auckland countdown T-1 days - Bye bye Welly!

The movers came to load everything (140 items) onto the container yesterday.....

The house is back to how it was, when we first met - EMPTY! This is how it all started, and this is how it ends.

We checked ourselves into a hotel and had potluck dinner at a friend's place. We had an early night, like FINALLY!

This morning, we went back to the house, did the last bit of tidying up and checking, took some photos, locked the door and say our goodbye. I didn't shed a tear though my heart was aching. I was (still am) in denial I supposed, not letting my mind to have a single chance to wallow about all the memories built in this house.

Our empty room

One last look through our window

AJ happily crawling around in his room

Our first home, thanks for the shelter all these years

So, bye bye House.

Bye bye windy wind.

Bye bye Wellington. I will not miss you, but the people living in you. Till we meet again my Welly friends!

Auckland countdown T-2 days - (T_T)

It's my last day of work.

I was struggling to give my speech in my farewell morning tea. My voice was trembling, my nose felt funny, I was holding my tears very hard. They are a bunch of great people. It was a sad day. I left with a heavy heart. (T_T)

It is too my last night living in this house, the very first home of mine. Been living here 7.5 years and tonight is the last. (T_T) (T_T)

Packing wise, it is coming to the end. I am surrounded by boxes, nothing but boxes. EVERYWHERE!

They are in the garage.....

underneath the stairs.......

In the living room......

More in the living room......

Tomorrow, the mover will load everything into the container. We will be staying at a hotel for the night then it is bye bye Wellington the next day!

Auckland countdown T-4 days

4 more days to go, and I am still burying myself in the boxes packing my life away. I knew we have hell lot of stuff but didn’t know we have that many! Packing is seriously draining all my time and energy. I packed day (when I am not working) and every night, sleep at 12am everyday. And that’s only packing our personal belongings. We are letting the moving people to pack the rest this coming Thu and Fri. My clothes and shoes alone has already taken up 20+ boxes (and that is after I have donated like 10++ bags of them)!! They are big boxes, half of my height! Scary or not? This, I blame no one but myself. I don’t even have time to wallow about my life in Wellington.

The only fun part about packing is the recover of stuff that are long forgotten eg. Shoes, clothes and those useless but meaningful things (like…love letters from Rick! Muahahahaha). It was a good stroll down the memory lane.

Auckland countdown T-7 days

It was a full-on day, started 9.30am and ended basically now, well 30 mins ago.

My colleague friends (They are my colleagues but we are more like friends) came to help "swept my house clean" i.e. picking up stuff that they bought from me and those that given away. They brought their kids too, so it was kind of a get together.

Joash and AJ

Two mummies and their kids (swapped)

Supermum! LOL

Antony and his cute little ones

We then shoot off to meet up with a bunch of friends for a farewell lunch, dim sum at Regal.

Later, another early dinner gathering (with another bunch of friends) at a friend's place.

I want to go outside.......

Thank you guys (and gals) for the yummy dinner!

With the lovely host lady

We got home at around 8.30pm then started doing a bit of tidying up and cleaning till 10.30pm.

Dinning sets are gone, fridge is gone and hell lot of stuff gone! My house is looking rather empty now apart from boxes lying around. It no longer feels like home.

I AM HOMELESS!

Dinning table and chairs...GONE!

Fridge...GONE!

The sweetest kiss ever!

My days have been stressful. So many things to pack yet so little time. The house is in a big mess, and I just can't live my normal life in a mess like this. I have lost my sense of belonging.

THIS lights out my day!

AJ planted his first kiss today! (^_^)

Auckland countdown T-20 days - Back from Auckland

This trip is half holidaying and half surveying. We stayed in a serviced apartment hotel right in the city centre and there were like foooooooooood everywhere. Endless choice. Man, I am liking this city life.

This is of course only some of it

Anyway, after first day of leisure, it was serious surveying the 2^nd day. We managed to book 5 appointments to view the potential apartments but cancelled the rest after we saw the first two. We quite liked the 2^nd apartment we saw and hopefully we can get it. Still yet to be confirmed. Also visited two daycare centres, very impressed with one of them. We will enrolled Athan to that one. Again, yet to be finalised.

3^rd and 4^th day were spent 吃喝玩樂 (eating, drinking, playing and laughing). LOL

So, we have done what we went to do and now is just playing the waiting game.

While waiting for boarding the plane back to Welly.......

Can't remember what so funny. lol

He just couldn't stop laughing.....

View of Auckland city from Mt Victoria. Beautiful isn't it?