Over the Hill and Across the Ditch

By Mike Lynn

Kiwi born and bred, happily married for 36 years, leaving the country of their birth, their friends and family for a new country, new lifestyle, and the chance to watch their grandchildren on their journey through life. Over the Hill and Across the Ditch is a humorous view on the Australian way of life by Mike & Vicki Lynn

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mike Lynn
• Release date: Feb 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301285297

Mike Lynn

Married for over 40 years, we had both worked in a variety of industries through our careers in New Zealand. Mike has worked in the Concrete Industry, Rag Trade, and Real Estate, in the areas of Sales and Marketing, General Management and more recently in Information Technology. Vicki has worked in Education and Legal in a range of Administration roles, Recruitment and Human Recourses Management, and most recently in Australian Real Estate. Our son, daughter in law and seven grandchildren moved to the Sunshine Coast of Australia in May 2007 seeking new opportunities. A few months later we made the decision that we wanted to be a part of our grandchildren growing up and consequently made the move across the ditch as well. The desire to share some of our experiences in life as we both continue to work has led to our first book, Over the Hill and Across the Ditch which has now been followed by the recent release of The Lynn's of Tennessee Ave with the final editing of a third book almost complete and due for release shortly we hope to follow up with others as we develop our plans to travel around Australia in our retirement.

Book preview

Over the Hill and Across the Ditch

By Mike Lynn & Vicki Lynn

Copyright 2013 Mike & Vicki Lynn

Smashwords Edition

Kiwi born and bred, happily married for 36 years, leaving the country of their birth, their friends and family for a new country, new lifestyle, and the chance to watch their grandchildren on their journey through life. A humorous view on the Australian way of life...

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Contents

Preface - How it all Began

Chapter 1 - Decision Made – The First Weeks

Chapter 2 - Well Here It Is 2008

Chapter 3 - Working, Renting & Building a House

Chapter 4 - Our New Home at Last

Chapter 5 - 2010 Here We Come!

Chapter 6 - 2011 Is Now Upon Us

Chapter 7 - 2012 A New Year

About the Authors

Preface

How it all began...

Our only son Adam married Ann who had two daughters, Jessica and Amy. During the ensuing years the family grew and we were blessed with the addition of Joshua, Jacob, Nikolas and then Danny.

In their quest to find more opportunities firstly for Adam in his chosen field of IT, and in the future for their children they made the decision in 2007, to sell up their Papakura home and make the move across the Tasman to Queensland. Half a dozen moves later they settled on building a new home on a block just outside the hinterland township of Beerwah (Beerwar).

Close to the coastal townships of Caloundra, Mooloolabah and Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast they have settled into the lifestyle that Queensland offers, with Adam commuting to Brisbane by daily train for work.

After visiting a couple of times very early in their journey, having celebrated the birthdays of three of our grandsons during one visit, we began to realise that we were missing out on the opportunity to be a real part of our grandchildren growing up.

Along with this came the realisation that as the youngest children in our respective families we knew very little of our own grandparents, my two grandfathers and one grandmother were all dead before I was born, my only memory of Grandmother Rose was the hearse driving away through the snow from the family home in Ohakune. I was not allowed to attend her funeral as I was too young.

We succeeded in our determination to be young parents for our only born child Adam, and while flying back to Auckland after one such visit, we turned to each another and made the decision that we wanted to be a part of our grandchildren growing up.

A day later we set in motion the sale of our home at Pukekohe and within a few short weeks we were on our way to a future in Australia.

Over the Hill and Across the Ditch grew out of the desire to keep in touch with the family, friends and former work colleagues that had all been a part of our lives in NZ, and to keep a record of not only our journey, but also the many things that happen around us that are somewhat strange to us in this great Land of Oz.

Some of you have been reading these as they have been written over the past five years, others have been more recent additions as we have managed to re-establish contact with many old friends, this e-book is designed to be not only a chronicle of our journey, but a guide to any New Zealanders contemplating the move across the Tasman.

Chapter One

Decision Made, the First Weeks...

Well we have done it; here we are on the other side of the Tassie…

4pm on the day before we are due to leave, Auckland City, just sold our car, banking the money, asked for ID, presented my licence only to be told it has expired. Panic sets in as I walk to Avis, fortunately the branch manager is pregnant and has her mind on things other than my expired licence, I couldn’t get out of the place fast enough. First task on the last day in NZ, go and apply to renew my licence, what do they do, take my expired card issue me with a piece of paper, more on this later…(only a male could do this)

We have never felt so naked in all our lives as when we left New Zealand, not a single key in our pockets, sold the cars, sold the house, left work, we both left the country with two empty key rings…

Trying to leave the country with as little baggage as possible but still with enough to survive the six weeks or so it may take us to find some permanent accommodation and waiting for our container to arrive in Auz. Despite all our best efforts excess baggage still amounted to $380…

As if someone was keeping an eye on us to make sure we left the country, no sooner had we got ourselves seated in row 32 of the Emirates jumbo jet (300 plus people) from the adjacent seat across the aisle comes the retort, who let you on this flight who should be sitting next to his wife but Grant Goffin from Barfoot’s head office, at least we were emigrating, they were just going on holiday…

Having flown extensively with Qantas and Air NZ we were keen to try something different so we chose Emirates. We can honestly say this experience would have to rank as possibly the worst flight we have ever had in our life! Customer service was abysmal, the attitude of the crew was so bad, if we do nothing else, and we will NEVER fly with Emirates again…

Clearing customs in Brisbane was a breeze; despite a wait for the fragile gifts Vicki had received from her employer Glaister Ennor, finally got to see Adam, Ann and the kids. Finding our rental car proved a bit of a challenge, followed by ninety-minute drive in darkness to Coloundra….

Two stories up in a four storey walk up apartment block, good way to keep fit, Vicki had a suitcase that I am sure weighed at least 50kgs, quickly gave a new meaning to the words excess baggage, and we had to pay extra for the privilege…

Round to the kids for a quick cup of coffee, back to the Seafarer Chase apartments and into bed 2am NZ time - End of Day One…

Day two and we begin the tasks associated with trying to establish an identity in a new country; this can be a daunting task. Luckily we had established a relationship with the Commonwealth Bank prior to leaving NZ, this was rather painless, but most organisations insist on 100 points to qualify, sounds easy until you realise the things you have no longer got;

Drivers Licence 50 Points (sorry a temporary licence does not qualify)

Passport 50 Points (whew half way there)

18+ card 30 Points (?) can’t you just take my winkles for granted.

Birth Certificate 30 Points (can’t remember when I last saw that)

Other Photo ID 30 Points (?)

Previous Tenancy Reference 20 Points (never rented in my life)

Previous two rent receipts 20 Points (only been here for one week)

Current Wage Advice 10 Points (currently unemployed)

Motor Vehicle Registration 10 Points (Don’t own a car yet)

Bank Statement 10 Points (Haven’t spent anything yet)

Telephone Electricity or Gas Account 10 Points each (don’t have any of these either…

Once again starting to get that feeling of being naked, just now in a foreign country...

Ocker Word of the Week Hi Darl Can I help you Darl Thanks Darl…

More Things to do in Week One and here I thought we were on holiday…

Establish Bank Accounts and Credit Cards...

Apply for Australian Drivers Licence, Queensland Transport, this was our first experience of a touch screen that asks what is the purpose of your visit, and then issues a ticket number. The machine also calls you up to the appropriate available counter, seems to work well…

Get Medicare Number Issued; apply in person this takes at least 15 minutes per person and that is with the forms already filled out...

Apply for a Tax File Number (TFN) this can be done online, pretty much the least painful of all transactions...

Our new daily ritual is to call on Real Estate agents for the latest rental list, more on this later...

Can’t speak highly enough of the levels of Customer Service over here in retail, the average retail assistant is friendly and helpful, even some of the most lowly paid roles seem to attract a good quality of people, everything is just, Ocker Word for the Week too easy

Time to buy a car, to replace that rental car we are currently driving, I want to pay cash but do you have 100 points? You must be joking, No...

If you are coming to Auz one thing you will have to get used to is the form filling, forms for this, and forms for that. We considered buying a second hand car with a budget of say $15k. This soon proved to be a waste of time as the condition of most second hand cars can only be described as rough as guts inside and out, most with high mileage.

So the decision was made to buy a brand new Hyundai Tucson at least we knew what we were buying, not someone else’s problem. Most car dealers over here carry most of the major brands, but remember the climate means you have the extras to consider, paint protection not only from the sun but also bird poo, tinted windows to help keep your car cool, and interior protection for all your vinyl and upholstery, at least another $1000 for this little parcel of essential extras…

Even in the deli at your local Coles or Woolworth’s supermarket you will find you have to take a number to get served, it is easy to pick the kiwis they are the ones that stand around blankly waiting to be served but they soon catch on…

Roadside sign on the way to Landsborough Cow Poo

Renting a property over here is also a challenge; firstly the market is short of available rental properties. Before you can even apply for a property you must have completed a drive by, if you are interested then they have a viewing time when you can inspect the property, if you wish to apply for the property you then have to fill a tenancy application (average of 9 pages), and yes do you have 100 points?. Problem is most of anything that is half decent, already has at least 12 applications, and probably closed yesterday, sorry darl

This stage of the process requires luck and perseverance; just start every day by visiting every agency with rentals. The other problem up here on the Sunshine Coast is that a lot of the rental stock changes to holiday rentals between November and February when owners can get double the rent, so many landlords will not enter into long term leases. The average lease is six months with landlords looking to review rents at this stage. They are just introducing new laws here to prohibit rental auctions, currently a common practice, and also protect the lessor and lessee by increasing the notice periods, currently two weeks in or out. Average rents range from $350 to $500 with holiday rentals starting at about $800...

Most landlords will not accept pets which has made our search more difficult as we seek a solution for our cats, currently still residing in Club Med at Runciman in NZ…

Our eldest granddaughter dragged us along to the Sunshine Coast Turtle Protection Group meeting, where they spent an hour discussing whether the group should be incorporated. Then they went on to detail how the volunteers spend 400,000 night time hours monitoring turtles on Sunshine Coast beaches...

They are still arguing about Daylight Saving in Queensland with none being officially applied, however lots of businesses on the Sunshine Coast that have dealings with other states in Aussie seem to open at 8am and close at 4pm so they can have the same work day as the rest of Auz. We are really struggling with the three-hour difference to NZ, waking most mornings at 5am, we are ready for bed, soon after dinner…

Talk about luck in obtaining a rental, had just called into one of the many agents we were calling on to lodge our tenancy application for a property we liked, only to be told that they already had twelve applications, but they had a property just listed, if we would like to go and see it, they felt sure we would qualify for. Just down the road, next to Skippy Park is a quiet little subdivision located between Beerwah and Landsborough. The house as seems common here has a colour scheme that will take a little getting used to, but has beautiful

gardens, is fully fenced and should be ideal for the cats. Next day phone call sorry you have missed out on the house you applied for at Glass House Mountains, but you have been approved for the house at Skippy Park. But we haven’t been in the house! Then you had better get down here and have a look at it, darl To cut a long story short we have a house, just no furniture…

Sudden need for some basics, even though our container arrived in Brisbane on Friday the 16th, it could take another 10 to 20 working days to clear customs. So off to the shops we are in need of a bed, a fridge and freezer, jug, toaster, sheets, towels, the list goes on, we may have a house but we could be camping for a few weeks. This is just like when we first got married. Some thirty-six years ago, my how things go round. Found this neat electrical shop in Kawana called Good Guys. Grabbed a few items we needed of the shelf, took them up to the counter only to be told that we couldn’t do that, you don’t pay what is on the ticket. Sorry Darl, take those items back to one of our salespeople and tell them what price you are prepared to pay for them. The price negotiated we were then able to pay and leave. Kmart proved equally as profitable with a men’s and a ladies bicycle for just $59 each, it looks like bike rides will become a part of our new exercise regime…

Another early start, catch the early morning train to Brisbane with Adam. Vicki checked out a couple of employment agencies, both of which reckon she would be crazy to work in Brisbane, and that she should endeavour to find work on the coast. Meanwhile Jess and I walked most of the Brisbane CBD and even discovered a catholic cathedral built in 1890 right in the heart of Brisbane. This cathedral and the adjoining church house some unique artworks that are well worth seeing. Back to lunch with Adam, then home on the afternoon train. The air conditioning wasn’t working in our carriage, the guard came through and apologised, then attempted to restart the system, when this failed he then used a tool to manually open the windows in the carriage to create airflow. Again the levels of customer service delivered, in the most unexpected place continues to amaze us…

Khaki is the new black here on the Sunshine Coast Thurs 15th was Steve Irwin Day at Australia Zoo and over 8,000 turned out at Australia Zoo to celebrate the anniversary of the death of Steve Irwin. Adam, Vicki and Jess decked out in their best khaki outfits all had