22-25.02 Weekend in Christchurch
We had a little trip to see Sara & Matt in Christchurch! We also had to activate our working holiday visas too, as we had a couple of weeks left on our apartment in Melbourne before we could move properly. To 'ease' the move over the 'ditch' we had packed up a load of bits so that we could max out our luggage allowance!
The Friday was set aside to do the stuff that you have to do when setting yourselves up; open bank accounts, get IRD numbers, and sort out a tourist visa for Australia. Sounds simple doesn't it? The bank account was opened on the second attempt, as we didn't have a proof of address for the first branch, but the second branch didn't worry about that! We didn't quite get to the IRD office...
Unfortunately the rest of the afternoon was spent with Markella from Flight Centre on Colombo Street! We wandered in and explained our situation: We wanted a tourist visa to run on from our working holiday so we could stay in Oz until the end the our rental agreement. We were told by the people at immi.gov.au that we could apply online offshore - we couldn't as we had a current visa. We phoned the helpline - no answer, so left a message. Tried another number - got an answer but the person wasn't in Australia and didn't speak English!
So we asked Markella whether she could sort the visa out for us, for which she replied 'we're not immigration agents'! After three hours, faxes, telephone calls and being questioned by someone at the Australian Consulate, and with a few minutes to go before they closed for the weekend we were granted the visa! One that would activate after our working holiday had expired! Poor Markella didn't know that it was going to be this much fun! She did sort out our flights from Melbourne to Brisbane (for Easter), then back to Christchurch!!
Now all of the above wouldn't have been so bad, had Joanna & I had been on our own, but we had met up with Matt (Pitts), and in fact this was his second time round of sitting in Flight Centre orgainising flights & visas in as many weeks! But all was sorted!
On Saturday we took a short trip to Sumner to enjoy the Sun, Sea & Surf!
Sunday - Day of Worship: A browse around the Christchurch Classic Car show, turned up some old favourites! You don't really need to go to these events, as you're able to see many of these as daily transport!
After enjoying a delicious lunch from one of the many takeaway vans! Slightly better surroundings to the one where we spent most of our time on Friday!
The afternoon was spent at the Lyttleton Festival! Before we had to leave for our return flight back to Oz.
After returning to Melbourne we expected a grilling from Customs over our visas, so we had all our documentation to prove our funds/onward travel/accommodation status, but we weren't asked a single question!
The Friday was set aside to do the stuff that you have to do when setting yourselves up; open bank accounts, get IRD numbers, and sort out a tourist visa for Australia. Sounds simple doesn't it? The bank account was opened on the second attempt, as we didn't have a proof of address for the first branch, but the second branch didn't worry about that! We didn't quite get to the IRD office...
Unfortunately the rest of the afternoon was spent with Markella from Flight Centre on Colombo Street! We wandered in and explained our situation: We wanted a tourist visa to run on from our working holiday so we could stay in Oz until the end the our rental agreement. We were told by the people at immi.gov.au that we could apply online offshore - we couldn't as we had a current visa. We phoned the helpline - no answer, so left a message. Tried another number - got an answer but the person wasn't in Australia and didn't speak English!
So we asked Markella whether she could sort the visa out for us, for which she replied 'we're not immigration agents'! After three hours, faxes, telephone calls and being questioned by someone at the Australian Consulate, and with a few minutes to go before they closed for the weekend we were granted the visa! One that would activate after our working holiday had expired! Poor Markella didn't know that it was going to be this much fun! She did sort out our flights from Melbourne to Brisbane (for Easter), then back to Christchurch!!
Now all of the above wouldn't have been so bad, had Joanna & I had been on our own, but we had met up with Matt (Pitts), and in fact this was his second time round of sitting in Flight Centre orgainising flights & visas in as many weeks! But all was sorted!
On Saturday we took a short trip to Sumner to enjoy the Sun, Sea & Surf!
Sunday - Day of Worship: A browse around the Christchurch Classic Car show, turned up some old favourites! You don't really need to go to these events, as you're able to see many of these as daily transport!
After enjoying a delicious lunch from one of the many takeaway vans! Slightly better surroundings to the one where we spent most of our time on Friday!
The afternoon was spent at the Lyttleton Festival! Before we had to leave for our return flight back to Oz.After returning to Melbourne we expected a grilling from Customs over our visas, so we had all our documentation to prove our funds/onward travel/accommodation status, but we weren't asked a single question!
Labels: christchurch, classic_cars, flight_centre, joanna, lyttleton, matt, nathan, new_zealand, photos, sara_matt, visa_issues, weekend_away
posted by Nathan at
19:38
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