23rd January: Picton back to Wellington, and a heart attack courtesy of New Zealand Immigration

The alarm is a rude awakening indeed. I was more tired than I realised last night, and it's hard getting out of bed this morning. But I have a lot to do, and I really don't want to miss the early ferry. So in twenty minutes, I'm showered, dressed, I've dropped the apartment keys in the letterbox, and I'm driving to the ferry terminal. It's only a couple of minutes, but with the windows wound down, the cool morning air is refreshing and welcome. The car park outside the terminal is empty, and I park right outside the door. With no queue at the desk, it takes less than a minute to buy my ticket. Then I'm back in the car, and driving back out of the passenger car park across the train lines and round to the vehicle park. I'm the fourth car here.

Over the next 40 minutes, many more cars arrive, and plenty of lorries. Sitting here with the windows open, flicking through some leaflets that I've picked up in recent days, I'm starting to wake up. But it's still a relief to get on the ferry, lock the car and go up for a coffee. The breakfast doesn't look like much fun, so I stay hungry. I sit for a while in one of the relaxation rooms, and start reading through the form for the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. To support my full Residency application, I need the NZQA to assess my qualification which falls inconveniently between a Bachelors and a Masters degree. The form is lengthy, but I have all the information they're asking for.

The 3 hour crossing passes more quickly than it has in the past, but I don't know why. Arriving in Wellington, the air has gone from cool to warm. It's going to be yet another hot day. I drive back to the hotel, park the car, and walk to the NZQA offices on The Terrace.

The young lady on reception is helpful enough with the questions I have, and I sit down and fill in the rest of the form. While I'm doing that, the main lady comes back to Reception and I chat to her a little. It's lucky that I do. She's clearly exasperated by the younger lady's inability to remember information or instructions and, within a couple of minutes, I'm exasperated myself. A lot of the information she gave me was wrong, but the older lady sorts me out, accepts my form and certificates, and gently relieves me of several hundred dollars. In return for all this money, she gives me the disheartening news that the NZQA has a large backlog and they're still processing applications that they received in November. It could be 6 weeks before my papers even rise to the top of the pile! My consolation is that the temporary work visa should be granted by the end of this week.

The rest of the day I walk around exploring more of Wellington, and I think about where I might live. My job offer expires in 11 days, but I've given all my paperwork into the agencies that need it and I've been reassured that visa applications can be turned around in a day, so I'm fairly relaxed.

Until about 4pm. At 4pm I receive a text from New Zealand Immigration. They confirm that they received my visa application on 17th January. They aim to proces it within 45 days.