We had one more busy day left before settling in and before Kelly started her new job. Our to-do list for Monday involved heading downtown to pick up the ship-ahead packages that in theory should have been waiting for us and driving back north to pick up Greta and Tiki from quarantine.
We were able to use a service called poste restante for the three boxes that we filled and shipped ahead to be waiting for us. NZ Post has a designated post office in many cities and towns where all you have to do is address the package to yourself with the post office’s address and note ‘poste restante’ on it and they will hold it for you for up to two months. For packages over a certain weight there’s a fee if they have to hold it for more than a week. We headed into the post office and the woman behind the counter knew exactly which packages were ours, I’m sure they’d been clogging up the hallways or something. With just a quick ID check we were on our way, a little bit amazed that the process of shipping the packages ahead worked and went so smoothly.
After a bite to eat and a stop at the pet shop to pick up food, food bowls and a new litter box we were on our way to pick up the animals. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the actual shipping of the animals went really smoothy but a lack of communication from the shipping company made us a little anxious for a couple of days. In the end it all worked out and Greta and Tiki had been spending their last 10 days at a quarantine facility about an hour north of Wellington. It was the only one that services Wellington, so we didn’t have much say in the matter. We went through the various gates and after a few signatures went in. We got Tiki first. She was sleeping in a bed under a chair and came out as soon as I started talking to her and seemed happy to see me. Unfortunately for her, she went right back into a crate, but at least she wasn’t with strangers any more. We picked up Greta next who naturally came bounding out of her room and jumped and licked all of us with the same enthusiasm as every time we pick her up after we’ve been away. After three flights and six beds for us and three flights and 10 days in quarantine for the pets we were all reunited and ready to get to know our new city.
Kiwi Bound 