teddy

Routine creeps up when you need to do the same thing day in, day out. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. I loved our daily dog walks along the same tracks on Hampstead Heath, seeing the views change as the trees went about their seasonal business. However, when your dog knows the drill and gets a sudden case of deafness or an urge to wander off when you reach a certain spot that spells home, things can get tricky.

I’d been walking Teddy in a particular Auckland park for a few weeks. At what I had been told was the designated off-lead spot, we’d had a few games of fetch and I’d given him the freedom to snuffle about. Then I found out that the, ‘hill with trees on it where dogs can free-roam’, was not the pretty spot that we’d been visiting but right by a main road, which put it on the wrong side of risky for us.

Of course, after I found out that the former grassy knoll was out of bounds, Teddy felt even more sure that it was his personal playground. Each time I attempted to walk by, he dug his heels in. He also worked out that the chicken treats I produced from my pocket when we got there, the only stuff to make him budge, were another good reason to wait it out.

Well, change is good. As we can’t go off lead in that park anymore, and as Teddy has decided to plant himself on the pavement when he gets in the vicinity, I’ve been forced to find other free-roam areas and, in doing so, I’ve lit upon what Aucklanders call ‘reserves’. These small patches of greenery are dotted throughout built-up areas, linking up neighbourhoods. Hidden away like secret gardens, it turns out that most of them are dog-friendly oases. Filled with trees, populated by birds, with some open space and some bush – they are dog heaven.

Now that our furniture has made the journey from London and is currently sitting in Auckland customs, we’re moving to a new home. The good news is that I’ve discovered we have not one, but two of these reserves in our new road. Will Ted be content with those? Hmmm… I think he has plans to keep me on my toes.

Compare Aucklanders with Londoners and of course there are differences. I’ve jotted down the contrasts and so far and they run the gamut from friendliness to fashion, driving skills to coffee obsessions.

As far as walking a dog is concerned the differences start with the first outing of the day: instead of people calling out, “Good morning!”, as they march their dogs up and down the volcanic hills it’s, “G’day!” – this is the antipodes after all. Then there’s the unabashed eye contact (not something you’ll find on public transport in London), but it’s the laid-back Kiwi friendliness that marks the most striking difference and it’s interesting because it seems to have filtered down from the dog owners to the dogs themselves.

I’ve had a fellow dog walker cross a field to have their dog meet Teddy, and plenty of people have crossed a street to do the same. Let’s be clear, at first I thought it was because the owners wanted to pass the time of day – but actually they just want their dogs to have a bit of interaction.

At first this unnerved me because Teddy is not always at his most sociable when on a lead. He doesn’t love other dogs bearing down on him, even if they seem to be jolly enough at the time. But the dogs that we have met so far have been altogether different. Unlike their London counterparts, they don’t yearn and strain to meet another dog, but merely show a bit of interest, exchange sniffs and trot on. In other words, they actually seem to have manners.

I need to find out more about this. Are these dogs all so well-socialised, so well-trained that they know not to jump on another dog? The off-leash opportunities in Auckland are fairly tightly controlled, so are these dogs so polite because they are not in the habit of the kind of high-octane horse-play that sometimes goes awry? (I do keep getting asked, “Does your dog free-roam?”). Or is it simply because they are relaxed and convivial like their owners? I’m leaning towards the latter.

The first time an older man led his alert little cockerpoo up to Ted, I smiled but warned him Teddy might not be terribly friendly. He looked at me like I was a bit odd and said, “Well let’s just see how they go.” And of course they were both perfectly fine. The dog and the man strolled off easily, having taught us both a lesson in Kiwi savoir faire.

Contemplate a move to the other side of the world and suddenly your priorities become crystal clear. Before committing to our Auckland adventure I became obsessive about two things: finding the right school for our children (we love their school in London so the bar was set high), and taking Teddy halfway around the world without causing some possibly hideous (i.e. dead dog) fallout.

I started doing an awful lot of online research to help alleviate the sleepless nights. After weeding out various massive schools (too impersonal), boarding schools (we want to be there as a family) and religious schools (we’re not), I lit upon a non-selective, co-ed, progressive school in Auckland. It seemed most similar to our one back home. We had a Skype interview with the headmaster. I wondered whether there was any sort of entrance requirement. The Principal shook his head firmly. He said admission rested on the children’s answers to just one question. I heard the drumroll in my head….He looked at each child and paused. “Do you want to learn?” he piped up, a huge smile on his face. Brilliant. (Most especially since each of our children answered in the affirmative. Phew.)

Then there was Teddy to think about. Of course, during my research I managed to scare myself stupid reading all the horror stories: dogs freezing to death while flying in the equivalent of unheated ‘cargo’; dogs suffering heat exhaustion while left on the tarmac during a plane change or not having access to water in-flight and expiring on arrival. Hideous, hideous, hideous. I trawled the web for good outcomes and warily read testimonials. Finally I came across two options that I liked the sound of. I went for PetAir UK because the woman I spoke with on the telephone was efficient in the questions she asked me, and straightforward and understanding in the answers she gave to my bordering-on-the-neurotic grilling.

Please know this: if you want to ship a dog that hasn’t travelled before to New Zealand, then the process requires a good 6 month lead time. Thank heavens Teddy had previously had his rabies jabs for France and we’ve kept him up to date, so when I first enquired in March about taking him to Auckland in August, it all seemed do-able, though we still had to get on with it.

There followed a good few hours of form filling, contract signing and paperwork scanning (“Pour yourself a glass of wine and spend an evening on it,” suggested one PetAir UK rep.) Then we received a detailed schedule of exactly when each vet appointment should be made (three in all, at specific intervals once we knew that the rabies jab was still effective), what jabs were necessary and to which lab the blood samples should be sent. We had super-efficient Zasman Vet do all the necessaries because they are great: gentle, kind and they always come up trumps on the treat front.

We opted for PetAir UK to build him his wooden shipping crate, giving him the maximum amount of space allowed. We also opted to fly him to New Zealand via Los Angeles as, going on the same route as us via Hong Kong, although cheaper would require a longer stopover time. The thing with shipping a pet to New Zealand is that they are sealed in the crate for the entire journey – 26 hours. No getting out for rest stops unless you go for a different route and a longer stopover, in which case when the dogs do come out of their crate, they don’t all want to get back in again. Hardly surprising and an added stress. We thought it would be better getting it over and done with as soon as possible even though, like all dog owners, we’d spent time teaching Teddy not to mess in his living area, and now he had to do just that. I thought this might completely freak him out. Then again, there were any amount of things about it all that I thought might upset him – the noise, the smells, any other unhappy animals there with him – the list was endless.

PetAir UK did a good job at putting fears to rest. They told me how they spray the crates with pheromones to calm the animals and they take off any items (collar, big toys etc) that might cause a problem in transit. Dogs travel in a temperature-regulated compartment on the airplane, devoted to pet transport (absolutely not in the hold with the luggage). The idea is to keep things as calm as possible so they turn off the lights after take off. The dogs are allowed access to water and they have some Vetbed in the crate to help wick away any moisture but they are also not fed six hours before flying to eliminate any accidents. The icing on the cake was probably the young man who came to collect Ted the afternoon before he flew. He was calm and kind and Teddy went to him immediately. That had to be a good sign.

And that was that. I watched Teddy’s van pull out into the London traffic and didn’t see him again until two days later at Qualified Pet Services quarantine station in New Zealand. Even though my children called it ‘dog prison’ because unsurprisingly (it’s quarantine!), Ted was housed in a concrete run with a bed and a water bowl and a slot in the door to look through, these people care and they really know their animals. They were keen to find out all about Ted before he came to them and quick to let us know that Ted had, ‘come out of his crate easily’ when he arrived, which was apparently a good sign. We visited Ted the day after we touched down. We had to pull on special white clinical robes. He was a bit punch drunk and tired, as were we. He was miserable when we left. We were, too. Then, when we went back a couple of days later, it was a completely different story: he was cheery and bouncy and, although he wanted to leave with us, he settled quickly after we went. Of course, when we came to collect him he was ecstatic and promptly peed on the floor (“That’ll teach you,” I could hear him say).

I suppose if you are going to ship a dog – or your children – half way around the world, you are probably going to do your research. We seem to have lucked out with the school and for Teddy, I feel like the research paid dividends, too. He’s healthy, he’s happy and he’s here, walking the school run, getting fussed over at the gates and generally taking Auckland in his stride.

We are two weeks into our New Zealand adventure and Auckland has been extraordinarily kind to us. The people we’ve met have been open and friendly and the weather has been impressive – torrential rain one moment, bright warm sun the next. The locals may have had enough of the downpours but for us, arriving during their equivalent of our dreich February, it’s not at all bad. I’d take Auckland’s intense bright ‘winter’ light (albeit coming between bouts of rain) over our dragged-out grey winters any day.

We’ve been getting used to the time difference, the wonder of WhatsApp, and calling friends and family at breakfast time or bedtime, and catching them when they are half a day behind and doing the reverse. We’ve been getting used to the sounds of the birds (particularly the one that sounds like a lorry backing-up) and the smell of fresh air and eucalyptus trees.

This past week has been full of ‘begin again’ chores like opening new bank accounts, sorting out new phone lines, switching driving licences and working out how to efficiently heat our rental house (the Auckland rain showers make for a pervading sense of damp). It’s all coming together.

We’ve had some exciting things to do, like check out our new area (Parnell). We’ve identified our favourite restaurants and coffee shops so far, and explored the strip that is the heart of this village. We’ve made our way around the local supermarkets (there’s nothing like peering into other people’s shopping trolleys to give you a handle on things) and this weekend we’ll do as the locals do and head to the market to pick up next week’s fruit and veg and maybe take a ride up the coast to check out the beaches. I’d say we’ve settled into our home – just about worked out the intricacies of the coffee machine – and we’ve also bought a car so that we can go further afield. There’s been some nail-biting stuff to be done, too. I left my heart in my mouth when I dropped off the children for their first day at their new school. Four days in and I’m relieved to report that all is well. Friends have been made and both boys have noted that the interesting difference here is that everyone plays with everyone – no cliques. Long may that last.

And then, of course, there’s Ted. Hearing his four paws skitter about the floor boards and having his inquisitive nose poke about the place makes everything feel like home. He survived the 24-hour crate journey. He put up with all the foreign noises and smells of two crazy-long plane journeys. He survived 10 days of quarantine and was very kindly looked after (in what my children christened ‘dog prison’). He’s a stoic little character who has already found a cat to bark at and a sofa to call his own. I’ll write more about the whole dog-shipping process next week. In the meantime, I think Ted and I shall stretch our legs while the sunshine holds.

Teddy is currently residing at a kindly quarantine station in New Zealand. He has been there since last Friday, when we all travelled the 11,386 mile journey from London. Ted went via LA (a shorter journey) and we went via Hong Kong (a cheaper journey). Yes, Teddy, we have our priorities straight – anything for our fluffy friend.

The quarantine station gave us an update as soon as he (and we) arrived: “Teddy came out of his crate easily. Such a chilled out boy,” they wrote. In the accompanying photo he looked well, if a bit wary – twenty six hours in a crate would unsettle the best of us.

We visited Teddy the day after we arrived. Once we had slipped on our white protective coats and dunked our shoes in trays of antiseptic, we were allowed into his run. Cue much excitement – from him and from us. He greeted us all in turn with lots of licks (very un-Ted – his unfettered happiness over-ruled his normal sense of restraint) and we mostly sat on his bed while he went from lap to lap and cuddled in (see above). What a sensory overload for one little dog – boarding kennels for one night, crazy long plane flight, unusual crate and now quarantine – but he’s doing great so far. He’s a stalwart chap but then, among all the mad newness that he has experienced in the last week, there’s also clearly been heaps of kindness. The young man who came from Pet Air UK (the pet shippers) to collect Ted happily gave him a cuddle. The carers at the quarantine station have talked us through our, ‘Should we visit Teddy or will it just unsettle him more?’ queries, and advised us accordingly depending on how he was doing that day. The photo updates, including one of Ted playing fetch (“It’s more like a game of squash when you play with him, he knocks it back to you”, they said. Exactly!), have been brilliantly reassuring. So far the whole experience has been as positive as we could have hoped for.

Can’t wait to pick him up next week. Meantime, we’ll be Ted-proofing our New Zealand garden. To see what it looks like, click here. It’s going to be a bit of a job…

Our world has been turned upside down – in a good, and soon to be rather literal, way. Our visas have come through so now it’s official: we are off on an adventure to the other side of the world. We’re heading to New Zealand – which is a bit of hike for a woman like me, who still lives within 500 metres of her childhood home.

We are taking the children out of school and heading to Auckland – City of Sails – in search of something different, for a short while at least. Of course, Teddy’s coming, too.

It’s happened fairly quickly – hence the last minute visas. The Tales of Teddy store will continue (the wonder of a web-based business), but I’m going to sign off the blog for a month or so while we pack up our house (currently every surface in our home and every recess in my brain seems littered with lists), make our journey around the world (24-hour flights for us all) and settle into a new way of life.

We might share the same language and drive on the same side of the road, but I’m looking forward to all that’s different over there: the beaches of Auckland after the urban sprawl of London; the wild beauty of New Zealand (the tropical north, the Southern Ocean, all the heavenly bits in between) after the familiar green/grey comforts of Blighty. There’s even the accent: as a friend gleefully pointed out, Teddy will soon be answering to ‘Tiddy’!

It’s an exciting thing to do and not without its nail-biting moments. Our current pressing concerns are:

1. Taking enough food for a hungry teenager with severe food allergies on a 24-hour flight. (Is there a cool bag big enough?)
2. Teddy travelling in a crate for 24-hours and then staying in quarantine for 10 days. (We thought it was a relief that we could visit Teddy once he’s in quarantine. Now we are wondering if that will just confuse him. “I don’t think we’ll be able to stay away,” said my husband. Yup. I think he’s right.)
3. Getting everything done before we leave. Those lists I mentioned are endless. Yet still, yesterday I must have made at least 20 cups of tea in an effort to avoid getting on with it.

The shippers, the storage containers, the industrial cleaners, the renters – they’re all to come and there will undoubtedly be a crazy countdown until we leave. Then, when we get there, we’ll want to explore our neighbourhood, the country – find out about the local people, the food, the way of life, the outdoor pursuits (sailing, paddle boarding, hiking, skiing) not to mention the local dog scene…

There are still new products in the pipeline for the Tales of Teddy store, and who knows what we’ll find to add in New Zealand (there are an awful lot of Kiwi sheep, so I’m guessing something wooly might be a go-er)? While I might be easing up on the blog for a while, Teddy’s Instagram will still be going strong. Teddy on Tour: here’s hoping you’ll join him on a virtual voyage. Wish us luck!