Lesley Carhart 
If you have just one good hopeful vibe to spare, I could really use it.
With that, the ball is in other peoples' courts. My documentation is with the lawyers and I have more lawyers appointments next month. ACS assessment is in. Half my stuff is packed. Realtor is retained. ILETS is scheduled. Requests for references are out. Now, I wait for weeks and try to not have an aneurysm. At least I'll be in New Zealand for the next two! See some of you there. I promise to try to be happier and peppier and give a good talk.
azninsect@hacks4pancakes Enjoy NZ!
@azninsect It will be a great distraction for both @alyssam_infosec and I.
XenoPhage 
@hacks4pancakes I miss you already..
coriolisdave@hacks4pancakes if it helps, IME it is very very difficult to be grumpy in Aotearoa/NZ. It such a wonderful place
4dw@r3 
š¦¬@hacks4pancakes enjoy the trip! I love NZ it's my second choice after Germany just because I want to keep my employer
@witch_of_winter Yes, no Dragos entity there, alas.
kira :3@hacks4pancakes i'm still in the "looking for work" (or school i can afford uh possibly without work lol) stage but at least my passport was approved 
glad your situation is moving along!
glad your situation is moving along!
ktstevenson@hacks4pancakes safe travels!
Jamie Levy š¦@hacks4pancakes safe travels! Iām sure things will work out. Sending good vibes your way š
Greg Wittel@hacks4pancakes take care and safe travels! NZ is a blast, hope you enjoy your time there
BryanTheSnail@hacks4pancakes
I hope it all works out and you get some peace.
I know you will have done extensive research, but, in the unlikely event that you have missed them, here's a couple of Oz equivalents of Canadian sites that helped us...
https://www.expatforum.com/forums/australia-expat-forum-for-expats-living-in-au.6/
https://www.pomsinoz.com/
https://www.australiaforum.com/forums/visas-and-immigration.9/
If it's anything like Canada it may take a while to finalize, the ex-pat forum was good at tracking wait times and letting you know that you weren't the only one banging their head against the wall known as bureaucracy.
Viraptor@hacks4pancakes have you looked at the format/expectations of IELTS yet? If you haven't, I'd really recommend getting familiar with it. You can lose points by giving the right answer the non-standard way. My British wife scored lower in writing than my ESL self.
@viraptor I have a book and I have been watching a lot of TikToks and YouTube videos. Most say use a simple and direct answer to avoid filler words.
@hacks4pancakes I was taught "simple, but not too simple". As in normal, but find an excuse to talk about something in the past and future and throw in an "although" or "however" at least once. Because various tenses and compound sentences are things to check and they won't go out of their way to lead you there.
Douglas Moore@hacks4pancakes looking forward to the talk. Only be peppy if you feel like it, we very much will understand!
JimHudson@hacks4pancakes NZ is so beautiful and nice! Loads of bookstores. Hope you have a fantastic, well-deserved time :)
Tom Isaacson@hacks4pancakes See you soon!