Our Quote

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

Kiwi Flag

Kiwi Flag

Thursday, June 24, 2010

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...



Yesterday was my first day in my new city of Invercargill. I think that hearing so many not-so-positive things about this place had me expecting the worst. They could not have been more wrong. It is an awesome little town. The population is a tad over 50,000 and for me, that is perfect. There are no highways, no traffic, no pollution and even better, NO WALMARTS! I woke up this morning to the sound of strange creatures singing outside...I haven't seen anything like them in years...I think they are called birds...:)

Our backyard and my car! Note the white thingies in the background? Those are SHEEP!


My next door neighbors!


The day started out cold and sunny but then turned to a nice rain. I don't mind the rain and I dont mind the cold. It is perfet winter weather as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't snow here (rarely) and frost is few and far between. I'm not quite sure what to think about the time of the year. The way it feels outside I feel like I should be getting ready for Christmas but its almost July! For those of you who don't know, we are now in the Southern Hemisphere which means the seasons are exact opposites. June marks the beginning of winter here. Summer for us is when Thanksgiving and Christmas are for you back home. If you think that's confusing try to remember to write June 23rd on a check with gloves on!!! Totally blows my mind!!!!

I think that we totally lucked up with our housing accomodations. I don't think there could be anything more conveneint then where we live. I am literally, across the street from the hospital!!! I can roll out of bed and be at work in 10 minutes flat!!! It sends shivers down my spine to think about not having to commute to work for 45+ minutes every day!

View of the hospital from our front door

The front of our house

Our house is a cute little flat, 2 bedrooms (for you folk that SWEAR your gonna come visit!), 1 bath with a nice kitchen and family room. Most important, it is WARM! That seems to be the topic of conversation with most Kiwi's. Heating is very important. Pretty much because many Kiwi's built their homes more like tropical dwellings and this isn't exactly the tropics. So many homes here suffer from cold, drafty, damp conditions. I have to say we hit the lotto on this one! We have a heat pump which makes the house nice and cozy and I have discovered some of the best inventions known to man since i've been here!!!! A heating fan and an electric blanket!!!! OMG! The electric blanket should get the nobel prize! Its like being cradled in a warm cocoon all night!!!
Our Kiwi bedroom!

our kitchen

My new favorite thing...A heating FAN!!!

My biggest adventure yesterday was driving! Yep! I drove on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road! I was terrified at first but it almost seemed second nature. Once I started driving around and repeating the chant "Stay on the left, stay on the left"...it didn't seem that bad! The only bad thing was constantly trying to get in on the wrong side of the car.

I ventured out to the supermarket today. I was totally expecting to have a big ol list of things I would need to have sent back from the US but it wasn't much different from the US. The biggest thing was some of the prices...Juice is cheaper, meat is about the same and Coca Cola is about the same price of pure Columbian Cocaine! I guess I'll have to kick that habit quick!!!

Aside from my new found hobby of driving on the wrong side of the road I have been getting settled in. I start working next week and I'm a little nervous about having to learn a new system for practicing medicine.
Have to keep you posted on that one!


View of the New Zealand from the plane. The Maori call it Aotearoa which means "Land of the Long White Cloud"...I see why!
View of Christchurch from the airplane


View of the Sunset from my backyard!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Here I Am!

I must have been crazy to think that I could have made this trip without general anesthesia.
It hurt more than you can imagine. I thought I was ready, I had my neck pillow, my lumbar pillow and a jacket...I didn't have common sense...There should have been big red flags when I looked at my itenerary...but nooooo. I thought I was young enough to do it...
This is what I just did...

Woke up, excited on Saturday June 19th at 7am...
Last minute packing, cooked big breakfast of pancakes and sausage!
Left for airport at 2:30 pm
Stood in line for 1 hour while US Airways tried to figure out how to charge me for my overweight and excess bags.. (Awesome..$204 by the way)
Got on plane to LAX at 5pm (one hour flight)
Arrived in LA for 4 hour layover...drank at bar
Left LA for 13 hour flight....ouch...
Arrived in Auckland at 530am on Monday, June 21st (lost a day or gained a day?)
Had a 9 hour layover in Auckland...drank some more
Left Auckland for Christchurch (one hour flight)
Arrived in Christchurch for 2 hour layover (almost gave up and seriously thought about staying at a hotel for the night)
Left Christchurch for Invercargill (one hour flight)

Arrived in our new home at 8pm on Monday, June 21st...Approximately 30 hours after leaving Phoenix.
Temperature in Phoenix when I left? 106 degrees (41 celcius)...Temp in Invercargill on my arrival? 40 degrees! Perfect!
It was cold and rainy...perfect sleep weather...God loves me!

Total time: 30 hours
Total bottles of wine drank waiting: 1.5
Number of items lost: 1 (a sandwich from airport shop)
Weight of carry on: a highly illegal 30lbs (14kg)

I'm going to bed!!! Goodnight!

Crap Hoarders

My closet made me cry. We just got back from Belize and after living in a 3rd world country for a month, you learn to appreciate what you have and realize how much you waste. The day started simply, I was going to go through my closet and donate items to a local homeless women's shelter. I started going through the racks of clothes and then realized that some of the clothes i'd only worn once or twice. Some still had tags on!! That sent me over the edge...i started boo-hooing, realizing how wasteful we'd been. After I got myself together, I started pulling out clothes. Not a couple of shirts, or pants but after I'd finished I filled my entire car up and wasn't able to see out of the window...(Embarrasing).

We have a bunch of crap. Not keepsakes, not memories, not stuff...just crap. We have just spent the last several weeks trying to "de-crap" our lives in preparation for our move. You would not believe how hard it is to plow thru years and years of stuff. We had so much stuff that needed shredding that we decided to build a bonfire in our fire pit outside and burn everything!!! Its not just the papers but the books, the pictures, the clothes, the knick-nacks, ugh! Finally, we decided the best thing to do donate, donate, donate. We have taken car loads of clothes, books, textbooks and furniture to anywhere that needed it. To date, we have donated to Goodwill, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Central Arizona Homeless Shelter and the Salvation Army. We didn't want anything to go to waste. I have to admit, it felt good to know that our stuff was going to be used and appreciated.

knee deep in packing crap


office CRAP!

We noticed that we had so much stuff in our office that we've collected over the past 20+ years that we couldn't just shread it all...in fact, we almost killed the poor shread machine. We even looked into have a shreadding company come by to pick up a big ol load (too expensive!!). After staring at piles and piles of sensitive documents for days, we decided to BURN IT ALL!
So we dumped everything into our outdoor firepit (took four trips in a big trash can) and we lit it UP!


Post burn....the ashes of  our lives :)

The next item on the list: Craig's List. I've used it before for a couple of things but I didn't know who some people look at Craig's List like a crack head stares at a pipe! I took a couple of pics of our washer and dryer. I love my washer and dryer. Its pretty, energy efficient and does a damn good job. But, alas, we can't take any appliances or electronics to NZ because of the expense and differences in voltage. So I posted my washer and dryer on Craig's List at about 12noon...I received three phone calls by 2pm! By 5pm I had a family over to take a look at the set! We ended up selling it to the second person that viewed it. That same day, I took pictures of everything from our kitchen table to my purse!!!!

This is important...to sell all of this stuff. We have 3 appointments with international movers next week and I would be so happy if they gave us the ultimate mover's compliment..."you sure don't have a lot of stuff!"

Keep your fingers crossed...

Oh No You Didn't!

Oh YES we DID!

We have gone and done it, jumped off the deep end and landed in....chaos, confusion, heaps of junk but also in excitement, bliss and happiness! That is a good way to sum up these past few months. Anyone that knows us, knows we are not slaves to the machine. In fact, Bruce's favorite quote is "Unplug from the Matrix".
I have to admit, it was hard for me to "unplug" at first...but then I saw the other world. The other side of life that we lived in the Philippines, in Thailand and in Belize. That "Don't-Worry-Be-Happy" everyday of your life kinda feeling. We had it all of those places and more. The one that sealed the deal? Our new home, New Zealand.

See us? We're down here at Invercargill!

Abel Tasman Park on the South Island

I know, lots of ya'll couldn't find it with a map, a magnifying glass and a fifth grader and that's ok...Maybe that is some of the reason why we feel it could be perfect for us. We don't find any happiness in any of the "normal" things anymore. All we do is plot our next escape, dream about far away lands, imagine living somewhere else. Don't get me wrong. We are NOT America "haters" (although some have implied that). We love our country and what we have accomplished. What we don't like is the subtle changes that make our society less and less comfortable for us. Sure, we could live in the boonies in some little state but when we looked at everything, including our jobs, America didn't fall at the top of the list. We chose New Zealand for several reasons, but more so, it chose us.

When we first had an inkling that we would enjoy living there was literally hours after disembarking off the plane in Auckland. I know that every place had its pros and cons but we found so many more pros, the cons just faded away. The country made us fall in love. Not in a dopey, 6th grade way but in a "grown-up" way. Like, "I know you have a big beer gut and gray hair but i love you anyway" kind of way...I don't know how to explain it but that's how it is for us. Believe you me, we did not come to this idea very lightly. It was months of discussion, dreams, drama and lots of distress!! But, in the end, we used our hearts and minds and prayer to make the decision. So here we are...

Jurassic Park, also know as New Zealand

Bruce and a Maori Warrior doing the Haka

Finding a job was the easiest. Thank God for the hustle of our recruiter, she was able to find us both jobs in the same area in no time. The downside? We decided to go somewhere that was not our first choice but we are still excited about the opportunity. We are going to be on the South Island at the southern most city, Invercargill.

For those of  you who need a quick "refresher" on New Zealand geograpy...New Zealand is an island country in the south western Pacific Ocean. It is about 2,000 miles from Australia and lies pretty close to some AWESOME places in the South Pacific-namely Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and New Caledonia. It is a developed country that ranks high internationally in education and economic freedom. It was also ranked the LEAST corrupt govenment in the world...hmmm....Anyway, the Queen of England is the recognized head of state because it is a part of the British Commonwealth. The Maori are the original inhabitants and are still very highly represented in the population. English is the language and there are immigrants from all over the world residing there. The thing that most Americans know about New Zealand is that the Lord of the Rings Trilogy was filmed there (on the South Island! not too far from us!) and the director of the trilogy, Peter Jackson is from there. There are also more sheep than people there!

Most of us know little to nothing about New Zealand. I'm hoping that by keeping in touch with ya'll through our blogs will give you insight on what its like to live in another country and to learn more about NZ!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

I Hate Saying Goodbye

Today is the day that I leave home.
I have been packing, re-packing, selling, storing and getting ready for this day.
Now that it is here, I am freaking out.
Not in a "I can't-believe-that-i'm-doing-this" way but more in a "This-is-my-last-day-seeing-(blank)" kind of way.
I'm packed, I'm ready but it's hard realizing that friends and family are going to be so far away. But, I'm so excited I could burst!!! If I could just make it past my 12.5 hour plane ride I'll be GREAT!
Bruce and I went for our "Last Supper". We couldn't figure out what would be the best "last meal". Then it came to me! A hamburger with ALL the best trimmings. Not just any hamburger, but a big, sirloin, juicy burger with blue cheese and bacon and a side of onion rings!!!


The Last Supper, American Style

I leave to the airport in a couple of hours. I have talked to all of my parents (both sides), sisters, brothers and friends. Thank God for Skype! I'll be able to talk to them all agian very soon! Love you all!

Friday, June 11, 2010

I'm Listing

My life now is full of lists...I have no less than six notepads aimlessly strewn around the house with lists of "Things to Do"

One has a "List of Things to Pack"
One has a "List of Things to Ship"
One has a "List of Things to Sell/Give Away"
One has a "List of Thing to Buy to Take with Us"

I was going through the notebooks and I actually found one page that said "List of things on the other list to look at"

This isn't the worst of it...
I also have been attacked by post it notes...There are post it notes all over the house. On the mirror, on my nightstand, on the TV. Each post it note refers to something on one of my "Lists"...I can't believe I have so much to do that I'm cross-referencing myself...

I can't wait for this to be over....ugh

Thursday, June 10, 2010

I Digress

Paperwork has become the story of my life...Much more so since we went off the deep end and decided to apply for permanent residency in New Zealand. Currently, we have work visas which pretty much allow you to work for a set employer for a set amount of time then you have to go back home.

After weeks of considering the stacks of paperwork we decided not to delay the inevitable.
I know this may seem shocking to some but not to many. Anyone who knows Bruce and I know that we can't SIT STILL!!! I'm not going to be naive and tell you how New Zealand is perfect and that's why we are moving but I can tell you that this a solid decision that we have considered for at least a year now. This wasn't a spur of the moment thing although to some of you it may feel that way because we weren't very forthcoming with our plans...Honestly, its mostly  because of the usual responses that we got from friends and family:

"Where is that?"
"What the hell would you move there for?"
"Why so far?"
"What's so wrong with America?"
"WHY?"

Its hard to explain to everyone all of the many different reasons why we feel less like living in the land of our birth and have a bigger connection to a land that we've only visited once almost 5,000 miles away.
I saw a funny poster once trying to help people explain to friends/family why they wanted to move to New Zealand. I totally agree with all of their reasons but I decided to give my own...

1) We feel that the world is a lot bigger than the USA-Please don't think this is "America bashing" cause it is not. We love our country and we are proud of all of the accomplishments we have made as Americans. However, there are lots of things that we don't do well and we are very slow to self-correct. We also tend to live in a glass box of sorts. You see the world on TV but many of us never experience it or want to enjoy it because we are trained to reject difference, embrace regular and not appreciate other ways of life. I have many friends that have honestly told me why they would never want to go anywhere outside of the US "..because its dangerous". I can't believe so many Americans have been tricked to think that the world is small outside of the US border. Its not. The world is vibrant, big, interesting and can teach you and change you in ways you can't imagine. Its OK to learn about new cultures and new governments and appreciate the difference. I enjoy being around people from other places. It gives me the opportunity to learn, it changes past prejudices and forces me to understand where someone is coming from....Bottom line...I think we will be happy exploring another culture and country but we still appreciate ours.

2) Health and Well being....People in New Zealand have a totally different thought process on life. People have developed an entire culture devoted to outside activities! When is the last time you had to drive through your neighborhood slowly because the kids were out playing? (1978?) Our society has developed into an "inside" culture. Complete with Xboxes, big screen TV's, facebook junkies and twitter fiends. I'm sure I sound old school but this is NOT right! It would be different if this new culture was developing kids just as athletic and socially competent as our generation but its not! I cannot tell you how many obese young people I see on a regular basis. It is beyond an epidemic in certain communities...

I like NZ because it feels like what we used to have before MTV and Atari...People outside, hiking, biking, walking (remember walking?). Fresh fruit and vegetables everywhere and CHEAPER than processed junk foods...
I know we feel like we have the more "developed and advanced" culture and conveniences but in this case, I'd rather be "behind" and healthy like the Kiwis....

3) Health care...that's a whole 'nother blog posting...you don't want me on my soap box...Everything you need to know about us and our views on American health care is pretty much the reason why we wrote this blog..."Good luck ya'll, let us know how it works out...we'll be in NZ"

4) Natural resources...What can you say about a country that has more national park lands than populated areas. Unlike some places, New Zealanders don't really care that parts of precious forest lands could be wonderful for big mega suburbs...They prefer to preserve what is important and keep it clean. Now its not the most perfect place on earth (no where is...got to be realistic) but they seem to care less about development and more about how to preserve what God has given them...hmmm...a novel thought...

5) Lifestyle! Lifestyle! Lifestyle!...Maybe I'm just getting old, maybe I just never got it...but one day, I stopped drinking the Kool-aid and I looked up and tried to figure out why I was missing so much out of life, why I was so unhappy and what was missing. Thank God Bruce stopped drinking Kool Aid too!!!

When we travel, we would meet people that didn't understand why we were killing ourselves at work...to get what? I don't know...When people ask why you need to kill yourself to get more money can you truly say that everything that you own and possess you NEED? Before you answer that, honestly think about this? Do you need Direct TV, an iphone, MAC makeup, a new Coach purse, dinner at the steakhouse? Those things are luxuries and are GREAT..IF you are willing to pay the price to get them. After working up to 100 hour work weeks for the past 8 years, I can say for us that IT WASN'T WORTH IT!!! It wasn't worth the five Christmases I missed with my family, missing countless birthdays, anniversaries and date nights...I wish I could go back but I can't. But what we can do is go forward...Shed all of the excess and choose to live our lives simpler. We want to do the things that bring us joy. We want to work to live...NOT live to work. There should be no time in my life that we are so strapped that we can't just stop and breathe...Life is too short for me to look up one day and realize that its gone and all I have to show for it is stuff, not memories, not a life well spent...To us, that is too high of a cost and we are not willing to pay...

Moving to NZ gives us the opportunity to live and work in a society that doesn't value stuff accumulation and puts more emphasis on living happy and free. I don't feel that you can avoid the pressures of that easily in the United States...I feel that in New Zealand we would be the rule, rather than the exceptions that we are in the US...

6) Location, Location, Location...Thank God we have had the opportunity to say we have been all over the world. Our trip allowed us to experience so many different cultures and ways of life and I am eternally thankful for that...What we did learn is where we would be happiest and of all the places that we had the ability to visit, Asia felt more like home. The people were warm and friendly, the beaches were beautiful and some of the best diving in the world is located off this vast continent. Living in New Zealand gives us the opportunity to be close to another love. We are just a hop, skip and a jump from Southeast Asia and hopefully we will be able to explore the region more from our new "home base"

OK, so this is few, but now all of the pressing reasons why we decided to pull up our roots and call another country home. I know that even after reading this, many of you will still not understand and that's OK...we can agree to disagree. We just ask that you continue to support us and love us as we do you. Thanks for trying to understand and maybe after following our posts from our new home, you may start to see why we feel that this is right for us...

Countdown?

Its funny that all of my New Zealand friends (that I haven't met, just online) have been warning me about the bitter cold on the South Island during the winter. I have been gorging myself on all weather related information about New Zealand. Now I know there is nothing nice about being cold and wet and it sounds like that is exactly what I'll be in for in my new homeland. However, I truly believe that you take the good with the bad. Rain is the life-giving blood of the earth...yeah, it sucks when you are stuck in it but i'm sure New Zealand wouldn't be HALF as beautiful without the downpours...

Super green pastures (photo by lindreth..thanks!)

New Zealand type of Jurassic Park (photo by PharmD..thanks!)

Of course, you could have the alternative....

Red hills of Sedona, Arizona

Grand Canyon

This is my last week home in Phoenix. I have been packing, re-packing, un-packing and then packing again. It is hot outside...Not in a "cutesy" kind of way. It is oppressive, life-stealing, sizzling, painful heat. The kind of heat that makes your skin boil like hot oil just got put on it...The kind that evaporates sweat before it comes out of your sweat glands...Africa heat...like Tarzan couldn't stand this heat....like don't go out without 2L of water, SPF 1000 or between the hours of 9am-8pm kind of heat....
Temperatures this week hovered between 105-111 degrees F (Thats 41-43 degrees Celcius for my Kiwi kin)

Top number...outside temp at 5PM!!!!
and today was COOLER!

The desert has its own kind of beauty, but it does remind you in starkness and lack of vegetation that serious human settelement is DANGEROUS! There isn't enough water for the 4+ million people that live here or the ones that insist on maintaining lush green golf courses...I feel like one day, I'll turn on the tap and it'll be dry...
It is wild, rough and dry out here but it has been home for the past 5 years...

I think I'll take my chances in the rain! :)

Friday, June 4, 2010

Saying Goodbye...for Now





Today was one of the hardest days for me. I had to pack up my two furry children and send them to my mother's house in Atlanta. Its my fault that they had to go. Had I done dilligent research I would have know that New Zealand has one of the most stringent policies regarding importation of animals that I've ever seen! The rules are crazy. First, the dogs have to have a rabies vaccine then you have to draw a rabies titer on them 3 weeks later, then you have to wait six months before they can be imported into the country...WHEW! They have stricter rules on animals than people! So, because mommie didn't read the paperwork correctly, they won themselves a trip to Atlanta for the next six months. Now I'm just waiting anxiously for the hospital to let me know if they allow doggies in the rental home we will be staying in...

Gonna be hard to go without these two...