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...