Once we decided we were going to move to New Zealand and it looked likely Gareth would get a job with his company, we put our house up for sale.  At the time we figured it could take months to sell and we didn’t want to be in the position where he was due to start his job and we still had a house in the UK to shift.  As we knew we wouldn’t be coming back to Liverpool it was an easy decision.  The sale was a lot easier than we expected and we accepted an offer in a week!  The day Gareth accepted an offer of a job in Auckland, the sale of our house went through. That was three months ago now and we are only just posting off our application for residency, yes people it takes that long.  Don’t get me started on the costs, I may weep.  Right up until the residency application process our move to NZ seemed fast and smooth.  I’m actually told 3-4 months isn’t that slow …

My family and I are moving to New Zealand next month. That is such a wonderful statement that I am so excited to be able to write.  I always envied the people who lived in foreign lands because they had a job or family there and jealously coveted their opportunities.  Now it is I that is going and I never get tired of saying New Zealand to the question of “Where are you moving to?” We’ve never been to NZ, we are going on recommendation, which seems cavalier when you think we are taking our beloved two year old daughter and 8 month old son, but how bad can it be?  We’re not intending to go forever either and I reckon you can do anything when it’s not forever, obviously if we’re talking stomach crunches the time needs to be considerably less than forever.  I give us 5 years with the NZ thing but I’m open to more.  All I know is, after the money we’ve spent on health checks alone we need to go …