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 for a minimum of 3 years to get a fair return on our investment.

Auckland is the destination and I don’t think there is a single person I have told we are moving there that hasn’t got a friend, family member or twice removed contact living there – most of these people weren’t intending to stay, so it seems this place has a lot going for it.

Application for residency is sent this week so hopefully we’ll be booking flights in a matter of weeks.  Maybe then it will hit me that I am one of those people that gets to live abroad for a while, then maybe the excitement will feel real…