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Thursday, February 18, 2010

I thought I’d take a chance and forget about the States

[I started writing this a week ago, but never got around to finishing it...sorry if some of the tenses are off.]

"Why are you moving to New Zealand?" (or perhaps the slightly funnier, at least to the non-Kiwi: "Why are you moving to Australia?") is a question I have been asked more times than I care to count. I am certain I had a much better answer eleven and a half months ago when we started to seriously plan this move...and the question comes so frequently now, that any answer I could provide would undoubtedly sound canned.

If you have some time on your hands, pick up a copy Slipping into Paradise: Why I Love New Zealand. The book is not very good, but in the first few pages the author sums up why we're making this move; or at least why I'm making this move...I am sure Nico is getting asked enough about why she would do something crazy like move halfway around the world by all of you, and does not need to hear it again from me. Anyway, put the book down after the first chapter; except for some very good reasons to not move to Australia, the rest of it is not worth reading.

So why do I want to move to New Zealand? I could easily tell you how the idea got planted in my head: I somehow started getting letters from New Zealand's Department of Labour telling me about a huge pharmacist shortage, a climate identical to that of the west coast of the US (only in reverse), and beach houses for <$200,000 (US). Friends tell me I started talking about moving to New Zealand in 2006, but I really can't remember.

After a vacation/reconnaissance last year, the question that was becoming even harder to answer was: "Why are you not moving to New Zealand?"

Keep reading...maybe I'll have an answer to both questions in the future.

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