Some of the Defining Decisions

So where are we up to? It's absolutely amazing the number of decisions that need to be made when you're planning something this size. Some of them are entirely practical, others philosophical but all of them will end up having an impact. Most also require a ton of research to make sure you're not getting yourself into a jam. Here's some of the things that have been tossed around and preliminary decisions reached:

• Where: Wellington was picked for a few reasons. We'd really liked it when we were there, it's the hub of IT and Government work in New Zealand (jobs for me!). It's central, so we can go from one place to the next fairly easily. It's also the city we found that had the most metropolitan feel to it. Auckland struck us as very Toronto, Christchurch was a little more... British then we were looking for. Wellington had a great Montreal'esque vibe to it (will make sense to anyone who has been to Montreal).
• When: July 2008. Gives us (just) enough time to get everything going, let's us extend if required and takes care of all of our obligations here in Ottawa (weddings, graduation etc.) This is probably the most flexible bit so far.
• Rent or Sell: The house that is. We looked into the various options quite in depth, but in the end, the fear of having to pay mortgage in Canada + expenses while living in NZ were the biggest factor. We'd end up losing a fair amount of money by renting anyway, as our mortgage payments were greater then the max we could get for rent without taking in to account the costs of property management.
  
• The Car: Hopefully we'll be able to find someone to take over our lease. Leasing was probably a mistake, but I was blinded by the promise of low low payments. Won't be doing that again.
• The Cats: Definitely the hardest decision so far, we have two wonderful cats, one about 7 the other 14, who have grown rather accustomed to us and to each other. We need to find them a home, hopefully together, maybe apart. Moving them to NZ would cost an exorbitant amount (3000+), the airline wouldn't guaranty their safety during the flight and they'd have to spend a long time in quarantine. It just doesn't seem to be fair to them at this point, and I wouldn't be able to live with the idea of only bringing one.
  
• Bring it all or sell it here: Bringing it all, be it furniture, bicycles, electronics that are 120/220 compatible, computers etc. Basically, given that everything is more expensive over there and that there's a thriving second hand market, we're better off bringing everything we might need, and getting rid of it over there if necessary. This requires a larger investment in the move, but it should save us some cash in the long run.
• Jobs: It's looking very difficult to arrange jobs in advance from Canada. For a variety of reasons, this is just a fact to be accepted if you're planning a voluntary move to New Zealand. So we've planned on two to three months of job hunting (worst case scenario) once we get on the ground there. Setting up as many contacts before the fact is going to be key here.

We've been using a wiki to track all the information about the move, phone numbers, todo lists etc. It's been invaluable so far. I think that's key to setting up a project of this size: put some project management into it. Get some sort of organizational system together, and the discipline to properly close every issue as it comes up.