Some Thoughts on 2 Years of Living in NZ.

September 11th marks the day we left North America. In 2008, after selling our house, our car, giving away our cats, quiting jobs, we hopped on a plane from NYC to Wellington to start a new adventure.

It's been 2 years now. On the whole, I love it here. It's absolutely been the right choice for us, despite some setbacks. I've made a few notes:

• We will always be "the Canadians". The fact is we're both too old to pick up the dialect and speaking patterns of New Zealand. We will always have the canadian accent which makes us stand out. I'm ok with this! It really drives home what people with more than just an accent to differentiate them go through.
• Emigrants tend to attract emigrants. Many of our friends (probably 40%) are not Kiwis. The shared experience of leaving your home country for parts unknown is a powerful shared experience.
• We've been welcomed with open arms pretty much everywhere we've gone. We've met some fantastic people and helped us out at every turn.
• There's nothing quite so much fun as finding something you'd forgotten you'd missed from the "old Country". This recently happened to Ryan and I when we found proper chicken wings in Wanaka of all places.
• The number of products you import from the "Old Country" goes down as you find new and different alternatives. The ones we still bring in are more nostalgia and fun and less products that we thought we'd never be able to replace.
• Everyone is proud of where they came from. Even people who have come from countries in the midst of war and turmoil, they love the country that it was and can still be. Similarly, I've discovered how much I love Canada and am proud of what we've done.
• At the same time, I keep discovering wonderful things about New Zealand. Seeing new parts of the country never ceases to blow me away.

So what does the future hold? Carly and I are both in jobs we like, we've found new passions that keep us interested and we've got a great network of friends. We're thinking very seriously about buying or building our own home. I can't wait to see what the next year brings!