The first of July 2020 marks our one-year anniversary as Canadian expats living in New Zealand, so what better time to reflect on some of the things we love about living here (and a few of the things we don't... let's face it, nowhere is perfect!). In general, New Zealand is pretty amazing. And how …
Continue reading Life in New Zealand: The Good, the Bad and the In-between
I've sat down to write this blog entry multiple times over the last month. Motivation is hard to muster these days, and words are hard to find. There's so much to say but not a lot to talk about. There's this huge, world-altering, catastrophic event going on around us but our day-to-day life has become …
Continue reading Life in New Zealand: Coronavirus, lockdown and the resiliency of Christchurch
When you move to another country, you undoubtedly will require an immigration visa of some sort in order to legally live there. The process can be long and frustrating, but there are a few things you can do to help move things along when you're moving abroad. Hopefully you have a good assistant to help with …
Continue reading Tip #3: Minimizing Immigration (Visa) Frustration when Moving Abroad
If you’re willing to head into a dark cave and wade through ankle-deep water for a short distance, a visit to Waipu Cave in New Zealand will allow you to experience a glorious Milky Way of tiny blue lights made by hundreds of glow worms while also giving spelunking a try. It’s currently free to …
Continue reading Exploring New Zealand: Waipu Glow Worm Cave
While English is the main language spoken in New Zealand (the other official languages are Te Reo Māori and New Zealand sign language) and is generally understandable for someone coming from English-speaking North America, the Kiwis do have a lot of terminology borrowed from British English as well as a few words that are entirely …
Ask anyone from outside of New Zealand to name a Kiwi city and they’ll probably say Auckland. With a population of over 1.5 million people, it’s New Zealand’s biggest city. The Auckland skyline Our North Island Road Trip was prompted by a trip I had to make to Auckland for work - Chris and Phoenix …
Part of the reason we decided to move halfway across the world was to shake up our lives a bit. So, we decided that part of our new Kiwi lifestyle would involve forgoing purchase of a car and instead getting around on bikes. Our electric cargo bike with a kid seat on the back Christchurch …
Continue reading Life in New Zealand: Cycling instead of Driving
Back in 2013, we decided we should take an epic trip to mark the completion of my degree. Chris stumbled across a resort in Kenya online and so began our unexpected adventure to the African country. We stayed in Mombasa (more about that in a future post) but also ventured out for a couple of …
When you move to another country, you’ll be applying for all sorts of things (visas, professional registration for certain jobs, driver’s licenses, home rental agreements, bank accounts, the list goes on) that will require an abundance of information and documentation. Collecting what you’ll need is a lot easier if you keep good records throughout your …
Continue reading Tip #2: Records to Keep if you ever want to Move Abroad
Okay, so perhaps it seems a little odd to write an entire post on the grocery stores of New Zealand, but you would be surprised by the differences between the stores here and those in North America. It’s enough to warrant a discussion! The first time I went grocery shopping in Christchurch, NZ, I quickly …
Parents on a Plane ✈️ 