Interviews

From Cornwall to New Zealand: Going NZ

Going NZ has developed due to my love of travel and of course New Zealand. I am however as English as they come! I love a good cornish pasty instead of a New Zealand pie, I don't tan – I burn and I am often seen in my slippers rather than my Jandals!

But I am a adventurer at heart, growing up in Cornwall (a beautiful part of the country, I know!) I always aspired to travel. I find contentment hard, there is a big world out there and I always think I have to be in it!

1. Why did you move abroad?
Both as a couple and individually we both wanted to experience living in a different country. We woke up one day and thought what have we got to lose? Personally I don't want to live my life with ‘what ifs’ If we didn't do it there and then we knew it wouldn't happen, so we made the leap!

2. How do you make a living?
Isaac decided to start his own business in marketing and I work in travel. It was a scary prospect starting a new business in a new country but we were up to the challenge.

3. How often do you communicate with home and how?
FaceTime we love it, we try to catch up on a weekly basis, but the longer you leave it the
more we have to talk about, also we miss them less that way!

4. What's your favorite thing about being an expat in New Zealand?
We enjoy the outdoors lifestyle which we could only have 1 month a year back in England.

5. What’s the worst thing about being an expat in New Zeland?
Missing our family!

6. What do you miss most?
family. But we have both been fortunate to have our families visit us, my parents even came out for three months recently!  Woah!

7. What did you do to meet people and integrate in your new home?
my work is quite social so that has been great. We joined meetup as well to force ourselves to get social!

8. What custom/ habits do you find most strange about your adopted culture?
They walk around barefoot in the supermarket and call everyone Bro!

9. What is a myth about your adopted country?
There are more sheep than people?

10. Is the cost of living higher or lower than the last country you lived in and how has that made a difference in your life?
The wages here are generally the same, maybe a little lower, the rent is higher and food is definitely more expensive. How ever it is swings and roundabouts, as the quality of food is here is much better than the UK (as my mum said when she came over ‘the potatoes are so juicy when you prick them, you don't get that in the UK’, water bill is cheaper, car insurance is much cheaper so we think it equals each other out over all.

11. What advice would you give other expats?
Stop thinking about it and do it!

12. When and why did you start your blog?
The blog started as space to put all the research I did into one place. There was so many conflicting information on the website I didn't know what was right or what was wrong. It developed from there really.

Blog, Going NZ

 

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 Author: texkourgan |  2016-04-25 10:06:02

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