far far away
New Zealand
From America to Europe isn’ t that far. But what if you change your mind and swap EU for the other side of the world? Kristen Fellers shares her adventures from the land of Kiwis.
I visited NZ during my honeymoon as a newlywed. My new husband and I had always figured we would live in Europe some day, but after visiting NZ, we had changed our minds entirely! It took a year of thinking about it and a year of planning to make it happen.
I have been here for just five months! Sometimes it still feels like I’ m on vacation, other days I feel like I’ ve been here for ages. Our current plan is to stay in New Zealand for just a few years, but who knows!
They do speak English in New Zealand, so I’ ve been lucky when it comes to language barriers. Of course there are accents that are difficult to decipher, but that’ s really not more different than back in the US. After a few weeks, understanding Kiwis became as easy as understanding Americans.
It’ s surprising how nice everyone is! A great shock! You hear about how nice and helpful Kiwis are- and it’ s all true! The day we arrived was stressful- we set up our bank account, rented a car, and bought cell phones with 1 year plans. Everyone was so helpful and interested in our adventure. Coming from a metropolitan upbringing in California, I’ m not used to city folks being so friendly! It’ s amazing!
I’ m a registered nurse and to get my nursing registration in here was a bit difficult. Even though it wasn’ t required for me to sit my nursing boards again, I did have to take an English test. It lasted 6 hours and was so expensive! I also had to send in about 50 pages worth of documents and a large check to make it all happen. The best way to be approved for a visa in New Zealand is to have a job lined up, which is what we did. Otherwise it can be pretty challenging to move here permanently.
Making new friends with locals is sometimes really easy, and sometimes it’ s a challenge! The best advice I can give to people is something I have to practice myself: get out there. Do things out of the ordinary. Take classes, join clubs, go have adventures. It’ s the best way to meet people, and they are usually quite similar to you! It took me about 3 months to feel like we had a good group of friends. I have a mix of Kiwi and expat friends, which I think is cool!
Local food is pretty similar to American. Pizza, sandwiches, burgers, salads. But there’ s a WAY better selection of yummy ethnic foods here!
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