Our trip across 18 time zones was uneventful. We were terribly jet lagged for the first day. Delirium set in about bedtime Thursday night. Our flight arrived Thursday morning about 1 am and we got to the hotel about 4:30 I think. We were exhausted but unable to go right to sleep. Had our initial health screening and had to wait on our luggage to arrive. Everyone has been helpful and kind. We are anxious to get out of MIQ and head over to our cottage in New Plymouth to start a new chapter.
This is an announcement we never thought we’d make. We are on our way to New Zealand on Dec 13! A place of great beauty, almost perfect year-round weather, extraordinarily friendly people, miles and miles of beaches, surrounded by the Tasman Sea, the South Pacific and the Southern Ocean. A land of mountains, rivers, waterfalls, 12 active volcanoes, daily earthquakes, the occasional tsunami and Hobbiton. We will be almost 8000 miles from home, 2500 miles from Australia and 3100 miles from Antarctica. New Zealand is about the same size in area as Colorado. It is the first country to see each new day and the first to give women the right to vote. It is home to 6 times more sheep than people and amazing, unique flora and fauna that we can’t wait to see!
On May 26, 2021 there was a brief e-mail exchange between us that went like this:
Jerry : Wanna move to New Zealand?
Me : Yes! I mean, if you do. (He did.)
As soon as Bock had a formal job offer we began the long process of applying for visas, getting physicals, finding a place to live after our mandatory quarantine and figuring out what we absolutely need to take and what we can live without for however long we are in there. This is an opportunity of a lifetime and we just couldn’t pass it up.
As we make a new home in New Plymouth, NZ, we will share our larking about on Facebook and Instagram. Please stay in touch with us. News from home will be very much appreciated.
