My Big Bad Move to New Zealand

I don’t know how many of you know…I don’t know how many of you really care…but I’m announcing to you all, and those online lurkers who happen to fall upon this note who don’t know me at all, that in about 2 weeks I’m moving to New Zealand.

“Why?” Many people may ask. “Why not?” is the appropriate response I shoot back. But to delve into that “why not?” a bit, please allow me to. New Zealand from everything I’ve heard about it, seems to be an ideal country for me. The countryside is darted with some of the most gorgeous landscapes and scenery. The people there are absolutely generous, adventurous, spontaneous, frolicsome, and laid back. They may not measure up to our American exaggerated ideals of rush, ambition, and materialism, but hey, they know a thing or two about the finer things in life, mainly…nature, being out in the sunshine, the beach, the mountains, friends, laughter, in short…life as it should be. Throw in rugby, fly fishing, and bungee jumping and I think you describe our Anglo cousins in the far south sea isles quite concisely. It seems to be a nation made up of crazy free-spirits. Of course, I could be wrong. And I’m probably romanticizing it all a little bit. But this is just my inference from all I’ve heard and read.

Here’s the story. My friend, Tyler Priest, had this idea hatched to swing down to either New Zealand or Australia and get jobs and work down under for maybe a year or so. Tyler’s sister and cousin are both in Wellington, New Zealand right now. One has a job working in the Parliament of New Zealand and the other prints off New Zealand dollars with the nation’s banking. Apparently it’s fairly easy to get a good job down there. It’s done through this work abroad program. Here’s the link. http://www.bunac.com/usa/worknewzealand/
If any who read this are interested, well then, watch this video
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9sEZ-wdFegU
and maybe it will push you further into actually considering it as a possibility. I’d love for someone to swing down also.
Now, there was a dilemma whether or not to go to New Zealand or Australia. We opted on New Zealand, it being one of those rare places where it seems that so many wonderful things were squeezed into two islands…that and we would have more connections there. Plus our watching of the Lord of the Rings probably had something to do with this. So New Zealand it was.

Now, as I write this, I hold a passport with a New Zealand Work Visa and a plane ticket from LA to Auckland. We should arrive in the country April 1st. As far as jobs, I’m not positively sure what I’ll be doing. But that’s part of the adventure. There are a number of different jobs down there. Maybe picking fruit, working in an office, waiting tables, working at a ski lodge, or even becoming a shepherd could be my next method of employment. It seems that there is a real opportunity for all types of jobs for like I’ve said, the nation is full of crazy free-spirits, and what do crazy-spirits do…go off to other countries and get random jobs. So they need people to come and work there seeing how many of their young people leave to travel the world and get random jobs in such places.
Now, recently there has been a change in our plans. Tyler is coming back to the states quite a bit earlier for a youth ministry position here and so his idea of a year in NZ has greatly shrunk to over a month. Where he won’t even get a job and just travel the country. As for me, I plan on staying longer and actually getting a job. But for the first month I will join him, his sister and his cousins on a huge excursion through the South Island by camper van for several weeks until they decide to come back over to the states.
And then…I’ll do the job hunt and hopefully find something interesting, and hopefully find some friends seeing how I’m gonna be left all alone by my lonesome self by that time. So, the length of my stay is very, very questionable at this point. If I get there and I don’t really enjoy it all that much and I don’t really mingle all that well, then my stay could be decreased to a few months. But if I get over there, and I really love it and find some sort of community of friends then I may just stay…stay for good. I have no real attachments in the states. Or maybe stay for at least a year or so. And then there’s the possibility that if I don’t like it, I may just hop over to another country seeing how I’m already on that side of the world and will live there for awhile. So it’s really not perceivable at this point when I’ll return. In other words, what I’m trying to say, is I’m not really sure when I’ll be seeing some of you again, if at all. I know this is quite a statement. But you know, for the past year, I’ve had this job (my current one now) where I’ve gone from town to town, seeming to catch up with everyone in doses. But all the while, not really being apart of anything (except maybe Disciples Fellowship in B’ham). I feel like some sort of phantom in the states. Knocking on my friend’s door, I enter and we rehash some story from the past. Then I tell them a few new ones, and they share with me what’s going on in their lives, their life-career, new wife, children even, grad school, etc. and then it’s farewell, and I walk out the door and go into the next town and do the same thing all over again. All the while, doing a job that I don’t really feel apart of. Basically, already….I feel disconnected. But I guess I’ve truly felt that way sense I came back from Russia 5 years ago. Or maybe before that. Maybe I was born that way. Who knows? I digress.
So I guess this is goodbye for awhile. And I’m at a loss of words to express my thoughts here. But that’s all right, I’ll let my 2 favorite New Zealanders express that sentimental thought for me. Here.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=64a_1fWTsls


So Long,
Brian