Welcome to my world!

The last three years have been an adventure as we left Texas to make a new life in New Zealand!

My husband and I were dissatisfied with our life in the US for political, social, economic, climatic reasons. We wanted out!  But how the heck do you even do that?

The first thing we did was try to figure out where we might want to go.  We made a list of all the English speaking countries in the world and researched like mad.  New Zealand came out the winner for a variety of reasons, like location, climate, socialized medicine. Oh, and no snakes!

Next, I researched the non-English speaking countries. We carefully considered Argentina but we kept coming back to the idea of New Zealand.  The idea of living someplace with no snakes and no predators was hard for me to pass up.  Plus, the lack of corruption, the low population density, the agricultural economy. It sounded like heaven on earth!

New Zealand Immigration is fairly straight forward. There are lists of skills in demand and a points system.  If you are on a list, you get more points. If you get enough points, you are eligible to emigrate. Easy peasy!

Due to a variety of factors, our process was a bit trickier and so we came here in what I like to call "kamikaze style" which means we shipped our worldly goods and then hopped on a plane with no visas at all. We worked it all out once we arrived.  And yes, it was a white knuckled experience to leave your established life with 2 small children with no clear plan. I do not recommend this particular pathway but we managed to pull it all off (with only a few MONTHS of absolute sheer terror ).

The first year we managed to obtain a 1 year work permit. And I suffered severe culture shock. I thought I was fully prepared with heaps of research but the reality was far different. I suffered. My husband and I fought. We lived in a freezing cold hovel.  It was a rough year.

But at the end of that first year, we had managed to secure our permanent residency stickers in our passports, a decent modern home, 3 acres, a bunch of farm animals and a whole new life.

The hardest part of moving to another country was figuring out where to buy things and how to manage without the products I could no longer buy.  Food was our biggest link to our "home" in Texas and I have done my best to adapt my cooking to our new Kiwi home.  In order to eat like Texans, I have sharpened my culinary skills and we eat every meal at home. We also try to avoid processing and chemicals in our food. I try to make it all from single, local ingredients if I can. But I am not crazy overboard about it...anymore.

I am also shockingly "frugal" because the cost of living on an island is high and the wages are low. (but no snakes!)  I am very clever and creative to save money.

My DIY projects and cooking adventures are sometimes so clever that I feel I should share. Hence this blog.  But be warned--sometimes they suck pretty bad, too.  The good, the bad and the ugly! That is just life!