Hey, everyone! It’s been a while. Anything interesting going on back home that I should know about?
Kidding. As my friend Anne said, “You know, I wouldn’t mind living in precedented times for a little while.”
This is going to be a short post because I promised that I’d intersperse long, rambling blog posts with short, to-the-point blog posts and we have yet to see any of the latter. And also because I haven’t anything posted in six weeks—!
Before the short post, here’s a photo of a bouquet of flowers that I picked from our garden yesterday. Just a reminder that it’s the dead of winter here. Winters where we live are mostly in the 50s/60s during the day and the 40s overnight with a fair amount of sporadic, driving rain. It’s nuts that we have daffodils and hellebores coming up in what roughly equates to November back home in New England. Daffodils and hellebores herald the end of winter/arrival of spring back home. It’s very hard to wrap my head around.
Okay, here’s the actual post. It’s short. Ready?
When someone asks me where I’m from. I always start geographically small (“Cape Cod?”), and if the person hasn’t heard of the Cape, I start expanding the search until they hear something they recognize (“Just south of Boston? Massachusetts? New England? The upper right-hand part of the United States”).
Three times so far when I have said that I’m from Cape Cod, the other person has exclaimed “Oh, with the rockets!”.
The first time it happened I was confused, and they were confused that I was confused, and then I figured it out. Absolutely good for them for even having heard of Cape Canaveral, but I thought my Cape (Cod) people would get a kick out of hearing this. And it’s happened three times! 🚀
I want to include photos in all of my blog posts, so although this is a complete non sequitur, please enjoy this picture I took a few weeks ago of the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis). It was unreal.
Back to our regularly scheduled blog post.
A few people have asked me what happens next with my visa, so I thought I’d lay it all out for everyone here.
My Work Visa is valid until May 21, 2025 (one year from the date of issue). Partner of a New Zealander Work Visas are good for 1-2 years depending on how long you and your partner have been living together. If you’ve been living together for fewer than twelve months (as is our case), the visa is good for one year.
Sometime around February/March 2025, I will apply for a Partner of a New Zealander ResidentVisa (processing time: 80% within 9 months, 20% within 12 months), since we will have at that point been living together for more than 12 months (January 2024-January 2025). At that time I will also resubmit my Work Visa, as I need to maintain that until the Resident one is approved. During the 9-12 months that I’m waiting for my Resident Visa to come through, I cannot leave the country or else I have to restart that whole process. This 9-12 months will be the longest time frame during which I’m not allowed to come home.
Once granted the Resident Visa, it is valid for two years, during which I can continue to work (and study) here, as well as come and go from the country as I wish.
Towards the end of those two years, I can apply for a Permanent Resident Visa. Processing time: 80% within 3 weeks. You must have held your Resident Visa for at least 2 years when you apply. The difference between the Resident and Permanent Resident visas is that Resident Visas have travel conditions that only allow you to re-enter New Zealand as a resident for those two years, whereas a Permanent Resident Visa allows indefinite re-entry to New Zealand. If I am granted a Permanent Resident Visa it will, as the name suggests, allow me to live and work in NZ, coming and going whenever I wan to, forever, which is my goal.
After five years of being in NZ on the Permanent Resident Visa–so long as I have spent 240 days of each of those five years living in NZ–I am eligible, if I so choose, to apply for Citizenship, which would give me a New Zealand passport. The U.S. allows dual citizenship, so I will still legally be American and won’t have to surrender my passport.
Approximate timeline breakdown:
February/March 2025, apply for Resident Visa November 2025-March 2026, Resident Visa should come through 🤞🏼 October 2027-February 2028, apply for Permanent Resident Visa November 2027-March 2028, Permanent Resident Visa should come through 🤞🏼 November 2032-March 2033, if all goes as planned, I will be eligible for New Zealand Citizenship.
Oh, I also wanted to mention that Immigration did indeed require me to get a psychiatric exam because of the medications I’m on. I had anticipated this happening, so I went ahead and booked an appointment. And I’m glad I did, because they were booked out two months and my entire visa was waiting on that exam. I drove to Auckland (5 hours round trip) and met with a psychiatrist for 90 minutes to the tune of $600 NZD ($370 USD). He was very friendly and kind and told me to just call him “Dr. Karim,” which I thought was super nice of him until I later found out that his name is Dr. Karim Abdelrahaman Nabil Mohamed Aly Salem (yes, really). As irritated as I was when I first found out about the unexpected expense and hassle of a psych exam, I also found out that the only way for me to have my local clinic refill my medications here is for me to meet with a psychiatrist, so I would have had to do it anyway. Dr. Karim wrote a letter to Immigration on my behalf, and less than a month later, my visa came through. 😊
because a lot of you back home in New England are bracing for a nasty snowstorm in a few hours, and I also wanted to balance out the frustration and anxiety of my previous post.
My life here really is wonderful. I am extraordinarily lucky, and I have never and will never lose sight of that or take for granted, in any way, the fact that I’m in the position to be doing this in the first place. It’s important for me to emphasize this lest I god forbid ever come across as being whiny or petulant, looking like I’m stomping my feet to elicit pity for a situation that I have 100% put myself into. Bringing you all along with me on this journey means that I am bringing you along for *all* of the ups and downs I will be going through. But it’s mostly ups, and I do acknowledge this.
Now for the promised soothing photos of flowers, plus a photo of me holding a bowl of nearly-ripe passionfruits from the vine we have growing along the porch. PS: you can click on each photo to make it bigger.
Last week was a total mixed bag; half of it was so awesome, half of it kind of sucked. This post is about the fun part.
One of Stu’s closest childhood friends and his partner were visiting from Australia a few weeks ago. They came to Whitianga and we got to spend some time with them. I met them for the first time last year, when we all went to a rugby game and then hung out late into the evening having some beers and laughing a lot. I just adore them.
The night before they were leaving Whiti….hold up, UPDATE: They got engaged while they were here!!! They just made that public on social media so I can now add that in. Huge congrats to you two! Can’t wait for the wedding! So the night before they left, it came up that I was heading to Auckland for a doctor’s appointment the following week. It turns out Stu’s friend and his partner would be in a suburb north of Auckland the same day, staying for a few nights with her mom (“mum”), and would I like to stay with them there for a few days? On her mum’s horse farm?
WHAT. Um, YES I want to spend two days on your mother’s horse farm in the hills of New Zealand.
One of the Schnauzers was really uncertain how she felt about my being there.
My friend’s mum is, unsurprisingly, just as sweet and funny and kick-ass as her daughter. She welcomed me to their farm, which is home to 4-5 gorgeous horses, 3 miniature horses, 4 (5? 6?) mini Schnauzers (I swear to god everywhere I looked there was a Schnauzer), a dozen chickens, a lop-eared bunny, and several large cages full of cockatiels, Chinese button quail, something that looked like small parrots but were in fact a different bird entirely but I forget what they are, and a number of other exotic birds. Plus her mum’s gardens were the best ones I’ve seen since my own mum’s gardens back home, resplendent with dahlias, sunflowers and something called a “swan bush” which attracts Monarch butterflies. I was in heaven.
Monarch on a swan bush.
But wait, it gets even better. They put me in the guest room, which has a sliding glass door that opens right onto the miniature horse paddock. I woke up to ponies outside my door every morning. Are you kidding me?! They were super excited to see me (read: they wanted to know if I had snacks for them), and one morning I went to the door armed with carrots my friend had given to me to give to them. Oh man, did they come trotting over! And then I ran out of carrots and they decided to try and come in my room to see if I was hiding any more. It was so funny when one of them stepped his tiny hoof through the doorway, until I suddenly realized that I was about to have three ponies in the house. I managed to back him out before I was run over. When I told my friend about it, she just shrugged and went “Meh. I’m sure they’ve broken into the house before.” Love these people.
Moments before the attempted break-in.
I happened to be visiting the morning that a renowned jumping trainer was there to give three separate lessons to a half dozen riders of varying abilities (but even the “beginners” were really impressive), so I sat and sipped my morning coffee while I watched the most beautiful horses and their skilled riders take turns jumping. A few of my friend’s mum’s own horses were ridden, including a black and white pinto draft horse with gigantic feet and a flowing mane and tail which has literally been my dream horse since I was six years old. And oh my god, there is talk about me possibly getting to ride him the next time–‘the next time’!– I’m there….!?!
As I was bidding everyone a fond farewell after an amazing visit, I told my friend’s mum that I would GLADLY drive two hours to pet- and house-sit for them if they were ever in a bind. I don’t know if overseeing an actual farm counts as “pet-sitting,” but I really do hope they take me up on it.
I packed up my little car (yes, yes, I promise to tell you about my little car!) and drove a few hours to a DOC (Department of Conservation) campsite at Uretiti Beach, about an hour and a half north of Auckland on the east coast, where I camped—in my car—for the night. I’ve done it before, putting the back seats down and making a little nest, and it’s actually not a bad night’s sleep. Plus it was a 30 second walk over the dunes to the beach, and DOC campsites (at least the ones I’ve been to) are tidy, well-managed, and very safe. I was the only person sleeping in a car and not a campervan, but who cares. I hung out on the beach under the stars, had some beers, enjoyed a pre-prepared box lunch from New World* for dinner, read a book under the covers with a flashlight, slept in my car, took a very cold yet refreshing morning shower, and was packed up and on the road at 8am the next day.
Path to the beachMy ridiculous little car amongst the campervansThe campsite from the dunesUretiti Beach
*Although New World, one of NZ’s largest grocery store chains, sells tasty and reasonably-priced boxed lunches, they fail to include a spoon with which to eat the cute little yogurt. Luckily I figured this out before I got to the beach, so I swung into an op shop (thrift shop) that I passed on the way. NZ has the *best* (and most plentiful!) op shops and I try and stop at every one I pass. I went in looking for a spoon, which I found for $.50, but I also stumbled across this absolutely baller espresso machine for an absolute fraction of its insane retail price, so now we can make delicious flat whites (like creamy lattés) in the comfort of our own home. PS: isn’t it the best color, too?!
So yeah: that was the very, very fun part of last week.
PS: Oh my god, L&M, I am just so happy for you two! Congrats again!!! ❤️
