People move overseas for all kinds of reasons. Some move for work, others to study, or, like me, for love. This year, I took a leap of faith and moved to Christchurch, New Zealand with my fiancé, Pete. On my blog, Adventures with Pete, I share weekly musings about expat life, writing about everything from the best local hikes to navigating the cultural differences between Americans and Kiwis. Find out how I’m making the most of life as an American expat living in New Zealand.
Deciding to become an expat is a big deal. It means saying goodbye to friends, family, and everything familiar to leap into something new and unknown. It’s packing your whole life into boxes and hoping that when the dust settles, a foreign country has started to feel like home
People move overseas for all kinds of reasons. Some move for work, others to study, or, like me, for love.
I met my fiancé, Pete, after chance took me to San Francisco in the Summer of 2013. I’d just arrived back in America after teaching English overseas and was staying with family in the Bay Area, figuring out my next move. Pete was a transplant too, moving to SF from Wellington, New Zealand for work (he’s as a software developer).
Within a year we were living together and by the end of 2017, after fours years of dating, we sold our cars, packed our bags, and moved to Christchurch: the biggest city on New Zealand’s South Island.
Luckily I’m no stranger to moving. Years of packing life down to the essentials had prepared me well for taking this leap of faith and I felt ready to head South (way, way South) in search of new work, new friends, and new adventures.
Since arriving in November, I’ve managed to find a job I love, started planning our wedding (Pete proposed just before we left the States), and share my musings about expat life through weekly posts on my blog, Adventures with Pete. I write about everything from the best local hikes to navigating the cultural differences between Americans and Kiwis. (If you’re considering a move to New Zealand, check out some of my guides covering everything from how to apply for a visa to getting settled in once you’ve arrived.)
Whether you’re moving to New Zealand, Brazil, or Timbuktu, as a temporary resident or full-time expat, here are three tips from me to help with settling in, dealing with challenges, and making the most of your time abroad.
1. Put Yourself Out There
Finding new friends is hard and only gets harder the older you get. By your late twenties, friend groups are pretty well established, so unless you’re an extrovert by nature, getting settled into a new place can mean pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone. I’d recommend checking out social sports teams, meetup groups, and volunteering to meet people with similar interests. It may take a couple tries but eventually you’ll find people you click with.
2. Keep a Journal
Trust me, you’re going to need a safe space to process all of the ups and downs that come with being in a new country. Some things that seem massively important in the moment become trivial and vice versa. Being able to reflect on these moments will help you make sense of all the insanity, and it’s a powerful memento of your journey. Reading old posts, you’ll be shocked by how far you’ve come in even just a short time.
3. It’s a Balancing Act
The beauty of travel is celebrating cultural diversity. Planning a wedding in New Zealand has challenged many of my assumptions about what “normal” is, from the size of the guest list to whether or not we have a gift registry (way less of a thing here in New Zealand). The life of an expat is navigating how to embrace the new (wedding traditions, holidays, language/slang, etc) without losing the parts of your own culture that make you, well, you. It’s all about compromise, and Pete and I are constantly checking in to make sure that we’re both feeling good about how things are going. I say things like “heaps”, “she’ll be right”, and “sweet as” more than I ever did before moving, but you bet I’m still drinking a Bud Lite and BBQing hot dogs and hamburgers on the Fourth of July, despite living in a country with the Queen on the currency. Being an expat is accepting the push and pull between your past home(s) and your new home.
Coming to New Zealand sometime soon? Hit me up at [email protected] and I’ll be happy to share some recommendations and favorite spots with you. You can also follow along with my adventures on instagram at @adventureswithpeteNZ or at www.adventureswithpete.com.
