Two Americans emigrate to New Zealand from Colorado,
USA.
We talk about
our life in Nelson, New Zealand.
In January 2005 we travelled to New Zealand for a month-long holiday. We visited both islands and fell in love with the country almost immediately. Drawn to the friendly, open-minded people and the relaxed lifestyle and pace, our thoughts naturally turned to living here. Throughout our travels to other countries, we often thought about living abroad, but we never found a place where we felt we could make a life. New Zealand seemed to be the place we could see ourselves living and retiring.
In fact, from the airplane on our way from Auckland to Nelson, Angela looked down at that hilly, ocean-side community of Nelson and, without having set foot in the town, she said to Don on the plane, “I could retire there. I could live there.” The plane touched down, we picked up our rental car, and drove out of Nelson south to see the beauty of the South Island. Two weeks later, our final holiday destination was Nelson, as we made our way back toward Auckland to fly home. Five days in the top of the South Island and visiting Nelson confirmed Angela’s feelings about the town; small enough to get out of the city and rat-race, close to beach and outdoor activities, and just plain cute.
We left Nelson via plane to Auckland and back to the United States. At the time, we wouldn’t realise how traumatic a trip that plane ride was; you always hate going back home after a wonderful vacation. Sometimes, you think you’re ready to go home after a week, two weeks, or longer. You feel that you’ve been away long enough and “it’s time” to go home. After more than a month in this country, driving all over, neither of us thought, “It’s time to go home now.”
But we returned, and we experienced a real culture shock that started at our first American stop. We landed at the San Francisco airport a bit hesitant to return to “life.” Because we were flying business class we spent our time waiting for our flight to Denver in the Red Carpet Club. Unlike all the other airport clubs we visited on that trip in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, this club was buzzing full of people on every electronic device created. Many were on two machines: a computer and cell phone. A blackberry and Bluetooth. All had a palm pilot or some organizer device. We were stunned, shocked, and horrified. The room was full of people, people connected to electronic gizmos that appeared to be controlling their lives. THIS is the life we came home to? To be connected to a device and work all the time at every possible moment?
Well, that really scared us. We recognized these people because one month earlier, we WERE these people. We definitely were not ready to come home to that lifestyle! For weeks after we arrived home we were hurried along by the brisk American pace of life. Traffic was new to us, crowds were enourmous, and people were rude all over the place. Of course, it all seemed that way to us, and in fact people weren’t rude but hurried and busy, there were no more cars on the road than when we left … we were comparing everything to another country’s lifestyle. And we suddenly found America exhausting.
Immigration home | on to Part 2: The idea pops into our heads
