russelljsmith

I’m officially announcing here that I’ll be moving from London to New Zealand with Fleur, my lovely Kiwi girlfriend and our two cats Bruno & Lizzie this October!

This may be a shock to a few but some of you have been involved in offering advice or at the very least witnessed me dodging the question “would you live in New Zealand?”

We’re very excited to be starting a new chapter in our lives, the next couple of months are going to be a little crazy I suspect, but we think it’s going to be worth it. Read on for more detail on our plans…

What?

As my partner is a Kiwi I’ll be moving with a full New Zealand residence visa, I’ll be able to work in New Zealand and stay there as long we both want to. I don’t have a job yet, we’re most likely going to be living in Auckland and that’s where I’m looking for work now (see my professional profile on LinkedIn).

Why?

We’ve had a great time in London, but we’re both ready for a change. After looking at a few options we decided New Zealand could offer what we want & of course it’s a chance to return home for Fleur and spend more time with friends and family.

When?

We’ll be finishing at our jobs in London around October 15th and flying out to Auckland a few days later, the cats will follow a few days after that. We decided to make the move this year as it gives us a couple of months before the Christmas holidays start to find work and hopefully settle into new jobs.

I’ll be making some occasional posts here as we finalise our plans, for my UK friends I hope I get the chance to meet up with you all for a beer before we move.