Wait, But Why?

So, yeah—we’re moving to New Zealand. Wheels up in four days.

Yikes.

“Wait, but…why?”

Good question, I would love to tell you. But there are a lot of reasons. The main reason is that all of our kids are in school now, and so Natalie wants to go back to college—er, I mean “University”—to change careers. She applied to several nursing programs in New Zealand, and got accepted!

But there are other reasons, too! In no particular order:

Because David can do his job anywhere on Earth, so why not Middle-Earth?
Because we’ve always wanted to have an adventure like this, and this is kind of our last chance for a while. In two years, our oldest will be a teenager; at that point and for the subsequent decade and a half, we’ll have teenagers in the house. During that period, making a big overseas move seems almost cruel. Coming back home during that period seems less cruel.
Because, I mean, just LOOK at that place.
Look at it!
Because New Zealand schools are more fully-funded than Indiana schools. To be clear: we love our kids’ school, and their teachers, and their administrators. This is about the structures above our school, not about our school. There’s a lot more to this, and I might get into it later. But, suffice it to say: we know that New Zealand’s education system has problems. But they’re different problems!
Because Natalie loves the beach, and David loves the mountains, and in New Zealand, they’re both ubiquitous.
Because New Zealand schools don’t do lockdown drills (because they’ve only ever had one school shooting, it was over a hundred years ago, and they’ve had fewer people killed in mass shootings anywhere, ever than the US has had in schools only, just in the last 3-and-a-half years).
Because look at it!
The Kaikoura Ranges on the South Island.
Because it’s the only English-speaking country in the world with a score of 99 on the Freedom Index.
Because “island living” means PERMANENT VACATION*