From the Kiwi Lifestyle to the Canadian Dream

Trusting Your Crazy Ideas!

This is the part of the story where we share how we came to make the decision to pack up our life in New Zealand and immigrate to a new country.

At an age when many would be working towards easing the foot off the pedal, spending time doing all the things you put off because work got in the way like hobbies, travelling or taking time to seriously debate the merits of memory foam slippers at least (because we are all about comfort these days). Some even use this time of life to consider a mid-life crisis! Wait a minute, perhaps this is a mid-life crisis!

Definition of a mid-life crisis: People in their forties enter a mid-life transition – the process of coping with the realization that they will soon find their life mostly behind them.

Okay this is totally a mid-life crisis.

It is not about the ideas. It is about making the ideas happen.

We will talk initially about our experiences of the process of applying for a self-employed visa to enable us to immigrate, which will include the following:

• The waiting game.
• Receiving our COPRs (Confirmation of Permanent Residence).
• The discomfort of sitting on bean bags for a year because we sold all our furniture.
• The waiting game.
• A global pandemic.
• Our COPRs expiring.
• The waiting game.
• The re-applying for our COPRs.
• The waiting game.
• Re-doing our medicals.
• The waiting some more game.
• The re-issue of our COPRs.

The waiting is a theme that we will come back to, we are patient people, but this was off the charts, we are now skill level: Expert!

Do not settle for mediocrity; never let good enough be good enough.

We have all had those mornings when you rally against working for the man (or woman) or of being chained to social expectations, well that was us over three years ago. We had been unhappy with where we were in life and in our careers for a while.

We are grateful and appreciate that we are lucky and blessed in many ways, but we wanted so much more and were capable of so much more!

Like most people, we were chasing those elusive unicorns in the shape of the perfect job, the perfect home, the perfect balance between work and play. Throw success, financial stability and being mortgage free into the mix of our wish list too. It seemed that the harder we worked and tried to grasp it the more it kept slipping through our fingers.

Sunday is not a day of rest but of making life changing decisions!

This particular Sunday was the first time that we had articulated aloud to each other how unhappy, stifled, and stagnant we both felt, despite our best efforts and sheer determination the doors of opportunity just weren’t flying open.

Our dream was not coming together, so just like Alice in Wonderland we jumped down the proverbial rabbit hole of self-reflection. Believe me we found dark and dusty corners (thankfully no spiders). The conclusion that we reached was that the change that we needed was not just within us, our careers, or work life balance. We needed it in everything, including the country we were living in… and that folks is an epiphany!

There will be many of you out there, who will think we are crazy for even wanting to consider moving from one of the most beautiful countries in the world. We were taking this step during a global pandemic and in uncertain economic times, but it was abundantly apparent to us that our journey in NZ had come to a natural conclusion.

We had outgrown each other, like the hermit crabs we would see on the beach our shell had become too small and it was time to shuck it off and find another with more room for us to grow.

Carpe Diem: Seize the Day

The opportunities for us to concentrate on our business and live a life less encumbered simply weren’t in NZ, but where were those opportunities? That was the million-dollar question.

Brainstorming our ideas over copious cups of tea, the morning stretched into the afternoon. We were nothing if not dedicated to our cause of finding our next big adventure! We were not leaving this bed until we had decided.

Nothing was off the table, including running a B&B in the Isle of Skye, running a holiday let in Austria, or buying a guest house in the wilds of Scotland. We even considered living with my mum in Spain and opening the business there (Shhhh do not tell her that).

But none of these ideas sparked our fire or stoked our creative passion. For us they did not have that ring of realism to them, surprise surprise I hear you say from a couple who decided one Sunday to up sticks and relocate…. yep, none of this has a ring of realism to it!

Unicorns Really do Exist!

How we finally came to decide on Canada is going to sound even more ridiculous (I know hard to believe right?), but Martin just said the words “What about Canada?” What the heck! Yes! what about Canada? With its stunning scenery, the great outdoors, it is the proverbial land of milk and maple syrup to bastardise a well-known phrase! I mean who could not love a country that brought you the Ryan’s? (Reynolds & Gosling).

So, we blew up Google, we researched all things Canada and Canadian and realised that bloody hell, this idea has legs. We had found our unicorn and it was farting strawberry scented glitter.

Would Canada accept us and how easy would it be to immigrate and move our entire life there? Where would we start? Continue to read our weekly blog posts to find out.