Becoming Kiwi

Since we’ve arrived in New Zealand, we’ve been focused on one thing: settling in. It hasn’t been all that easy, either. The thing about New Zealand is it’s tricky getting established because even though you’re starting from scratch when you arrive, they require prerequisites for everything. Let me explain. Let’s say you want to open a bank account. Well, in order to do that, you need to present the bank with proof of a physical address. Well, we didn’t have a rental yet, so all we could provide them was our Airbnb address. But we weren’t receiving mail there, so ASB (our bank here) had to mail us something to our Airbnb and we had to bring it to the branch the following day just to be able to activate our bank account. Now, we were lucky that we were able to do that. It took a lot of convincing to even come to that solution. But imagine if we had stayed at a hotel; we couldn’t have mailed anything to it and we’d be in an impossible situation, especially considering that you need a bank account to secure a rental. See where I’m going with this? Yeah, complex as all-get-out.

From day one, we have found ways around all the complex prerequisite rules that New Zealand has in place. And, thankfully, we have jumped through all the hurdles successfully. To give you an idea of what we had to do to get completely settled, I have compiled the following list of things we did – in the order we did them. Who knows, maybe it can help someone who is considering moving to a new country:

1. Open a joint bank account.
2. Withdraw $500 at a time from the ATM to transfer US funds to our NZ bank account (This is where we got to cash in on the exchange rate. It was a sweet deal! And if you’re wondering why we did it this way, wiring money internationally can take weeks to complete).
3. Get a phone plan (We bought unlocked iPhones in the US before we left, so all we had to do was get new SIM cards).
4. Become established in a church, meet new people (Yes, this is a very important step! This is where we met most of our friends!)
5. Obtain IRD Numbers (This is the equivalent of a social security number in the US. It’s mainly used for tax purposes and allows you to get paid by your employer).
6. Become an AA member (NZ equivalent of AAA roadside assistance and the DMV, combined into one entity). We did this before we bought the car because the AA is the entity that processed our IRD number applications, so it made sense to do it while we were already there.
7. Buy a car (registration is included in the process and didn’t take long at all).
8. Purchase car insurance.
9. Secure a rental house (This took us about two weeks. We had a reference letter in hand that really helped speed up the process). This step also includes everything that involves moving into a new residence (setting up power, internet, buying furniture, moving in, etc.)
10. Change our address with all institutions that had our Airbnb address on file.
11. Find a doctor and register all members of the family for care under a General Practitioner (This is the equivalent of a PCP – Primary Care Physician – in the US). This step allows you to become established with a doctor and helps lower the cost of visits until residency is established).
12. Sign up for club cards, etc. with local stores.
13. Convert international Drivers License to NZ.
14. Get a job (this one’s for me – Jackie. Matt’s been working since our second week here). We’ve been living off Matt’s income, but it finally came to the point where I needed to have an income, too. Well, I finally landed a job! I’ll be working full-time at Hunting & Fishing NZ as their Office Administration Assistant.
15. Enroll children in daycare (I am so thrilled with the one we found!).
16. Join a gym. This may be the last step but it is one of the most important (for me, anyway!). I joined Zenith Fitness and it has been AMAZING. I miss Burn Bootcamp and have been trying to find a comparable gym. I finally found it in Zenith. They offer childcare, group fitness classes, boot camps, and even have tons of equipment. Its a one-stop fitness shop! Best part: it’s one minute away from my new job. I’ll get to do a boot camp every day during my lunch – huge score!

This is what we’ve been busy doing for the past three months. Now that we’re completely settled, it’s time to explore our new surroundings and have a bit of fun! We’ve already done a bit of this already, but now we can do it more consistently on weekends. Moving countries hasn’t been easy, and it’s definitely a learning curve. I think it’ll be worth the initial sacrificed that we’re currently having to make. And I know that God brought us here and has a purpose; we just have to figure out what, exactly, that may be. And only time will tell. In the meanwhile, we’re going to work hard to be completely debt free by next year and then build up our savings. Those are our short-term goals, along with eating cleaner and getting fit.

I admittedly had a few months “off” between Burn Bootcamp and Zenith Fitness. Honestly, I felt miserable for most of it. I didn’t take the time off by choice, either. Uprooting is just so involved that you barely have time for anything else. I am beyond happy to be back on my fitness journey. This time, nothing will get inbetween me and the gym – and that makes me so happy! Burn Bootcamp really instilled the idea of fitness as a way of life, and I can never go back to how I was before. Nor do I want to!

Until Next Time,

The Cullums