 All right, welcome everyone. I'm so excited to have Lydia Noble on the channel today. She is an American that has moved to New Zealand and it's just on here to share her experience. So we're excited to have her. If you guys are considering moving to New Zealand, check out the free course in the description where it just gives you kind of all of your answers, about 80% of your questions will get answered through that and just kind of know if that's, this may be the right place for you, but welcome Lydia, I'm so glad to have you on the channel. Yay, thank you for having me, so exciting. So exciting. So tell us a little bit about your story, how you came here, why you came here, where you're living, that sort of thing. I'll just kind of let you say how you are. Cool. So my husband and 13 year old daughter and I and our dog, we decided to move from the States to Taronga, New Zealand. We're up in the North Island and how we started this adventure was while living in the States, one of our things we just did as a family, we were pretty extensive travelers, we used to travel worldwide. And so what happened was in every location that we traveled to, no matter whether it was Europe or Africa or wherever we were, the consistent theme was we would leave the vacation going, wouldn't it be great to live abroad? Oh, nice. And no matter where we were, we were like, wow, this just seems like such a cool idea. So my husband is an occupational therapist and so we started looking at where that job was needed in the world. And there were a few different places New Zealand being one of them, obviously. And so we started a process of seeing what it would take to get his licensure changed from America to New Zealand. And that took a while for us. It's a much more intense process than I think any of us expected when we started it. But he did, it took about a year and that was partially because my husband's procrastinator. So to anyone who's going, oh gosh, it's gonna take a year. It doesn't for everyone, I'm just married a master procrastinator. Okay. So it took him a while, but he did get all of it. He had worked in OT for 20 plus years. He did get his licensure over here. And then we started working with recruiters, just meeting with them, trying to find out like, how do we go about getting a job? And so because there was such a need for medical personnel, it was very easy. He interviewed a few different times and he was offered several different jobs, which was fantastic. We were over the moon. And what wound up happening was we had never stepped foot in New Zealand. And we were being asked, where do you want to live in a country we'd never been to? And so, which is how we actually found you was we were watching YouTube videos left and right, trying to go, do we want to live in the North Island? Do we want to live in the South Island? Because we're from the deep South in America, the North Island was a little bit more comfortable to us just temperature wise. So we were like, we want some hot weather. We want some beaches. So we wound up after much, much video watching, deciding on Taronga, New Zealand. And love it, it's a fabulous place. The beaches are amazing and beautiful and very different than Florida beaches, but all the same, just the beauty is unbelievable. So we decided that we were going to make a drastic move and people were asking us, oh, are you gonna move your furniture over? Are you gonna move your cars? And we said, no, we did kind of what your family did. We sold everything, houses, cars, properties, businesses, and off we went. When we got to New Zealand, we each had three large suitcases and a carry on each. And so everything we could fit into those suitcases came and we didn't, we hadn't secured housing when we got here. So my husband actually came two weeks prior to my daughter and I coming and he wound up booking us in Airbnb. So for a few months, we lived in Airbnb. Two months, okay. Yeah, which was fun, but what I would say to anyone considering this is if you're in the process of eliminating so much of your, what the known and going into the unknown, if I had to go back and do it again, I would have rather secured housing ahead of time because once we got here, I think we as a family just so desperately wanted to feel settled and to know we were living in an Airbnb for a little bit continued the unsettled feeling. Oh yeah, fair. So for us, if I could go back, that is definitely something I would change. I would have housing secured coming into it. But what I will say is it was easier to determine which area of the city, which neighborhood we wanted to be in once we had laid eyes on it. So that made a difference. Totally. But we got here and you kind of just have to jump in with both feet. How long have you been here? I've been here since August, so six months. Six months. Oh, it's been short, short time. Oh my God. And I know we talked, one of the things I definitely recommend, we did bring our dog with us. And I highly, I cannot recommend that any possibly higher. Our dog, he, we had a lot of conversation back and forth between my husband and I about is this, is this worth it? And of course he's a family member. So yes, absolutely. But I don't think we could have ever begun to imagine how important it was. Like he absolutely, if we had not brought the dog, it would have been a much, much harder transition. He was just this happy, bright spot in the days when it felt a little hard in the beginning. He was this bright, happy spot from home. And I can't imagine not having him. So to anyone who's looking at that, if you financially can swing it absolutely, absolutely bring your baby dog or baby cat with you. It's definitely. Oh, that's good. That's good. That's true. And the dog, if your dog's a water dog and you do move anywhere near a waterfall or near a beach, the dog is going to be the happiest you've ever seen. Mine certainly is. You said the dog is then, our dog has made the easiest transition to New Zealand at all. Oh my God. He's doing quite well. Oh, that's so cute. What, did you use, isn't there like one company that you can use? No, there's several. There's several. We used a company called Pet Express. And the pet is one of them. Yeah. We had, we actually had an interesting time because we were moving in August from the Deep South. And it was so hot that the closest airport we could get to to fly him was Atlanta, but Atlanta wouldn't fly him until end of October because of the humidity and how hot it is on the tarmac. Oh, right. So not like I said, my husband came a couple weeks earlier than we did. So he flew in and then my daughter and I, the dog and my best friend took a road trip across country. So we drove to Los Angeles and put the dog in Pet Express in Los Angeles, put my friend back on a flight home and then my daughter and I climbed on a plane in Los Angeles and flew to Auckland. Oh, really? That's what you said. That's quick. We had, and I guess that goes back to the not wanting to be in Airbnbs any longer than we had to. We'd already been in hotels for a week leading up to the move to Toronto. That's really true about that settled feeling of like, I didn't really think about that. Cause yeah, my husband always had come early or I stayed with friends the second time we moved. And so it was quite, it felt more like home, I guess. Yeah. Good advice. That's great. So like what were your like first impressions of New Zealand? You come here, you're from the deep South. Where would you, where are you exactly from? Oh, okay. So exactly from the town called Fairhope, Alabama. Alabama, okay. But what we tell everybody, we have a running joke in our house. Fairhope, Alabama is on the beach or it's down on the beach. We're on the Alabama, Florida line. Oh yeah. Yes, it's resort area. So the joke that we all tell from that area is that we're from beach, Alabama, not Banjo, Alabama. Sometimes, I love it. So I'll tell everybody. Yeah, I get what you're saying. But anyway, so in between Florida and New Orleans. And so, and I was, I grew up outside of New Orleans. So very much deep South mentality, lifestyle, my whole life. But I'm going back. I'm sorry, I forgot what you asked me now. No, just your first impressions. Oh, first impressions, sure. So like what really is the deep South mentality and then like what was really different? Well, I think probably the largest thing, and I say this with the most positive tar spin on it, is that I feel like we step back in time. And I have some friends, some American friends here, they're from Arizona and we were speaking about this the other day and she said the exact same thing. She said, I feel like we kind of are back in like almost 1988, 89, as far as- That's so true. That's exactly how it felt. Yeah, from the North. And I felt the same way. Like I felt like I was in the 1950s. Well, you're going to have a part of the area too. You may have it even better. Yeah. But we, you know, just like where we were, we were in a very safe and a fluent area. And I still, no one was walking their children to school. Everyone was car riding and car pooling and car line, you know, at the end of the day, where you sit in traffic all afternoon to pick up your child from school. And that was one of the first things, was like the copious amount of children that are just walking and not walking a few blocks, walking a great distance to get to school every morning. And I was like, well, that's what I did in the late 80s, you know? And so that really stood out. And I was like, that is so cool. And you know, certainly another on that same vein because it stood out tremendously is New Zealanders don't wear shoes very often. Yeah. Which is kind of crazy. That's not something I've ever encountered in my life. And to see these bear foot, the children had dressed head to toe in their uniform. And they've got their school books, their backpacks, but then there's just bear little feet walking to school. And I was like, well, that, no one was prepared. We didn't, that was, we were not prepared for that. It's cute. It's really nice. Again, in the deep South, it's very hot. And so there's, you know, you kind of just don't get out of your car or you don't get out of your air conditioned house at any point, you know? So there's a lot of drive through, like almost everything. Your drive cleaners, drive through, fast food. I hate through. There's no, there's no drive throughs here, which is refreshing. That part I really, really enjoy here. But it was one of those things that we just like, oh, well, that get out. It was unexpected. Yeah. And go in. Yeah, for everything. For everything. Yeah, it was just, I'm going, I can't just throw my dirty clothes at the drive cleaner. Right. Right, I actually have to be dressed to go out. What? Yeah. So anyway, those were different things. But, you know, obviously the obvious answer, the accents were much different. But people, you know, the people are absolutely lovely. And so that, you know, the people in the South are very, very polite and nice. And I felt like we, you know, there wasn't too much of a shift there. The people here were very, very lovely. And so we, you know, I didn't feel like socially there was something major different, just the way that we all sounded. Sure, sure. That makes sense. And has it been like that for your husband at work? Like has the work been the same or similar the adjustment socially? I mean, I mean, obviously there's like morning tea, afternoon tea, that's different. And then also for your daughter at school, like how has that been? Yeah, so I think my husband does very well. His only complaint is he does have hearing issues. So hearing issues on top of a new accent. Yes. Were that was interesting. Now I wouldn't even say problematic, just interesting in the beginning and again learning new dialect. He would talk with patients and they would send back messages and say, sweet ass. And he was going, I think that's a good thing, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. Sure. So learning those things. He did well. Our daughter, it was really fun when she first started school because she came in late into the semester. So they were, the whole school I think was buzzing that the American child had shown up. Oh no, it's true. That's how it is. Well, and they, they, she would come home and she was one of the first ones that talked about morning tea. She goes, we have tea in the morning. And then she came back and she was a little disappointed. She said, it's not tea. It's snack. But she thought that was fun. But it was interesting because the children at school wanted to know, they were very interested to know if we like hobnobbed with celebrities. Yes. First question. Little celebrities. Right. And, but then the other thing that the children were super excited about was they wanted to know if we ate easy cheese. Oh. Like cheese in the can. Yeah. And we were like, well, we have it in the States. We don't typically eat that, but you know. And so when Christmas rolled around, they do a shared lunch. And so each child was asked to bring a dish. And so we were asked if there was any way we could bring easy cheese. And so I had one of my girlfriends from the States ship over several containers of easy cheese. And the kids. Oh, that's brilliant. Oh, they thought it was amazing. They thought it was so funny. Oh, she would, oh, that's a great idea. Yeah. Well, class would have loved that. Yeah. The class thought it was great. And, but we joked while we were here because I thought customs is gonna have a field day because I had also in the States, we use in our coffee Splenda. Yes. Yellow packets. And that's, it's not that you can't find it here. You can. It's just more expensive. So I'd asked my girlfriend to go to Costco at home and get me some Splenda. So when we got this box full of easy cheese and Splenda packets, I thought, oh, customs is gonna have a field day with us. But they arrived at the house, so we were happy. Okay. That's hilarious. Oh my goodness. How long did it take? Was the shipping like, what, did it take a long time? Yeah. I think it was like maybe three, three to four weeks. Okay. Just wanted to check. See how you're doing. Yeah. Shipping, shipping definitely takes a long time. I had to lose my Amazon obsession. Yeah. How are you adjusting? That was my next question. How are you? We're doing extremely well. And for six months in, from what everyone tells us is that six months is where you really kind of hit that like, okay, here we go. Okay. We've really done this. Right. And, but we very much are adjusting. We finally got, like I said, into our home and the schools have, you know, we're in the right school that we're gonna be in for the next five years. We're all working. So that part is adjusted very well. I will say, like I have a June birthday and I'm still, I'm interested to see how I respond because I've always had a hot, summery birthday and to know that my June birthday is in the middle of winter now. Oh, yes. I'm still kind of with it, with it, you know, we're what almost April and it's fall. So that definitely is an adjustment. To anyone moving here, I would say one thing I was not prepared for with an adjustment. It sounds like such a small thing, but it's not. The, we always, I've always had my entire life a washer and dryer for my clothing and everyone line dries their clothes here. And even though I knew that that was going to be what we'd be doing when we moved here, I didn't really know that drying my clothes on a line was an issue and it is. Do you not have a dryer? You actually don't have a dryer? We do not have a dryer. We have a washing machine and, but even some of our friends that have dryers they're the ones that just pull water out of the clothing. They don't, nothing comes out hot and fluffy. It does. Does it? Yeah. I need to move to you where you want. Yeah, I'll just send a picture. It's not an expensive one. But yeah, I get so everybody complains to me. Oh, you have a dryer and it's like get over it. I'm American. I'm not hanging everything out. That what I think I'm trying to convince my husband because he works with shoulder injuries a lot. So I'm like, I really need a dryer. I think I'm messing my shoulder hanging these clothes. I don't know that it's working yet. Yeah. Like I don't mind it, but like, and a lot of people will have dryers, especially like in the winter when it's raining all the time and you literally can't dry yourself. And I just, you know, my attitude when I came was like, I got six people in this family. You guys got to be kidding me. You're just adding like so much work. Although it does feel rather therapeutic to be hanging out clothes. Like there's like that process that feels very therapeutic, but also I don't have a lot of time. So that's what I'm doing in my free time. And yeah. And I don't know, honestly, I can't get used to like everybody hanging everything out on the line. I'm like, you know, like I'm hanging. Everybody's underwear and I don't know. It feels unusual. It feels uncomfortable. And everybody does it and I shouldn't in like whatever who cares, but like, I don't know, it's weird. Well, no, I'm glad you reset it because I don't know if I've watched too many dark shows on Netflix possibly, but I will hang where like, because we're up on a bluff on a hill. And, but I, there's something in my mentality, the American mentality of like, you don't show your life. And so I will purposely hang my husband's clothes on the furthest point where people, if someone was looking at you, I don't think anyone's got binoculars looking into my laundry, but they did. But it's changing that mentality for sure. Because it is, that's one thing too that I wasn't prepared for. That it is in the most beautiful way is this complete level of trust. People leave their doors unlocked. Every, I mean, just doors completely wide open. And it's just my husband of triathlon yesterday and he was returning a bike he had borrowed from a friend. And he said, he was like, this is this crazy expensive bicycle. And the guy was just like, just leave it in a driveway. It's not a big deal. And he's going, you would never do that at home. You know? And he- He did it in the driveway. Oh my. Yeah. And he said, here people just, it's just, it's a very, again, almost like stepping back in time. The trust level and the security level is just extremely high. Yeah. I was just recording a video and I talked about it like this, like people aren't out to get you. Right. You know, I feel like the American system is you're just like always on guard. Whether it's even emails coming in, you know, everybody's just kind of like trying to steal from you, trying to take, you know, like you just almost have to be on guard all the time. And you have to be aggressive to get what you want, you know, and that's not the case here. Like if you lose something, it will be returned to you. I can't tell you, I have experience after experience of like, even my students, they were like, they're not from the US, but they were just be like, the fact that I could walk down the street with my phone to my ear, without it being like, take it out of my hands, you know, like it's just so different or I go to a cafe and people just leave all their stuff at the table. Or when I go to the professor's game, they're at practice and there's a thousand phones sitting on the bench, just sitting there, like, still stresses me out. I'm like, oh, okay. Yes, one time in a cafe, I saw like, let's say a newborn baby put in the car seat, and there's no mother. I don't know where she is. This is a bigger cafe. And I was like, oh gosh, where's the mother? You know, like I couldn't even go in and pay for my gas at the petrol station because you'd have to take all your kids with you to pay for it, you know, because someone could just run away with the car with their kids in it, like common. From where I was from. And I was like, that was such the pain when it's freezing out, when it's zero degrees. Taking everybody out of the car because they don't have the pay of the pump for some reason because it's the address area. So yeah, so I hear you, that's, yeah. Okay, so that's cool. Is there anything else like that you wish you would have known coming in? Like, are you just like, oh, that would be like, also like you said, like knowing and experiencing are two different things, right? Absolutely. In hindsight, I do, like I said with the, you know, coming in and just not feeling settled right away. And again, I forget, it's very easy to get here and be here a month and be like, because it feels like we've been here forever at this point and it feels like we got here yesterday. And so I normally am kind of the jumper in our family. I'm like, let's just not think it through, let's go. My husband very much is the researcher and wants to know all of the things. And for me as the believer in this situation, I would say that I wish I had, I personally had researched more and not, it wouldn't have changed my mind at all. I'm so happy we're here, let me say that. But that it might have just made some of the things that felt so new, a little more anticipated. I know specifically one of the things I wish I had done was just research the schooling better. I assumed like, okay, we finished up sixth grade in Alabama, so we're going to move and it'll be seventh grade, just like at whatever here. And not that any major shifts, but even just the school goes year round here. And I just, I wish I had researched the schools a little bit better because now we don't wanna, we've now got a teenager that has made friends and I don't wanna move her out of another situation. I also think I was maybe naive in thinking that it would be easier on my 13-year-old to come here. We were like, oh, she'd be moving at schools and in the States anyway from elementary to middle school. And so my husband and I were like, it's a change regardless, it'll be fine. It's a good time, the timing is good, yeah. The timing was great, so we thought, but it's still, I think we were naive in how difficult it is for a preteen going into early teen years, leaving a group of friends and having to reestablish. So I wish I had just done a little more due diligence on what to expect as far as transitioning my child, because as a mama, that's where my safety and security and happiness is if she's fine, then I'm good. And so that was just more difficult than we had expected. Again, it all comes around and it all works itself out. I mean, it always does. And it's good for them, it is, like she's, yeah. It's a tremendous move. And I think my husband and I had moved before multiple times and so we're like, oh, it'll be easy. And so I would say that that if you're moving a family, especially in that teenage realm, just kind of do research with your schooling, research with where you can make connections for the young person. Right, and it really, and what I tell clients all the time is like, you can do research online but really don't make your final decision until you come, you take the tour, the culture in the school, the leadership can be totally different and it's not portrayed online. And it's just really, I mean, all, even like when we moved here the second time where I thought I was putting my kids, it's not where I ended up sending them, just, and I had already lived here. I had already was familiar with it, but like even things change with different people running the schools or the different people in the different sports, like if you want your child into a sports and the coaches and like all of that makes a difference. So what's nice about it is that it has like the nationalized healthcare. So, you know, the healthcare or excuse me, the education is nationalized. So it's relatively the same no matter where you go, but like, yeah, but the culture and the things that they focus on and this can be totally different. And I think that that's what makes a difference. And yeah, so I mean, there's only so much research that you could do at some point you just need to dive in. And it's good for them. That's it. I mean, I know we talked once before about that. And I would tell anybody, if you're even considering it, if it's been placed in your heart and your mind, absolutely do it. We only get one life and what we talked about, especially where we were from, there's a formula. And I mean, I was part of it. He did exactly what everyone else in Fairhope, Alabama does. You know, we all go to the same high school. We all go to the same college, get the bachelor or the master, some of them, you know, some do wind up with PhDs and that's great. But as a whole, it's the same, we're all going to the same three colleges pretty much in that area. And then, you know, some of us get out, I moved up to New York for a while, we get out, then we all tend to wind up back in that town and then get married and have babies and start that process over. And so there's just to break out of that is what we wanted as our family. And we wanted specifically for our daughter to see like, you don't, I mean, nothing's wrong with that formula. It's a beautiful formula and it works for so many people, but there's such a bigger world. And this, you know, you can see that mom at 45 and dad at 53 are going, yep, let's go do something new. Let's go try something. And if we hate it, we can go somewhere else. And if we love it, then you get to see that we took this chance and, you know, and that it was successful and that it was hard and it was beautiful. And, you know, it was, we, I'm so glad we did it. You know? Yeah, and it doesn't need to be forever. You know? Right, or it can be. Exactly, like it's so many different. So it just, yeah, it's opening the eyes and giving everybody an international experience. And I found that when we moved, it really drew the family closer more than I was anticipating. Because like, you don't know anybody, you're all kind of experiencing this new thing together and you're all just kind of like, oh yeah, you like need each other in a different way than you would just if you're in normal life. And then also I think that the strengths and weaknesses of everybody kind of comes out as well and you kind of rely on each other in a different way. That's just not, there's really an interest with the age of 10. You're 100% right about it drawing closer. I mean, we, we already were a tight knit little triangle. Yeah, of course. And this, but you know, I feel, I feel lucky that I have a 13 year old that does want to engage and hang out. And it, and partly, partly, you know, I'm looking at my other, the her other 13 year old friends and their mothers going weird each other's throats and like you said, because of the situation, you know, not to say that there aren't moments, but you know, that I do have a 13 year old daughter that is going, I'm here with you, you know, and I won't take any back pains. No, it's true. It's not, and it's, of course, they need to break away and they need to be themselves in that and they will still do that. But yeah, they just, yeah, it was really good. I was hoping that it would draw, because I was starting to see as my older two are getting older, like everybody's kind of getting in their own life. And then it's totally different. And yeah, it just kind of bonded you because you're having this experience together and nobody else understands it. And, you know, even like her friends here and her friends at home, like nobody understands it, you know? And she's just living in this and you get to go through it together. It's really great, I think for families. So yeah, cool. All right, well, that's so amazing that you're just sharing your story and sharing your experience. And I hope that this was helpful to a lot of people and I think I think that Lydia just highlighted, you know, a lot of the great things like if you come into my community, there's just trainings on how to adjust to life. Like it isn't just as easy as you think it is. And then there's just a lot that you kind of need to know to really kind of thrive. And that's just like really helpful and that's all I'm trying to do is provide things that I wish I would have had. So anyway, thank you for joining us. If you guys have questions or comments, please leave those below and I'll try to answer those as best that I can. And thank you so much for joining us.