Kia ora!

Welcome to the inaugural post of "Green with NZ" - a blog whose singular purpose is to inspire jealousy in our family, friends, and former co-workers as Andrew and I shirk the adult responsibility of the "real world" to become wayward wanderers of the southern hemisphere. Not seriously - but we do intend to keep you well informed of all the fabulous details of our globe-trotting experiences.

Christened "unemployed hobos" by my nine-year-old niece, Andrew and I intend to shed new light on the hobo experience of two twenty-something college educated individuals. Hobophobes, please consider - we didn't choose this lifestyle, we believe that it chose us.

Many people have asked what inspired the idea of going to New Zealand. In fact, the answer is quite simple - a desk job. While many people occupy their abundant freetime at work with personal email, spider solitaire, or Internet shopping, Andrew and I both filled the hours of downtime with reading Internet news sites. A personal favorite were the travel logs frequently featured by Slate Magazine. One such "Well-Traveled" article was Girls Go Wild, Adventures in New Zealand. The title is admittedly lame, but the content was very interesting. This paragraph in particular piqued our curiousity:

New Zealand is just too small and far away for a radical to bother with. It's such a pain to get to, in fact, that 10 years ago, when I lived and worked in Auckland for six months, there were no apparent restrictions on immigration. To get a job, all I needed was a bank account, and to get a bank account, all I needed was a passport. Apparently, there's more paperwork now, but still, in 2006, I had the feeling I was in a refuge.

We thought, "Really? Is it that easy for a foreigner to live and work in New Zealand? Huh..." And after about ten minutes of online research, we confirmed that, yes, it really is that easy. There really isn't even that much additional paperwork.

Fun fact: New Zealand's per capita ice cream consumption is second only to the U.S. Having recently lived in the state of Vermont (Ben & Jerry's, anyone? Phish Food... yum...), we feel as if this should contribute to a smooth transition overseas.