Who is behind Going NZ?
My name is Dawn (my partner who also contributes sometimes is Isaac) and Going NZ has developed due to my love of travel and of course New Zealand! I am an adventurer at heart, growing up in Cornwall (a beautiful part of England I know!) I always aspired to travel. I find contentment hard, there is a big world out there and I always think I have to be in it!
For the last 12 years, I have worked in the travel industry helping other travellers create their dreams. I got the travelling bug too and over the years I have been to China, Europe, Africa, South East Asia & Australia.
So why New Zealand?
Why not! Isaac has family that lives in New Zealand and in 2009 we decided to take a 6 month trip over to NZ to get to know his extended family and to learn about his heritage. Little did we know the trip would change our lives in so many ways, quite simply we fell in love. We found NZ so similar to England but yet so different in so many ways.
The 4 years that followed after our 6-month trip away was full of dreaming of life over here in NZ. We tried to settle into life in England and adjust into some sort of normality but we couldn’t conform, it took years but finally, we decided to pack up all our belonging and move to NZ. In December 2014 we moved to Auckland, I quickly found a job in travel and my partner set up a digital marketing company. We decided not to live our lives full of “What if’s” it was crunch time, we knew if we didn’t do it now we would never take the leap!
Going NZ was Born:
When the decision was made to move we started doing our research, we found ourselves on loads of different (but useful) websites, personally, I couldn’t keep up!
There is so much conflicting information on the internet these days, I felt like in order to clarify my thoughts I needed somewhere to put my research and I wondered if I was alone, did anyone else have the same issues as me? It turns out I was right and I am happy to help anybody who is wanting to move over here, not just those of you from England but from anywhere in the world. The journey of adjustment is a long one, but it is totally worth it in the end.
What does the future hold?
We have been New Zealand, permanent residents, now since December 2014, at first we spent 18 months in Auckland but just couldn’t quite fit in. We went from one rat race to another, it just wasn’t for us. We now base ourselves out of Wellington and are currently travelling the South Island in our Motorhome. We are making slow and steady steps towards living our ideal lifestyle – this shit is a process!
Going NZ’s growth has been exceptional. We started off by doing small informal travel and moving guides and slowly we have expanded to comprehensive guides to living and expat life in New Zealand. This website has become the go-to resource for travellers, expats and migrants heading to New Zealand.
Our comprehensive articles and guides now receive’s more than 6,000 unique visitors every month! Going NZ is no longer purely about us and our story, it is about connecting our community with up to date, relevant and truthful information.
You can keep up to date with our latest posts by getting social with us, we are fairly active on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
Happy planning & and if you are an expat we want to hear from you! Get in touch!
Dawn & Isaac
