8,745 Miles

That's how far it is between Washington DC and Wellington NZ.

For the last eight years, Washington DC and Northern Virginia have been home to both of us. Hard to believe we've been here that long. Its a pretty unique place. We've seen two presidential elections (and are escaping just in time for the third), experienced the earthquake that cracked the Washington Monument, dug out from snowpocalypse and snowmageddon, experienced the government shut down, and struggled through the Metro shutdowns.

But we've also been honored to make an incredible group of friends who have helped us explore so many wonderful nooks and crannies of the Mid-Atlantic. While we're incredibly excited to set off on our new adventure, it is certainly bittersweet.

Here are a few of our favorite DC area things:

Virginia Wine Tours

While VA wine is far from a fine French, Californian or New Zealand wine, it is certainly drinkable and more importantly, some of the wineries in Northern VA can almost make you feel like you are in Provence, Sonoma or Marlborough. Some of our favorites are:

• Zephaniah Farm Vineyards - with tasting rooms in an 18th century farm house, you can relax in what feels like your grandma's library and learn about the history of the land and the family that still farms it.  
• Stone Tower Winery - just a little further along the same country road as Zephaniah is Stone Tower. This place reminded me very much of Russian River Valley in Sonoma - more modern than Zephaniah but equally gorgeous. 
• Barrel Oak Winery - this place is dog and kid friendly and with open fire pits and picnic tables and the view of Shenandoah in the distance, its a great way to spend a summer afternoon.  

Old Town Alexandria

Less touristy than its neighbor Georgetown across the river, Old Town has the same lovely charm, uneven streets, gas lamped houses and almost the same outrageous property prices. You can take the water taxi from the Old Town harbor over to Georgetown or up to the National Harbor for a very reasonable price and at the Torpedo Factory you can wander through artists studios and chat to the artists in residence.

Assateague and Chincoteague

One of my favorite stories growing up was Misty of Chincoteague. Being able to do a day trip out to some of the most stunningly wild beaches and see the wild ponies that still roam around Assateague Island - at least until Pony Penning Day - is definitely one of my highlights. Its not a short drive, but you can stop off at Vanderwende Farm Creamery along the way for the best ice cream around. 

Great Falls

We never visited Great Falls from the VA side because the times we tried it the lines were outrageous. Instead you can follow MacArthur Blvd until it ends in Great Falls park and take the board walk out to see truly insane people kayak down the falls. If you feel ambitious, its only a 15 mile bike ride or so from down town DC following the C&O canal and the Potomac the whole way. 

Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon was George Washington's estate on the banks of the Potomac. There is a great museum and you can do a tour of the house (which is surprisingly small). There are some wonderful gardens and people dressed up in colonial outfits. Down the road from the house is the Mount Vernon gin mill, which is also worth a visit. / 

The National Zoo

The National Zoo in DC is part of the Smithsonian collection of museums and properties which means its free. Because its the National Zoo it also has some awesome animals including Giant Pandas and my personal favorite, Red Pandas - who are also little escape artists. There are also some wonderful big cats and occasionally they get lucky when one of the local whit tailed deer take an ill advised detour through the Cheetah enclosure...

Awesome Restaurants

There are a lot of good restaurants in DC, and these may not be the best of the best, but they are ones that we like because of the food, ambiance, service or just happy memories!

• Black Salt
• Et Voila
• Vermillon
• Le Diplomat
• Smoke and Barrel
• Mintwood Place
• Tombs
• DRP

Shenandoah National Park

This is about two hours west of DC and has dozens of amazing hikes, One of our favorites is Mary's Rock which is a pretty straightforward climb up to a rocky outcrop with almost 360 degree views of the area. Visiting in the fall is definitely worth a visit, but bear in mind the leaves turn a week or two earlier than they do in DC due to the altitude.  

Local Parks

There are so many wonderful local parks in DC/NoVA - here are just a few of our favorites:

• Fort Hunt
• Fort Washington
• Piscataway Park
• Lake Accotink 
• Meridian Hill Park
• Rock Creek Park

What Does It Take To Make a Dream Happen?

To paraphrase a famous quote, It takes a village...

One of the best parts of this move has been the amount of people we have in our lives who have pulled together to make this work for us. Here is the Oscar's version of the thank yous:

Our Parents and Family
Both of our families have lived through what we are living through now - Chris' family moving all over the world from France to The Netherlands, to Senegal and England. My parents moved from the US to the UK and back again. It should be no surprise then that both of our families have been so incredibly supportive of us, watching from 6,000 miles away as we prepare to move EVEN further from them with only love and good wishes to share.

Our Friends
They say that friends are family that you choose, and we could not be more thankful for our friends. From lending an ear when things were going less than smoothly, to lending us a car and a bed to sleep in after we rented our house, this simply would not have been possible with out the love and support of our friends.

Our Neighbors
Six months after buying a four bedroom house is probably not the ideal time to decide you want to move to the other side of the world. But sometimes life happens... We had only just moved from the heart of Washington DC to Alexandria VA and just started getting to know our neighbors when this started taking shape. In a few short months however, we have been blown away by the amazing people who live around us. From feeding us dinner and more often wine, to lending us cars, driving us to Costco and adopting countless plants, our neighbors have been incredible.

Our Jobs
Both of us work for the same company and we were both attracted to it for several of the same reasons. One of which was their global footprint and the belief in 'owning your career'. By no means was it easy making this a reality, but we have both been supported by a tremendous network of people who know us and understand why a move like this makes so much sense.

All of the others...
We have had so many people wish us well and give us their advice and support. It seems like a move like this hits a nerve with a lot of people and we have been amazed at the number of stories that people have shared with us about their dreams, experiences and best wishes.

Even when we have faced roadblocks, and don't doubt for a minute that there have been many, the overwhelming sense was that this would all work out in the end. It has taken more patience than I normally posses, a huge amount more work than expected from both Chris and I in getting our lives - and in particular the house - ready for a move like this, but we did it and we didn't do it alone. And for that I am so immensely grateful.

Packing

Probably not the most exciting topic for a blog post but humor me - we've been packing for the past three months...

There are so many choices when it comes to moving overseas, but one of the most immediate ones is what to do with all your 'stuff'. Do you pack it all into a giant container and send it off for its own journey by boat? Do you store it all in your home country and hope it won't get ruined living in a storage unit for two years? Do you sell it all and become a Nomad? What is worth bringing and what can  you find when you get there?

Well we decided on a strategy that's a mixture of most of the above. After talking it through, we decided to sell all our furniture that we didn't love or that wasn't a family piece and store the rest in a storage unit while we are gone. Because we live in a city, we were able to sell stuff pretty easily on Craigslist (which is where we had bought a bunch of our stuff in the first place).

After researching shipping costs, we determined that actually the cheapest and easiest way of getting stuff to NZ was to bring it with us as extra luggage on the plane. Different airlines have different baggage allowances, but we ended up settling with American Airlines which allows you to check two bags each for free, plus up to an additional 10 bags at $200 USD each with a 50 lb weight limit on each. So, not cheap... but nothing about this move has been...

We decided that four pieces of checked luggage each should be enough to keep up going for the next few years. Our life packed into bags is approximately broken out as follows:

• Casual every day clothes
• Work clothes and shoes
• Hiking and outdoor clothes and equipment
• Limited household goods (a few kitchen knives, sheets, a king size down duvet and some other bits and pieces)
• Electronics and other precious things (jewelry for example) in our carry on

I read a lot of blogs and forums to try and determine what was worth bringing and what was not. As with most things, people had all kinds of different opinions. Some folks recommended stuffing a container full of everything you own, while others had only a handful of things they recommended. Here are the general trends I noticed:

• Don't bring simple electronics from the US - in NZ, like most of Europe, electricity is 220 Volts while in the US we use 120 Volts. Your hair dryer or coffee maker may work, but it will probably burn out pretty quickly. Computers are different because they have a power adapter enabling them to work with either voltage.
• Shoes are super expensive in NZ. I haven't seen this first hand (we have only visited on vacation so far and shoe buying wasn't on the agenda), but almost everyone is in agreement on this. As an interesting aside, #1 on "15 Things you didn't know about NZ" http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/destinations/nz/78426373/15-things-no-one-told-me-about-living-in-New-Zealand mentions that people tend to wander around barefoot.... possibly connected...? 
• Clothes are expensive - but good quality. Most of what we are bringing are clothes for this reason.
• Furniture, ditto. We're not bringing any furniture, and my hope is that we can find a nice furnished place, so we won't have to buy any either. But from what I have seen on NZ's version of Craigslist - trademe.co.nz, this is definitely the case. For example, we have an awesome memory foam mattress in the States that I bought from Amazon of all places and was shipped from China. The whole thing cost less than $600 USD for a king size. There is really nothing comparable for less than $3,000 NZD ($2,000 USD) and that's without a frame or box spring!
• Some medicines are not available in NZ. For example, Advil PM or Sudafed can't be found in NZ apparently. However some medicines also can't be brought legally into the country - so check before you try!

As for the packing itself... well everything that's staying is more or less packed in giant plastic bins from Costco to protect it from damp/moths/rodents/whatever else may happen to it in storage. 

Then in one of our few splurges, we hired movers to do the heavy lifting. Unfortunately I was out of town for the move itself, and I strategically got home only just arrived once the movers had left.

 That means we will spend our last two weeks in the US camping out in our house on blow up mattresses and folding tables and chairs. Can't wait!

Why New Zealand?

Sharing the news that Chris and I are packing up our entire lives into four suitcases and moving to the other side of the planet invariably results in one question more than any other.

Why New Zealand?

As many times as we have shared this news with people over the last few weeks and months, you would think we would have a better answer, but in short it boils down to just a few things.

First off, have you SEEN New Zealand?  I can sum it up for you in one word - awesome. Awesome landscape, unparalleled natural beauty and almost all of it totally accessible. Its like someone took all of the cool stuff from a continent the size of Europe or North America and shrunk it down into a two-island country the size of Colorado. If you need a reminder, check out this video (or watch LOTRs, Narnia, Avatar, Taylor Swift's video for Out of the Woods, Xena Warrior Princes... you get the idea):

Then there are the professional reasons. As a family of two consultants, we are naturally curious folks. And as professionals who have grown up and worked in different countries, this move gives us a chance to continue to do the work we love but through a slightly different lens in a wholly different environment. Its my experience in life that you learn more about who you are and your own culture when you are surrounded by foreign experiences, and so my hope is that we will go through something similar professionally. We will both remain working for the same company in Wellington that we do in Washington DC, but my hope is we will experience our own work differently which in turn will help us learn and grow.

Finally, there is the chance to explore a totally different side of the world. Chris and I have both traveled through parts of Asia and we loved Tokyo, Seoul, Kyoto, Beijing and many other cool cities. Being already on this side of the world - albeit very far South - we hope will enable us to explore further afield and see more of this corner of our planet.

So in summary, when people ask "Why New Zealand" the really answer is really - why  NOT New Zealand?