Calin and Ian Are Moving to New Zealand FAQ

Q: When are you leaving?
A: Well now, this is an excellent question. Our tickets say April 15^th. We don’t have our visas yet, but we’re confident we’ll get them in time. Or not. Regardless, we will sleep somewhere other than 3902 Wallingford that night. Even if it’s somewhere else in Seattle. Moving on.

Q: Provided the visa thing works out, where will you be?
A: We’ll be living in Wellington, the capitol city, population 160,000 (420,000 in the region). Wellington is at the southern tip of North Island, and seems to have pretty much the same weather as Seattle, although windier. We’ve heard that, with the combination of Antarctic winds and the local hills, it frequently seems as though the rain is falling up. Calin likes to wear skirts. She may learn not to.

Q: Tell me more about the sheep thing. Are there really that many?
A: For a little perspective, the entire human population of New Zealand is 4,000,000. The entire sheep population is 60,000,000. That’s not a typo. That’s a lot of sheep.

Q: How about Lord of the Rings? How will that mega-blockbuster be affecting your lives?
A: Well, we will be living in a Hobbit Hole.

Q: Okay, so what are you going to be doing there, anyway?
A1: Ian is going to be working as a fish population modeler for NIWA, which, sexy as it sounds, doesn’t actually involve him wearing different outfits and sashaying around on runways. Rather, he’s most likely to be sitting in front of a computer writing statistical programs.
A2: Calin is looking forward to a new career as a kept woman.
A3: Spackle is going to live with Grammy and Grumpy (aka Liz and Marsh), where he will be spoiled rotten and (we hope) won’t notice we’re gone. We’re trying not to think about it too much.

Q: What’s the time difference?
A: Only three hours, although it’s really 21 hours. New Zealand is virtually the first place in the world to experience each new day (there might be a small island nation that insisted on fudging the date line for Y2K), so you can pretty much assume that if you’re calling us from the US, it’s tomorrow where we are. And it’s three hours earlier.

Q: Can we come visit you?
A: Of course! We’re planning to have a couple extra bedrooms to facilitate overlaps. We expect to be that popular.

Q: Uh, how long can I expect to be in a plane for the privilege?
A: 13 hours from San Francisco to Auckland, and another one hour flight to Wellington. It’ll be 20 or 21 hours for us all told. Don’t think about it.