Expat boys and girls

You all know it as fact, New Zealander's travel. We live at the bottom of the earth (or at the top if you are feeling antipocentric) and we itch to get out there and expand our minds through the eyes of different cultures. Did you turn 25 and realise you have more friends living in London than Wellington?

Yeh, me too.

It just didn't astound me until I moved overseas, it seemed like a right of passage. But since I've been living in the US I've come to understand how unique and special this is.... there are people here who've never left the state they were born in, and rumor goes there are teenagers in the suburbs who have never seen downtown! they exist solely between their cul-de-sac and the nearest strip mall.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to post short profiles of kiwi's living overseas.... and I figured it's only polite to start with my own one, albeit the least interesting as my overseas adventures have just begun.....


I've been living in Portland, Oregon since early last year working in the fashion industry. It's not exactly where I expected to end up on my big overseas adventure but the Northwest US is incredible. Portland is known for it's liberal state of mind, music, being the most sustainable city in the US and having the most strip bars and micro-breweries per capita in the country. Portlanders love bicycles, music, beer and beards like you wouldn't believe.

I've managed to travel a lot up and down the West Coast in the past 9 months, hung out in the desert in California, spent a weekend in Seattle, and pretended to snowboard in Vancouver.... and in last five years have seen Melbourne, Sydney, Shanghai, London, Rome and Tuscany. Next year Japan and Amsterdam.

Moving here has been hands down one of the most invigorating experiences of my life, I've been pushed to the edge of my comfort zone and consequently I feel independent and motivated and I've started to understand so much more about myself.

But still nothing compares to a flat white on Cuba Street, a long Sunday afternoon in my gin shoes at Matterhorn or Ohope beach. So I know I'll be back - but with my eyes open wider than before.