Kia ora,

Yay - I have finally got myself back onto this fabulous forum and thought I would drop in and say hello as its been a while.

We have now been living here in New Zealand coming up to 5 years and WOW Time has certainly flown by! We came as a couple and now we have a little family. We have two handsome kiwi boys, aged 3 and 19 months. Life is great but hard sometimes with no family support however, we manage and get through all obstacles just fine.

Our life out here over the past 5 years has been absolutely fantastic. We have travelled around both islands and feel there is still so much to see. I have now taken up 'trail' running instead of road running, such a great way to see more of New Zealand's beautiful scenery. My partner is more so now always looking into doing new trail bike rides around the Country since recently completing the 'Timber Trail' - we live near 'The Hauraki Rail Trail' which is often getting cycled with the boys in tow.

We absolutely love this country, so much to do and we never seem to get bored, we are always off on new adventures with the boys, what a great place to raise children, the best part of it is, a lot of things to do over here is either free or there is a way to make it cheap! Depending what is it your in to I guess. Its scary to think how much we have actually done and still do even with the boys, we certainly are "Living Life' to the full. We love the great outdoors!

If anyone is debating to make the move with their kids, I honestly feel you should just do it, you would not be disappointed, so much to do and so many new things to try that even in Winter (if you can call it Winter after coming from the UK) - It would not stop you - the sun still manages to get out and shine!

Soooooo, after five happy successful years, we are now looking into getting our Citizenship - we have the forms ready to fill in and get the ball moving. I feel getting Citizenship is a way of completing our journey and putting a final stamp of officially NZ being our 'home'. What I have found though when we have bumped into ex-pats and asked the question about Citizenship that the amount of ex-pats actually don't feel the need to get their Citizenship, after asking "why not" they could never give me a reason, strange I find this! How many of you ex-pats on here have or haven't got the Citizenship - do you mind sharing what are your reasons for and against?

Once we have our New Zealand passports, we shall not be renewing our British one however, we will be looking at getting the boys both and why not? One day they could be playing for the Black Caps or the England Cricket team... I would love to say 'The All Blacks' but being a mummy, I cringe at the thought of my boys playing Rugby ha ha!!