Land of Z's, the New One.

I've lived in Zealand, the biggest Island of Denmark, and found Copenhagen to be one of my all time favorite cities. But even then the impatient wanderer in me is always fascinated with the shiny and new. Like New Zealand.

I'm a fan of spectacular natural beauty, trendy citys, low crime and the irrepressible friendliness of every Kiwi I've ever met. So much so that I'd love to live there for a time one day. And I'm not the only one, I've met many restless souls who're curious if to see if the Middle Earth landscape is real. But at some point in our daydreams, we sigh and note that the Kiwis have long since figured out what a great thing they've got going. They don't want too many foreigners crashing their party, so New Zealand is famously hard to expatriate too.

But then, a couple days ago, I found that Bunac had just changed their eligibility requirements. Instead of being only for recent college grads any American 18-35 can get a year long unlimited work visa (via this specific program, there are others). Although most people get jobs in pubs or doing seasonal farm work this work visa allows you to work legally anywhere.

So, for $495 they'll get me a work visa and an orientation. For another $1,300 I've got a one-way (24 long hours, at best) flight from NYC to Wellington, NZ. And finally I'm required to enter the country with a minimum of $600 in pocket money to get started.

So if you share my NZ itch, all you need is $2,500 to scratch it. I'm not going anytime soon, but I figured its not a bad thing to have floating around in the back of my mind.

Admittedly, this doesn't answer my biggest concern about being on the bottom of the earth. Aren't they worried about falling off?