Great Scott Kiwi!

Are you sitting down?


I have experienced governmental efficiency.



But don't get excited, fellow Canadians. It isn't from our government. Rather, it is from the New Zealand government. Be proud, hospitable Kiwis!

The efficiency occurred thus: on Sunday, Glen and I submitted our online applications for our New Zealand Working Holiday Visa. We were fairly certain that there was still space left for incoming Canadians, as the website's new section did not indicate that all the WHV spots for Canadians had been filled. There are set quotas for various countries as to how many working holidaymakers they will allow - Canada's allotment is currently set at 2,000.

I was not expecting immediate processing of our applications. Indeed, the conservative estimates that I had came across (which include some of the NZ governmental websites) led me to believe that we would be waiting about two weeks for the acknowledgement of our applications, and another two weeks for the applications to actually get processed.

Our applications were received, processed, and approved in two days. A mere two days! I am quite delighted. Now we can get our WWOOF New Zealand membership and start plotting which places we would like to WWOOF at and where we might like to work for actual money. Now I feel comfortable booking our flight tickets.

Now it feels absolutely, insolubly real!