On Monday 15th February Kane became a New Zealand Citizen!
He applied for citizenship at the end of last year and was accepted, the last step is the citizenship ceremony where we would take an oath or affirmation and he just needed to wait for a letter informing him where and when it was.
Along with other important details, the letter contained some dress code instructions and encouraged the wearing of traditional dress from your country of origin - so for Kane that meant the kilt. Every man looks good in a kilt but, and perhaps I'm bias, Kane looks especially handsome!
A quick selfie and then we were out the door and on our way to the Fickling Convention Centre which is where our local ceremony was taking place.
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| // Quick photo before leaving the house |
There was a little bit of a queue when we arrived and in front of us was one large family who were all going through the ceremony together - how special for them!
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| // Kane outside the Fickling Convention Centre entrance |
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| // Signage |
Once inside we were separated as Kane had an assigned seat and I had to sit in the area allocated to guests. I'm already a citizen by birth, but my parents who had emigrated to NZ years before decided to return home shortly after my birth so until Kane and I moved here, I had never actually lived here.
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| // Kane in his seat waiting for the ceremony to begin |
The ceremony began with welcomes in Maori and English, introductions of the ceremony officials, and blessings in Maori and English.
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| // Officials |
This was followed by a cultural display of music and dance. It was really lovely, inspiring and uplifting.
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| // Cultural performances |
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| // Poi |
After this the oaths and affirmations were recited en masse and then everyone went across the stage individually to receive their certificate and to greet the officials with a hongi and/or a handshake.
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| // Kane on stage receiving his certificate |
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| // Kane and his official certificate |
Once everyone had their certificates, we watched a video presentation that made everyone super proud to be New Zealanders. One of the things mentioned in the video is that NZ gives permanent residents the same rights as citizens, so by making the choice to become a citizen you are showing your commitment to New Zealand.
Then we sang the National Anthem and before closing, the compere called all the countries of origin represented that day and the people stood up and gave a wave - it was so awesome!
Then we had some morning tea refreshments and finished up about 11 am.
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| // Morning tea in a room full of new New Zealanders |
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| // Feeling patriotic |
We took some photos in and around the convention centre and then headed out to Soljans wine estate for a celebratory lunch.
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| // Kane and his lunch |
Lunch was delicious! I've been to this winery a few times for wine tasting at the cellar door and have always fancied checking out their restaurant and today was the perfect time to try it.
We had 3 courses and they were all delicious I would certainly recommend it. Of course the star of the show at a vineyard is the wine and we both went for the chardonnay which did not disappoint.
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| // Soljans Chardonnay |
After a lovely and very filling lunch we headed home to get changed, rest up and then head out to the Air New Zealand exhibit at the museum. Kane loves all things flight related and this seemed like an on topic thing to do.
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| // Old flight adverts |
There was a mock cabin from the 60's which may well have been like the plane my parents flew out on.
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| // Me in an 1960's cabin |
I recognised the wall design instantly as my parents had quite a few of these swizzle sticks in our kitchen when I was a kid. I wonder if they still have any?..
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| // Swizzle stick design |
To finish the day off celebrating being New Zealanders we got some fish and chips for dinner and opened the bottle of champagne we bought at Soljans. A very good day.
