Kiwi journalist Kim Vinnell, husband Sean, and dog Patch on their well travelled orange couch
OPINION: From my apartment in Doha, to my home in Whanganui, there are 14,528 kilometres. It’s a long way, but it didn’t feel that far… until 2020. The year Coronavirus changed all our lives forever, and I found myself fighting with strangers on the internet, defending my kiwi-ness, my loyalty, my belonging. It didn’t, of course, start out that way. It started with a new job, in a new city, with a new husband. After meeting in Istanbul a few years ago, and eloping in New York, Sean and I packed up our lives (and fur child) in Turkey and moved to this city built from the desert, on the tip of the Persian Gulf.