While we were enjoying our morning coffee and reading our books, we heard a knock on our boat. Tom goes up to the cockpit and is greeted by a census guy. We are told that today is Census Day and that we are to participate. Tom explains to the guy that we are Americans and that we are visiting the country for a few months. The guy again, explains that we are required to participate.

So, today, Tuesday March 5th is Census Day, it lasts just one day and happens every 5 years. The paperwork is pretty basic with two packets (written in Maori and English); one is the Dwelling Form and the second is the Individual Form. One particular question inside the Dwelling form is a question regarding what type of dwelling we live and one of the options is yes, a moveable dwelling, for example, caravan, boat, tent, etc. Other questions in the Dwelling packet were if we owned our dwelling, have the capabilites of heating our dwelling and whether we have a cell phone, telephone, fax or internet access.

The Individual Form asked for our names, ages, birthdate, nationality, when we arrived in New Zealand and our current address. Since we are not residents, most of the questions we did not have to answer regarding income amount, type of employment, religion, whether we have a disability, receive public assistance, what language we can converse in and how much education we have.

One last thing to mention about the census, we even heard on the radio that the census bureau handed out the packets to people on the cruiseships!