As soon as she walked off the plane in Auckland in 2009, Welsh-born Clare Hitchin noticed the sky was ''a different kind of blue'' in New Zealand.
''In the UK you don't see very much blue; it's wishy-washy. Here it's very, very blue.''
She said Central Otago had some of the bluest skies she had ever seen.
Miss Hitchin, who lives at Pisa Moorings, near Cromwell, became a New Zealand citizen on February 23 along with 10 others at the Central Otago District Council chambers in Alexandra.
Originally, she was in New Zealand on a short-stay visa but fell for the country's charm.
Miss Hitchin's partner, Adith Almeida, became a New Zealand citizen in 2016. He was born in Mumbai and admitted Indian skies could be even more extreme than those of Wales.
''In Mumbai, you can hardly see the sky,'' he said.
Apart from the United Kingdom, people from Australia, France, India, Iran, the Philippines and Zimbabwe swore allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II yesterday in Alexandra, marking their home not just as New Zealand, but Central Otago.
Each new resident received a kowhai plant as a gift.
The new residents were: Ian Garmonsway, Scotland; Joanne Garmonsway, Connor Garmonsway and Kyla Garmonsway, all of the United Kingdom; Simone Hargreaves, of Australia; Clare Hitchin, of the United Kingdom; Rajwinder Kaur, of India; Arash Mokhtarzadeh, of Iran; Rupinder Singh, of India; Amanda Thatcher, of Zimbabwe; and Emmely Winders, of the Philippines.
