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Should I stay or
should I go? January 2004 - August 2005 (14
messages)
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Administration Officer, Beenleigh, Australia We are coming home at the end of 2004 to live back in Tauranga. We gave it five years to get our "act" (financially) together here in Queensland, Australia. We have now done that to a degree and four years later we are packing the container to return home. How interesting it will be to settle back in. I have to agree with one of the comments I read on this site – it can be a real struggle to get by in New Zealand. How different will it be for us when we have to drop $8 or more an hour in wages? Will there be opportunities to get back into business in Tauranga? Will the rain and cold drive us away again? Will our beautiful view from the hill in Tauranga make it all worthwhile? Will our son enjoy sailing as much as riding the roller coasters at Dreamworld, which are only 15 minutes away from us? I am so looking forward to returning home, but I have to say, I am a little afraid.
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Sales, Tokyo, Japan
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Rugby Player, England
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Realtor/Mortgage Broker, Florida, USA
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Taranaki, New
Zealand And if people don't know you they don't trust you and don't want to know you. Closed minds and very protective and guarded. It has been very hard meeting people open to giving love and not being scared. It has been almost 2 years since we have been back. We came back with dreams and goals and living here quickly tries to dampen your dreams. Discourage you from changing things and reaching higher that what feels safe to others. Our dreams seemed lost and only now after 2 years of trying to establish ourselves I am feeling like our dreams can come back to light and be reached for. Why is it so hard? New Zealand has so much to offer and people are worth so much more. It is good to be here though. This land is sacred and to breathe it every day is a homecoming. What we are about as people. Enjoy Aotearoa.
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Copywriting & Photography, Melbourne,
Australia I was reading the NZ Herald online and found a reference to your web site. When I read people's accounts and memories of New Zealand it put a lump in my throat. Those of you who come from East Auckland will know what I'm talking about when you have been away for a while and that drive home from the airport that seems so long, then you come along Bleakhouse Road in Howick and all of sudden you are at the top of Macleans Road and the whole sweeping view of the peninsula and out over the Hauraki Gulf just unfolds before you. It absolutely takes my breath away and I wonder all over again how I ever could have left home. You truly have to leave a place to appreciate the beauty in it and realise just how much of your identity is formed by its culture and little idiosyncrasies.
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Company Director, Auckland Returned to NZ after 17 years in Canada. Children beware! the school playground in NZ is a violent place. School sports are very physical and individual sports people have a difficult time finding support. Kiwi children are cruel to those with accents and not at all welcoming unlike their overseas counterparts. Non travelling Kiwis are very insular and not open to new ideas. NZ Newspapers and media are terrible, inaccurate and lack overseas news. The kiwi culture of bad service makes it very easy for an immigrant to succeed in business - there is no competition.
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Teacher, Taupo, New Zealand I just got back from 2 years in London teaching. I loved the travel, the adventures, motivated and inspirational people, and I learnt more about being a New Zealander and being Maori in those 2 years, than I ever had. Last year I had a real urge to come home. When I thought of New Zealand lots of beautiful images would come to mind, and the idea of returning to the arms of the land and whanau was strong. When I came back it was as I had hoped. It is truly beautiful, from the ancient Pohutukawa on Orere beach, to the cow in the paddock in Waikato. But there was a feeling of unease too. Race relations seemed strained to put it mildly. No one wanted to talk about the foreshore or Maori politics. I felt like I had missed something crucial by being in London, despite our discussions, debates and awareness in the New Zealand community about these issues, it was not the same as experiencing it. As a traveler you tend to want to discuss what you saw and felt. I have found Kiwis to be really bad listeners. They either cannot relate at all, so their face closes and eyes glaze and you know they aren't taking anything in. Or, they connect your experience to something they saw or did, and launch into a big korero about their OE, as if to stop feeling like "I wish I was still there/young/free". At times it has been an isolating feeling returning. I look forward to our little reunions with ex-Londoners. We often talk about how close we became with our friends in London, in such a short time, sometimes closer than we are with old friends from school or family members even. It is such a tight-knit community in London for kiwis, and you miss that feeling of unity and identity back here. Hei aha, it’s good to be home, for we should truly give thanks we are Kiwis. Enough for now!! Kia Ora, Janie.
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Interior Decorator, Mosta, Malta
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Publisher, Point Arena, USA Want crime? Drugs? Gangs? Even our tiny (300 people) enclave in coastal California three hours from the nearest mall now has rules that our kids can't wear certain colors of clothes to school for fear of violence. Want unaffordable housing? Homes in every place in California worth living are massively over-inflated to the point that I believe a serious real estate crash is only a matter of time. And if you think having Helen Clark for PM is rough, try having a complete raving lunatic like G.W. Bush as President. Yes, NZ tax rates are high on the middle class; but they are no higher than what I pay in California. I find the complaints about the high cost of schooling in NZ ironic. Kids graduate $10,000 in debt and can pay back as a percentage of income? Here, anyone in the middle class can expect to spend $20-30,000 a year *US* and graduate $40,000 in debt or more. I have friends in the 50's who are still paying off college debt, even with *good* jobs and still can't afford to buy a house. And to the person who complained that NZ media concentrates on the mundane instead of world news, believe me, it will be a genuine relief from the "all war, all the time" that we get here, punctuated by occasional multi-fruited terrorism up-and-downgrades. Perhaps I'm a pie-in-the-sky Yank, but I can't *wait* to become a Kiwi. NZ to us looks a lot like the land of milk and honey.
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Business English Teacher, Milan, Italy After just over a year in Milan I am contemplating the return home. My job here pays well but I need to gain experience that is more closer related to my chosen field of HR. I was planning on gaining this before returning to NZ through a UK working holiday, but now that the scheme has been limited from 2 years to 1 year work allowance, I have decided that I will have better chances returning to London with some relevant experience under my belt. I am anxious about returning as although I'm postgrad qualified, I will probably have to start at the bottom due to my (lack of) relevant experience. It frustrates me that the OE experience is not well recognised by NZ employers. It is almost a pre-requisite for jobs in Europe. Also, it is true that New Zealand's salary to living cost ratio is seriously out of kilter when you compare it to European cities. That said, I am still planning on returning to New Zealand. I will not fly home however until I have confirmed employment - I think coming home jobless in the middle of the Italian summer is too sure a recipe for post-return depression.
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RAF Officer, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom I am planning to leave the RAF and return to NZ in two years time. Leaving the forces is difficult for most, but I'm going for the double-whammy of returning to NZ as well. I know it won't be easy and that I will often question whether I'm doing the right thing. But, if I don't try it, I shall never know if it was right, shall I? What have been your motivations/reasons for returning to New Zealand? Basically I want to return because it is my home and it is where most of my immediate family and friends are (having made a concerted effort over the years to keep in touch and visit them, each and every time I go back on holiday). Also, though I will have been away for over 15 years and I was born in the UK (to British parents), I grew up in NZ from the age of seven and that influence has been very strong. It formed my identity. I have to admit, though, that there have been times when I've felt very confused. In England I am English, but with a Kiwi accent; in NZ I'm a Kiwi with a British accent. My sister even once told me I sounded like one of the Spice Girls! Please God, no!!! And then there are the times when people gleefully ask who I'm gonna be cheering for when a rugby match looms: the Brits or the Kiwis? Well, in the end I always have to say "Both!" The team that plays the best is the one that deserves to win, but surely the one that loses, on the day, deserves some support and encouragement too?! What are the things that get you going and the things that get you down? Getting me going: Thinking of having that wonderful scenery and weather and food and wine on my doorstep once again! Getting me down: Thinking of how difficult it might be to find a decent job! Tho' I have to say that as long as I can afford to eat and switch on the lights, I don't really care what I end up doing, because I'll be home! Is the song of cicadas, squinting at the sheer blue sky and smell of
snapper on the barbie enough? No, it probably isn't enough, my friends and
family are very important too. But hell, I am sure looking forward to
those things too! Plus don't forget the sounds of the myhnas too…I
really miss them, for some reason. |
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Have you found your memories of paradise in the South Seas to be more myth
than magic? I'll let you know, but on the times that I have returned
(roughly every two years) I would say I have seen both good and bad things.
I try not to see everything through rose-coloured specs and I advise the
same approach to those who rave on about how they'd emigrate to NZ or Aus'
(or wherever, as long as it's not the UK) at the drop of a hat! While I love
NZ and it means a lot to me, it isn't 'paradise on earth' and wherever we
are on this planet most of us are faced with the same realities. We have to
have a place to live and a job, we still have to pay tax and sort out the
MOT and insurance for the car, the house will still need work doing on it
and we will still worry about our health and that of our loved ones. That's
life. Have you been welcomed back with open arms or have people struggled to understand where you're coming from? Once again, I'll let you know. But the times that I've been back I've been welcomed. Though I have to say that I've had to be the one to make the effort to contact them and go and visit, fitting in with their routine. The thing is that people lead busy lives and we can't expect that, just because we swan back into their lives, they'll drop everything for us. Yes, they'll be happy to see us but, as with all things, sooner or later the novelty is gonna wear off. As for people struggling to understand where I'm coming from, I've always found my friends to be very supportive. Mind you, I've always tried to remain modest and play-down my exploits a little (nobody likes having their nose rubbed in it, do they?). And I make a point of showing how much I'm interested in their lives and kids, and what they're achieving, because obviously that is what matters most to them. And, quite frankly, I am very interested anyway…because it is a different existence from mine, it fascinates me and I admire the fact that they are successful in their careers, and as parents and wives/husbands. Are you confident or anxious about finding work as interesting or challenging as you have had overseas? Well, I'm the sort of person that can find any new job challenging and/or interesting…at least until I've got it sussed…and then maybe my attention wanders. But then I've always been like that and it would be the same wherever I was in the world! For me it's not about the work, it's about the potential lifestyle. What are the sounds, sights, tastes and moments that move you? Far too many of them to list and I've already read many of the same sentiments, expressed very eloquently, on this site. All I will say, though, is that I'm very familiar with the "huge lump in the throat" feeling. At every commonplace sight, at every vista, at every takeoff and landing, at every hug hello and hug farewell…it hardly ever leaves me and, when I return to the UK, my heart is heavy with the knowledge of what I've left behind me…yet again!
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Film Editor/Storyteller, USA And so this particularly opinionated and vocal Kiwi has made dramatic changes to his life. Divorced, sold the house bought and Airstream trailer and have gone Searching for Zane Grey's America. I am shooting HD video and digital stills, posting to my new website blog, kiwicafe.com, I am out on the road, in the middle of Navajo/Hopi reservations, at present living my dream. Feel free to visit my web site which should be up in a day or two. At the end of this particular part of my journey I am relocating to New Zealand, I have shipped all my house and studio and will then start to re-learn the Kiwi experience I left 40 years ago. My life has been a great ride to date and I will continue at the searching for knowledge in the years to come. My dream is to create a bridge for young kiwis to learn from old kiwis. Anyone is welcome to join me, cheers, Richard. PS, keep up the excellent work.
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Manager, Foster Care Program, Brisbane,
Australia Hi, I have been living in Oz for about 18 years and am beginning to pine for home more and more. Circumstances (family, work etc) mean I can't just pick up and come home for good but that's my goal eventually. Websites like this one help me keep in touch with what's happening at home and keep those memories of our beautiful land and the kiwi pride and patriotic juices flowing!!
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Click here to have your say. Click here for previous responses: December 2003 - August 2005 (14
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