The New Zealand Edge : Hot - Coming Home: www.nzedge.com



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"Somewhere deep inside/some thing's got a hold on me ..."
Better Be Home Soon, Crowded House.

Returning to Aotearoa-New Zealand or considering ‘home’ from the off-island perspective invokes emotion. Some long-lasting, others short-lived. Some expected, some not. Hope, excitement, memory, anticipation, frustration, isolation, exaltation, anxiety.

See selected messages:

January 2004 - August 2005 (14 messages)
April 2003 - October 2003 (13 messages)
August 2002 - March 2003 (7 messages)
July 2002 - September 2002 (10 messages)
April 2002- June 2002 (22 messages)

Re-entry: Coming Home
is an NZEDGE online story-telling initiative. Talk to us. For those of you who are coming home, thinking about it, have dealt with it, or are in the global network reflecting on the place of departure, we want to hear your thoughts - so get busy like the piwakawaka.

>	What have been your motivations/reasons for returning to New Zealand?
>	What are the things that get you going and the things that get you down?
>	Is the song of cicadas, squinting at the sheer blue sky and smell of snapper on the barbie enough?
>	Have you found your memories of paradise in the South Seas to be more myth than magic?
>	Do the two degrees of separation help you out or cramp your style?
>	Have you been welcomed back with open arms or have people struggled to understand where you're coming from?
>	Are you confident or anxious about finding work as interesting or challenging as you have had overseas?
>	Do you have a student loan issue?
>	What are the sounds, sights, tastes and moments that move you?

	Whether you’re on the Earl's Court 2 year working visa, an editor who has lived in the States for 10 years, a banker in Hong Kong since 1984, post-grad in the Netherlands, a rugby player in Japan, teaching in Argentina, been in New York for 35 years, a parent raising kids in San Francisco or clearing land-mines for the UN in Bosnia, let's hear it! What is your best and worst moment, experience, or memory of coming home?
	Re-entry: dawn over Auckland, from NZ1
	We'd like to share (online or offline) your comments, stories and advice with others embarking on what we know can be a challenging journey. Responses will not be attributed to the authors when made available by NZEdge. However it would be helpful for others if you would sign off with your occupation, location and age. "I think NZEDGE could play a useful role in forming a discussion group to talk about the problems of negotiating re-entry to New Zealand life if one has been living elsewhere for a long time. I'd really love to have a list of readings that deal with different people's stories of how they have done it. I have invented a comic persona, Ricky Van Winkle, to deal with some of my own experiences in coming back after 37 years. A wave on the boardwalk at Paekakariki caught me by surprise and generated this. Dirty Tricks. Yesterday, as I walked the shore at Paekakariki Tangaroa stuck out his tongue and sloshed a bucketful all over me. "So you're coming back, eh, Ricky Van Winkle. Well how do you like your nice wet pants!" M. Kay Flavell, Berkeley, California. Brain Exchange Kiwi Diaspora We are a population of 5 million. 1 million of these people just happen to live overseas. There is Kiwi wealth, influence, innovation, ideas and goodwill swimming around the world and as a country we want it! Brain Exchange brings together the leading articles and studies on the global community of New Zealanders living offshore, their reasons for leaving, staying away, and returning and the importance of connecting with this talented pool of individuals. READ MORE... Better Be Home Soon Making the journey home can be a triumphant return for some bittersweet for others. JENNY CHAMBERLAIN talks to returning young New Zealanders about the ties that bind. Article appears with the permission of North & South, October 2005. READ MORE... New Zealand Now NZ NOW is a Department of Labour run site, aimed at bringing NZers back home by reconnecting them with information on what it's like to relocate, live, work and play in New Zealand now. READ MORE...

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