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January 2004 - August 2005 (14
messages)
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Training Company Director, Australia Wouldn't it be fantastic if all the talented kiwis all around the world came home! The nation would be unstoppable: innovative, creative, dynamic! Pragmatically, however, it is about perceptions, incentives, focus, needs, opportunities, encouragement. After 23 years away, I am thinking about the options and wondering how the many skills I have developed and which have served to advance other nations, can be put to good use at home. At the end of the day, bigger is not always better and besides, technology continues to minimise the tyranny of distance and isolation! Apart from all of these issues, we all get to the point where quality of life and environment start to subsume all other perceived needs! Technology Analyst, London, UK I have been away from NZ for various lengths of time having lived in Hong Kong, Sydney and now London (for the past four years). Everytime I return I experience a mix of emotions and responses from people, many of which have been echoed on these pages. It occurs to me that if
people are returning home and find it difficult to get jobs, find an outlet
for their frustrations, start new business etc, why not start a
network/community to help in repatriation? Such a network could act as an
'air-lock,' with people that have already returned helping others to adjust
back in, or tap into opportunities that befit their skills and experience.
The energy and passion that people have when they return home should be
nurtured, cultivated, and harnessed, not ignored and undervalued. |
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Property Managers, Whangamata, New Zealand, age: 48 & 49 After living in Hawaii for 10 years we returned to NZ beginning of September 2001. We returned for many reasons - ailing parents, better education, great place to raise children, wanted to get on with our lives and bring up NZ kids, not American kids. 9 months later and the children are happily settled into the school and community. It has not been as easy as we thought to get a job for Owen whose job for the past 10 years, managing a large private estate on Maui is not readily recognised or found here. Owen's age is against him and many jobs he goes for he does not reach the interview stage. I have found part time work fairly easily and am applying for teacher registration to do relief teaching. We are looking to do something for ourselves but as yet have found nothing which grabs us. With children 13, 10, 6 we are limited in what we want to do. Hawaii seems like a lifetime ago and it feels comfortable to be here in NZ but cold! We miss our friends and the life there but generally feel we made the right decision to return. Miss earning those US dollars though. We had hoped to get into something easily and quickly but with 3 children
want to be sure about the next venture. |
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Gym Owner and Business Developer, Buenos Aires, Argentina, age: 37 With 13 million people packed into an area smaller than greater Wellington, the nearest beach some 350km away, and not a single hill to climb Buenos Aires is poles apart from New Zealand. How could a Kiwi be happy living here? Somehow though its because of this distance and difference that my pride and love for New Zealand have become so much stronger, you have to miss it to really value it. Over here I'm proud of New Zealand everyday, from the Taxi driver who tells me that the "All Blacks are the best in the World" to my local fruit shop owner who calls me "Crazy" for living here instead of in "Paradise". Nearly everyday someone asks me where I come from, and what life is like in NZ. I proudly tell them of the beautiful outdoors, of lunch on the waterfront and going to the beach after work, about the cashless society, no corruption, police without guns, 5% unemployment, and social security for those in need. All this is 360 degrees from life in Buenos Aires. I have been here nearly 4 years and each year my daughter and I head home to NZ for our summer holiday. We are home for 3 or 4 weeks and it is a time of intense experience and feelings. We are outside as much as possible, we explore new places and fondly visit old favourites, we savour fish and chips, peanut slabs, and cool Kiwi cafes. We run down sand dunes, go body boarding, walk in the bush, fly on flying foxes, and share special moments with family and friends. I wonder whether we would enjoy these times as much and value New Zealand as much if we were living there, I wonder whether all that beauty and freedom would become just "normal". Over here people have so much less than we have in NZ, but they seem so much happier, with an uncertain future Argentines try to make the most of each day.
I know that sometime in the future I will return to New Zealand, for the
moment though I am content to look at Kapiti Island through the photo on my
wall. It's a perfect day, the water is a brilliant aquamarine blue and the
sky is clear. |
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Communications Manager, London, UK It's an exciting day for me. At lunchtime, provided my mountain of work has shrunk enough to see where the door is, I will bounce down to Trailfinders in the City of London and pay the deposit on my airfare home. The weather was bleak when I arrived in London mid-January last year, my first time away from EnZed (well, except for trips to Oz, but that doesn't REALLY count). It set the scene for my first year living on the Monopoly board - bleak. A good job, but no money left by the end of the month and a relationship that had gone to the dog's by the year's end. All that kept me going some days was my 100% NZ screensaver (the topic of much conversation in the office) and thoughts of my family back in Blenheim. There were days when I missed home and my family so much I had to fight back the tears. I didn't want to leave the cinema when I saw 'Lord of the Rings' (Thanks, Peter). I wanted to reach out and touch the screen. I wanted to dive into the river, or slide down the snow on the cut off bottom of a mussel float. Instead I reluctantly forced myself out into the bitter cold and wondered when I would get to see paradise again. Much of this year has been rebuilding. I refused to let London beat me and on November 11th I get my reward when I fly in over Auckland. I'll zip down to Blenheim, coming in over the Sounds I know and love so much, and feel the welcome warmth of my parents arms. I'll help my little sisters, Bonnie, Monique and Grace, celebrate their eighth birthday, and then I'll leave my home again and wing my way back to the city where I work and play. I'm not ready to move back home. As much as I pine for the sights and smells of the Marlborough vineyards, or the Auckland waterfront, or for some of Costa's souvlaki in Christchurch, there is too much I can do here that I can't do at home. There is still too much I can achieve here that EnZed, as precious as she is, can't provide for me. But I know that there will come a day when I will sit in my own back yard in the fierce heat of a South Pacific summer, take a slurp from my can of CD and say, "Damn it's good to be home." Reuben Aitchison |
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Operations Manager Advertising Company, Boston, MA, USA, I have been away from NZ for 10 years now. At first it was fun to come home and show off my knowledge, travel experiences and hard earned money. But then I realized people didn't enjoy hearing about all these things. They thought I was giving the impression that I was "too good for NZ". So far from the truth! I had grown as a person and was excited to share my stories and new found ambitions. But they didn't want to know. They seemed to resent my freedom and excitement about life and work (even though they'd all done OE's). Now when I go home I do not boast about everything I have and have accomplished. They don't need to know how far I have come in the States because they don't want to know and wouldn't understand. I love my life here and the opportunities I have been given but I learned the hard way not to talk about it. Because my husband (an American) and I have chosen to delay having children until he receives his MBA we are viewed as "odd" by people in NZ. We live in downtown Boston and only "rent" an apartment. This too is considered odd. It is quite frustrating to try and explain how this is actually normal in the States. I have given up and just murmur that yes, the children will be coming soon and that yes we are saving for a condo (since we do not want to live in a house - another odd thing!).
But I love going home. We go every two years and it is something I really look forward to. The wonderful weather (well except the rain in Auckland!) and the friendliness of everyone from the person in the diary to the customs officers always blows me away! But the comments about my "American" accent and my "American-ism" are always very frustrating. If only they knew that every single day in Boston I get asked where I am from! People here still find my NZ slang "cute" and consider me a NZ-er first and foremost. I guess I am kinda stuck in the middle but I now understand that and embrace both cultures freely. Having just read other people's opinions and stories I thought I should note that I will not be returning to NZ. As evidenced by others experiences on this site once you get over the "wow" of being back home the reality hits. It seems extremely difficult to get a job in NZ and the fact that no one seems to appreciate your OE experience would be quite frustrating. Housing prices are outrageous and the levels of violence are rising. My husband and I thought long and hard about this and came to the conclusion that there are more opportunities for us in the States. NZ will always be my home and I absolutely refuse to become an American citizen but the reality is that NZ is a small country and opportunities are limited. A wonderful "quality of life" does not pay the bills. This is a great site and I have enjoyed reading about other people's experiences. |
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Administration/Education, Wellington, NZ, age: 26 Have been back in NZ for 13 months now. Spent the first 11 months saving up to escape again. Got only so far and missed my partner too much. Who'd have known that coming back would be the right thing to do? After my 2 year OE, I knew I really was back when I walked through the cafeteria at Auckland airport. 7am and the pink lamingtons were already in the cabinet, the TV in the corner was showing the news with Peter Williams and a bunch of labourers were lounging on the plastic chairs at the formica table, in their flouro jackets. Oh, my word. And now? I love being back. I love that I have so many options: to travel, to work, to stay here forever. I love it that I do not have to fight for a visa to stay in this, my favourite city in the world. Sure, I loved London, Paris, Rome, Budapest, Istanbul, Syria, all the fabulous places I have been lucky enough to visit, but Wellington is my favourite place. My home. The fact that I grew up in a rural back water in Hawkes Bay is irrelevant. Wellington is mine, and I feel that no matter where I go, I will always return here. And as long as Starbucks does not completely take over from the
independent, funky cafes, I will be happy. |
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Part-time Lecturer, Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan, age: 36 We just signed on for another two years in Japan. We've been here a total of five and a half years now, with a three and a half year break in NZ in the middle. Japan is the other half of my cultural identity, even though I was born and raised in the sunny Hawkes Bay. For me, to come and live here has been insightful. For as long as I could remember I identified very strongly with my Japanese side in order to be different. I even gave up my NZ citizenship so that I wouldn't lose my Japanese one! But, since I have been here in Japan, I have not only had to battle with my non-acceptance as a Japanese, but I have also come to realise and deeply appreciate my Kiwi roots. Tell me, where else in the world would you find someone completely accepted as a member of that nationality, even if they spoke, dressed, and chose to live their lives a little differently from your own? You get that in NZ, despite what the media choose to say. No matter that I am a fully-registered, passport carrying, voting-able Japanese, who can speak, read and write the language, no other Japanese sees me that way. And they never-ever will. I think Kiwi's tend to beat themselves up too much and make a big deal about the little negative things, instead of enjoying and celebrating being clever, hardworking, egalitarian Kiwis. So why did we sign up for another two years? Well, after the first three years in Japan, we were keen to get home with our new daughter. We both found jobs quickly enough, but in order to meet our modest living costs, we both worked full-time. Our daughter ended up in full-time care. While the care was excellent, it was probably better for her to have us around a bit more. My job spun out of control and I had none of the support that I desperately needed. And my job started to make me ill. So, the decision to return to Japan wasn't hard, especially as we had spent three and a half years wondering if returning to NZ had been the right decision - we suffered badly from reverse culture shock. We sold up (admittedly a lot of our stuff is in storage in NZ), and returned to Japan. Since our return we have had our second child. This is something we did not consider doing while in NZ, as the loss of my salary would've been very hard on us. But the whole time here, we keep thinking of home and keep regularly updated on news via the internet. And we keep in touch with our families - our invisible threads. We seriously contemplated returning to NZ in April of next year (2003) but we've decided that in order to go back and do what we want to do, we need to have financial resources behind us first. Trying to go home to NZ to make money working for someone else - well, you just don't, do you? Maybe that's why so many returnees and imports start up their own businesses. Plus we are not sure if we want to re-enter a work environment full of negative, petty little middle managers who feel so insecure about their own abilities they show little respect for those people who offer innovation and a breath of fresh air. Perhaps, what needs to happen for NZ is to have the OE set as a compulsory subject. Then maybe the overseas experience will be embraced and not treated as one long holiday. Anyway, try as we have to replicate it, the backyard barbie, complete with freshly cut lawn (ah, that summer smell!) is not quite the same thing here. The price of lamb - not only is it Australian for goodness sakes, but it costs almost the same as in NZ...! And the only NZ wine I can find locally is that awful Azure Bay stuff --yuck! I have to resort to Australian wine to have something drinkable. I'm sure I will crack soon. I wonder when there will be a lot of us like-minded Kiwis back in NZ who will do something about changing the negative attitude climate into a real positive one. You can count on us to be regular visitors to NZEdge for the next two years at least. |
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Receptionist, Griffith, NSW, Australia I am a regular reader of the New Zealander and a regular viewer of Sky NZ News. I like to keep up with what is going on in NZ - sometimes feel like NZ has disappeared off the face of the earth!! Don't hear many good things about NZ over here in Oz so I was pleasantly surprised to hear of this site. I have a Tim Finn CD playing while looking at this site and I'm feeling slightly home sick!! I am returning to NZ for Xmas/New Year and can't wait after being away from home for nearly 10 years. NZ is where I was born and is something I'm extremely proud of - it brings out the best in me. |
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Would be secretary, Hamilton, NZ I returned in June from almost 9 years away and expected to find it very easy to find a top-paying job as a P.A. I'd had some very good jobs in London and felt they would stand me in good stead for getting a job back here. Wow, have I had the wind knocked out of my sails! From being very confident in my abilities, I am now feeling I'm just not good enough any more. Not a particularly nice feeling. I'm even considering waitressing at night to pay the bills. I am told that I should take my age (young 51) off my CV and dye my hair ('losing' those becoming sparkly white bits in the front which I like). Age was a plus rather than a minus in Britain as age meant responsible, reliable, conscientious, hard working etc. etc. It seems here back in Aotearoa it just means "too old - put her in the round file". Sad!! It feels so much worse because whilst travelling around the world I've always proudly told people I've met how 'forward thinking' New Zealand is, and without prejudice people are. Huh!! It's good to have a site where one can vent these feelings. Thank you NZEDGE.COM. |
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Click here to have your say,
and see below for
further responses:
December 2003 - August 2005 (14
messages) |
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Page Two of
Re-entry: Defences of the islands and advances for
staying global. Responses continue to probe through the undergrowth,
unearthing the awkward duality of finding yourself a kiwi with wings. To read the tales of
home and away (July - Septemeber 2002) click on the links
below. 
