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PageThree
of
Re-entry: comment, angst, expectation, and homesickness from abroad and
affirmation from those on-island reaping the Aotearoa soil on return. REAP
(Re-Entry Action Plan) is the NZEDGE kit-set in the making for the
returning. This forum is a first step in its formulation. To read the tales of
home and away (August 2002 - March 2003) click on the links
below.
To add to the mix send us your thoughts.
See below for further Re-entry/Coming home missives:
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)
- Promo Producer, London, UK
Why, as returning Kiwis, do we presume to possess
more skills and experience than our friends and colleagues who have
remained at home?
- Director, Canterbury, NZ, 50
Maybe you could perform a role for your present
company or business, through the advantage of our parallel universe, the
opposite 24 hours.
- Journalist, London, UK
I ran away from NZ 14 years ago to escape rugby,
sailing, small town attitudes and blind patriotism.
- Events Organiser, London, UK
I'm Homesick [...] Is New Zealand the amazing place
that I remember? Goddam hope so.
- Consultant, Chicago, USA
[T]he value placed on an hour of our time in NZ is
worth a fraction of what that some amount of effort is worth
overseas...
- Project Manager, Greytown, NZ
We CHOSE to come home. WHY! Sit and close your eye's,
smell, touch, taste, hear, now open your eyes and see! There's no place
like HOME!
- Tertiary Educator, Sydney, Australia
I would encourage ex-pat Kiwis to look beyond the
sentimental dream of NZ and consider Australia
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Promo Producer, London, UK, 33
Why, as returning Kiwis, do we presume to possess more skills and experience
than our friends and colleagues who have remained at home? Perhaps it's our
condescension that stops that phone from ringing...
While we complain about NZers' insular attitudes, should we not also examine
our own prejudices against those who choose not to travel? What's so wrong
with being happy with what you have, and where you are?
Promo What's so wrong
with being happy with what you have, and where you are?
Director, Canterbury, NZ, 50
I re, search for compatible
businesses, whatever. E-mail:
Director, Canterbury, NZ, 50
I returned a long time ago, but wanted to put a thought out for
consideration, or maybe even absorbtion. Perhaps some who are coming home
may consider whether your jobs are portable. Maybe you could perform a role
for your present company or business, through the advantage of our parallel
universe, the opposite 24 hours. Could you be of benefit to them, working
over their night period in completing work, contracts or perhaps quality
control, and delivering projects that have been done when you are fresh,
over the Web?
You may even continue being paid in Pounds, Dollars or Euros! What a great
boost for NZ, and huge benefit for the returning champion as well. Email me
if you think this may apply to you, and there is anything I can do to
facilitate it for you - office space, technology, search for compatible
businesses, whatever. E-mail: tim.deans@xtra.co.nz
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Journalist, London, UK, 46
I ran away from NZ 14 years ago to escape rugby, sailing, small town
attitudes and blind patriotism. In my first years off-island, I avoided
Kiwis as much as possible apart from one or two close friends, but it didn't
work. I am now a confirmed All Blacks fan, deeply worried about the Americas
Cup and know clearly that big city minds aren't more intelligent - they're
just small town minds making more noise. And there are worse thing than
small towns.
So it does indeed appear that you always take the weather with you even if
you don't want to. Blind patriotism I'll never be comfortable with but I do
now know that I am a New Zealander and will never take it for granted again.
Three times of intense NZ-related memory stand out from the many, many other
different experiences I have stored since leaving.
The first was watching the Jumbos's wheels leave the runway at Auckland
airport (and, as a Southlander, I have no love of Auckland). It was the
first step in a long journey back home but I didn't know it then. However, I
knew sharply and vaguely (if possible at the same time) that something
wasn't quite right.
The second was lying in the middle of an all- night firefight between Croat
and Bosnian militias. I decided I should have been a bank clerk in
Invercargill like my mother said and promised myself I would check the Sits
Vac in the Southland Times first thing in the morning - if I ever got there.
The paper isn't delivered to Travnik, central Bosnia so I never got to
fulfil that promise.
The third was my first trip back in five years and walking out onto the very
same Auckland runway. It was an unexpected sensory and memory overload of
staggering intensity. Like some of the other Re-entry entries have
commented, I never knew cow shit, estuary mud and Auckland in general could
smell, look and feel so sweet.
That heightened perception stayed with me for the four weeks as I journeyed
down to Fiordland where I worked for several years in the 70s and 80s.
I used to say frequently to English friends that NZ was OK but "you
can't eat scenery" (in many ways that is acknowledged by the comments
here about how hard it is to find work on returning). Now, I'm not so sure.
A healthy existence with an intelligent perspective on life requires regular
and easy access to a bit of sunset/ocean/mountain gazing. The things the
"cultured" big city anywhere does to human behaviour is not any
sort of standard to aspire to.
I recall the Air NZ guy who - again on that first visit back - spent at
least an hour sorting out the best and cheapest tickets for my itinerary
around the country. He sold me the third most expensive option. I kept
wondering, where was the catch? Why was he spending all this time on me? Did
he want a tip? Where was the rip-off?
Still, I'm constantly checking myself to stop seeing NZ through the
rose-tinted glasses of memory and childhood. It ain't like that anymore and
never will be. And that is the way it should be. I suspect that much of what
annoys, irritates and depresses NZedge correspondents, including myself,
about life off-shore exists back home too. Just in diluted doses. But Jeez,
I do miss that can-do, my glass is half-full attitude, a sea with a decent
wave and a mountain with a proper ridge.
The plan is to return in five year's time and it's not going to be easy.
E-mail: pauadog@hotmail.com
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Events Organiser, London, UK
I'm homesick. I'm homesick for the infallible attitude, atmosphere and
environment I used to take for granted. It is near impossible to describe...
it's that uniqueness that can primarily only be gauged once you've
experienced other, varying cultures and patriotism. I admit that I have had
to learn that New Zealand is my favourite place... I know others are yet to
discover the same and it's a shame most have to leave the country to do so.
It's taken me three years of living in the UK. I often, speak of home to my
foreign friends, which brings a smile to my face and a myriad of tales to
the fore. I think I'm going to head home next year. Maybe. Is New Zealand
the amazing place that I remember? Goddam hope so.
Consultant, Chicago, USA, 33
We are seriously considering returning to NZ in the near future as a natural
alternative life direction as you might develop when a current opportunity
shuts down and a natural selection of alternatives for consideration needs
to be developed.
Of interest is that the only reason that we can now consider a return to
NZ is that we have through our success in our careers been able to amas
sufficient wealth to be financially independent in NZ. This is important as
the value placed on an hour of our time in NZ is worth a fraction of what
that some amount of effort is worth overseas, essentially cancelling out the
possiblilty of returning to a job. As a result the only way that we can
consider returning to NZ is to develop our own businesses in NZ to ensure
that we are able to get returns based on our time and investment.
In evaluating our options a number of issues have sprung up. My question
is whether there a source of information that will assist us in determining
the pros and cons of returning to NZ.
Some example of questions are:
-Taxes on shipping in house hold effects
-Neglected student loan
-Repatriation of wealth generated overseas
-Issues we haven't considered
Any suggested information sources or forums?
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Project Manager to Artist/ Entrepreneur, Greytown, NZ, 34
My partner and I have just returned after living in Sydney for four
years and prior to that I spent a few years living and working around
Europe. We CHOSE to come home. WHY! Sit and close your eye's, smell, touch,
taste, hear, now open your eyes and see! There's no place like HOME!
We now live in Greytown where we have bought an old villa and converted it
into a Interactive Contemporary Art Gallery / Bookshop. Yep it's small, it
doesnt feel plastic and it's all ours. The local yokels are delightful. I
can smell cow shit from the middle of town. And guess what I am taking my
business Interactive Art Events and Personal Art Facilitation to the world
from little old Greytown. Thanks NZ for bringing us home! If you want to
talk e-mail me. trilogynz@yahoo.com
Tertiary Educator, Sydney, Australia, 39
Well, I hate to be a party-pooper for NZ Edge and New Zealand but I did not
bring my family (from Thailand) to NZ as originally planned up to 1998.
Instead in 1999 we settled in Sydney.
I believe that after years in New York or London or another place,
well-educated ex-pat Kiwis can no longer truly fit in (in NZ). And as some
people have commented, once your sojourn away has been a long time your
networks have ceased to be, family maybe dispersed and in my case parents
dead.
So we wanted to be near family and friends (in NZ) so Sydney it was after
an exploratory visit in 1998. My wife is Asian and could find her ethnic
suburbs (to shop in at least), she had relatives here and so did I. Although
I had never lived in Sydney before it was a familiar environment, not really
foreign at all.
On a flight to Bangkok in 1998 from Sydney we were thinking the same
thing independantly: next home Sydney. I am glad we came, we are thriving,
have made new friends and kept some old, we have had another baby!
Kiwis cannot make this move so easily now if they have a non-NZ or
Australian spouse like me because as of March 2001 we are no longer
automatic permanent residents on arrival. I could sponsor my wife easily for
permanent residency, now the NZ person would have to apply for PR themselves
first (even though Kiwis can work straightaway and do not need a work
permit). The process would take much longer but maybe would still be worth
it.
Nevertheless, I would encourage ex-pat Kiwis to look beyond the
sentimental dream of NZ and consider Australia (meaning really Sydney or
Melbourne - maybe Brisbane or Perth). It is a more realistic option than
Auckland, a "budget smaller Sydney" and no extensive suburban
train network; the rest of NZ's cities are too small and offer poor work
opportunities. For those with an Asian spouse, well I have no doubt WE are
in the right place!
So, sorry to be a party-pooper but for us, NZ was quickly eliminated for
a better "return home" option. The main problem moving to Sydney
is the housing cost, but that would be no problem for cashed-up ex-pats in
the USA or the UK (or Western Europe). So is New Zealand really the place
for you after a long time away? email: jprenouf@bigpond.com
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Click here to have your say.
See below for further Re-entry/Coming home missives:
December 2003 - 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)
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