"My name is Nicola and I am working as an anaesthetic technician in New Plymouth.
I arrived with my partner from the UK at the beginning of September 2015. However, I have lived in New Zealand before and was placed in a job through Accent Health Recruitment in 2008 where I worked in Whangarei until I returned to the UK in 2013.
This time the process took about eight months from contacting Accent again. We had to wait for my partner’s residency to come through, in which we applied through the partnership category and to sell our house in the UK.
I would say the easiest part was getting the job in the place where we wanted to be, this was lucky! The hardest part (which we always laugh about) was cancelling our phone bill in the UK! Some things that seem to be easy, weren't!
I had already lived in NZ, but was hard for us both to leave our families and knowing if you are making the right decision, but if you don't do it you won't know if you have made the right decision or not! It is certainly proving a challenge for my partner as he is in his late fifties and gave up a good job for the unknown.
We are surrounded here by tranquillity and stunning scenery, there is lots to do with pursuits being a lot more accessible. You also certainly notice the difference in the amount of people in the country, with nothing like the volume of traffic in the UK!
The only thing we miss is of course family. Skype is a good way of dealing with that day to day.
My advice - just be prepared as much as you can, don't expect it all to be rosy, as you will encounter some ups and down along the way. Give it time and don't give up, it will be well worth it, I'm sure!"
Current Time in Wellington, New Zealand
