April 5, 2025 • 35 mins
"Welcome to this podcast, designed for anyone thinking about, preparing for, or who has just immigrated to New Zealand. Subscribe now so you never miss an episode. Drawing from personal experience, this series will guide you through the process of preparing for your move, helping you navigate the challenges of immigration, and settle into your new home with ease." This is the Pilot Episode and the purpose of this episode is to give a bit of background information on who I am, why I have started this podcast and why we ended up in New Zealand.
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(00:00):
} { There are over 100,000 people who immigrate to New Zealand every year with the intention to make New Zealand their home, leaving behind everything they know as normal day-to-day life and having to learn new ways of doing things, new norms, new cultures, and different values. There are many people who struggle with this transition and find it challenging to adjust and settle so they can call and make New Zealand their home.} {\pard \line \par} {The purpose of this podcastis for me to share my journey and our challenges with the hope that you can learn from me and my family and have a softer landing. There will be good days and bad days, but with time, more good days. I believe we have made the right choice for our family. I want to try and help you do the same.} {\pard \line \par} {But hopefully with a softer landing. This is soft landing, and I am your host, Brett Collette. Welcome to this podcast, designed for anyone thinking } {\cf2
(01:00):
} { about preparing for, or who has just immigrated to New Zealand. Subscribe now so you never miss an episode drawing from his personal experience. This series will guide you through the process of preparing for your move and helping you navigate the challenges of immigration.} {\pard \line \par} {Hey world, welcome to my podcast. Geez, I can't believe I'm actually launching a podcast, the first ever podcast I've ever made, and first podcast for Soft Landing. I'm, I must tell you, I'm a little bit nervous,even although I'm sitting here in a room all by myself on the other end of the world in New Zealand.} {\pard \line \par} {Just the, daunting thought that so many people are potentially gonna be able to listen to this. It's a it's a tough one. It's not an easy one for me to do, but, it's something that I feel I, I needed to do. I needed to try and put this together because, that's what I actually wanna explain.} {\pard \line \par} {Maybe I can kick off why I'm doing this is, my, my family and I, we moved here to } {\cf2
(02:00):
} { New Zealand just over two years ago now, and. Immigration is definitely not an easy thing to do. It's, it's one of the most difficult things I've had to do in my life. And you get to talk to a lot of other immigrants.} {\pard \line \par} {When you hear other people that have arrived, you made some friends. Generally it's just with the immigrants that, that have moved across and you listen to their stories and everybody has their story and it's hard and you listen to the hardships everybody's had to go through. It's, this is not an easy thing if you think moving to another country is gonna be simple and easyand it's just.} {\pard \line \par} {There's gonna be challenges. You're gonna have to show a lot of grit to make this work. But the point I'm trying to make is I heard a lot of people's stories and I, hear how they struggle and you, even reason read on Facebook groups and everything, and there's a lot of people that are struggling.} {\pard \line \par} {They, almost at the end where they just wanna give up and they just wanna go back. And it just made me think, no, I can't believe you'd go through so much to pack up your whole family. To start all over again in another country, get here, and then just, it got too much. } {\cf2
(03:00):
} { It's so sad.} {\pard \line \par} {It's heartbreaking to see people going through, which is literally suffering and giving up and going back and having to start again in the country that came from, I was like, no, I've gotta be able to share my journey with people and show them you can make this work. Doesn't mean I'm an expert, I promise you.} {\pard \line \par} {there's times that I also have real bad days where you just think, what have I done? Why are we here? But I promise you. It can work. We are only two years in, but we're making it work. And there's a lot of lessons that we've learned. There's things that we've learned that work well that I wanna share so people can learn from me.} {\pard \line \par} {There's things that we've made mistakes, so I wanna share those two. So hopefully you don't make the same mistakes as me. And also maybe just so that you can listen to somebody else and understand that this can be done. You can do this. So if you're at the part of your journey where you're thinking about immigrating to New Zealand or.} {\pard \line \par} {You're about to move because you've got your visas and everything ready and you're about to come across, or you've just landed here recently or been here for a while and just struggling with things. It's just } {\cf2
(04:00):
} { a space for me to share my experiences in the hope that I can help somebody else, learn something from me, from my mistakes and just not make the same mistake.} {\pard \line \par} {So that's really why I wanted to create this, podcast and kick it off. I think maybe. Before I get into a little bit more about the podcast, maybe I gotta share who am I? Why? Listen to me. who am I? my, as I said in the beginning, my name is Brett Collette,but just to get you to know me a little bit better, maybe I wanna start off by sharing a little bit about who I am, where I come from.} {\pard \line \par} {So that you can get to understand that I'm no expert on, on immigration or anything like that. I'm just a, normal middle class family man that made the decision to move from my original country. If you haven't heard already, it was South Africa to New Zealand and why we did } {\cf2
(05:00):
} { it. so let me maybe start there.} {\pard \line \par} {So I was born in South Africa. I was born in Johannesburg. I lived in Johannesburg my whole life. I've never moved around to any other parts of South Africa. Went to the same primary school, same high school. Moved out of once I finished up with high school, bought a home with my family in the same area I grew up in.} {\pard \line \par} {Started a family in the same area, so I've never known anything different. So to move toanother part of the world, let alone another part of the country. You're born in. It's huge and daunting. So this is, so this one was not an easy thing to do. But I think it just shows you that if I can do this, other people can definitely do it.} {\pard \line \par} {So let me get, not dwell and get off track. So yeah, born in Johannesburg. I went to the same school, in Johannesburg, same high school. at high school. I actually met my wife, we got married in } {\cf2
(06:00):
} { 2006, so we've been married. Oh geez. She'll kill me if she listens to the podcast and get it wrong. I think it's almost 18 years now if I do the maths We have two beautiful children. I have a son and a daughter, a 13-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter that have, moved across with us obviously. And yeah, we're a normal family where we, after we were married, we had our first kid, which was my son, in 2012. andthen my daughter in 2020 just before COVID, and I'll get into that later.} {\pard \line \par} {But normal family, normal home. We were happy in South Africa, had a, we, we were very blessed in South Africa, but I think what led us to. Eventually decide to move was my wife and I started sitting down and just where South Africa is at the moment and politically and where it's going. everybody will give you a different reason for } {\cf2
(07:00):
} { why they immigrated.} {\pard \line \par} {I could give you a long list about South Africa and say, oh, there was crime. And the electricity doesn't, they've got something called load chain where they turn off the electricity every other day for X amount of hours. And so many things, a long list of what. Why and what's gone wrong in South Africa, and this is not a podcast about slating South Africa or anything like that, but it's more, just to give you insight, why we decided to leave is my wifeand I decided and sat down and said the way it's going, I didn't see it improving anytime soon.} {\pard \line \par} {I saw it getting worse year on year, and even if things started to change, let's say it started today and started improving over the last 20 odd years, things have. Steadily gone down in South Africa to the point where if a tattoo start improving from today, it wouldn't resolve overnight. It would take at least 10, 20 years to get back to a point where everything that's gone } {\cf2
(08:00):
} { wrong is reversed and it's better.} {\pard \line \par} {So that wouldn't be in my lifetime or would be towards the end of my lifetime. And that's in the hope that would actually change. So that's the first thing that really started making us think oh geez, we could stick it out in South Africa, but do we really think it's gonna get better? And even if it did, how long is it gonna take?} {\pard \line \par} {And would we be able to experience that or would be towards the end of our, so it just didn't make sense for us to stay for that one reason. Another reason was thatmeant that I didn't see a future for my children. I didn't see good opportunities for them. And my wife and I sat down and we thought, no our kids will probably end up, they'll probably end up maybe finishing school in South Africa if we had to stay.} {\pard \line \par} {We were blessed and lucky they could go to private schooling, so they'd probably get a good education, but then they'd probably leave after school and go for tertiary education overseas. They'd probably find some first world country, be it somewhere in Europe, or be it Australia or } {\cf2
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} { America, New Zealand, wherever.} {\pard \line \par} {They would probably move there and study. And then after they had studied there, they more than likely probably find a job there. And if they found a job there, they'd probably settle there and they would start a family there, which would mean that my wife and I are stuck in South Africa with our kids out in the world in a different country, starting their families there.} {\pard \line \par} {And we would miss our grandkids and everything. Yeah, you could say, okay, we could pack up and we could retire wherever our kidsended up. But then you've gotta start thinking about. Look at the currency, which is the Rand in South Africa. It's for most first world countries, it's way weaker. if you just compare it to New Zealand, the South African Rand is 10 times weaker.} {\pard \line \par} {So our pensions and our savings and everything like that would be worth 10 times less. So if we had to move to whichever first world country. Our pensions and savings wouldn't be worth nearly as much as it should be. So we wouldn't have enough to live on. And then it would become a burden } {\cf2
(10:00):
} { to our children if we had to move, even if we had the option to move and live with them in whatever country.} {\pard \line \par} {So I think that was the biggest push for me, trying to decide, no. Okay. I don't want to not be around my family, my grandkids, whatever else. So if we're gonna do this, we need to do it now. My wife and I at that stage were just, before I close to, I think we were, what, 39 or something like that? So we're coming close to 40.} {\pard \line \par} {So we said, if we're gonna do it, now's the time to doit. We have to do it by the time we're 40. so that's what led us to start thinking about immigration. That was probably back in 2018 is when we started thinking about it. So then we had to work out, okay, so now we know that we do want to immigrate and we do want to leave South Africa.} {\pard \line \par} {And we knew why, but we had to try to figure out, where do you go? and how do you choose? So what we, started off with is, I was lucky. I didn't only have my South African citizenship, I also have my, my, } {\cf2
(11:00):
} { my British citizenship. So naturally we thought, the best. Easiest option is probably to go to the uk probably go to England.} {\pard \line \par} {that's where you probably need to go. Big thing was, although I had the dual citizenship, we hadn't been to England before, so that's when we decided, okay, we need to book a, a trip. We need to go see what England is like. and we need to. Explore and see if we could make it home. So we started planning to,to have a, three week break or holiday, but it was a exploratory holiday in the UK and England which we went on in 2019, in April, 2019.} {\pard \line \par} {we went up to England for, three weeks. at that stage I only had my son, my daughter hadn't been born yet. I think my son was around about eight, seven or eight years old. And yes, it was an exciting experience to, to be going overseas with the family and my son's first overseas trip. So we were } {\cf2
(12:00):
} { very excited to go.} {\pard \line \par} {We started off, just. Outside of London. in England, we went to I think it was Epson, is where we booked a, Airbnb to stay for the first few weeks. And we even had Easter over there so that the Easter bunny arrived in England. I still had to go to, one of the, local shops there and were doing checkouts, self checkouts and everything.} {\pard \line \par} {For the first time for South Africans we didn't, there was no such thing as self-checkout, so this was a whole new experience. We've got photos and everything on me doingself-checkout anyway. the point is we. We went to England. we started off in Epson, even had the Easter bunny visits. I had to make sure we got all our Easter eggs and everything like that.} {\pard \line \par} {Bought cost a fortune because again, the, Rand is very weak and actually to the British pound, it's even weaker. I was saying 10 times weaker. the British pound, it was more, more even close to 20 times weaker. So it was a very expensive holiday for us and a very expensive Easter considering chopped up was costing us so much to buy.} {\pard \line \par} {But } {\cf2
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} { anyway, we had to make sure that Easter Bunny had visited even beard in England. So we did that. We also, at the same time then started. Just trying to meet up with, some friends that we knew had immigrated to the uk, asking them questions, seeing where they, stayed, got to have a look at their homes, what they were like.} {\pard \line \par} {And that was down in the south, near London. So we, started off there and at the same time, yeah, we did a whole lot of touristy things, going to museums and everything, which was nice. We made a nice holiday of it. we booked a car, we traveled all the way up to theMidlands where we saw some other friends.} {\pard \line \par} {Got to see what the countryside was like. what the homes were like there. so really trying to do our homework and see if this is somewhere where we could live. And after the holiday, we got back to South Africa. My wife and I said, yeah, we could make it work. We could make England work. What was it?} {\pard \line \par} {A hundred percent ideal? No, not really, but, and there were things that we didn't like about it potentially, but it was easy. It's, we didn't have to worry about, oh, would we be able to get accepted, get visas, all the rest of it, because I was a } {\cf2
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} { citizen. We were guaranteed we could move across, I could start working straight away at the same time.} {\pard \line \par} {The company I was working for at the time, they were a global company and they had branches in England. and I knew people in England, that's who I also met up with, and they, were pretty sure I'd be able to get a job there. So it really was gonna be a lot easier path. So we thought to move to England.} {\pard \line \par} {So that's how we came to the call that, yeah, we are gonna immigrate to England.So we got back to South Africa. I let the rest of our family know my mom and my sister and everything. Okay. we've been, and we've decided we are gonna make this happen. We're gonna move to England. What stopped us straight away was what, while we were on that trip in England, what had happened in 2019, in January.} {\pard \line \par} {So if I go a few months back is I noticed I wasn't not feeling well, but, this is now really getting personal. But I, I actually got diagnosed with testicular cancer in } {\cf2
(15:00):
} { 2019, but, in the beginning of the year, we didn't know it was that. I just noticed that my, my, my one one testicle was not great.} {\pard \line \par} {So we went to a gp. a normal doctor and the doctor turned around and said to me, ah, it's probably an infection. And he just gave me antibiotics. I finished that course of antibiotics and nothing really changed. But you just soldiered on 'cause it wasn't like that painful or anything like that. So you were carrying on.} {\pard \line \par} {And also there was a lot going on in life. IE we were busy looking into potentially immigrating to England and planning a holiday to go toEngland. Come April, we were just really focusing on the holiday and going overseas and seeing what it was like. Although I did tell my wife that, look, I don't think the antibiotics has worked and whatever else.} {\pard \line \par} {And even when we were in England, I told her it's still not great. So probably when we get back to South Africa, I'll book another doctor's appointment, but this time try go to a specialist, go to urologist. and, just get a second opinion and see what's going on. But anyway, that aside, we went to England, had a holiday made the decision we want to immigrate, got back to South } {\cf2
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} { Africa, started telling the family this is what we're doing.} {\pard \line \par} {Got an estate agent, put the house on the market, started really working towards, okay, we, we are going to England at the same time. Sorry guys. So this recording is going to be very much just relaxed. Okay. I'm not a professional or whatever else. I'm just taking a sip of coffee quickly so I can carry on talking.} {\pard \line \par} {So we got back to, South Africa put the house on the market, but now as I said, I was a little worried about my health. So that's when we were going to book thedoctor's appointment with a specialist. Got it. A specialist appointment, but with a specialist. Unfortunately, I couldn't. Get a quick appointment.} {\pard \line \par} {It was a, it was gonna take a couple of weeks to get to see him. So it was only in around about May sometime that I actually got the appointment. But we had already kicked off starting to explore moving to the uk. So when I finally got to see the urologist in, May the specialist, I remember going through that appointment and yeah, he's having a, good look and a feel and whatever, and then } {\cf2
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} { he sending you for scans and all the rest of it all at the same clinic.} {\pard \line \par} {I can tell you that, I could tell you vividly, step by step, everything that that how that day went through slow motion. Because it probably took, oh, I don't know, he was looking, then he sends you down for a scan and then another person's looking whatever, and an hour later, no one's really telling me what's going on.} {\pard \line \par} {But, it can't be good if the specialist is calling somebody else for a second opinion and they're busy looking at more stuff. Anyway,long story short, he eventually told me that no, he's seen a mass and, That I've more than likely got cancer. So that was a bit of a shocker, and that wasn't something we had planned, definitely not part of my plan.} {\pard \line \par} {So I had to go back home and explain to my wife, that, look, this is what's happening. They've told me that I've, more than likely got cancer. So let's fast forward it a little. it turns out it was cancer. Within five days of being told the news, I went through the surgery, got the, cancer removed.} {\pard \line \par} {went through } {\cf2
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} { radiation, whatever. So I am five, just over five years later and I am cancer free, so I've kicked cancer's butt. So I can tell you that's another thing you can definitely beat in life, but that's a story for a, maybe another podcast one day, but I. What it did do back then in 2019 once I got diagnosed, is my wife and I had to sit down and say, Hey, all this planning that we're trying to do for immigrating to England, geez, are we gonna do this also trying to beat cancer.} {\pard \line \par} {That's, that's a big one. Do we, move to England andreally te test out the NHS medical system in England and see that this is actually gonna help me, and work for me so that I can actually beat this disease. Or do we put the brakes on and say, Hey, we stay in South Africa. we've, we are lucky here.} {\pard \line \par} {We've got, private medical. So we were in a good situation. We covered for all the medical care that we need. And yeah, I guess it was a no brainer. We decided, hey, we'll have to put the brakes on, had to take the house off the market. I explained to the state agent what was going } {\cf2
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} { on. Tell the rest of the family that, Hey, we're putting the brakes on.} {\pard \line \par} {This is what, the focus is gonna be is let's get over cancer first. That put the brakes on. That was the first thing stopping us from going to England. So 2019, the rest of it was pretty much spent just, beating cancer and getting rid of that. So tick got that done. So towards the end of, 2019, after the, radiation had been done and been told by my oncologist that, yep, there's notrace.} {\pard \line \par} {so now it's just going into surveillance for a good few years with a whole lot of checks and everything. but. You should be good. and he's a hundred percent I am good five years later, but then it's posed the question to my wife and I towards the end of 2019. Okay. What about this immigration thing?} {\pard \line \par} {Now we are in remission. we are good. We don't have cancer anymore. Do we wanna kick off trying to go to England again? what do we wanna do? so } {\cf2
(20:00):
} { at that point, towards the end of the year in 2019. I don't know. It was a lot to, to work through cancer and it's not just tough on you as the person that has it.} {\pard \line \par} {It's, it was tough on my wife too. I think even maybe harder on the people, your family that, that are around you that have to go through seeing you going through radiation and whatever else, and how, I think it's a real check in life that, wow, life can really be short. it was a possibility I wouldn't even make my 40th birthday.} {\pard \line \par} {It was like.Ugh, it blows your mind. It's like unbelievable. And a person that was trying to live healthy and every, anyway, I squirrel. And digress. Let me get back on track. So anyway, it made my wife and I think, no, okay, we definitely gotta do this immigration thing. We had the right reasoning, we believe, for our family and everything, so we do need to kick it off again.} {\pard \line \par} {But what I was noticing, my wife was still, she was struggling and getting very emotional and whatever. And granted, it'd been a tough } {\cf2
(21:00):
} { year, but. If anybody knew my wife she's a tough cookie. Eh? She's not one of those women that is emotional and cries and that's just not her. That's not who she is.} {\pard \line \par} {And I remember being in the kitchen at home in South Africa and we were just talking about this and she started crying and breaking down and being very emotional. I remember, geez, and people will probably think of me, Jesus guy's, so hot ass. But I remember holding her and saying, love, you need to pull your shit towards yourself.} {\pard \line \par} {Okay? because. There's a lot that I've been havingto try get over. I can't handle you breaking down as well. So you, really got to put yourself towards yourself type thing. And, We can laugh about it now. We knew it wasn't normal for my wife to be so emotional. Why am I saying all this? 'cause what she has started doing is she started thinking, why is she getting like this?} {\pard \line \par} {Why is she so emotional? Maybe we, maybe she's actually depressed. Maybe she needs to go see a doctor and say, Hey, this is everything that's going on in my life and maybe I'm actually getting, I'm suffering with a bit of } {\cf2
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} { depression. And it would probably be valid. considering everything that we were trying to tackle and go through, I wouldn't be surprised.} {\pard \line \par} {So she did go see a gp and the GP even prescribed some medication to try and help her, her cope. But when she started taking it, she was lying in bed and she could feel like she, she kept explaining, it was like a heartbeat in her ears. It was like she could hear her blood pumping and she just really wasn't feeling great after taking the medication.} {\pard \line \par} {She decided, no, There's somethingnot right here. So she, my wife, if there's anything you know about her she'll, if she doesn't know something, she will figure it out and research. So Google's your friend, she started Googling and checking on symptoms and why, would she feeling this?} {\pard \line \par} {And one of the symptoms that kept coming up was, you could be pregnant. And she's nah, I can't be that, and then you can't be pregnant, So she started getting some, pregnancy tests, and she started peeing on a stick and checking, are we pregnant? And, the stick came back } {\cf2
(23:00):
} { positive that we are.} {\pard \line \par} {Or, pregnant. So there's a bit of a funny story to that. So you go now, go back a few years and you think about, I said, I've got my son At that stage, he was only like eight years old or whatever. We had some complications and issues trying to fall pregnant the first time around, and we needed a bit of help to fall pregnant.} {\pard \line \par} {So it wasn't so easy for us, but we were blessed and we got blessed with my son. And, when he was around about two, we did wanna try again for a second. And we did try. And even with help, it didn't happen. Sowe had already resided to the fact that hey, it's not meant to be, we are only meant to have one kid.} {\pard \line \par} {so we were okay with that. So it wasn't easy for us to have kids, so to be pregnant without us even trying without help, it'd be a big question mark for us going, geez, is really possible. Also, you've gotta remember, besides the issues that we had back when we were trying to fall pregnant the first time around, now, I'd also had cancer and it was testicular cancer.} {\pard \line \par} {So when I got diagnosed with my cancer, the oncologist and everything said, Hey, before } {\cf2
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} { you go for radiation, if you guys want to have a second kid, you bear consider doing sperm banking or whatever if you wanna have a second kid. And I even said, no, man, we've realized we, we can't, we're not gonna have a second kid.} {\pard \line \par} {One is it's, that's. That's our family unit. That's the way it'll be. So we didn't even do that. So we didn't expect it. It's just not part of our plan at all. So when my wife had these pregnancy tests that had come back positive, I remember her telling me in the kitchen, she said, wow, I've got some news to tell you.} {\pard \line \par} {Geez, we did a lot oftalking in the kitchen, huh. But anyway she told me in the kitchen look lav, I'm pregnant. And I remember even trying to joke with her, I said. No, you can't be pregnant because, you know what's happened with me and I'm broken and you're broken. There's just no way as this could be.} {\pard \line \par} {It just can't. So even joking and said, who's the father then? 'cause it caught me. I promise you, it's definitely my kid. definitely, wasn't a question in my mind. It was just a joke, but I couldn't believe this. So next step was to go to actual gynecologists and start checking things.} {\pard \line \par} {So let } {\cf2
(25:00):
} { me fast forward a little bit more. Is we went to all the relevant doctors now and they confirmed with blood tests and everything that Yes. my, my wife was pregnant. I do remember though when we went to the gynecologist in the beginning, my wife and I were sitting there before he did the blood test.} {\pard \line \par} {He said, it could be one of two things. He said that, you could either be pregnant. So my wife could be pregnant, or it could also be cancer because, cancer being a tumor, it's a growth. It would also show up on the pregnancy test is positivethat you, it could be a, false positive where you actually got cancer.} {\pard \line \par} {So I remember getting that news from the oncologist and, the gynecologist and just thinking, oh my goodness. I even joked with my wife and said, oh, we do everything together so we may as well fight cancer together. I think it was a bit, soon for that joke. Little bit daunting. A little bit too much.} {\pard \line \par} {Anyway, he said, we can do scans and check if it's, a baby and it's pregnant, but the, scans, if it is a baby, would be a risk to the, fetus, and to the baby. } {\cf2
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} { So best thing to do is probably wait the two weeks, do the blood tests, and wait. So I can tell you it was the longest way to get to eventual confirmation that it wasn't cancer, thank the heavens, and was actually, and my wife was pregnant.} {\pard \line \par} {But now that led us back to what this whole podcast is all about is immigration. So now my wife and I had to sit down and, chat again and say, okay, love. we wanna go to England. We know we want to immigrate. We first had to kick cancer on myend, which we've done, but now love, you've fallen pregnant and you're gonna have a baby.} {\pard \line \par} {Do we wanna move to England and have a baby in England or do we wanna first have baby here and then go to England? So again, we get into the same thought and thought, no, let's delay again. Let's rather wait until baby's born. we know the medical system's here. We got the right medical cover.} {\pard \line \par} {We don't wanna start a new country testing out NHS and whatever else, and how having a baby } {\cf2
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} { would work in a different country. So we thought, no, put the brakes on not going to England. We are going to have baby here in South Africa. Fast forward a little bit longer, my baby girl. Perfect little baby girl.} {\pard \line \par} {Absolute miracle considering everything we've been through was born on the 20th of March in 2020, but if anybody knows 2020, that was five days before COVID lockdown. So I can tell you it was very interesting having a, baby and a child throughout COVID, especiallyright at the beginning of COVID and lockdown and all the rest.} {\pard \line \par} {But again, that's another story for another podcast. But what it did do is make my wife and I reassess again with our immigration, saying, okay, now we've got a beautiful baby girl and obviously we still wanna go to England, but now we've got something called COVID and restrictions. So what the whole world went through was we couldn't travel to England.} {\pard \line \par} {So whether we wanted to or not, we had no choice but to sit } {\cf2
(28:00):
} { tight and see COVID through South Africa. We sat tight throughout COVID throughout 2020 and most of 2021. and towards the end of 2021, beginning of 2022, when we'd all been through COVID and things were starting to sort themselves out in the world and everything was starting to open up and everything again.} {\pard \line \par} {We sat down again and my wife and I said, okay, we've now kicked cancer's butt. We've had a new baby, we've grown the family, we'vebeen through COVID. Do we still wanna immigrate? And we said yes. So we still wanna immigrate, we still want to move and, start over for all the reasons I gave you. So I said, cool.} {\pard \line \par} {So we're gonna put the house in the market. We are gonna go to England. That's when my wife turned around and said not England. She's changed her mind. She actually thinks it'd be better for us to go to New Zealand. So I laughed. I said, okay, I'm good with } {\cf2
(29:00):
} { that. We can go to New Zealand. But big thing was, I'm not a citizen in, in New Zealand, it's gonna be a little bit more difficult to get into New Zealand, and that means point systems and visas and all kinds of other stuff and jobs and whatever else. I said, if you can find me a job and we can get the points and everything like that, and you get, get it, that we can get work and move across and get the visas.} {\pard \line \par} {I'm on board, so my wife, knowing who she is, if, shewants something, she'll make it happen. She, started looking on LinkedIn, started looking at jobs, whatever else. Maybe, what am I supposed to explain is we both are in it. We were in it profession at that stage in South Africa. We were both working for a.} {\pard \line \par} {A company that was a global IT company, but it was the same company. Different divisions, but same company. So what she could start doing is she could start looking on the company directory, who are the people } {\cf2
(30:00):
} { in the different divisions down in New Zealand trying to touch base with them. Anyway, long story short, by her doing all the research and stuff like that and reaching out to all the relevant people.} {\pard \line \par} {She actually got some guys in our current company in New Zealand reach out to her and wanted to hire her, and move get her hired for a position here in New Zealand. She turned around to them and said, I'll tell you what, if you give my husband a job, then I may consider the job. And, that's how they reachedout to me.} {\pard \line \par} {And within the same company, any, I was able to move. And that's how we actually eventually got to a point of getting a job offer. and, considering New Zealand as our new home and why we wanted to move now, look, I'm not doing a podcast to do any information on actual visas and how you go through the visa process and everything like that.} {\pard \line \par} {I'm not an immigration broker. I'm not getting into all of that. That's not what this podcast is gonna be about. What this podcast is gonna be about is } {\cf2
(31:00):
} { more sharing. Once you've already chosen New Zealand as your home and you've already gone through whatever you have to get the relevant visas and get, here, it's more a canal.} {\pard \line \par} {What, how do you plan, how do you, once I've got that job offer, it's shit got real. It's oh geez, okay, now we're going. Now it's all the challenges of. Packing up back home, putting the house on the market, trying to sell your cars, your stuff, get the kids out of school, but timing it all.} {\pard \line \par} {It's like a project plan of note, trying to time it all that you've actually sold your houseat the right time, that you can get on a plane and go. Or if you sell your house and you have to move out sooner, where do you stay as an interim between that and when do you sell your car? Because you still need to drive the kids to school and all these practical things.} {\pard \line \par} {And that's just on the. The side of home that's not even on the news side. Because in parallel to that, you're also trying to plan, okay, we're gonna get on this plane fight, we're gonna like land in Auckland, and then who picks you up and where do you go? And depending on the time of } {\cf2
(32:00):
} { night and which hotel and how long do you stay there and do you get an Airbnb or do you stay with someone else?} {\pard \line \par} {And how do you get a rental? And there were so many things to get your mind around and do the planning and. I promise you, and that'll be the next episode that I really kick off starting to talk about our journey from, okay, we've got the job of opera, how we started packing up back in South Africa, how we landed in Auckland and New Zealand, and all the challenges we had.} {\pard \line \par} {From the perfect, what I thoughtwas the perfect plan. we did the impossible with according to some people is. While we were still in South Africa, we secured a rental here in New Zealand. So we'd already had a home ready for us. This side, we had a car bought and it was gonna get delivered to the hotel that we're staying in for the night.} {\pard \line \par} {We, we thought we had the perfect plan, and what I wanna start doing is sharing in my first. Episode is my journey of from when I got that job offer to when we landed here, and obviously to where we are } {\cf2
(33:00):
} { today, but talking about some of the challenges, how things didn't go according to plan, how we overcame those, what I would've done differently so that you can try and learn from us, you know what, we've experienced did work and didn't work.} {\pard \line \par} {So that's the whole point of this podcast to try and. Help others that are gonna go through or are currently going through what we are, but we are just a little bit ahead. But then continue this because every day while we are here we are still encountering challenges and there's things that we have to get over.} {\pard \line \par} {And it's justto try and share this with everybody, with you guys out there so you can, don't give up, you can make this work. New Zealand is a beautiful country. It's amazing, and I'm still so grateful that we have the opportunity to, start over here and for the opportunities we have for our kids.} {\pard \line \par} {But it's not easy and there's a lot of things that are gonna be hard for us that we have to get through. And it'll be the same for you guys, but it's to just talk through and share so you can hopefully learn from us and don't give up and push on through. So that's really what's. } {\cf2
} { There are over 100,000 people who immigrate to New Zealand every year with the intention to make New Zealand their home, leaving behind everything they know as normal day-to-day life and having to learn new ways of doing things, new norms, new cultures, and different values. There are many people who struggle with this transition and find it challenging to adjust and settle so they can call and make New Zealand their home.} {\pard \line \par} {The purpose of this podcastis for me to share my journey and our challenges with the hope that you can learn from me and my family and have a softer landing. There will be good days and bad days, but with time, more good days. I believe we have made the right choice for our family. I want to try and help you do the same.} {\pard \line \par} {But hopefully with a softer landing. This is soft landing, and I am your host, Brett Collette. Welcome to this podcast, designed for anyone thinking } {\cf2
(01:00):
} { about preparing for, or who has just immigrated to New Zealand. Subscribe now so you never miss an episode drawing from his personal experience. This series will guide you through the process of preparing for your move and helping you navigate the challenges of immigration.} {\pard \line \par} {Hey world, welcome to my podcast. Geez, I can't believe I'm actually launching a podcast, the first ever podcast I've ever made, and first podcast for Soft Landing. I'm, I must tell you, I'm a little bit nervous,even although I'm sitting here in a room all by myself on the other end of the world in New Zealand.} {\pard \line \par} {Just the, daunting thought that so many people are potentially gonna be able to listen to this. It's a it's a tough one. It's not an easy one for me to do, but, it's something that I feel I, I needed to do. I needed to try and put this together because, that's what I actually wanna explain.} {\pard \line \par} {Maybe I can kick off why I'm doing this is, my, my family and I, we moved here to } {\cf2
(02:00):
} { New Zealand just over two years ago now, and. Immigration is definitely not an easy thing to do. It's, it's one of the most difficult things I've had to do in my life. And you get to talk to a lot of other immigrants.} {\pard \line \par} {When you hear other people that have arrived, you made some friends. Generally it's just with the immigrants that, that have moved across and you listen to their stories and everybody has their story and it's hard and you listen to the hardships everybody's had to go through. It's, this is not an easy thing if you think moving to another country is gonna be simple and easyand it's just.} {\pard \line \par} {There's gonna be challenges. You're gonna have to show a lot of grit to make this work. But the point I'm trying to make is I heard a lot of people's stories and I, hear how they struggle and you, even reason read on Facebook groups and everything, and there's a lot of people that are struggling.} {\pard \line \par} {They, almost at the end where they just wanna give up and they just wanna go back. And it just made me think, no, I can't believe you'd go through so much to pack up your whole family. To start all over again in another country, get here, and then just, it got too much. } {\cf2
(03:00):
} { It's so sad.} {\pard \line \par} {It's heartbreaking to see people going through, which is literally suffering and giving up and going back and having to start again in the country that came from, I was like, no, I've gotta be able to share my journey with people and show them you can make this work. Doesn't mean I'm an expert, I promise you.} {\pard \line \par} {there's times that I also have real bad days where you just think, what have I done? Why are we here? But I promise you. It can work. We are only two years in, but we're making it work. And there's a lot of lessons that we've learned. There's things that we've learned that work well that I wanna share so people can learn from me.} {\pard \line \par} {There's things that we've made mistakes, so I wanna share those two. So hopefully you don't make the same mistakes as me. And also maybe just so that you can listen to somebody else and understand that this can be done. You can do this. So if you're at the part of your journey where you're thinking about immigrating to New Zealand or.} {\pard \line \par} {You're about to move because you've got your visas and everything ready and you're about to come across, or you've just landed here recently or been here for a while and just struggling with things. It's just } {\cf2
(04:00):
} { a space for me to share my experiences in the hope that I can help somebody else, learn something from me, from my mistakes and just not make the same mistake.} {\pard \line \par} {So that's really why I wanted to create this, podcast and kick it off. I think maybe. Before I get into a little bit more about the podcast, maybe I gotta share who am I? Why? Listen to me. who am I? my, as I said in the beginning, my name is Brett Collette,but just to get you to know me a little bit better, maybe I wanna start off by sharing a little bit about who I am, where I come from.} {\pard \line \par} {So that you can get to understand that I'm no expert on, on immigration or anything like that. I'm just a, normal middle class family man that made the decision to move from my original country. If you haven't heard already, it was South Africa to New Zealand and why we did } {\cf2
(05:00):
} { it. so let me maybe start there.} {\pard \line \par} {So I was born in South Africa. I was born in Johannesburg. I lived in Johannesburg my whole life. I've never moved around to any other parts of South Africa. Went to the same primary school, same high school. Moved out of once I finished up with high school, bought a home with my family in the same area I grew up in.} {\pard \line \par} {Started a family in the same area, so I've never known anything different. So to move toanother part of the world, let alone another part of the country. You're born in. It's huge and daunting. So this is, so this one was not an easy thing to do. But I think it just shows you that if I can do this, other people can definitely do it.} {\pard \line \par} {So let me get, not dwell and get off track. So yeah, born in Johannesburg. I went to the same school, in Johannesburg, same high school. at high school. I actually met my wife, we got married in } {\cf2
(06:00):
} { 2006, so we've been married. Oh geez. She'll kill me if she listens to the podcast and get it wrong. I think it's almost 18 years now if I do the maths We have two beautiful children. I have a son and a daughter, a 13-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter that have, moved across with us obviously. And yeah, we're a normal family where we, after we were married, we had our first kid, which was my son, in 2012. andthen my daughter in 2020 just before COVID, and I'll get into that later.} {\pard \line \par} {But normal family, normal home. We were happy in South Africa, had a, we, we were very blessed in South Africa, but I think what led us to. Eventually decide to move was my wife and I started sitting down and just where South Africa is at the moment and politically and where it's going. everybody will give you a different reason for } {\cf2
(07:00):
} { why they immigrated.} {\pard \line \par} {I could give you a long list about South Africa and say, oh, there was crime. And the electricity doesn't, they've got something called load chain where they turn off the electricity every other day for X amount of hours. And so many things, a long list of what. Why and what's gone wrong in South Africa, and this is not a podcast about slating South Africa or anything like that, but it's more, just to give you insight, why we decided to leave is my wifeand I decided and sat down and said the way it's going, I didn't see it improving anytime soon.} {\pard \line \par} {I saw it getting worse year on year, and even if things started to change, let's say it started today and started improving over the last 20 odd years, things have. Steadily gone down in South Africa to the point where if a tattoo start improving from today, it wouldn't resolve overnight. It would take at least 10, 20 years to get back to a point where everything that's gone } {\cf2
(08:00):
} { wrong is reversed and it's better.} {\pard \line \par} {So that wouldn't be in my lifetime or would be towards the end of my lifetime. And that's in the hope that would actually change. So that's the first thing that really started making us think oh geez, we could stick it out in South Africa, but do we really think it's gonna get better? And even if it did, how long is it gonna take?} {\pard \line \par} {And would we be able to experience that or would be towards the end of our, so it just didn't make sense for us to stay for that one reason. Another reason was thatmeant that I didn't see a future for my children. I didn't see good opportunities for them. And my wife and I sat down and we thought, no our kids will probably end up, they'll probably end up maybe finishing school in South Africa if we had to stay.} {\pard \line \par} {We were blessed and lucky they could go to private schooling, so they'd probably get a good education, but then they'd probably leave after school and go for tertiary education overseas. They'd probably find some first world country, be it somewhere in Europe, or be it Australia or } {\cf2
(09:00):
} { America, New Zealand, wherever.} {\pard \line \par} {They would probably move there and study. And then after they had studied there, they more than likely probably find a job there. And if they found a job there, they'd probably settle there and they would start a family there, which would mean that my wife and I are stuck in South Africa with our kids out in the world in a different country, starting their families there.} {\pard \line \par} {And we would miss our grandkids and everything. Yeah, you could say, okay, we could pack up and we could retire wherever our kidsended up. But then you've gotta start thinking about. Look at the currency, which is the Rand in South Africa. It's for most first world countries, it's way weaker. if you just compare it to New Zealand, the South African Rand is 10 times weaker.} {\pard \line \par} {So our pensions and our savings and everything like that would be worth 10 times less. So if we had to move to whichever first world country. Our pensions and savings wouldn't be worth nearly as much as it should be. So we wouldn't have enough to live on. And then it would become a burden } {\cf2
(10:00):
} { to our children if we had to move, even if we had the option to move and live with them in whatever country.} {\pard \line \par} {So I think that was the biggest push for me, trying to decide, no. Okay. I don't want to not be around my family, my grandkids, whatever else. So if we're gonna do this, we need to do it now. My wife and I at that stage were just, before I close to, I think we were, what, 39 or something like that? So we're coming close to 40.} {\pard \line \par} {So we said, if we're gonna do it, now's the time to doit. We have to do it by the time we're 40. so that's what led us to start thinking about immigration. That was probably back in 2018 is when we started thinking about it. So then we had to work out, okay, so now we know that we do want to immigrate and we do want to leave South Africa.} {\pard \line \par} {And we knew why, but we had to try to figure out, where do you go? and how do you choose? So what we, started off with is, I was lucky. I didn't only have my South African citizenship, I also have my, my, } {\cf2
(11:00):
} { my British citizenship. So naturally we thought, the best. Easiest option is probably to go to the uk probably go to England.} {\pard \line \par} {that's where you probably need to go. Big thing was, although I had the dual citizenship, we hadn't been to England before, so that's when we decided, okay, we need to book a, a trip. We need to go see what England is like. and we need to. Explore and see if we could make it home. So we started planning to,to have a, three week break or holiday, but it was a exploratory holiday in the UK and England which we went on in 2019, in April, 2019.} {\pard \line \par} {we went up to England for, three weeks. at that stage I only had my son, my daughter hadn't been born yet. I think my son was around about eight, seven or eight years old. And yes, it was an exciting experience to, to be going overseas with the family and my son's first overseas trip. So we were } {\cf2
(12:00):
} { very excited to go.} {\pard \line \par} {We started off, just. Outside of London. in England, we went to I think it was Epson, is where we booked a, Airbnb to stay for the first few weeks. And we even had Easter over there so that the Easter bunny arrived in England. I still had to go to, one of the, local shops there and were doing checkouts, self checkouts and everything.} {\pard \line \par} {For the first time for South Africans we didn't, there was no such thing as self-checkout, so this was a whole new experience. We've got photos and everything on me doingself-checkout anyway. the point is we. We went to England. we started off in Epson, even had the Easter bunny visits. I had to make sure we got all our Easter eggs and everything like that.} {\pard \line \par} {Bought cost a fortune because again, the, Rand is very weak and actually to the British pound, it's even weaker. I was saying 10 times weaker. the British pound, it was more, more even close to 20 times weaker. So it was a very expensive holiday for us and a very expensive Easter considering chopped up was costing us so much to buy.} {\pard \line \par} {But } {\cf2
(13:00):
} { anyway, we had to make sure that Easter Bunny had visited even beard in England. So we did that. We also, at the same time then started. Just trying to meet up with, some friends that we knew had immigrated to the uk, asking them questions, seeing where they, stayed, got to have a look at their homes, what they were like.} {\pard \line \par} {And that was down in the south, near London. So we, started off there and at the same time, yeah, we did a whole lot of touristy things, going to museums and everything, which was nice. We made a nice holiday of it. we booked a car, we traveled all the way up to theMidlands where we saw some other friends.} {\pard \line \par} {Got to see what the countryside was like. what the homes were like there. so really trying to do our homework and see if this is somewhere where we could live. And after the holiday, we got back to South Africa. My wife and I said, yeah, we could make it work. We could make England work. What was it?} {\pard \line \par} {A hundred percent ideal? No, not really, but, and there were things that we didn't like about it potentially, but it was easy. It's, we didn't have to worry about, oh, would we be able to get accepted, get visas, all the rest of it, because I was a } {\cf2
(14:00):
} { citizen. We were guaranteed we could move across, I could start working straight away at the same time.} {\pard \line \par} {The company I was working for at the time, they were a global company and they had branches in England. and I knew people in England, that's who I also met up with, and they, were pretty sure I'd be able to get a job there. So it really was gonna be a lot easier path. So we thought to move to England.} {\pard \line \par} {So that's how we came to the call that, yeah, we are gonna immigrate to England.So we got back to South Africa. I let the rest of our family know my mom and my sister and everything. Okay. we've been, and we've decided we are gonna make this happen. We're gonna move to England. What stopped us straight away was what, while we were on that trip in England, what had happened in 2019, in January.} {\pard \line \par} {So if I go a few months back is I noticed I wasn't not feeling well, but, this is now really getting personal. But I, I actually got diagnosed with testicular cancer in } {\cf2
(15:00):
} { 2019, but, in the beginning of the year, we didn't know it was that. I just noticed that my, my, my one one testicle was not great.} {\pard \line \par} {So we went to a gp. a normal doctor and the doctor turned around and said to me, ah, it's probably an infection. And he just gave me antibiotics. I finished that course of antibiotics and nothing really changed. But you just soldiered on 'cause it wasn't like that painful or anything like that. So you were carrying on.} {\pard \line \par} {And also there was a lot going on in life. IE we were busy looking into potentially immigrating to England and planning a holiday to go toEngland. Come April, we were just really focusing on the holiday and going overseas and seeing what it was like. Although I did tell my wife that, look, I don't think the antibiotics has worked and whatever else.} {\pard \line \par} {And even when we were in England, I told her it's still not great. So probably when we get back to South Africa, I'll book another doctor's appointment, but this time try go to a specialist, go to urologist. and, just get a second opinion and see what's going on. But anyway, that aside, we went to England, had a holiday made the decision we want to immigrate, got back to South } {\cf2
(16:00):
} { Africa, started telling the family this is what we're doing.} {\pard \line \par} {Got an estate agent, put the house on the market, started really working towards, okay, we, we are going to England at the same time. Sorry guys. So this recording is going to be very much just relaxed. Okay. I'm not a professional or whatever else. I'm just taking a sip of coffee quickly so I can carry on talking.} {\pard \line \par} {So we got back to, South Africa put the house on the market, but now as I said, I was a little worried about my health. So that's when we were going to book thedoctor's appointment with a specialist. Got it. A specialist appointment, but with a specialist. Unfortunately, I couldn't. Get a quick appointment.} {\pard \line \par} {It was a, it was gonna take a couple of weeks to get to see him. So it was only in around about May sometime that I actually got the appointment. But we had already kicked off starting to explore moving to the uk. So when I finally got to see the urologist in, May the specialist, I remember going through that appointment and yeah, he's having a, good look and a feel and whatever, and then } {\cf2
(17:00):
} { he sending you for scans and all the rest of it all at the same clinic.} {\pard \line \par} {I can tell you that, I could tell you vividly, step by step, everything that that how that day went through slow motion. Because it probably took, oh, I don't know, he was looking, then he sends you down for a scan and then another person's looking whatever, and an hour later, no one's really telling me what's going on.} {\pard \line \par} {But, it can't be good if the specialist is calling somebody else for a second opinion and they're busy looking at more stuff. Anyway,long story short, he eventually told me that no, he's seen a mass and, That I've more than likely got cancer. So that was a bit of a shocker, and that wasn't something we had planned, definitely not part of my plan.} {\pard \line \par} {So I had to go back home and explain to my wife, that, look, this is what's happening. They've told me that I've, more than likely got cancer. So let's fast forward it a little. it turns out it was cancer. Within five days of being told the news, I went through the surgery, got the, cancer removed.} {\pard \line \par} {went through } {\cf2
(18:00):
} { radiation, whatever. So I am five, just over five years later and I am cancer free, so I've kicked cancer's butt. So I can tell you that's another thing you can definitely beat in life, but that's a story for a, maybe another podcast one day, but I. What it did do back then in 2019 once I got diagnosed, is my wife and I had to sit down and say, Hey, all this planning that we're trying to do for immigrating to England, geez, are we gonna do this also trying to beat cancer.} {\pard \line \par} {That's, that's a big one. Do we, move to England andreally te test out the NHS medical system in England and see that this is actually gonna help me, and work for me so that I can actually beat this disease. Or do we put the brakes on and say, Hey, we stay in South Africa. we've, we are lucky here.} {\pard \line \par} {We've got, private medical. So we were in a good situation. We covered for all the medical care that we need. And yeah, I guess it was a no brainer. We decided, hey, we'll have to put the brakes on, had to take the house off the market. I explained to the state agent what was going } {\cf2
(19:00):
} { on. Tell the rest of the family that, Hey, we're putting the brakes on.} {\pard \line \par} {This is what, the focus is gonna be is let's get over cancer first. That put the brakes on. That was the first thing stopping us from going to England. So 2019, the rest of it was pretty much spent just, beating cancer and getting rid of that. So tick got that done. So towards the end of, 2019, after the, radiation had been done and been told by my oncologist that, yep, there's notrace.} {\pard \line \par} {so now it's just going into surveillance for a good few years with a whole lot of checks and everything. but. You should be good. and he's a hundred percent I am good five years later, but then it's posed the question to my wife and I towards the end of 2019. Okay. What about this immigration thing?} {\pard \line \par} {Now we are in remission. we are good. We don't have cancer anymore. Do we wanna kick off trying to go to England again? what do we wanna do? so } {\cf2
(20:00):
} { at that point, towards the end of the year in 2019. I don't know. It was a lot to, to work through cancer and it's not just tough on you as the person that has it.} {\pard \line \par} {It's, it was tough on my wife too. I think even maybe harder on the people, your family that, that are around you that have to go through seeing you going through radiation and whatever else, and how, I think it's a real check in life that, wow, life can really be short. it was a possibility I wouldn't even make my 40th birthday.} {\pard \line \par} {It was like.Ugh, it blows your mind. It's like unbelievable. And a person that was trying to live healthy and every, anyway, I squirrel. And digress. Let me get back on track. So anyway, it made my wife and I think, no, okay, we definitely gotta do this immigration thing. We had the right reasoning, we believe, for our family and everything, so we do need to kick it off again.} {\pard \line \par} {But what I was noticing, my wife was still, she was struggling and getting very emotional and whatever. And granted, it'd been a tough } {\cf2
(21:00):
} { year, but. If anybody knew my wife she's a tough cookie. Eh? She's not one of those women that is emotional and cries and that's just not her. That's not who she is.} {\pard \line \par} {And I remember being in the kitchen at home in South Africa and we were just talking about this and she started crying and breaking down and being very emotional. I remember, geez, and people will probably think of me, Jesus guy's, so hot ass. But I remember holding her and saying, love, you need to pull your shit towards yourself.} {\pard \line \par} {Okay? because. There's a lot that I've been havingto try get over. I can't handle you breaking down as well. So you, really got to put yourself towards yourself type thing. And, We can laugh about it now. We knew it wasn't normal for my wife to be so emotional. Why am I saying all this? 'cause what she has started doing is she started thinking, why is she getting like this?} {\pard \line \par} {Why is she so emotional? Maybe we, maybe she's actually depressed. Maybe she needs to go see a doctor and say, Hey, this is everything that's going on in my life and maybe I'm actually getting, I'm suffering with a bit of } {\cf2
(22:00):
} { depression. And it would probably be valid. considering everything that we were trying to tackle and go through, I wouldn't be surprised.} {\pard \line \par} {So she did go see a gp and the GP even prescribed some medication to try and help her, her cope. But when she started taking it, she was lying in bed and she could feel like she, she kept explaining, it was like a heartbeat in her ears. It was like she could hear her blood pumping and she just really wasn't feeling great after taking the medication.} {\pard \line \par} {She decided, no, There's somethingnot right here. So she, my wife, if there's anything you know about her she'll, if she doesn't know something, she will figure it out and research. So Google's your friend, she started Googling and checking on symptoms and why, would she feeling this?} {\pard \line \par} {And one of the symptoms that kept coming up was, you could be pregnant. And she's nah, I can't be that, and then you can't be pregnant, So she started getting some, pregnancy tests, and she started peeing on a stick and checking, are we pregnant? And, the stick came back } {\cf2
(23:00):
} { positive that we are.} {\pard \line \par} {Or, pregnant. So there's a bit of a funny story to that. So you go now, go back a few years and you think about, I said, I've got my son At that stage, he was only like eight years old or whatever. We had some complications and issues trying to fall pregnant the first time around, and we needed a bit of help to fall pregnant.} {\pard \line \par} {So it wasn't so easy for us, but we were blessed and we got blessed with my son. And, when he was around about two, we did wanna try again for a second. And we did try. And even with help, it didn't happen. Sowe had already resided to the fact that hey, it's not meant to be, we are only meant to have one kid.} {\pard \line \par} {so we were okay with that. So it wasn't easy for us to have kids, so to be pregnant without us even trying without help, it'd be a big question mark for us going, geez, is really possible. Also, you've gotta remember, besides the issues that we had back when we were trying to fall pregnant the first time around, now, I'd also had cancer and it was testicular cancer.} {\pard \line \par} {So when I got diagnosed with my cancer, the oncologist and everything said, Hey, before } {\cf2
(24:00):
} { you go for radiation, if you guys want to have a second kid, you bear consider doing sperm banking or whatever if you wanna have a second kid. And I even said, no, man, we've realized we, we can't, we're not gonna have a second kid.} {\pard \line \par} {One is it's, that's. That's our family unit. That's the way it'll be. So we didn't even do that. So we didn't expect it. It's just not part of our plan at all. So when my wife had these pregnancy tests that had come back positive, I remember her telling me in the kitchen, she said, wow, I've got some news to tell you.} {\pard \line \par} {Geez, we did a lot oftalking in the kitchen, huh. But anyway she told me in the kitchen look lav, I'm pregnant. And I remember even trying to joke with her, I said. No, you can't be pregnant because, you know what's happened with me and I'm broken and you're broken. There's just no way as this could be.} {\pard \line \par} {It just can't. So even joking and said, who's the father then? 'cause it caught me. I promise you, it's definitely my kid. definitely, wasn't a question in my mind. It was just a joke, but I couldn't believe this. So next step was to go to actual gynecologists and start checking things.} {\pard \line \par} {So let } {\cf2
(25:00):
} { me fast forward a little bit more. Is we went to all the relevant doctors now and they confirmed with blood tests and everything that Yes. my, my wife was pregnant. I do remember though when we went to the gynecologist in the beginning, my wife and I were sitting there before he did the blood test.} {\pard \line \par} {He said, it could be one of two things. He said that, you could either be pregnant. So my wife could be pregnant, or it could also be cancer because, cancer being a tumor, it's a growth. It would also show up on the pregnancy test is positivethat you, it could be a, false positive where you actually got cancer.} {\pard \line \par} {So I remember getting that news from the oncologist and, the gynecologist and just thinking, oh my goodness. I even joked with my wife and said, oh, we do everything together so we may as well fight cancer together. I think it was a bit, soon for that joke. Little bit daunting. A little bit too much.} {\pard \line \par} {Anyway, he said, we can do scans and check if it's, a baby and it's pregnant, but the, scans, if it is a baby, would be a risk to the, fetus, and to the baby. } {\cf2
(26:00):
} { So best thing to do is probably wait the two weeks, do the blood tests, and wait. So I can tell you it was the longest way to get to eventual confirmation that it wasn't cancer, thank the heavens, and was actually, and my wife was pregnant.} {\pard \line \par} {But now that led us back to what this whole podcast is all about is immigration. So now my wife and I had to sit down and, chat again and say, okay, love. we wanna go to England. We know we want to immigrate. We first had to kick cancer on myend, which we've done, but now love, you've fallen pregnant and you're gonna have a baby.} {\pard \line \par} {Do we wanna move to England and have a baby in England or do we wanna first have baby here and then go to England? So again, we get into the same thought and thought, no, let's delay again. Let's rather wait until baby's born. we know the medical system's here. We got the right medical cover.} {\pard \line \par} {We don't wanna start a new country testing out NHS and whatever else, and how having a baby } {\cf2
(27:00):
} { would work in a different country. So we thought, no, put the brakes on not going to England. We are going to have baby here in South Africa. Fast forward a little bit longer, my baby girl. Perfect little baby girl.} {\pard \line \par} {Absolute miracle considering everything we've been through was born on the 20th of March in 2020, but if anybody knows 2020, that was five days before COVID lockdown. So I can tell you it was very interesting having a, baby and a child throughout COVID, especiallyright at the beginning of COVID and lockdown and all the rest.} {\pard \line \par} {But again, that's another story for another podcast. But what it did do is make my wife and I reassess again with our immigration, saying, okay, now we've got a beautiful baby girl and obviously we still wanna go to England, but now we've got something called COVID and restrictions. So what the whole world went through was we couldn't travel to England.} {\pard \line \par} {So whether we wanted to or not, we had no choice but to sit } {\cf2
(28:00):
} { tight and see COVID through South Africa. We sat tight throughout COVID throughout 2020 and most of 2021. and towards the end of 2021, beginning of 2022, when we'd all been through COVID and things were starting to sort themselves out in the world and everything was starting to open up and everything again.} {\pard \line \par} {We sat down again and my wife and I said, okay, we've now kicked cancer's butt. We've had a new baby, we've grown the family, we'vebeen through COVID. Do we still wanna immigrate? And we said yes. So we still wanna immigrate, we still want to move and, start over for all the reasons I gave you. So I said, cool.} {\pard \line \par} {So we're gonna put the house in the market. We are gonna go to England. That's when my wife turned around and said not England. She's changed her mind. She actually thinks it'd be better for us to go to New Zealand. So I laughed. I said, okay, I'm good with } {\cf2
(29:00):
} { that. We can go to New Zealand. But big thing was, I'm not a citizen in, in New Zealand, it's gonna be a little bit more difficult to get into New Zealand, and that means point systems and visas and all kinds of other stuff and jobs and whatever else. I said, if you can find me a job and we can get the points and everything like that, and you get, get it, that we can get work and move across and get the visas.} {\pard \line \par} {I'm on board, so my wife, knowing who she is, if, shewants something, she'll make it happen. She, started looking on LinkedIn, started looking at jobs, whatever else. Maybe, what am I supposed to explain is we both are in it. We were in it profession at that stage in South Africa. We were both working for a.} {\pard \line \par} {A company that was a global IT company, but it was the same company. Different divisions, but same company. So what she could start doing is she could start looking on the company directory, who are the people } {\cf2
(30:00):
} { in the different divisions down in New Zealand trying to touch base with them. Anyway, long story short, by her doing all the research and stuff like that and reaching out to all the relevant people.} {\pard \line \par} {She actually got some guys in our current company in New Zealand reach out to her and wanted to hire her, and move get her hired for a position here in New Zealand. She turned around to them and said, I'll tell you what, if you give my husband a job, then I may consider the job. And, that's how they reachedout to me.} {\pard \line \par} {And within the same company, any, I was able to move. And that's how we actually eventually got to a point of getting a job offer. and, considering New Zealand as our new home and why we wanted to move now, look, I'm not doing a podcast to do any information on actual visas and how you go through the visa process and everything like that.} {\pard \line \par} {I'm not an immigration broker. I'm not getting into all of that. That's not what this podcast is gonna be about. What this podcast is gonna be about is } {\cf2
(31:00):
} { more sharing. Once you've already chosen New Zealand as your home and you've already gone through whatever you have to get the relevant visas and get, here, it's more a canal.} {\pard \line \par} {What, how do you plan, how do you, once I've got that job offer, it's shit got real. It's oh geez, okay, now we're going. Now it's all the challenges of. Packing up back home, putting the house on the market, trying to sell your cars, your stuff, get the kids out of school, but timing it all.} {\pard \line \par} {It's like a project plan of note, trying to time it all that you've actually sold your houseat the right time, that you can get on a plane and go. Or if you sell your house and you have to move out sooner, where do you stay as an interim between that and when do you sell your car? Because you still need to drive the kids to school and all these practical things.} {\pard \line \par} {And that's just on the. The side of home that's not even on the news side. Because in parallel to that, you're also trying to plan, okay, we're gonna get on this plane fight, we're gonna like land in Auckland, and then who picks you up and where do you go? And depending on the time of } {\cf2
(32:00):
} { night and which hotel and how long do you stay there and do you get an Airbnb or do you stay with someone else?} {\pard \line \par} {And how do you get a rental? And there were so many things to get your mind around and do the planning and. I promise you, and that'll be the next episode that I really kick off starting to talk about our journey from, okay, we've got the job of opera, how we started packing up back in South Africa, how we landed in Auckland and New Zealand, and all the challenges we had.} {\pard \line \par} {From the perfect, what I thoughtwas the perfect plan. we did the impossible with according to some people is. While we were still in South Africa, we secured a rental here in New Zealand. So we'd already had a home ready for us. This side, we had a car bought and it was gonna get delivered to the hotel that we're staying in for the night.} {\pard \line \par} {We, we thought we had the perfect plan, and what I wanna start doing is sharing in my first. Episode is my journey of from when I got that job offer to when we landed here, and obviously to where we are } {\cf2
(33:00):
} { today, but talking about some of the challenges, how things didn't go according to plan, how we overcame those, what I would've done differently so that you can try and learn from us, you know what, we've experienced did work and didn't work.} {\pard \line \par} {So that's the whole point of this podcast to try and. Help others that are gonna go through or are currently going through what we are, but we are just a little bit ahead. But then continue this because every day while we are here we are still encountering challenges and there's things that we have to get over.} {\pard \line \par} {And it's justto try and share this with everybody, with you guys out there so you can, don't give up, you can make this work. New Zealand is a beautiful country. It's amazing, and I'm still so grateful that we have the opportunity to, start over here and for the opportunities we have for our kids.} {\pard \line \par} {But it's not easy and there's a lot of things that are gonna be hard for us that we have to get through. And it'll be the same for you guys, but it's to just talk through and share so you can hopefully learn from us and don't give up and push on through. So that's really what's. } {\cf2
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