May 14, 2025 • 45 mins
In this episode, I continue sharing our immigration journey to New Zealand, picking up six weeks after we arrived. I reflect on what our first year looked like—what we focused on to settle in, how we helped the family adjust, and the steps we took to truly make New Zealand feel like home. I also open up about the reasons behind our move and what I’m most grateful for along the way.
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Episode Transcript
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There are over 100,000 people whoimmigrate to New Zealand every year with
the intention to make New Zealand theirhome, leaving behind everything they
know as normal day-to-day life and havingto learn new ways of doing things, new
norms, new cultures, and different values.
There are many people who struggle withthis transition and find it challenging
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to adjust and settle so they cancall and make New Zealand their home.
The purpose of this podcast is for meto share my journey and our challenges
with the hope that you can learn from meand my family and have a softer landing.
There will be good days and baddays, but with time, more good days.
I believe we have made theright choice for our family.
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I want to try and help you do the same.
But hopefully with a softer landing.
This is soft landing, and Iam your host, Brett Collette.
Welcome to this podcast, designed foranyone thinking about preparing for, or
who has just immigrated to New Zealand.
Subscribe now so you never miss an episodedrawing from his personal experience.
(01:09):
This series will guide you throughthe process of preparing for your
move and helping you navigatethe challenges of immigration.
Hello everybody.
Welcome back.
For those who are joining meagain and, listening to my, my,
my podcast on a regular basis, andI just wanted to thank those that
are listening for the first time.
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it's great to have you join us.
I would ask if you do have some time,please go back to episode number one.
I'm trying to share my journey and mystory in chronological order, and I
know a lot of the other guys that listenregularly now thinking, oh Jesus, you
have to repeat this every single time,but it's for all those new people.
Please go back to number one.
And there's a lot of information thatI'm trying to share along the way.
(01:52):
I. and tidbits and whatever else thatI'm hoping will actually help you on your
journey and help you when you do make yourmove and come join us here in New Zealand,
that it'll be a lot easier for you guys.
So please go back to the, firstepisode and listen from there.
It also gives you a chance just to,get to know me a little bit better and
understand who I am and, who's this guythat's trying to share his journey and
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his, ideas and his, Recommendations andwhatever else, and lessons learned, why?
Why should we listen to him?
Why, should we evenconsider what he has to say?
So it'll just help you get toknow me a little bit better.
So please go back to the firstepisode if this is your first one.
Otherwise, let me get on withwhat I want to chat about today,
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so I know my last episode.
It was a little different.
I didn't just share thejourney and my story.
We got, into a little bit of detail aroundactual living expenses and cost of living
in New Zealand, New Zealand, particularlyup here for a family of four in Auckland.
and my opinions on whatthose costs would be.
if that does interest you, pleasego back to this previous episode.
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look it up.
and over and above there, theepisode that I did on the podcast,
I am working on a YouTube.
A video or tutorial that I'll hopefullyget launched soon so you can actually
not only have to listen to me, butI'll, show you visuals of the actual
templates and everything as well.
So hopefully that'll be out soon.
But today I want to continue my storya little bit more, so I. Where I last
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left off with the journey was we hadjust moved up to the North Shore and we
were finally in our, what would actuallybe our third rental within probably
six weeks, of, being in New Zealand.
so if you listen to the other episodes,you know why we moved around so
much, but we finally found a home.
We're finally in a position wherewe could start settling down.
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So really six weeks in.
What we started doing was, now all thatfurniture that we had bought, all the
flat pack, we could start unpacking that.
we could start just actually makingit feel a little bit more like a home.
for, example, getting thosebeds built for the kids.
We were still sleeping on blow upmattresses, although we had the one.
one, king size bed.
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we had also bought my, daughtera bed now that I had to build.
So I built her bed and herbedside units, all flat pack.
did the same for my son.
His was also flat pack.
Built that all out.
our dining room table and chairsalso flat pack, so not the most
expensive stuff that we went for.
What we really went foris we went for what works.
it was.
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Good enough.
we, I know back in South Africaa lot of the time, we really
bought really good quality stuff.
but for now, getting us started,it was good enough getting the flat
pack over and above the flat pack.
There was actually a lot ofdeals that you could get from
people with secondhand stuff.
So if you had to get onto the, welooked on Facebook, on Marketplace,
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but over and above, marketplaceis just your Facebook groups.
If you could get onto the groupsfor your area, a lot of people.
are even donating stuff thatthey're not using anymore or
selling it for, next to nothing.
And a lot of the stuffcould be in good condition.
Over and above that, you could alsolook at a lot of, like swap shops.
So all these charity shops, a lotof people take their stuff there,
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and they sell good quality stuff fora really reasonable price as well.
So there was a lot of ways and.
Cost effective ways you couldactually kit out your home.
that's really where we were atnow, is starting to get the house
kitted out, starting to make itfeel a little bit more like home.
Having a dining room seat to sit athaving a lounge, area where we had
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a couch and we had a TV that wasn'tsitting on top of boxes on the floor,
actually on a, TV unit, starting toget beds for everybody in the home.
so it was nice to startgetting that all set up.
One of the things that wasdifferent for us in the home is.
back in South Africa when we wouldget a rental, it would be empty.
And when empty, it didn't havecurtains, didn't have blinds, a
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lot of the time, sometimes blinds,but definitely not curtains.
Whereas here we were findingthe rentals that do come with
either blinds or curtains.
So it wasn't somethingwe had to invest in.
We had packed a whole lot of ourcurtains and everything into the
container, which was on its wayto, us at that point in time.
But it turns up.
We are not even gonna be using them.
because all rentals that we've beenin thus far, they've all been kited
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out with, curtains as well as blinds.
Also with the weather here.
And what we weren't used to isthe different, daylight saving.
So back in South Africa, your dayswere pretty, even, throughout winter
year, they shortened a little, butthere was no daylight saving, or
turning clocks back or forward.
That, that's a new conceptfor us moving to New Zealand.
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So with, here, whathappens is in winter, yeah.
Your, days do get a lot shorter,but in summer your days get a lot
longer to where the sun only startsgoing down after 9:00 PM at night.
So you really have long days.
But what that does mean is sometimesyou need those different type of
blackout curtains, those curtainsthat can really block out the sun
or blinds that block out the sun.
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So it probably makes sense why a lot ofthe houses have it all kited out already.
A lot of the curtains we're gonnabe bringing, in our container.
Weren't even gonna be theright type of curtains.
And they probably wouldn'tblock out the sun enough.
And probably with the harsh sunhere, they would probably get damaged
within next to no time anyway.
So anyway, enough about curtains,just letting you know that it's not
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something you would have to worry about.
But yes, starting to get all therest of your stuff, all kited out.
What we had done is.
In our container, we had put a lotof the stuff that was sentimental to
us or stuff that was irreplaceable.
So that's why we said no fridges, washingmachines, dining room suites, lounge
suites, TVs, all that kind of stuff.
We could build up again.
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we didn't have anything that was.
Really super new.
Yes, some furniture that was nice,but again, we were worried about
the size of the houses, what wouldfit in and not fit in, and then what
would we do for the first few monthswaiting for the stuff to arrive anyway.
So we opted, no, we were gonnabuy a lot of that stuff and
just buy what's good enough.
And that's what we were doing.
All the sentimental stuff, air, familyheirlooms, all that kind of stuff was
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on the container and that's what wewould derive a couple of months later.
So that's pretty much how westarted kiting out our house.
while waiting for the container.
One of the other things that was,different for me was we were now in
a unit where we had a little bit of agarden and there was a little bit of
grass, which meant I needed to maintainthat we were very spoiled back, in South
Africa where we would have a gardenservice that would do our gardens for us.
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and it's pretty much beenlike that most of my life.
No, not pretty much.
It has been like that most of my,my, my life where I haven't had to
cut grass and attend to the garden.
If I worked in the garden,it was 'cause I wanted to.
it wasn't because I had to.
So now for the first time, Ihad to make sure that the lawns
were cut on a regular basis.
and the gardens were tied up in Neat.
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What this meant is, and I know a lot ofpeople will laugh at me, I had to learn
how to use an lawn mower for the firsttime, a weed eater for the first, time.
and a, lot of firsts for me.
So yeah, like a little bit of a stalker.
What I started doingin the home we were in.
luckily my neighbor, he.
Cut his grass pretty regularly.
I'd spy on him while he was doing itthe first few times to try get a little
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bit of an idea of how to do this, andwhat sort of lawnmower I should buy and
what sort of weed eater I should buy.
so that when I went to either Bunnings or,Miter 10 or wherever I was gonna buy it
from, I would hopely buy the right thing.
That said, what I ended up doingis because of budget, I bought an
electric lawnmower, but one that wason a accord, as well as a battery.
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weed eater, battery weed eaterworked perfectly perfect for me.
I was happy with it, but it wasone with blades, not with the
actual weed eater wire or cable.
probably better would've beento go for the one with the cable
versus the one with blades.
'cause the blades didn't lastvery long and you'd have to
change them quite regularly.
But it did work well and I lovedthe idea that it was cordless.
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and you just need to charge the batteries.
Probably pro tip is gets two batteries.
So while you are using the oneyou could have, the other one
charge would work quite nicely.
But again, it depends on your budget.
Buying the, law electric lawnmower witha cord, I do regret that it is a pain
in the butt really trying to mow yourlawn and having this cord that you've
gotta constantly move out of the way.
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so that is one thing that I didregret and I very quickly, once I had
a little bit of extra cash and wasable to save up, changed that out.
And I opted to go for an electricbattery, or battery lawnmower.
so I've gone for Bosch, which I'mvery happy with, and it works well.
Just make sure you get one with enoughwattage so that it's strong enough to
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actually handle the lawn, especiallyif you leave it for a week or two where
it's grown quite long and you need to.
Cut the grass and the, battery isn'ttoo weak or the motor isn't too
weak so that it can't work again.
Get more than one battery if you can,because, depending on the size of your
lawn, you're probably gonna need two,three batteries to get through the
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whole lawn, depending on how big it is.
So for the house that we add.
At that stage, I needed, two batteriesfor the weed eater to get around the
whole front garden and the back garden.
And then, the lawnmower only got whenI moved into the next, unit, which
is the one I'm in now, but I need,probably about two batteries there also
to do the lawn both front and back.
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but that's, one of the things you'vegotta keep in mind over and above
the, actual lawnmower, and weed eater.
You also need to make surethat you've got a green bin.
So for all the waste, you'vegotta be able to get rid of it.
I've heard of some people puttingit in their general red, waste bin.
I don't think that'sthe right thing to do.
I think you're allowed to be doing that.
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You should be puttingit in a separate bin.
So what we've done is we'veactually got a green bin.
That green bin, is throughConways for where we are.
I'm sure depending on where youend up in New Zealand, they got
different, companies that you wouldbe able to get a, green bin from.
The green bin, you paya once off per year.
So we paid a hundred dollarsper year for that green bin, and
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then they collect once a month.
So you could put all your gardenrefuge, so like your, lawn off cuts,
et cetera, you could put into that.
And they collect it once a month.
only thing that I did find is if youstart trying to prune back trees and
really get stuck into the garden,you can fill up that green bin very
quickly and then you can have a problemwhere you don't have enough space.
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In the bin because it onlygets collected once a month.
So just watch that as well.
But yes, it was nice to be ableto get into a garden again.
Again, being a rental, you don't wannaspend, invest too much money on the
gardens, but it is your responsibilitymost of the time on rentals to keep
the garden up to speed, and kept.
so you would need to get yourselfsome sort of gardening equipment,
like a lawnmower, weed eater,and a bin as a bare minimum.
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Pardon?
So that was getting that all sortedout while we were, in the new.
place.
One of the other things that wewere doing is, besides making it
feel like home, we are startingto get to know the, neighborhood
now and looking at the school.
So originally where we had ended up alittle bit further south, closest to
CBD, where our first unit was flooded,and the second unit that we didn't
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was we had a school in mind for myson, which is obviously not gonna be
the school anymore because now we'vemoved a little bit further north.
So we had to look at some other schools.
We did look at the schools beforewe moved into this rental, so
we already had a school in mind.
The school that we had in mind wasa semi-private school, which we were
very keen to get my son into Problemthough, was there's a waiting list
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for us to get him into that school.
And there were a few hoops that youhad to jump through to get him into to.
into that school as well.
It'd be interviews and a whole lotof other stuff that we had to do and
certain criteria that you had to meet.
They do this when it is asemi-private or private school.
They are not governed by zone, sothey don't have to let anybody in.
they can choose who they doLao into their school, but that
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was the school we had chosen.
So what we did is we, did put himonto the waiting list as well as my
daughter onto the waiting list, but.
We didn't know how long it could take.
It could take anywhere up to a year tobe able to get him into that school.
We weren't in a rush to get myson into school straight away.
So we are probably sitting now withmy timeline on the journey, sitting
about six weeks in country and westill hadn't got my son into school.
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I think we left it probably forthe first two to three months.
I don't remember the exact timeline.
But it was at least two to threemonths before we got him into school.
we'd rather let him get settled.
He spent some time at home, spent sometime with my wife, taking the kids out
and around the neighborhood, getting toknow their new country, new, neighborhood
before we even got him, into school.
And he's caught up beautifully.
He's doing extremely well there.
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There's no pressure to get your kidsstraight into school unless, like I've
mentioned before, you both working.
And you need to be able to get thekids into school so that you would
have time to be able to work yourself,then that's a different story for us.
My wife was taking the first, year justto settle, the family and make it home.
So we had that luxury where she couldstay at home and we didn't have to
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rush to get the kids into school.
So we had my son on the waiting listfor the semi-private school in the area.
But what we opted to do isthen actually put 'em into
the public school in the area.
again, there's some criteria andeverything that you have to, go
through to get them enrolled.
I will do a separate podcast on, gettingyour kids into school, with, more detail.
And I'll probably include mywife in on that one 'cause
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she was very involved there.
but.
Get him into the public schoolthat we were zoned for in the area.
Wasn't too difficult, got him in.
some costs.
Were involved with getting him hisuniform and a couple of, fees that you
have to pay depending on what classesthat he was involved in and what he was
gonna be doing as per his curriculum.
So there are some costs that you needto budget for when I do the schooling.
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One, I'll get more into more detailaround the, budgeting around schooling.
But we got him into the local school.
I think he started in term two.
'cause we arrived here in end ofJanuary, beginning of February.
And I think he only started in term two.
So he didn't start in termone, which, which was fine.
And he was able to catch up and do well.
So there was no issues there.
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My daughter who was younger, shewas five, she's five years old
now, so at that time she was.
Two, turning three.
So she was young and wouldstill need to get into kindies.
So what we did is the same thing.
We didn't rush into getting herinto kindie, but we, did start
investigating Kindies in the area.
we didn't move to the area with thekind in mind because Kenie would
only be until she was five years old.
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So we knew we would find one inthe area and it should be okay.
It was more important for us tofind a school, a primary school
and high school in the areaand be zoned for those schools.
Or have a semi-private or private schoolthat you intend on sending them to.
That was close to home.
So that was what we madeour decision about the area.
It was based on that sort ofschooling for our kids, not the kindi.
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That said, we did find a kindiin the area to get my daughter
into with, government Here.
They pay for the.
First 20 hours a week.
So they claim it back fromgovernment the first 20 hours.
So you don't have to payfor the, first 20 hours.
But if you do opt to send yourkids, to kindy for full day or
longer than the 20 hours a week, youwould have to pay that additional.
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and depending on the kindy that yousend them to, is depending on what the
cost would be when I do the schooling.
Again, as I said, not only for myson who was in I think he started
when we were here, it was year seven.
So we'll talk with what's relativeto us, which was my son moving into
year seven in a government school.
And then also talk through howhe had the opportunity to move
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to the semi-private school thatwe were on the waiting list for.
And we'll talk to my son who wasthree, how we got her into kindy.
And change the different kindies and I'lltalk to some of that now as well as how
she's just started primary school now.
But I'll do that all on aseparate podcast around schooling.
But getting back to it, so my son wasinto, we got him into the public school,
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so it was year seven that we got him into.
And then my daughter,we got her into a kindy.
It was a little bit out of the way,but we got her into kindy and we
opted just to use the 20 hours.
We weren't gonna pay extra 'cause mywife was still at home, but just to get
her used to, Getting like a playgroup,getting to know other kids her age.
and just giving my wife alittle bit of time as well.
It was important to get her into kindy andalso building up, it was important to have
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her attended kindy so it could work hertowards, getting ready for primary school.
We got into the kindyfor the 20 hours a week.
We just went for the mornings,so it was from eight 30.
We'd probably drop her offroundabout there and then pick
her up at even 11 30, 12 o'clock.
So that's, the times that shewas there from Monday to Friday.
there were some days that shemust, but most of the time we
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sent her there Monday to Friday.
What we also found with theKindies is the kindies don't
tend to close down over, any.
periods o of the biggestschools closing for term breaks.
Kindy don't seem to close for that.
They do close over the year end overChristmas and New Year, so they do
close there and public holidays.
But other than that, they're openpretty much most of the time.
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The kindies, whereas the actual publicschools, they have term breaks in between.
So you will have to also work aroundwhen you've got the term breaks, what
do you do with your kids in that gap?
Maybe that's something we'll talkabout on the school podcast as well.
But we got my daughter intokindy, near the school.
So that was one of the other thingsthat we needed to just get sorted out.
It was a little bit of achallenge in the beginning with
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my daughter, attending the kindy.
There was a little bit of separationanxiety, and it was a bit tough for
her in the beginning for, and actuallyprobably for us as parents, it's very
hard leaving your little one behindand they're crying and they're really
upset, and all they want is you.
Although the schools do reassureyou once you had left that
they were happy and content.
but.
We saw at the first kindie.
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My daughter just didn'tseem to fit in as well.
She just didn't seem as happy, didn'tconnect and make as many friends.
So eventually after a couple of months,my wife and I made the call that we
were gonna try a different kindie andthere was a different kindie that was,
part of the semi-private school thatwe were, we had them on the waiting
list for, so they had a kinder as well.
We got onto that waiting list.
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And they finally got back to us withan opening for her, for the kindy of
that semi-private school, and that'swhere we actually moved across.
And it's actually worked out beautifully.
she's done exceptionallywell at that kindy.
Again, we only sent herfor the 20 hours a week.
We didn't send her for any, extra.
It did cost a little bit more becauseit's a semi-private kindy, but it
wasn't a hell of a lot more, I think.
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Oh man.
On the schooling one, I'll getinto the actual detail, but,
yeah, let me rather do that.
'cause then I'll have the,detail of the amount that my wife
was, contributing towards that.
But it wasn't a lot.
And she went just for the 20 hours a week.
So again, it was from about eight30 to 1130 every single day.
But she integrated really well, startedmaking a lot of friends, and you could
just see the development over the,year and a bit that she's been there.
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I can talk now because obviouslywe're bit into the future,
but she's done extremely well.
So it was a good move movingher to the other kindy.
But I guess that's another point.
If your kids don't, you find a kidney andit's not working for you at the one you're
at, there are options to move them around,depending on the area you're looking in.
But we had options around us, sothere's always something you can do
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to try change and make things better.
I. So that was one of the other thingsthat we started doing in the time that we
were settling, now that we found a homewas getting the kids into to, schooling.
As I said, don't rush to get them in.
in our opinion, we took thetime to get them settled first
before we got them into school.
it's a huge adjustment for the kids.
nevermind selves.
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but they probably are justbetter to be really honest
and they settle a lot better.
especially once they've made friends.
Once they've made friends at schools,then they really start doing well
and you can see how everythingchanges, which is what's happened
for both my son and for my daughter.
so they've done well.
So this is what we did in thefirst few months of being in our
new rental and being in country.
One of the big things waswaiting for our container.
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Our container probably took roundabout, I think it was four and
a half, five months to arrivefrom South Africa to New Zealand.
So it was quite a wait forthe, container to get here.
One of the big things that wechose with our container, and it
wasn't a full container we took,but I'm so grateful we took it.
It was some, it was theoption for door-to-door.
So what they did is they helpedus pack up in South Africa.
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When I say pack up, they were in ourhouse, bubble wrapping and boxing.
Everything that we were planning on takingwith, and labeling it, taking it in a
truck, taking it all the way through to,eventually putting it into the container,
getting on the ship, bringing it all theway, this side, getting it off the ship.
Putting it on a truck and taking it rightto the door of the rental that we were in.
And even although we had changedtheir address to the third, for the
(22:28):
third time with them while it wasn'ttransferred on the ship, that it was
still not an issue, for them, we couldjust keep updating them on the latest
address on this side in New Zealand.
And they finally delivered our,contents of our container to
the rental that we were in.
What was nice about the door todoor over and above them packing
it up on the South African side.
Also on this side, what they did isthey help you unpack and also help
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you carry all the stuff into whicheverrooms that you want within the house,
especially if you've got larger items.
It did help.
So we had some, family heirloom, like oldfurniture, that was antiques and stuff
that my wife wanted us to bring across.
We brought those across,which were a bit heavy.
especially the type of woodthat they were made from.
So it was good to have somehelp carrying those into the
different rooms over and above.
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Just having that help.
What was also nice is they willcome back a few days later once
you've unpackaged everything.
So you've taken all the bubble wrapand the boxing and everything off.
They'll come back and fetchall of that and get rid of it.
And why say that there's such anice help is back in South Africa.
What we could do with all our,rubbish is just put it in the
bin and it would get taken away.
or.
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I could drive it to a dumpnearby and just dump it.
It wasn't an issue.
They weren't so big on recyclingback in South Africa over here,
they're very big on recycling.
So what would happen is all thepolystyrene, you cannot put in your
general waist bin, and there's onlycertain places you can actually get
rid of your polystyrene, for example.
So what I found is for withpolystyrene, for example, is you
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could go to the mittens, which isa DIY, Building, suppliers company,
they had a, like a container outsidetheir, entrance for polystyrene.
So you could take all your polystyrenethere and dump it with them, if
you had a whole lot of polystyrene.
So that's the way I couldget rid of polystyrene.
(24:14):
So look at your mire.
Tens for polys.
Getting rid of polystyrene,especially if you're buying
new appliances, there's alwayspolystyrene in all of those shipments.
So you have to get rid of that.
Then the other thing wehad to get rid of is boxes.
So if you've got a whole lot ofthe boxes, especially if you've got
a whole container for, or you'vebought a whole lot of new stuff, flat
pack, other furniture, appliances,whatever, it all comes in boxes.
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Yes, you can break it all up, which youcan do and put into your yellow recycling
bin, but it'll fill up very quicklyand you'll have to keep a pile and over
a couple of weeks, months, eventuallyget rid of all of it, or you can.
Drive it to your local waste.
So up here it's econ waste.
They do have a waste center that youcould take it through to, but then
(24:55):
there's a cost involved in trying toget rid of it in that sort of way.
There is also containers ofdifferent centers like your mic, MI
10, you could take it to a MI 10.
And they, that they would take someof the boxes, some of them, not all
of them, so you could do that as well.
So it was just a mission to be ableto get rid of all of your boxes,
(25:15):
polystyrene and that kind of stuff.
So it really did help with the companywe signed up with door to door,
that they could come back, collectit all and get rid of it for you.
It was just a help ingetting rid of it quickly.
Another thing that we, reallydid with the container.
Now that we had all the stuff,this is where we really started
to make the house feel like home.
The rental feel like home.
(25:36):
Because now you started getting over andabove the stuff you had bought to make
it in inverted commas, feel like home.
You had stuff that you were familiar with.
It was your family heirlooms, it wasyour pictures and paintings, that you're
used to, your ornaments and everythingelse that you're familiar with.
That made your home feel like homethat had finally arrived, which really
(25:57):
do, did help us feel more settled.
Especially the kids.
A lot of their toys would've arrived.
We brought a lot of their toyswith their toy boxes, with all
their trinkets and everything else.
So it was nice when, yes, we broughtsome in the carry-on luggage.
Pardon?
But you couldn't bring everythingyou, there was a whole lot of stuff
you couldn't, there's just not enoughspace in your carry on luggage.
So a lot of the otherstuff had now arrived.
So it really just helps themsettle and feel more like home.
(26:23):
Challenging thing with a rentalthough, is back in your own home.
If you own it, you can go andknock a nail in the wall, and you
can hang up your own pictures.
First problem here is, yes, it'sa rental, so you can't just go and
knock a nail in the wall unlessyou knock a nail in the wall.
But then, if you move out of thatrental, you're gonna have to be liable
to fix all the walls And, and make surethat there's no more nails left in all
(26:47):
the walls and you don't damage them.
when you do your exit interviewof the rainfall that you're in.
Also the other challenges back in SouthAfrica, we have concrete walls or brick
walls, so very different hanging a pictureon a brick wall versus dry walling.
Dry walling is very different.
So it was a learning curve on howto do that, especially in a rental.
(27:07):
So one of the things I havefound is you can go to your local
hardware store and there arethese stick ons that you can buy.
for different weight.
So it's like double-sided tape almostthat with Velcro, so that you can
hang up your pictures on the walls.
so we found that works really well.
(27:27):
Just make sure you buy the right weightcompared to whatever you hanging on it.
and what we did is we even doubledup or tripled up on the amount
of them that we used as hooks ora double-sided, like Velcro type
stuff to stick them on the wall.
but it worked really well.
We did have some that if you put themin a warm room in the summer and the
(27:48):
sun came in, it would heat them up andthen they would lose their stickiness
and they would fall off the wall.
So you could get a fright inthe middle of the night where
you have a picture falling off.
Off the wall.
So really make sure you use enoughof them and ones that are more
heavy duty and can carry the load.
and just think about which roomsand how much heat is coming through
(28:09):
in summer and sunlight directlyon them, which could heat them up
and make them fall with the walls.
But that was a way we could hangup a lot of the pictures and
really make it, it feel like home.
Some people I've known, they go aheadand they pit, like little tacks and
nails and everything in the wall.
Just bear in mind if you do that, you getthese kits and you've gotta actually fix
the holes and everything like that andthen repaint and try and match the paint.
So it can be a bit of a challenge.
(28:30):
It's not, necessarily notallowed, it just is more effort.
And I believe with the rentals isjust a lot easier to be able to
use this double sided sticky, hooksand stuff that, and Velcro that
we, use to put up the paintings.
Also, what you've gotta remember witha rental on this side, now we'll do
a separate podcast around rentals is.
They do inspections every three months.
(28:51):
most agencies do.
So what they'll do is every threemonths they'll contact you and
schedule a time to come, have a lookand check in on you, on the rental.
Now, I found this a bit of a challengeI've never rented before, so our entire
life we've always been blessed and luckyenough to own our property, so we've
never had to rent and have somebody.
It almost like I felt invadeyour space and check up on you.
(29:16):
that, I guess it's just the mindshift and stuff that you gotta learn.
And I understand why they do it.
they're making sure for the landlordthat the house is kept and in good
condition and you're not damaging it.
I get it.
But it did take a bit of getting used to,it did feel like for the first few times,
every time they contact you to come inand every three months to, to have a look
inva, it was like invading your privacy.
(29:36):
and really having a look.
And what I found is some ofthe agents would even say,
no, you don't need to be home.
They can come through andjust look through the house
themselves when you're not here.
we opted not to.
We asked them, please no, onlycome when we are actually home.
it was just better for us.
And also we are house proud.
So a big thing for us is we did makesure we wanted enough warning, so
give us a, weekend in between themcoming through so we could make sure
(30:00):
the house was nice and clean andtidy and everything was in its space.
Especially with kids, they canmake a real mess with their toys
and everything lying around.
I have heard from other people, weprobably go a little bit overboard,
with the cleaning and everything.
It's not to be expectedto be that neat and tidy.
but it's the way that we've done it andwe are just house pride and it works well.
I've got used to it now.
we are two year or over two years in.
(30:21):
I'm used to them comingevery three months.
And actually, you eventuallyget to know your agent.
They get to know you.
and it's actually not so bad.
You really do get used to it, but inthe beginning it was a little bit of
a, mind shift for me and getting usedto, so this was a little bit about
getting the container and gettingthe, into the rental and actually
starting to make it feel like home.
Some of the real positives thatI've loved more than anything else
now that we found a community thatwe really love, we're starting to
(30:45):
really make this feel like home.
And one of the things that I lovemore than anything else, and I still
say to my son probably laughs at me,is when I'm driving into school and
I see these little kids, I'm talking.
They must be like eight, maybe seven, six.
I don't know.
They're tiny little kids and I seethem going to school in the mornings
by themselves on their bicycle orwalking or on a little push scooter.
(31:06):
No parents, nobody watching them.
They cross over the roads,over the traffic lights.
They are so free.
It is wonderful to see howthe kids can be so free.
They're not, they'recarefree, they're not worried.
There's nothing.
There's no danger to them.
and they that they canbe free and go to school.
That sounds silly.
Just going to school.
But that's not something we were used to.
so I love seeing that.
(31:26):
I love seeing on the weekends so often,and still now in the area we're in,
we'll wake up on a Saturday morning, youcan look out the window and you can see
people down from, at the bottom by thepark playing with their kids at the park.
You can see people going for runs, peopleriding around on their bicycles, moms
and dads pushing prams with babies.
It's Such a community of family andI really, love it and people running
(31:49):
and getting fit and I love it.
Kiwis probably take it a little bit far.
They, come rain or shine,they'll be out there.
I'm not so keen on getting outin the rain and going for a walk
and getting out with a family.
preferred when it can be acloudy day, but not so rainy.
They don't care.
I'll even see where the,field where we've got.
A field right here, a big open, keptfield, it's public field and they'll
(32:13):
play soccer or they'll play cricket.
and it can be used by anyone in thepublic, but you, they do have events
where they have different schools comehere and play soccer and different
clubs come play soccer and they'llplay cricket against each other
and they'll stand in the rain, evencheering on their kids playing soccer.
It's such a familycommunity and I love it.
You'll see it Easter time.
Ah, I love it that some of thehouses, they'll go decorate their
(32:35):
gardens with lights and everythingfor Easter, and they, a lot of
the houses have flag poles here.
They'll put up a flag with a, anEaster bunny on it, or Happy Easter.
it's so nice.
Not that we celebrate Halloween, butyou also see the community at Halloween,
they celebrate Halloween and they'llall dress up and all the families and
kids will walk around and go trick ortreating at all the different homes.
It's just the community actuallydoing, and then my favorite
(32:57):
time of year is Christmas.
and on our container, all our Christmaslights, we used to decorate our
house back home in South Africa witha a, whole lot of Christmas lights.
I brought those across on thecontainer, so at Christmas we
could decorate even our rental.
Yes, I couldn't nail anythingin and screw anything on the
outside of the actual house.
I had to make a bit ofa plan with the whale.
I was putting up my Christmaslights, but it was so awesome to see.
(33:18):
It wasn't, I wasn't alone in putting upChristmas lights, the whole neighborhood.
There are so many homes that putup Christmas lights to the point
where they even run a competition.
Which is funded by andpromoted by the local.
Agency that sells homesand rents out homes.
So they're really driving forthe community to pull together
(33:39):
at Christmas, for example.
And they had prizes for first,second, and third prize for
whoever voted for the house withthe best lights and decorations.
And everybody will walk aroundand they will at night when it's
dark and it'll be late at night.
'cause it's over summer.
So the sun only goes down after nine.
So you'll see all these kids andfamilies walking around during
the school holidays in December.
(33:59):
leading up to Christmas, looking at housesand looking at all the different lights.
And you'll see some people, even with alltheir decorations, they hire bands and
bands are playing, music for the familiesthat are walking around, busy viewing the
houses on the street, some of them arehanding out, like candy and and sweets
and chocolates and everything like it.
it's.
So awesome to see the community, overand above the, different types of year,
(34:23):
like Eastern Halloween and Christmas.
what you also get to see is, on a regularbasis in the area, they get food trucks.
So back in South Africa, foodtrucks wasn't that big a thing.
for us it wasn't the norm.
But here in the local parks that, that,that grounds that us talking about
where they play soccer and everythingright by the house, they'll go and
park a whole lot of food trucks.
So they tell you in advance that thefood trucks are coming out in two weeks
(34:44):
time to your area and all the differenttypes of food trucks will park there.
and everybody will then go down atusually around about five o'clock
and go buy whatever food they have.
They'll take their picnic blankets andthey'll take some camper chairs and
whatever else, and they'll sit therewith their families while the kids are
running around and playing all eatingyour, food that you've bought from
(35:06):
the food trucks, which is so awesome.
And they've got bins that areput out so you can clean up and.
Afterwards, everybody makes sure thatthey're all, the mess is cleaned up and
it's clean, it's tidy, it's wholesome,family fun, and it's all just part
of the community, which is so cool.
Another thing that we are reallyloving is we are literally three
kilometers away from the beach andactually New Zealand, the beach is
(35:27):
generally not far away from most of theplaces that you live in New Zealand.
And to be able to just.
Where we come from in SouthAfrica, we were in Johannesburg,
which is nowhere near a beach.
It's probably six hours drive, tothe nearest beach, if not more so to
be able to be three kilometers awayfrom the beach, just a couple of
minutes drive or, half an hour's walk.
(35:48):
It's, awesome.
It's so nice to be able to go to thebeach and the amount of people after
work that will go walking on the beach,walking their dogs on the beach, walking
families on the beach, riding bicycleson the beach, pushing prams on the beach.
it's just, it's incredible.
It is so nice to see the familyvibe and the freedom that
people have and how safe it is.
It's absolutely awesome.
So just getting part of that community.
(36:10):
Another thing that we alsogot to enjoy in the area is.
Even our neighbors, they were so friendlywhen we moved in, both in the unit we
are in now, and the unit I was referringto in this podcast, the neighbors got to
know us and they're friendly and okay.
We didn't necessarily get together forbarbecues or brides or anything yet.
We hadn't built up relationshipslike that, but you get this friendly
wave every morning, every evening,whenever you see each other.
(36:31):
the one neighbor came acrossand he gave us a bottle of milk.
The one time he says he's going awayfor two weeks and the milk will go off.
Do we want the milk?
He went fishing, caught a hold of fish.
He offered us some fishthat we would want.
It's just.
It's so nice, the community.
It's really, awesome.
So I'm just sharing just to keep youmotivated that, it can be difficult
and there's a lot of challenges,but it's so worth it to, to be able
(36:52):
to live and be so free and have thespace and see your family and your
kids just be able to thrive and notjust survive that actually thriving.
And it's, awesome.
And as the, man of the home andthe father, you, it's this weight
that is just lifted off yourshoulders where you don't have to.
Constantly be worried about your family'ssafety and always being on guard.
(37:14):
You can actually just let your guarddown and just see them be free and happy.
it's worth all the money in the world.
It's absolutely phenomenal.
I'm loving that more than anything else.
The other things that we also lookedat, at the rental now that we've moved
to is, I joined a gym nearby, so thiswas at a time, so it was a couple
of weeks in now of being in country.
It was important for me to start gettinginto a little bit more of a routine start,
(37:36):
helping me get my mindset right, not only.
Physically getting healthier at the gym.
But it was just a way for me to get intoa routine that's a positive routine that
could help me start getting settled.
It was a way that I could get settled.
It also was an opportunity for me whereI've started to meet people at the gym.
So I can start talking to people,making friends, which I've done over
(37:58):
the last two years of joining gymover and above, getting healthier
and fitter and whatever else.
It's just been a nice wayfor me to get to know people.
so that's one of the things that I did.
Another example I can give just aboutcommunity or just the people and the way
they are here is I explained to you thatI was traveling into to town regularly.
So I was taking public transport,taking the buses into town.
(38:19):
So I was leaving the one carthat we had behind from my wife.
And she was using that.
So the cause battery started givingtrouble and there was an issue with it.
We did take out aa, so wedid have an AA membership.
It's one of the things we agreed to do.
so again, all depends on your budget.
So we were blessed enoughto be able to have that.
So we, we had aa, she was able to callAA within minutes they were there.
The guy was so helpful tothe point where he was.
(38:43):
telling her where she could goto get a different battery that
was actually cheaper versusbuying one from, AA directly.
And it was more expensive.
They were so helpful.
They really go out of theirway, to help and so friendly.
So really, awesome.
So I think I just wanted to carry onwith my journey and just give you a
little bit of hope, although over thelast few podcasts, in the beginning
(39:03):
I've told you all the challenges andsome people maybe think Jesus and I
can't believe you even still there.
And you actually madeit through all of this.
And that's why one ofthe podcasts I even said.
You have to have grit.
You really have to push on through.
But I just wanted to share with youand tell you that it's worth it.
I've just shared a little bit of, whatwe are experiencing now that we, a year,
two years in, you start experiencingthat after a year, two years in of the
(39:28):
community, of the freedom of the sense of.
Yeah, just that relief that you, don'thave to be on your guard all the time.
it's, awesome.
It really is so worth it, especially whenyou see the smiles on your kids' faces and
you can see the opportunities for them.
it's fantastic.
I'm loving, the Christmases andthe Easters and all the, holidays
(39:49):
and the kids running around inthe family vibe, in the community.
It's absolutely awesome.
So it's really what we enjoying.
So maybe that's what I really wantedto share in this, podcast is just
carrying on the journey, gettingto the point where we finally had a
home and just sharing a little bit ofhow nice it has been being in a home
where we've been in for a few months.
We did have a bit of a downer just beforeChristmas of the first year of being here.
(40:10):
I. We were told by our landlord that theywanted to, move back into the home so they
were gonna end the lease early, which wasa pain, especially just before Christmas.
But one of the nice things is becausewe had now moved home so many times,
we really knew what we needed todo to get into another rental.
I am gonna do a podcast andprobably also do a YouTube.
(40:34):
video on how to secure a rentaland how my wife, went about that.
It, really works well.
every single rental and thatwould, we are in our 1, 2, 3 fourth
rental now, within two years.
We have never been turneddown from a rental.
I'm not saying it's foolproof, but itreally is a good process that she uses.
(40:54):
So I think it'll be good to share ona podcast as well as a YouTube video.
although we had been givennotice just before Christmas.
We didn't panic.
we've been through tougher things and weknew you'd be able to, secure a rental.
It was a little bit difficult overthe Christmas, new Year period
because a lot of places closed down.
so a lot of people go onleave and stuff like that.
(41:15):
So it did delay it a little bit,but like I also mentioned one of
my previous podcasts and I will gointo the podcast around renting and,
Is the turnaround is pretty quick.
Once they advertise a placethat's available, you can move
in pretty quick within a numberof days to a week, two weeks.
So you can find a place quite quicklyand secure it as long as you, you
(41:35):
know what to do, how, to do it.
And that's what I'll gothrough in the podcast.
We could get it done.
So we did have to move one more time,and it was, just after Christmas.
So in the beginning of the newyear in 2024, we did have to move.
But that is the propertythat we are in at the moment.
And we are now, currently in oursecond year, we at the beginning of
our second year in, in that property.
(41:57):
So we've already been inthat property for a year.
we found one that's probably less thana kilometer away from the previous home.
We wanted to stay in the area for allthe reasons I was sharing with you as
well as the kids are in the school now.
They're well settled,
It was a little bit of another curveball that we had to go through,
but it wasn't the end of the world.
I think, you start learninghow to deal with things here,
(42:22):
and, it's so worth it comparedto some of the troubles we
were, we were facing back home.
So I'm still so grateful to be here and.
I am so glad we've pushed on throughall the difficulties that we've had
to be able to be at the point we'reat now, where we're starting to really
feel like New Zealand is our home.
I can see how the kids are happy.
I can see how they're thriving.
(42:44):
Is it perfect?
Have we got everything sorted out?
No, not yet, but we're stillpushing forward and I'm very
confident we will make this work.
we're on track to get our permanentresidency in the next couple of
months, so very excited about that.
And then we just set it outto get our citizenship, so we
definitely on the right track.
and we got a lot of goals.
we got goals of buying a homeand all kinds of things, so
(43:06):
I'll talk through that as we go.
But just talking through the first year.
The, it's tough.
It's not easy, but it's so doable.
I think maybe we want to closeoff with just letting you guys
know, please don't give up.
there's gonna be challenges.
It's, it can be really, tough andeverybody has their own journey and
everybody has their own story, butit's extremely heartbreaking when I
(43:29):
hear of people that have come acrossthat one, haven't been prepared
enough, haven't done enough planning,haven't done enough research, and.
They encountered troubles thatcould have been avoided had they
just done a bit more research.
And that's also one of thereasons I'm doing this podcast.
If you can learn from me and dothat little bit better than we
did and have a softer, demanding,that's the whole purpose of this.
(43:52):
With that said, I just wanna ask,please help me share this podcast.
If there's anybody that you know couldvalue from hearing this message and this
journey and my story that could help them,and, they're on their way or thinking
about coming to New Zealand, please shareit with them so it can help them too.
if you, feel this is helping you,please go to my YouTube channel.
(44:12):
It's at Soft Landing nz.
And subscribe.
and, make sure you get the notificationsbecause that's where all my podcasts
will be and all my YouTube videosare gonna be so that you can also
constantly, I'm gonna constantlyshare stuff and information around.
Like I said, the renting is one of theones that I'm going to share on schooling
is another one that I'm gonna share on.
(44:32):
I have done a podcast on, the costsof living in New Zealand, and I
will be doing YouTube tutorialson a lot of this stuff as well.
So please follow me.
go to my YouTube channel atSoft Landing nz, and subscribe.
And, yeah, I thinkthat's enough for today.
I've shared a littlebit more of the journey.
(44:53):
Maybe the next one I'll dowill be on ranking, with that.
I just wanted to thank you guys fortaking the time to listen to me.
I really hope this is adding value,so if it is, leave me some comments as
well Be nice to hear back from you guys.
it helps motivate me to keepcontinue doing the, these podcasts
and sharing this information.
You guys, Yeah, thanks very much and just,enjoy the rest of your day, and keep well,
(45:19):
keep safe and we will speak to you soon.
There are over 100,000 people whoimmigrate to New Zealand every year with
the intention to make New Zealand theirhome, leaving behind everything they
know as normal day-to-day life and havingto learn new ways of doing things, new
norms, new cultures, and different values.
There are many people who struggle withthis transition and find it challenging
(00:25):
to adjust and settle so they cancall and make New Zealand their home.
The purpose of this podcast is for meto share my journey and our challenges
with the hope that you can learn from meand my family and have a softer landing.
There will be good days and baddays, but with time, more good days.
I believe we have made theright choice for our family.
(00:46):
I want to try and help you do the same.
But hopefully with a softer landing.
This is soft landing, and Iam your host, Brett Collette.
Welcome to this podcast, designed foranyone thinking about preparing for, or
who has just immigrated to New Zealand.
Subscribe now so you never miss an episodedrawing from his personal experience.
(01:09):
This series will guide you throughthe process of preparing for your
move and helping you navigatethe challenges of immigration.
Hello everybody.
Welcome back.
For those who are joining meagain and, listening to my, my,
my podcast on a regular basis, andI just wanted to thank those that
are listening for the first time.
(01:31):
it's great to have you join us.
I would ask if you do have some time,please go back to episode number one.
I'm trying to share my journey and mystory in chronological order, and I
know a lot of the other guys that listenregularly now thinking, oh Jesus, you
have to repeat this every single time,but it's for all those new people.
Please go back to number one.
And there's a lot of information thatI'm trying to share along the way.
(01:52):
I. and tidbits and whatever else thatI'm hoping will actually help you on your
journey and help you when you do make yourmove and come join us here in New Zealand,
that it'll be a lot easier for you guys.
So please go back to the, firstepisode and listen from there.
It also gives you a chance just to,get to know me a little bit better and
understand who I am and, who's this guythat's trying to share his journey and
(02:15):
his, ideas and his, Recommendations andwhatever else, and lessons learned, why?
Why should we listen to him?
Why, should we evenconsider what he has to say?
So it'll just help you get toknow me a little bit better.
So please go back to the firstepisode if this is your first one.
Otherwise, let me get on withwhat I want to chat about today,
(02:35):
so I know my last episode.
It was a little different.
I didn't just share thejourney and my story.
We got, into a little bit of detail aroundactual living expenses and cost of living
in New Zealand, New Zealand, particularlyup here for a family of four in Auckland.
and my opinions on whatthose costs would be.
if that does interest you, pleasego back to this previous episode.
(02:56):
look it up.
and over and above there, theepisode that I did on the podcast,
I am working on a YouTube.
A video or tutorial that I'll hopefullyget launched soon so you can actually
not only have to listen to me, butI'll, show you visuals of the actual
templates and everything as well.
So hopefully that'll be out soon.
But today I want to continue my storya little bit more, so I. Where I last
(03:21):
left off with the journey was we hadjust moved up to the North Shore and we
were finally in our, what would actuallybe our third rental within probably
six weeks, of, being in New Zealand.
so if you listen to the other episodes,you know why we moved around so
much, but we finally found a home.
We're finally in a position wherewe could start settling down.
(03:42):
So really six weeks in.
What we started doing was, now all thatfurniture that we had bought, all the
flat pack, we could start unpacking that.
we could start just actually makingit feel a little bit more like a home.
for, example, getting thosebeds built for the kids.
We were still sleeping on blow upmattresses, although we had the one.
one, king size bed.
(04:05):
we had also bought my, daughtera bed now that I had to build.
So I built her bed and herbedside units, all flat pack.
did the same for my son.
His was also flat pack.
Built that all out.
our dining room table and chairsalso flat pack, so not the most
expensive stuff that we went for.
What we really went foris we went for what works.
it was.
(04:26):
Good enough.
we, I know back in South Africaa lot of the time, we really
bought really good quality stuff.
but for now, getting us started,it was good enough getting the flat
pack over and above the flat pack.
There was actually a lot ofdeals that you could get from
people with secondhand stuff.
So if you had to get onto the, welooked on Facebook, on Marketplace,
(04:47):
but over and above, marketplaceis just your Facebook groups.
If you could get onto the groupsfor your area, a lot of people.
are even donating stuff thatthey're not using anymore or
selling it for, next to nothing.
And a lot of the stuffcould be in good condition.
Over and above that, you could alsolook at a lot of, like swap shops.
So all these charity shops, a lotof people take their stuff there,
(05:11):
and they sell good quality stuff fora really reasonable price as well.
So there was a lot of ways and.
Cost effective ways you couldactually kit out your home.
that's really where we were atnow, is starting to get the house
kitted out, starting to make itfeel a little bit more like home.
Having a dining room seat to sit athaving a lounge, area where we had
(05:32):
a couch and we had a TV that wasn'tsitting on top of boxes on the floor,
actually on a, TV unit, starting toget beds for everybody in the home.
so it was nice to startgetting that all set up.
One of the things that wasdifferent for us in the home is.
back in South Africa when we wouldget a rental, it would be empty.
And when empty, it didn't havecurtains, didn't have blinds, a
(05:53):
lot of the time, sometimes blinds,but definitely not curtains.
Whereas here we were findingthe rentals that do come with
either blinds or curtains.
So it wasn't somethingwe had to invest in.
We had packed a whole lot of ourcurtains and everything into the
container, which was on its wayto, us at that point in time.
But it turns up.
We are not even gonna be using them.
because all rentals that we've beenin thus far, they've all been kited
(06:15):
out with, curtains as well as blinds.
Also with the weather here.
And what we weren't used to isthe different, daylight saving.
So back in South Africa, your dayswere pretty, even, throughout winter
year, they shortened a little, butthere was no daylight saving, or
turning clocks back or forward.
That, that's a new conceptfor us moving to New Zealand.
(06:36):
So with, here, whathappens is in winter, yeah.
Your, days do get a lot shorter,but in summer your days get a lot
longer to where the sun only startsgoing down after 9:00 PM at night.
So you really have long days.
But what that does mean is sometimesyou need those different type of
blackout curtains, those curtainsthat can really block out the sun
or blinds that block out the sun.
(06:57):
So it probably makes sense why a lot ofthe houses have it all kited out already.
A lot of the curtains we're gonnabe bringing, in our container.
Weren't even gonna be theright type of curtains.
And they probably wouldn'tblock out the sun enough.
And probably with the harsh sunhere, they would probably get damaged
within next to no time anyway.
So anyway, enough about curtains,just letting you know that it's not
(07:18):
something you would have to worry about.
But yes, starting to get all therest of your stuff, all kited out.
What we had done is.
In our container, we had put a lotof the stuff that was sentimental to
us or stuff that was irreplaceable.
So that's why we said no fridges, washingmachines, dining room suites, lounge
suites, TVs, all that kind of stuff.
We could build up again.
(07:39):
we didn't have anything that was.
Really super new.
Yes, some furniture that was nice,but again, we were worried about
the size of the houses, what wouldfit in and not fit in, and then what
would we do for the first few monthswaiting for the stuff to arrive anyway.
So we opted, no, we were gonnabuy a lot of that stuff and
just buy what's good enough.
And that's what we were doing.
All the sentimental stuff, air, familyheirlooms, all that kind of stuff was
(08:00):
on the container and that's what wewould derive a couple of months later.
So that's pretty much how westarted kiting out our house.
while waiting for the container.
One of the other things that was,different for me was we were now in
a unit where we had a little bit of agarden and there was a little bit of
grass, which meant I needed to maintainthat we were very spoiled back, in South
Africa where we would have a gardenservice that would do our gardens for us.
(08:24):
and it's pretty much beenlike that most of my life.
No, not pretty much.
It has been like that most of my,my, my life where I haven't had to
cut grass and attend to the garden.
If I worked in the garden,it was 'cause I wanted to.
it wasn't because I had to.
So now for the first time, Ihad to make sure that the lawns
were cut on a regular basis.
and the gardens were tied up in Neat.
(08:46):
What this meant is, and I know a lot ofpeople will laugh at me, I had to learn
how to use an lawn mower for the firsttime, a weed eater for the first, time.
and a, lot of firsts for me.
So yeah, like a little bit of a stalker.
What I started doingin the home we were in.
luckily my neighbor, he.
Cut his grass pretty regularly.
I'd spy on him while he was doing itthe first few times to try get a little
(09:10):
bit of an idea of how to do this, andwhat sort of lawnmower I should buy and
what sort of weed eater I should buy.
so that when I went to either Bunnings or,Miter 10 or wherever I was gonna buy it
from, I would hopely buy the right thing.
That said, what I ended up doingis because of budget, I bought an
electric lawnmower, but one that wason a accord, as well as a battery.
(09:34):
weed eater, battery weed eaterworked perfectly perfect for me.
I was happy with it, but it wasone with blades, not with the
actual weed eater wire or cable.
probably better would've beento go for the one with the cable
versus the one with blades.
'cause the blades didn't lastvery long and you'd have to
change them quite regularly.
But it did work well and I lovedthe idea that it was cordless.
(09:55):
and you just need to charge the batteries.
Probably pro tip is gets two batteries.
So while you are using the oneyou could have, the other one
charge would work quite nicely.
But again, it depends on your budget.
Buying the, law electric lawnmower witha cord, I do regret that it is a pain
in the butt really trying to mow yourlawn and having this cord that you've
gotta constantly move out of the way.
(10:17):
so that is one thing that I didregret and I very quickly, once I had
a little bit of extra cash and wasable to save up, changed that out.
And I opted to go for an electricbattery, or battery lawnmower.
so I've gone for Bosch, which I'mvery happy with, and it works well.
Just make sure you get one with enoughwattage so that it's strong enough to
(10:37):
actually handle the lawn, especiallyif you leave it for a week or two where
it's grown quite long and you need to.
Cut the grass and the, battery isn'ttoo weak or the motor isn't too
weak so that it can't work again.
Get more than one battery if you can,because, depending on the size of your
lawn, you're probably gonna need two,three batteries to get through the
(10:58):
whole lawn, depending on how big it is.
So for the house that we add.
At that stage, I needed, two batteriesfor the weed eater to get around the
whole front garden and the back garden.
And then, the lawnmower only got whenI moved into the next, unit, which
is the one I'm in now, but I need,probably about two batteries there also
to do the lawn both front and back.
(11:20):
but that's, one of the things you'vegotta keep in mind over and above
the, actual lawnmower, and weed eater.
You also need to make surethat you've got a green bin.
So for all the waste, you'vegotta be able to get rid of it.
I've heard of some people puttingit in their general red, waste bin.
I don't think that'sthe right thing to do.
I think you're allowed to be doing that.
(11:41):
You should be puttingit in a separate bin.
So what we've done is we'veactually got a green bin.
That green bin, is throughConways for where we are.
I'm sure depending on where youend up in New Zealand, they got
different, companies that you wouldbe able to get a, green bin from.
The green bin, you paya once off per year.
So we paid a hundred dollarsper year for that green bin, and
(12:03):
then they collect once a month.
So you could put all your gardenrefuge, so like your, lawn off cuts,
et cetera, you could put into that.
And they collect it once a month.
only thing that I did find is if youstart trying to prune back trees and
really get stuck into the garden,you can fill up that green bin very
quickly and then you can have a problemwhere you don't have enough space.
(12:25):
In the bin because it onlygets collected once a month.
So just watch that as well.
But yes, it was nice to be ableto get into a garden again.
Again, being a rental, you don't wannaspend, invest too much money on the
gardens, but it is your responsibilitymost of the time on rentals to keep
the garden up to speed, and kept.
so you would need to get yourselfsome sort of gardening equipment,
like a lawnmower, weed eater,and a bin as a bare minimum.
(12:48):
Pardon?
So that was getting that all sortedout while we were, in the new.
place.
One of the other things that wewere doing is, besides making it
feel like home, we are startingto get to know the, neighborhood
now and looking at the school.
So originally where we had ended up alittle bit further south, closest to
CBD, where our first unit was flooded,and the second unit that we didn't
(13:10):
was we had a school in mind for myson, which is obviously not gonna be
the school anymore because now we'vemoved a little bit further north.
So we had to look at some other schools.
We did look at the schools beforewe moved into this rental, so
we already had a school in mind.
The school that we had in mind wasa semi-private school, which we were
very keen to get my son into Problemthough, was there's a waiting list
(13:33):
for us to get him into that school.
And there were a few hoops that youhad to jump through to get him into to.
into that school as well.
It'd be interviews and a whole lotof other stuff that we had to do and
certain criteria that you had to meet.
They do this when it is asemi-private or private school.
They are not governed by zone, sothey don't have to let anybody in.
they can choose who they doLao into their school, but that
(13:56):
was the school we had chosen.
So what we did is we, did put himonto the waiting list as well as my
daughter onto the waiting list, but.
We didn't know how long it could take.
It could take anywhere up to a year tobe able to get him into that school.
We weren't in a rush to get myson into school straight away.
So we are probably sitting now withmy timeline on the journey, sitting
about six weeks in country and westill hadn't got my son into school.
(14:19):
I think we left it probably forthe first two to three months.
I don't remember the exact timeline.
But it was at least two to threemonths before we got him into school.
we'd rather let him get settled.
He spent some time at home, spent sometime with my wife, taking the kids out
and around the neighborhood, getting toknow their new country, new, neighborhood
before we even got him, into school.
And he's caught up beautifully.
He's doing extremely well there.
(14:41):
There's no pressure to get your kidsstraight into school unless, like I've
mentioned before, you both working.
And you need to be able to get thekids into school so that you would
have time to be able to work yourself,then that's a different story for us.
My wife was taking the first, year justto settle, the family and make it home.
So we had that luxury where she couldstay at home and we didn't have to
(15:02):
rush to get the kids into school.
So we had my son on the waiting listfor the semi-private school in the area.
But what we opted to do isthen actually put 'em into
the public school in the area.
again, there's some criteria andeverything that you have to, go
through to get them enrolled.
I will do a separate podcast on, gettingyour kids into school, with, more detail.
And I'll probably include mywife in on that one 'cause
(15:22):
she was very involved there.
but.
Get him into the public schoolthat we were zoned for in the area.
Wasn't too difficult, got him in.
some costs.
Were involved with getting him hisuniform and a couple of, fees that you
have to pay depending on what classesthat he was involved in and what he was
gonna be doing as per his curriculum.
So there are some costs that you needto budget for when I do the schooling.
(15:46):
One, I'll get more into more detailaround the, budgeting around schooling.
But we got him into the local school.
I think he started in term two.
'cause we arrived here in end ofJanuary, beginning of February.
And I think he only started in term two.
So he didn't start in termone, which, which was fine.
And he was able to catch up and do well.
So there was no issues there.
(16:06):
My daughter who was younger, shewas five, she's five years old
now, so at that time she was.
Two, turning three.
So she was young and wouldstill need to get into kindies.
So what we did is the same thing.
We didn't rush into getting herinto kindie, but we, did start
investigating Kindies in the area.
we didn't move to the area with thekind in mind because Kenie would
only be until she was five years old.
(16:27):
So we knew we would find one inthe area and it should be okay.
It was more important for us tofind a school, a primary school
and high school in the areaand be zoned for those schools.
Or have a semi-private or private schoolthat you intend on sending them to.
That was close to home.
So that was what we madeour decision about the area.
It was based on that sort ofschooling for our kids, not the kindi.
(16:48):
That said, we did find a kindiin the area to get my daughter
into with, government Here.
They pay for the.
First 20 hours a week.
So they claim it back fromgovernment the first 20 hours.
So you don't have to payfor the, first 20 hours.
But if you do opt to send yourkids, to kindy for full day or
longer than the 20 hours a week, youwould have to pay that additional.
(17:09):
and depending on the kindy that yousend them to, is depending on what the
cost would be when I do the schooling.
Again, as I said, not only for myson who was in I think he started
when we were here, it was year seven.
So we'll talk with what's relativeto us, which was my son moving into
year seven in a government school.
And then also talk through howhe had the opportunity to move
(17:30):
to the semi-private school thatwe were on the waiting list for.
And we'll talk to my son who wasthree, how we got her into kindy.
And change the different kindies and I'lltalk to some of that now as well as how
she's just started primary school now.
But I'll do that all on aseparate podcast around schooling.
But getting back to it, so my son wasinto, we got him into the public school,
(17:50):
so it was year seven that we got him into.
And then my daughter,we got her into a kindy.
It was a little bit out of the way,but we got her into kindy and we
opted just to use the 20 hours.
We weren't gonna pay extra 'cause mywife was still at home, but just to get
her used to, Getting like a playgroup,getting to know other kids her age.
and just giving my wife alittle bit of time as well.
It was important to get her into kindy andalso building up, it was important to have
(18:13):
her attended kindy so it could work hertowards, getting ready for primary school.
We got into the kindyfor the 20 hours a week.
We just went for the mornings,so it was from eight 30.
We'd probably drop her offroundabout there and then pick
her up at even 11 30, 12 o'clock.
So that's, the times that shewas there from Monday to Friday.
there were some days that shemust, but most of the time we
(18:34):
sent her there Monday to Friday.
What we also found with theKindies is the kindies don't
tend to close down over, any.
periods o of the biggestschools closing for term breaks.
Kindy don't seem to close for that.
They do close over the year end overChristmas and New Year, so they do
close there and public holidays.
But other than that, they're openpretty much most of the time.
(18:55):
The kindies, whereas the actual publicschools, they have term breaks in between.
So you will have to also work aroundwhen you've got the term breaks, what
do you do with your kids in that gap?
Maybe that's something we'll talkabout on the school podcast as well.
But we got my daughter intokindy, near the school.
So that was one of the other thingsthat we needed to just get sorted out.
It was a little bit of achallenge in the beginning with
(19:16):
my daughter, attending the kindy.
There was a little bit of separationanxiety, and it was a bit tough for
her in the beginning for, and actuallyprobably for us as parents, it's very
hard leaving your little one behindand they're crying and they're really
upset, and all they want is you.
Although the schools do reassureyou once you had left that
they were happy and content.
but.
We saw at the first kindie.
(19:37):
My daughter just didn'tseem to fit in as well.
She just didn't seem as happy, didn'tconnect and make as many friends.
So eventually after a couple of months,my wife and I made the call that we
were gonna try a different kindie andthere was a different kindie that was,
part of the semi-private school thatwe were, we had them on the waiting
list for, so they had a kinder as well.
We got onto that waiting list.
(19:58):
And they finally got back to us withan opening for her, for the kindy of
that semi-private school, and that'swhere we actually moved across.
And it's actually worked out beautifully.
she's done exceptionallywell at that kindy.
Again, we only sent herfor the 20 hours a week.
We didn't send her for any, extra.
It did cost a little bit more becauseit's a semi-private kindy, but it
wasn't a hell of a lot more, I think.
(20:20):
Oh man.
On the schooling one, I'll getinto the actual detail, but,
yeah, let me rather do that.
'cause then I'll have the,detail of the amount that my wife
was, contributing towards that.
But it wasn't a lot.
And she went just for the 20 hours a week.
So again, it was from about eight30 to 1130 every single day.
But she integrated really well, startedmaking a lot of friends, and you could
just see the development over the,year and a bit that she's been there.
(20:41):
I can talk now because obviouslywe're bit into the future,
but she's done extremely well.
So it was a good move movingher to the other kindy.
But I guess that's another point.
If your kids don't, you find a kidney andit's not working for you at the one you're
at, there are options to move them around,depending on the area you're looking in.
But we had options around us, sothere's always something you can do
(21:02):
to try change and make things better.
I. So that was one of the other thingsthat we started doing in the time that we
were settling, now that we found a homewas getting the kids into to, schooling.
As I said, don't rush to get them in.
in our opinion, we took thetime to get them settled first
before we got them into school.
it's a huge adjustment for the kids.
nevermind selves.
(21:22):
but they probably are justbetter to be really honest
and they settle a lot better.
especially once they've made friends.
Once they've made friends at schools,then they really start doing well
and you can see how everythingchanges, which is what's happened
for both my son and for my daughter.
so they've done well.
So this is what we did in thefirst few months of being in our
new rental and being in country.
One of the big things waswaiting for our container.
(21:44):
Our container probably took roundabout, I think it was four and
a half, five months to arrivefrom South Africa to New Zealand.
So it was quite a wait forthe, container to get here.
One of the big things that wechose with our container, and it
wasn't a full container we took,but I'm so grateful we took it.
It was some, it was theoption for door-to-door.
So what they did is they helpedus pack up in South Africa.
(22:05):
When I say pack up, they were in ourhouse, bubble wrapping and boxing.
Everything that we were planning on takingwith, and labeling it, taking it in a
truck, taking it all the way through to,eventually putting it into the container,
getting on the ship, bringing it all theway, this side, getting it off the ship.
Putting it on a truck and taking it rightto the door of the rental that we were in.
And even although we had changedtheir address to the third, for the
(22:28):
third time with them while it wasn'ttransferred on the ship, that it was
still not an issue, for them, we couldjust keep updating them on the latest
address on this side in New Zealand.
And they finally delivered our,contents of our container to
the rental that we were in.
What was nice about the door todoor over and above them packing
it up on the South African side.
Also on this side, what they did isthey help you unpack and also help
(22:50):
you carry all the stuff into whicheverrooms that you want within the house,
especially if you've got larger items.
It did help.
So we had some, family heirloom, like oldfurniture, that was antiques and stuff
that my wife wanted us to bring across.
We brought those across,which were a bit heavy.
especially the type of woodthat they were made from.
So it was good to have somehelp carrying those into the
different rooms over and above.
(23:11):
Just having that help.
What was also nice is they willcome back a few days later once
you've unpackaged everything.
So you've taken all the bubble wrapand the boxing and everything off.
They'll come back and fetchall of that and get rid of it.
And why say that there's such anice help is back in South Africa.
What we could do with all our,rubbish is just put it in the
bin and it would get taken away.
or.
(23:32):
I could drive it to a dumpnearby and just dump it.
It wasn't an issue.
They weren't so big on recyclingback in South Africa over here,
they're very big on recycling.
So what would happen is all thepolystyrene, you cannot put in your
general waist bin, and there's onlycertain places you can actually get
rid of your polystyrene, for example.
So what I found is for withpolystyrene, for example, is you
(23:52):
could go to the mittens, which isa DIY, Building, suppliers company,
they had a, like a container outsidetheir, entrance for polystyrene.
So you could take all your polystyrenethere and dump it with them, if
you had a whole lot of polystyrene.
So that's the way I couldget rid of polystyrene.
(24:14):
So look at your mire.
Tens for polys.
Getting rid of polystyrene,especially if you're buying
new appliances, there's alwayspolystyrene in all of those shipments.
So you have to get rid of that.
Then the other thing wehad to get rid of is boxes.
So if you've got a whole lot ofthe boxes, especially if you've got
a whole container for, or you'vebought a whole lot of new stuff, flat
pack, other furniture, appliances,whatever, it all comes in boxes.
(24:34):
Yes, you can break it all up, which youcan do and put into your yellow recycling
bin, but it'll fill up very quicklyand you'll have to keep a pile and over
a couple of weeks, months, eventuallyget rid of all of it, or you can.
Drive it to your local waste.
So up here it's econ waste.
They do have a waste center that youcould take it through to, but then
(24:55):
there's a cost involved in trying toget rid of it in that sort of way.
There is also containers ofdifferent centers like your mic, MI
10, you could take it to a MI 10.
And they, that they would take someof the boxes, some of them, not all
of them, so you could do that as well.
So it was just a mission to be ableto get rid of all of your boxes,
(25:15):
polystyrene and that kind of stuff.
So it really did help with the companywe signed up with door to door,
that they could come back, collectit all and get rid of it for you.
It was just a help ingetting rid of it quickly.
Another thing that we, reallydid with the container.
Now that we had all the stuff,this is where we really started
to make the house feel like home.
The rental feel like home.
(25:36):
Because now you started getting over andabove the stuff you had bought to make
it in inverted commas, feel like home.
You had stuff that you were familiar with.
It was your family heirlooms, it wasyour pictures and paintings, that you're
used to, your ornaments and everythingelse that you're familiar with.
That made your home feel like homethat had finally arrived, which really
(25:57):
do, did help us feel more settled.
Especially the kids.
A lot of their toys would've arrived.
We brought a lot of their toyswith their toy boxes, with all
their trinkets and everything else.
So it was nice when, yes, we broughtsome in the carry-on luggage.
Pardon?
But you couldn't bring everythingyou, there was a whole lot of stuff
you couldn't, there's just not enoughspace in your carry on luggage.
So a lot of the otherstuff had now arrived.
So it really just helps themsettle and feel more like home.
(26:23):
Challenging thing with a rentalthough, is back in your own home.
If you own it, you can go andknock a nail in the wall, and you
can hang up your own pictures.
First problem here is, yes, it'sa rental, so you can't just go and
knock a nail in the wall unlessyou knock a nail in the wall.
But then, if you move out of thatrental, you're gonna have to be liable
to fix all the walls And, and make surethat there's no more nails left in all
(26:47):
the walls and you don't damage them.
when you do your exit interviewof the rainfall that you're in.
Also the other challenges back in SouthAfrica, we have concrete walls or brick
walls, so very different hanging a pictureon a brick wall versus dry walling.
Dry walling is very different.
So it was a learning curve on howto do that, especially in a rental.
(27:07):
So one of the things I havefound is you can go to your local
hardware store and there arethese stick ons that you can buy.
for different weight.
So it's like double-sided tape almostthat with Velcro, so that you can
hang up your pictures on the walls.
so we found that works really well.
(27:27):
Just make sure you buy the right weightcompared to whatever you hanging on it.
and what we did is we even doubledup or tripled up on the amount
of them that we used as hooks ora double-sided, like Velcro type
stuff to stick them on the wall.
but it worked really well.
We did have some that if you put themin a warm room in the summer and the
(27:48):
sun came in, it would heat them up andthen they would lose their stickiness
and they would fall off the wall.
So you could get a fright inthe middle of the night where
you have a picture falling off.
Off the wall.
So really make sure you use enoughof them and ones that are more
heavy duty and can carry the load.
and just think about which roomsand how much heat is coming through
(28:09):
in summer and sunlight directlyon them, which could heat them up
and make them fall with the walls.
But that was a way we could hangup a lot of the pictures and
really make it, it feel like home.
Some people I've known, they go aheadand they pit, like little tacks and
nails and everything in the wall.
Just bear in mind if you do that, you getthese kits and you've gotta actually fix
the holes and everything like that andthen repaint and try and match the paint.
So it can be a bit of a challenge.
(28:30):
It's not, necessarily notallowed, it just is more effort.
And I believe with the rentals isjust a lot easier to be able to
use this double sided sticky, hooksand stuff that, and Velcro that
we, use to put up the paintings.
Also, what you've gotta remember witha rental on this side, now we'll do
a separate podcast around rentals is.
They do inspections every three months.
(28:51):
most agencies do.
So what they'll do is every threemonths they'll contact you and
schedule a time to come, have a lookand check in on you, on the rental.
Now, I found this a bit of a challengeI've never rented before, so our entire
life we've always been blessed and luckyenough to own our property, so we've
never had to rent and have somebody.
It almost like I felt invadeyour space and check up on you.
(29:16):
that, I guess it's just the mindshift and stuff that you gotta learn.
And I understand why they do it.
they're making sure for the landlordthat the house is kept and in good
condition and you're not damaging it.
I get it.
But it did take a bit of getting used to,it did feel like for the first few times,
every time they contact you to come inand every three months to, to have a look
inva, it was like invading your privacy.
(29:36):
and really having a look.
And what I found is some ofthe agents would even say,
no, you don't need to be home.
They can come through andjust look through the house
themselves when you're not here.
we opted not to.
We asked them, please no, onlycome when we are actually home.
it was just better for us.
And also we are house proud.
So a big thing for us is we did makesure we wanted enough warning, so
give us a, weekend in between themcoming through so we could make sure
(30:00):
the house was nice and clean andtidy and everything was in its space.
Especially with kids, they canmake a real mess with their toys
and everything lying around.
I have heard from other people, weprobably go a little bit overboard,
with the cleaning and everything.
It's not to be expectedto be that neat and tidy.
but it's the way that we've done it andwe are just house pride and it works well.
I've got used to it now.
we are two year or over two years in.
(30:21):
I'm used to them comingevery three months.
And actually, you eventuallyget to know your agent.
They get to know you.
and it's actually not so bad.
You really do get used to it, but inthe beginning it was a little bit of
a, mind shift for me and getting usedto, so this was a little bit about
getting the container and gettingthe, into the rental and actually
starting to make it feel like home.
Some of the real positives thatI've loved more than anything else
now that we found a community thatwe really love, we're starting to
(30:45):
really make this feel like home.
And one of the things that I lovemore than anything else, and I still
say to my son probably laughs at me,is when I'm driving into school and
I see these little kids, I'm talking.
They must be like eight, maybe seven, six.
I don't know.
They're tiny little kids and I seethem going to school in the mornings
by themselves on their bicycle orwalking or on a little push scooter.
(31:06):
No parents, nobody watching them.
They cross over the roads,over the traffic lights.
They are so free.
It is wonderful to see howthe kids can be so free.
They're not, they'recarefree, they're not worried.
There's nothing.
There's no danger to them.
and they that they canbe free and go to school.
That sounds silly.
Just going to school.
But that's not something we were used to.
so I love seeing that.
(31:26):
I love seeing on the weekends so often,and still now in the area we're in,
we'll wake up on a Saturday morning, youcan look out the window and you can see
people down from, at the bottom by thepark playing with their kids at the park.
You can see people going for runs, peopleriding around on their bicycles, moms
and dads pushing prams with babies.
It's Such a community of family andI really, love it and people running
(31:49):
and getting fit and I love it.
Kiwis probably take it a little bit far.
They, come rain or shine,they'll be out there.
I'm not so keen on getting outin the rain and going for a walk
and getting out with a family.
preferred when it can be acloudy day, but not so rainy.
They don't care.
I'll even see where the,field where we've got.
A field right here, a big open, keptfield, it's public field and they'll
(32:13):
play soccer or they'll play cricket.
and it can be used by anyone in thepublic, but you, they do have events
where they have different schools comehere and play soccer and different
clubs come play soccer and they'llplay cricket against each other
and they'll stand in the rain, evencheering on their kids playing soccer.
It's such a familycommunity and I love it.
You'll see it Easter time.
Ah, I love it that some of thehouses, they'll go decorate their
(32:35):
gardens with lights and everythingfor Easter, and they, a lot of
the houses have flag poles here.
They'll put up a flag with a, anEaster bunny on it, or Happy Easter.
it's so nice.
Not that we celebrate Halloween, butyou also see the community at Halloween,
they celebrate Halloween and they'llall dress up and all the families and
kids will walk around and go trick ortreating at all the different homes.
It's just the community actuallydoing, and then my favorite
(32:57):
time of year is Christmas.
and on our container, all our Christmaslights, we used to decorate our
house back home in South Africa witha a, whole lot of Christmas lights.
I brought those across on thecontainer, so at Christmas we
could decorate even our rental.
Yes, I couldn't nail anythingin and screw anything on the
outside of the actual house.
I had to make a bit ofa plan with the whale.
I was putting up my Christmaslights, but it was so awesome to see.
(33:18):
It wasn't, I wasn't alone in putting upChristmas lights, the whole neighborhood.
There are so many homes that putup Christmas lights to the point
where they even run a competition.
Which is funded by andpromoted by the local.
Agency that sells homesand rents out homes.
So they're really driving forthe community to pull together
(33:39):
at Christmas, for example.
And they had prizes for first,second, and third prize for
whoever voted for the house withthe best lights and decorations.
And everybody will walk aroundand they will at night when it's
dark and it'll be late at night.
'cause it's over summer.
So the sun only goes down after nine.
So you'll see all these kids andfamilies walking around during
the school holidays in December.
(33:59):
leading up to Christmas, looking at housesand looking at all the different lights.
And you'll see some people, even with alltheir decorations, they hire bands and
bands are playing, music for the familiesthat are walking around, busy viewing the
houses on the street, some of them arehanding out, like candy and and sweets
and chocolates and everything like it.
it's.
So awesome to see the community, overand above the, different types of year,
(34:23):
like Eastern Halloween and Christmas.
what you also get to see is, on a regularbasis in the area, they get food trucks.
So back in South Africa, foodtrucks wasn't that big a thing.
for us it wasn't the norm.
But here in the local parks that, that,that grounds that us talking about
where they play soccer and everythingright by the house, they'll go and
park a whole lot of food trucks.
So they tell you in advance that thefood trucks are coming out in two weeks
(34:44):
time to your area and all the differenttypes of food trucks will park there.
and everybody will then go down atusually around about five o'clock
and go buy whatever food they have.
They'll take their picnic blankets andthey'll take some camper chairs and
whatever else, and they'll sit therewith their families while the kids are
running around and playing all eatingyour, food that you've bought from
(35:06):
the food trucks, which is so awesome.
And they've got bins that areput out so you can clean up and.
Afterwards, everybody makes sure thatthey're all, the mess is cleaned up and
it's clean, it's tidy, it's wholesome,family fun, and it's all just part
of the community, which is so cool.
Another thing that we are reallyloving is we are literally three
kilometers away from the beach andactually New Zealand, the beach is
(35:27):
generally not far away from most of theplaces that you live in New Zealand.
And to be able to just.
Where we come from in SouthAfrica, we were in Johannesburg,
which is nowhere near a beach.
It's probably six hours drive, tothe nearest beach, if not more so to
be able to be three kilometers awayfrom the beach, just a couple of
minutes drive or, half an hour's walk.
(35:48):
It's, awesome.
It's so nice to be able to go to thebeach and the amount of people after
work that will go walking on the beach,walking their dogs on the beach, walking
families on the beach, riding bicycleson the beach, pushing prams on the beach.
it's just, it's incredible.
It is so nice to see the familyvibe and the freedom that
people have and how safe it is.
It's absolutely awesome.
So just getting part of that community.
(36:10):
Another thing that we alsogot to enjoy in the area is.
Even our neighbors, they were so friendlywhen we moved in, both in the unit we
are in now, and the unit I was referringto in this podcast, the neighbors got to
know us and they're friendly and okay.
We didn't necessarily get together forbarbecues or brides or anything yet.
We hadn't built up relationshipslike that, but you get this friendly
wave every morning, every evening,whenever you see each other.
(36:31):
the one neighbor came acrossand he gave us a bottle of milk.
The one time he says he's going awayfor two weeks and the milk will go off.
Do we want the milk?
He went fishing, caught a hold of fish.
He offered us some fishthat we would want.
It's just.
It's so nice, the community.
It's really, awesome.
So I'm just sharing just to keep youmotivated that, it can be difficult
and there's a lot of challenges,but it's so worth it to, to be able
(36:52):
to live and be so free and have thespace and see your family and your
kids just be able to thrive and notjust survive that actually thriving.
And it's, awesome.
And as the, man of the home andthe father, you, it's this weight
that is just lifted off yourshoulders where you don't have to.
Constantly be worried about your family'ssafety and always being on guard.
(37:14):
You can actually just let your guarddown and just see them be free and happy.
it's worth all the money in the world.
It's absolutely phenomenal.
I'm loving that more than anything else.
The other things that we also lookedat, at the rental now that we've moved
to is, I joined a gym nearby, so thiswas at a time, so it was a couple
of weeks in now of being in country.
It was important for me to start gettinginto a little bit more of a routine start,
(37:36):
helping me get my mindset right, not only.
Physically getting healthier at the gym.
But it was just a way for me to get intoa routine that's a positive routine that
could help me start getting settled.
It was a way that I could get settled.
It also was an opportunity for me whereI've started to meet people at the gym.
So I can start talking to people,making friends, which I've done over
(37:58):
the last two years of joining gymover and above, getting healthier
and fitter and whatever else.
It's just been a nice wayfor me to get to know people.
so that's one of the things that I did.
Another example I can give just aboutcommunity or just the people and the way
they are here is I explained to you thatI was traveling into to town regularly.
So I was taking public transport,taking the buses into town.
(38:19):
So I was leaving the one carthat we had behind from my wife.
And she was using that.
So the cause battery started givingtrouble and there was an issue with it.
We did take out aa, so wedid have an AA membership.
It's one of the things we agreed to do.
so again, all depends on your budget.
So we were blessed enoughto be able to have that.
So we, we had aa, she was able to callAA within minutes they were there.
The guy was so helpful tothe point where he was.
(38:43):
telling her where she could goto get a different battery that
was actually cheaper versusbuying one from, AA directly.
And it was more expensive.
They were so helpful.
They really go out of theirway, to help and so friendly.
So really, awesome.
So I think I just wanted to carry onwith my journey and just give you a
little bit of hope, although over thelast few podcasts, in the beginning
(39:03):
I've told you all the challenges andsome people maybe think Jesus and I
can't believe you even still there.
And you actually madeit through all of this.
And that's why one ofthe podcasts I even said.
You have to have grit.
You really have to push on through.
But I just wanted to share with youand tell you that it's worth it.
I've just shared a little bit of, whatwe are experiencing now that we, a year,
two years in, you start experiencingthat after a year, two years in of the
(39:28):
community, of the freedom of the sense of.
Yeah, just that relief that you, don'thave to be on your guard all the time.
it's, awesome.
It really is so worth it, especially whenyou see the smiles on your kids' faces and
you can see the opportunities for them.
it's fantastic.
I'm loving, the Christmases andthe Easters and all the, holidays
(39:49):
and the kids running around inthe family vibe, in the community.
It's absolutely awesome.
So it's really what we enjoying.
So maybe that's what I really wantedto share in this, podcast is just
carrying on the journey, gettingto the point where we finally had a
home and just sharing a little bit ofhow nice it has been being in a home
where we've been in for a few months.
We did have a bit of a downer just beforeChristmas of the first year of being here.
(40:10):
I. We were told by our landlord that theywanted to, move back into the home so they
were gonna end the lease early, which wasa pain, especially just before Christmas.
But one of the nice things is becausewe had now moved home so many times,
we really knew what we needed todo to get into another rental.
I am gonna do a podcast andprobably also do a YouTube.
(40:34):
video on how to secure a rentaland how my wife, went about that.
It, really works well.
every single rental and thatwould, we are in our 1, 2, 3 fourth
rental now, within two years.
We have never been turneddown from a rental.
I'm not saying it's foolproof, but itreally is a good process that she uses.
(40:54):
So I think it'll be good to share ona podcast as well as a YouTube video.
although we had been givennotice just before Christmas.
We didn't panic.
we've been through tougher things and weknew you'd be able to, secure a rental.
It was a little bit difficult overthe Christmas, new Year period
because a lot of places closed down.
so a lot of people go onleave and stuff like that.
(41:15):
So it did delay it a little bit,but like I also mentioned one of
my previous podcasts and I will gointo the podcast around renting and,
Is the turnaround is pretty quick.
Once they advertise a placethat's available, you can move
in pretty quick within a numberof days to a week, two weeks.
So you can find a place quite quicklyand secure it as long as you, you
(41:35):
know what to do, how, to do it.
And that's what I'll gothrough in the podcast.
We could get it done.
So we did have to move one more time,and it was, just after Christmas.
So in the beginning of the newyear in 2024, we did have to move.
But that is the propertythat we are in at the moment.
And we are now, currently in oursecond year, we at the beginning of
our second year in, in that property.
(41:57):
So we've already been inthat property for a year.
we found one that's probably less thana kilometer away from the previous home.
We wanted to stay in the area for allthe reasons I was sharing with you as
well as the kids are in the school now.
They're well settled,
It was a little bit of another curveball that we had to go through,
but it wasn't the end of the world.
I think, you start learninghow to deal with things here,
(42:22):
and, it's so worth it comparedto some of the troubles we
were, we were facing back home.
So I'm still so grateful to be here and.
I am so glad we've pushed on throughall the difficulties that we've had
to be able to be at the point we'reat now, where we're starting to really
feel like New Zealand is our home.
I can see how the kids are happy.
I can see how they're thriving.
(42:44):
Is it perfect?
Have we got everything sorted out?
No, not yet, but we're stillpushing forward and I'm very
confident we will make this work.
we're on track to get our permanentresidency in the next couple of
months, so very excited about that.
And then we just set it outto get our citizenship, so we
definitely on the right track.
and we got a lot of goals.
we got goals of buying a homeand all kinds of things, so
(43:06):
I'll talk through that as we go.
But just talking through the first year.
The, it's tough.
It's not easy, but it's so doable.
I think maybe we want to closeoff with just letting you guys
know, please don't give up.
there's gonna be challenges.
It's, it can be really, tough andeverybody has their own journey and
everybody has their own story, butit's extremely heartbreaking when I
(43:29):
hear of people that have come acrossthat one, haven't been prepared
enough, haven't done enough planning,haven't done enough research, and.
They encountered troubles thatcould have been avoided had they
just done a bit more research.
And that's also one of thereasons I'm doing this podcast.
If you can learn from me and dothat little bit better than we
did and have a softer, demanding,that's the whole purpose of this.
(43:52):
With that said, I just wanna ask,please help me share this podcast.
If there's anybody that you know couldvalue from hearing this message and this
journey and my story that could help them,and, they're on their way or thinking
about coming to New Zealand, please shareit with them so it can help them too.
if you, feel this is helping you,please go to my YouTube channel.
(44:12):
It's at Soft Landing nz.
And subscribe.
and, make sure you get the notificationsbecause that's where all my podcasts
will be and all my YouTube videosare gonna be so that you can also
constantly, I'm gonna constantlyshare stuff and information around.
Like I said, the renting is one of theones that I'm going to share on schooling
is another one that I'm gonna share on.
(44:32):
I have done a podcast on, the costsof living in New Zealand, and I
will be doing YouTube tutorialson a lot of this stuff as well.
So please follow me.
go to my YouTube channel atSoft Landing nz, and subscribe.
And, yeah, I thinkthat's enough for today.
I've shared a littlebit more of the journey.
(44:53):
Maybe the next one I'll dowill be on ranking, with that.
I just wanted to thank you guys fortaking the time to listen to me.
I really hope this is adding value,so if it is, leave me some comments as
well Be nice to hear back from you guys.
it helps motivate me to keepcontinue doing the, these podcasts
and sharing this information.
You guys, Yeah, thanks very much and just,enjoy the rest of your day, and keep well,
(45:19):
keep safe and we will speak to you soon.
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