My husband had always wanted to move elsewhere even before he met me, and his first choice was NZ. But then in 1996, friends of ours came to the States and raved about it, and phoned us that there was a position open in California, why doesn't Jan come over for an interview? Jan came over, and loved the lifestyle of freedom, and raved about America for a year. Then I'd had enough and said we need to makea choice. Either we stay in SA and make our happiness there, and he shuts up about the USA, or we must go.
We sat down and looked at our options. Jan was not able to really progress in his career due to affirmative action. Education was going down the tube, and we felt we didn't want to raise kids there. so we agreed that there were better prospects for us elsewhere. This was 8 years ago, before crime got as bad as it is now.
We had two places we were interested in. USA and NZ. We chose the USA because our friends were here (even though we landed up living far away from them!), and because the economy is stronger, it's a huge country with lots of choice and variety, and opportunity.
But deep inside I've known we'd land up in NZ eventually. When our immigration to USA started going awry in August last year, we already started thinking of making moves for NZ, but didn't then. When the whole thing fell through in January, I immediately took action and used this site for the info needed. So glad I heard about this site on the very day it was created. We've been able to get all our ducks in a row very quickly.
I have total peace about our move to NZ. A great excitement = more than I ever had for America.
I will always love South Africa. Her blood runs in my veins and her blue skies are a clear memory (cherish them, friends, nowhere in the world do you see such an exquisite blue as in SA). I cry for the way South Africa is being raped, and I long for a day when a new government will stand up, take the lead and start the long walk to true healing.
