KH such a sobering post. Thank you so much for the courage and the eloquence in writing it. I enjoy your posts and blogs especially because there are so few north americans writing. Your words/thoughts have been with me all day and has opened up all kinds of new paths of thought as we ponder our own possible return to nz.
You've helped put some perspective on my rosy glasses I perpetually wear for all things kiwi.
The last time we chucked our north american life and moved our family of five to nz, OH went back into teaching to make it happen. It was a disaster. We ended up in probably the worst school in the country, and the promised support he would've needed to make the position work never came through. I also got very sick and everything (house etc) else that could go wrong did. After six months we beat a hasty return to north america, deciding it was a 'working holiday' we'd had.
Back in N.A. OH found much more suitable employment at many times the salary we would've ever had in nz (with full benefits etc). We bought the 'american dream' house and lived seven yrs of the 'lifestyle' (you can hear the 'but' here I hope) BUT....nz kept calling me back. Finally/recently I got so homesick and depressed with this north american lifestyle (and the prospect of another minus 40 winter) I actively found him another job in nz (at half his earning and no benefits)....I feel like we (or rather I, as its happened more often to me with previous attempts in nz) are in a continuous cycle of wanting to believe the kiwi promised dream and getting kicked in the teeth when we get there. But the lure is too hard to resist, I adore nz (foibles and all), its gets under my skin and seems impossible to wash off.
Makes me wonder how many others out there tried their best to make it work, left, and never quite got over it.
As a light-hearted aside: If you decide you want to move to canada I have a five bdrm/3 bth home on 2 acres with a pool only half an hour from a major city (only 15 mins to big box stores) and all for far less than a tiny unheatable shack in any nz town. But there aren't any pongas here, or Tuis, or soft warm rains, or sticky nz mud, or ..
I hope it all falls into place for you where-ever you decide you want to be. There sure seem alot of postings on the ed gazette! But we know the underlying reasons for that. Maybe education isn't the thing, maybe your skills could be well used in another nz industry (i'm sure you've thought of it, just had to add two more cents!)
Peace and best wishes! and keep blogging!
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