So why not go back to NZ?

That was the question I was asked recently. I have indefinite PR as does my wife. My son was born there so has two passports! My daughter (5) would need some sort of visa but that shouldn’t be a problem.

So what’s wrong with NZ? In short, nothing! We loved out time there (1995-1998). We only left when my well paid contract with NZ Telecom was terminated with a permanent job offer at 75% of my previous wage. Still a good living wage but we would need to make some sacrifices. Number one being fewer (if any) trips back to the UK. I could have lived with that, but my wife couldn’t. She had missed her Mum since coming over and with our son arriving while there it had gotten worse. So we packed up and headed back in April 1998, (smart enough to get two summers in a row). I got contract work in IT again, we managed to scrape together a deposit and got on the property ladder again.

Whenever times got hard or I just got bored I would look at the PR in my passport and think about going back. I even went as far as paying to get the PR certificate transferred from my old expired passport into my new one. But it is so very far away and the family ties are just as strong. Economically NZ does not seem to make as much sense as Canada, the difference between average wage and average house price is just too great in NZ. It’s tempting to go there, no immigration problems, I still have contacts as Telecom so a job may not be too difficult, but no. It’s Canada or stay at home (home being UK for the time being).

I was riding to work this morning on my scooter (a 400cc Piaggio X8, not a push along toy) through a lovely part of rural England. I ride about 50km (30miles) from Ware Herts. to Canary Wharf in East London. You might imagine this is a grim ride through industrial squalor and yes it can be. An alternative route takes in small villages with Norman churches and old pubs, ancient forest (beware of the deer) and finally into the modern splendour of Canary Wharf. That’s one thing I know I’ll miss if we do make the move. England is very pretty, green and full of historic places. I ones lived in Wanborough Manor near Guildford which dates back to 1080 (or the church does) and I can’t imagine getting that amount of history in Calgary. Still Alberta does have amazing archaeological stuff going back millions of years.

I work about half way up One Canada Square, that’s the pointy one in the middle. I get views of the Thames from Tower Bridge to QE2 Bridge (if you have binoculars). While I was in Calgary I went up the Calgary Tower. I got a spectacular view of the Rockies, well actually I bought a post card put it by the window and squinted. The Rockies were out there somewhere in the mist and rain and occasionally you would glimpse them like giant ghosts teasing you by playing hide and seek. I suspect even on a clear day they would be too far away to see them at their best. We did a trip to Banff the day before we left just to prove to ourselves these mountains really did exist, well worth the trip.