My name is Ed, I'm a nurse on Medical ward at Timaru hospital. I came from North Devon in the UK. We arrived in September in 2022 after procrastinating moving to New Zealand for a few years!
I arrived with my wife and 4 kids, 2 being teens who were up for the challenge of moving across to the other side of the world!
The process took me about 18 months from getting the documents ready for CGFNS (this was the hardest and longest part which took 11 months) to flying to our new home.
We had been in contact with Kristin the whole way and she guided me through every step and prepped me for interviews. This was definitely the easy part of the process!
We knew we didn't want a city as the kids had never lived in a city back in the UK and we were determined on the South Island. After a few discussions, I settled for Timaru. Although, apprehensive at first, Timaru is a great location. 2 hours to Christchurch and 2.5 hours to Dunedin. This was great for the Women's World Cup! Our favourite place to visit is Caroline Bay and the social club opposite our house! One of the best things about Timaru is the community feel and the little blue penguins we get to visit. The kids enjoy the carnival in the Summer and the adults get brews on the bay festival too once a year!
I arrived with my wife and 4 kids, 2 being teens who were up for the challenge of moving across to the other side of the world!
The process took me about 18 months from getting the documents ready for CGFNS (this was the hardest and longest part which took 11 months) to flying to our new home.
We had been in contact with Kristin the whole way and she guided me through every step and prepped me for interviews. This was definitely the easy part of the process!
We knew we didn't want a city as the kids had never lived in a city back in the UK and we were determined on the South Island. After a few discussions, I settled for Timaru. Although, apprehensive at first, Timaru is a great location. 2 hours to Christchurch and 2.5 hours to Dunedin. This was great for the Women's World Cup! Our favourite place to visit is Caroline Bay and the social club opposite our house! One of the best things about Timaru is the community feel and the little blue penguins we get to visit. The kids enjoy the carnival in the Summer and the adults get brews on the bay festival too once a year!
We don't really miss the UK, but I do have an adult stepson that I miss but we FaceTime and, in the future, he will come out and visit us.
Nursing is better in New Zealand, I do 8 hour shifts here and although I work the same number of hours, I feel like I have a better work life balance.
If you're considering coming to NZ, my advice would be to do it. We came with the attitude "let's give it a go and if it fails, we can go back". Luckily, we've all settled in, and we don't see ourselves going back any time in the future.
To start the process, we used New Zealand Shores as our immigration advisers and ACCENT Health Recruitment to help me find a job. From one nurse to other medical staff, give it a shot because it might just change your life!
Ed
Nursing is better in New Zealand, I do 8 hour shifts here and although I work the same number of hours, I feel like I have a better work life balance.
If you're considering coming to NZ, my advice would be to do it. We came with the attitude "let's give it a go and if it fails, we can go back". Luckily, we've all settled in, and we don't see ourselves going back any time in the future.
To start the process, we used New Zealand Shores as our immigration advisers and ACCENT Health Recruitment to help me find a job. From one nurse to other medical staff, give it a shot because it might just change your life!
Ed