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August 2000
Hello Everyone
Well, finally I have managed to write a proper letter if it hadnt been for Andreas letters we would probably have been presumed dead by now. My apologies, and Im also sorry if some of what Im writing below is old hat to you.
I have been in New Zealand since the beginning of February and Andrea and Lara joined me at the end of February. Initially we lived in a two bedroomed flat/house in Browns Bay, one of the north eastern seaside suburbs of Auckland. Our furniture only arrived at the beginning of May, so until then we lived with just the few sparse furnishings I bought before Andrea arrived a mattress on the floor, some plastic patio furniture, one pot and some crockery and cutlery. Some friends lent us a baby cot and a fridge. Its amazing how little you really need. We lived like that quite happily, and were beginning to wonder why we had paid R16 000 to have another 11 cubic meters of possessions shipped over here. But it was very nice to have some of our things like a microwave oven and our CDs again once the container finally arrived. Nothing apart from one bottle of wine was broken in the move, but we had to wash all clothing and linen as it was a bit musty some of the Durban humidity exported to NZ!
I set about looking for a job, as I thought it would be best to get to know a new country at someone elses expense rather than to do it on my own account if I bought a business. But although I sent off over 50 applications for specific jobs and to personnel agencies in general, without being fussy about the level of jobs I tried for, the response was underwhelming. Out of all the applications I was invited for only one interview!
I can only speculate as to why this was as there are several possible reasons. One factor is probably that my experience was in a specific field in which there are few opportunities in NZ. They seem to be very set on specific relevant experience, and ones overall abilities dont seem to count that much. But I did apply for two or three jobs for which my experience should have been quite appropriate e.g. a Service Manager for the Perkins, DDC and MTU agents and a Sales/ Application Engineer for CAT but no response, and when I phoned I was basically told dont call us, well call you!
With the job that I actually went for the interview for, and presumably some others, the problem was that they were pretty low level jobs, and the guy who interviewed me said that although I probably had the best capabilities of all candidates, it would not help him if I used that job a stop-gap measure for a few months until I found something better, and then theyd have to start recruiting and training all over again. Fair enough.
But apart from all that, it seems that here in NZ there is a definite bias against foreigners or South Africans specifically - I don't know which it is, described variously as mistrust of foreigners to downright xenophobia. Not that you would ever get the impression when talking directly to people, they are all as friendly as you could wish for, but talking to many ex-SA's we have consistently been getting the message that everyone struggles to gain acceptance. Maybe the fact that the Springboks have an almost 50% record against the All Blacks is the root cause of this dislike, although on current form they should be feeling sorry for us. But don't get me wrong, we are happy to be here, it's just that one has to be aware of factors like this slipping into the equation its not all plain sailing.
Anyway, after about six weeks I decided that this was getting us nowhere, so we decided to look for a business to buy. In order to minimise the fact that we were new to the country and did not know local conditions, we decided to look at franchises, as these at least had a concept proven to work in NZ and there was a backup that one could rely on when one had questions or problems. We looked at a wide variety, and it was a time consuming process, as we often waited for days or weeks for information and drove all over Auckland and even beyond, only to decide that this was not for us, and we went back to the drawing board and started again. But we did not want to rush into things, as this was a long-term decision. Initially we had put ourselves under pressure to reach a decision, as we were living off our capital and wanted to start earning money as soon as possible. But then we realised that that would just have to be part of the cost of emigrating, as the decision would have greater financial implications by far than the cost of living for a few weeks or months off our savings.
We looked at even the most unlikely options that seemed to conform to a basic set of criteria we had formulated. After quite a few weeks of doing this we were advised by a Franchise Consultant to whom a friend had referred us to also look at non-franchised options.
Finally we came across a business just starting up in which shares were being sold. It will press olive and avocado oil, mainly from other growers but it will also own some olive groves. As this is a new business there was and unacceptable risk in it for me, so we could not invest a major portion of our capital in it. There was obviously no guarantee of an immediate or regular return.
But the major shareholder offered me a job to run his factory, so I have accepted that and just bought a minor share (4%) in the company. I will start there in September/October, once the installation of the plant (from Alfa Laval in Italy) commences. I feel very positive about it and view it as quite a challenge, even though there is an element of risk, as it is a completely new venture with unproven markets. But no risk, no gain. I'm just holding thumbs that it will work out. The salary is not fantastic just enough to live off, but I hope that that will improve as my experience and the companys cashflow picks up
The business is located 250 km north of Auckland near Kerikeri, which is situated at the tip of an inlet on the Bay of Islands, which is one of New Zealands most beautiful spots. That alone says quite something, because just about everything here is beautiful. The bay is great for fishing, diving and sailing, so hopefully we will be able to get some kind of a boat quite soon so that we can join the action.
In spite of being such a small town (pop. 4000), it is not your average Kiwi one-horse town, and the general attitude and intellect is much more big town. A large percentage of the inhabitants have moved here from Auckland to get out of the rat race, but they have created a market which has enabled a whole range of coffee shops, restaurants etc to open up.
Andrea also likes it although I think she would have preferred to stay in Auckland. She had made quite a few friends there already, and there are many shops, goodness knows what that has to do with it, as we don't have any money in any case!
Packing for the move from Auckland to Kerikeri was a doddle - we did an hour or two on Sunday afternoon and spent about half the day on Monday, as we hadnt unpacked most of our things from SA and just stored them all in the garage. The movers didn't pack anything into boxes - in fact, it was just one man and his truck. So I had to help him load - I could have hired another man for about 100$. In the end he helped me carry the heavy things like the washing machine, fridge, dishwasher, tumble drier and couch, but all the rest I loaded and offloaded myself whilst he packed and unpacked the truck. I discovered some muscles that I had forgotten I had ever had, especially the next day, but another day later I was ok again!
We are living in a rented 3 bedroom house- very nice even if basic, and it's a stone's throw from everything else! The house has beautiful wooden floors, but suffers from a common NZ malady in that the built-in-cupboard space is quite pathetic - there are one or two pokey little hanging cupboards in every room. One is supposed to have chests of drawers, which we don't.
Since I will only start work sometime in September or maybe even at the beginning of October, I decided to use the opportunity to sand down and revarnish most of our furniture, as its all a bit jaded. Apart from that I am doing a lot of research about olives and olive pressing on the internet. I will also buy a couple of books to study the subject more fully. Our internet connection is free, but unlike when we were in Auckland, not the telephone, as there is no ISP available by local call, and trunk calls aren't free (all local calls in NZ are free once you have paid the basic phone rental). In order to minimise these costs we have opted for a Favourite City plan from Telecom, which means that for a flat rate of 29$ per month we can call to a nominated city for as long as we like in off-peak time (weekdays 1800h-0800h + Fri 1800h - Mon 0800h). We nominated Auckland, as in that way we can also use the phone to call our friends in Auckland at no additional cost. We are also using the internet for voice calls to South Africa. This is a very good feature whereby you can speak to anyone else with an internet connection, and it costs no more than the respective internet and local call charges. So we now speak for hours on end at no incremental cost. The NZ off-peak time works out quite nicely, because it means we can be online 0800h-2200h SAST.
Lara is coming along in leaps and bounds. She is a joy to us and is talking quite a bit now, and actually asks for things of her own accord - yesterday she didn't like our supper, so she pointed to the kitchen and said ya-ya, which is what she calls yoghurt. Up to now she would at best demand something else that she could see in front of her. I suppose she will next start demanding things which we don't even stock at home - go to MacDonalds and get some chips!!! She is very determined and has a very strong will very stubborn in fact, which she undoubtedly inherited from her mother!
Every cloud has a silver lining, and it has really been very nice for me to have been at home so much during these six months to see her grow up and to interact with her. Its an opportunities very few fathers probably ever get.
Andrea is now having to make new friends for the third time in a year after having had to do so in Durban and Auckland, but I am sure that she will manage she has already made some contacts through Plunket (the baby clinic).
All in all we a very happy in NZ. The people are very friendly, its clean, things work, and above all there is not the big wealth gap and the associated problems. Its not perfect, but one can compensate for the minor blemishes. At times its almost boring, because nothing ever happens well the issues that are blown up in the newspapers and TV for days on end wouldnt even make page 5 in SA. Very little violence, corruption and skandaal! Economically its a bit of a backwater- there just isnt any industry worth talking about here. It seems that as soon as a company grows big they move their head office to Australia and the manufacturing to Indonesia or Malaysia. Something like 92% of all Kiwis work for themselves or for companies employing less than 10 people. You have to work hard to make it, but there are enough people who live a very good lifestyle, even by old white SA standards.
SA friends of ours have just emigrated to Canada and it is quite nice to exchange experiences with them. We find that most people in SA can't understand why we've left, and most immigrants we talk to here can't understand why anyone stayed behind in SA - so it's good to talk to someone who is going through the same process as you are.
The weather - we have almost survived our first winter, and where we have been, it hasnt been bad. No worse than a Cape Town winter, in fact, very similar but without the wind and the biting snow air. Of course it gets much colder south of Auckland, but we didnt go there! Maybe well go there one winter for a few days to ski!
As to our properties in SA- thank goodness we have finally sold all three - what a schlepp. We sold the Kloof Street flat four times before it finally worked out! Even so we had to drop our prices substantially. But we realised that the market in SA and CPT is going nowhere, so there was no point in hanging on for a fancy price, whilst all the time we were paying bond interest, rates, levies etc, and the value of the rand was sinking lower and lower. I had to just about have the Camps Bay house rewired. The deterioration could not all have taken place in the past 5 years that I have owned the house, so the guy who made out the certificate when I bought it obviously did not take the matter as seriously as they did this time around (even a tame sparky friend of ours wouldn't pass it off as is).
Thats just about all I can tell. Keep well and please drop us a line its always good to get mail from our friends.
Regards
Kurt
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