Eric De Witt - My Travels In New Zealand

My Travels In NewZealand

My Travels In NewZealand

Written by Eric DeWitt

Copyright 2018 Eric DeWitt

Published by Eric De Witt Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2018

All rights reserved. No part ofthis book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by anymeans, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recordingor any information storage or retrieval system without permissionfrom the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort totrace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the eventthat any images/information have been incorrectly attributed orcredited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions atthe earliest opportunity.

Published by Eric De Witt usingReach Publishers services,

ericd904@gmail.com

Edited by Frankie Kartun for ReachPublishers

Cover designed by ReachPublishers

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, SouthAfrica, 3631

Website:www.reachpublishers.co.za

E-mail:reach@webstorm.co.za

Photographer Samantha De Witt andAnnika Anderson

Contents

In this book, I explain what I went through and theprocedures regarding my immigration to New Zealand, as well as themany adventures I went on and the experiences I had. Immigrating toanother country is not an easy task and it takes a lot of time,money and nerves of steel. Timing is everything.

Once youre there, its very different and to fit inyou have to adjust very quickly to the locals. Once that isachieved, you will live a good life and, if youre anything likeme, you will have awesome adventures like no others.

The scenery in New Zealand is breath-taking. Thebays around the coast and the fishing and diving will blow yourmind. You can go on an adventure every weekend, if you like. I justabout did, Summer and Winter. I didnt let the weather stop me, normy wife and children, who just loved it, too.

It doesnt matter on what coastline around the worldyou live, you will always have wind and rain, four seasons in oneday and rough seas. But, I tell you, the weather will always offeryou a gap of sunshine and good clear skies, too.

I will talk about some of the adventures andmissions I went on, as well as what you can and cant do in NewZealand. I hope that you will have a good read and enjoy the book.If you have any intentions of immigrating to New Zealand, Im surethis book will help you along. Like I say, when you have made thedecision to immigrate, Just do it! You wont look back.

This is my story.

The year 1997 was when we started thinking ofimmigrating overseas, due to my losing customers - Im talkingabout professional people - on a daily basis. By the way, Im amechanic and I worked from home to be with my children.

Land with the Long WhiteCloud

One of my good friends and customers left toimmigrate to New Zealand and sent me lots of information on whatits like there, so my wife and I, at the time, decided to thinkabout it very carefully.

My youngest child was four years old and we had tomake a decision soon. So, we discussed it and then attended aseminar, where we discovered that New Zealand is a veryinteresting, awesome place. Obviously, they tell you all the goodstuff - its safe, theres no crime and its a cheap place tolive.

I always wanted to live at the coast. The best partis that there is sea all around New Zealand, it being a hugeisland. We were excited.

The other places we considered were Australia andCanada but given that we already had a friend in New Zealand, wedecided to check it out. I phoned my mate to let him know that weseriously thinking about immigrating there. He was very happy andsent us a lot of information.

New Zealand

The next thing we needed to do was let our extendedfamily know of our plans. This, you must remember, was a hugedecision to make. So, we got our parents together, had a barbecueand started talking about it.

Our parents agreed and said that it would be good toget out of Africa and start a new life while we were still young.As my wife is Portuguese, we had thought of Portugal but thelanguage barrier would have been a problem and as it also getsfreezing there, we decided against it. So, we made our decision togo to New Zealand and the adventure was on; we were going to doit. I love change and going on adventures - my whole life has beenone - but I didn't realise the extent of the one I was about toembark on.

Once our parents and friends had all agreed, westarted the process. We went with a company that said that they doeverything for you. First mistake! Dont believe them.

At that time, it cost us R12,000.They gave us an awesome book that was complete with colourpictures, maps and all the info we needed. We read the literatureand got very excited. Im a fisherman, camper, diver, 4 x 4adventurer, with lots of experience, which I will tell you about inthis book and it will blow you away. The missions Ive been on!But, okay, back to this mission.

After wed paid our R12,000 and registered, it wasall on. They told us how the point system worked with regard toage, qualification and money. They did the application for us,which we could have done on the Internet ourselves, had we known,and it would only have cost us R1,300 at that time, but it didntstop there.

They then told us that we needed all ourcertificates - the originals, not copies - as well as policeclearance, medicals, my qualifications, certificates of ourschooling, our parents birth certificates, our birth certificatesand a letter from the army. You name it, they wantedeverything.

My wife had to get her certificate from Zimbabwe,because she had gone to school there, but we could not obtain it,so she had to write an exam to get it, which she did, but you mustknow how long all this took!

Then, when we had our medicals for the whole family,it cost big money, and while we were waiting for police clearance,or some other certification, the other one expired. It was a joke.Finally, after a year, we had all our documents and sent them in.Then we waited. After two months, they came back and told us thatwe still needed this or that. It was crazy.

I was lucky because I worked from home, so I did allthe running around, but the money was just getting less and lessand the cost, by then, had risen to over R20,000. After about fourmonths, they came back to us saying, Sorry, you don't qualify forNew Zealand. Would you like to immigrate to Australia or Canadainstead? Just like that! I said certainly not. I asked what thereason had been for our rejection and they told me it was because Ihadnt made the points and my qualifications were insufficient.Well, Im sure you can imagine how I felt. I went crazy. All thatmoney and time wasted.

I asked, So, what can I do? and they told me thatI would have to do a course when I got there, get a job at aworkshop and then I would be assessed. We are talking here about abloke who had been a qualified A-grade mechanic, specialising inMercedes and BMW since 1986, i.e. for 13 years. Thats nothing.Doctors also have to be graded and pass a qualification. You see,they only want the best.

We thought about it and I said to my wife, Im notstopping here and Im not going alone. If we do this, we do ittogether. I then started selling up everything - our house, cars,bikes and boats. All we took with us was our furniture and myentire workshop, down to the last bolts. Im glad I did thatbecause I would need it, but I will tell you about all thatlater.

You must remember that, at that time, peoplesimmigration applications didnt go to New Zealand, but to England.That should give you an idea of how long it took. So, the house,cars and bikes were sold and the rest we put in a container, whichcost us R29,000 in 1999, but it costs a lot more now. They hadoriginally quoted R21,000 but, you know how it is, its never thefinal figure! Theres always something else; in this case, it wasthe Exchange Rate. So that was a surprise. I didnt take out anyinsurance, which was a huge risk, but I thought if I used awell-known removal company nothing could go wrong, although we weretalking about all our possessions here. We had to close ouraccounts and settle everything; luckily for us we had no debt.