Migrants tell their story...
Wayne Hayler,
Floor & Wall Tiler
Floor & Wall Tiler
Wayne Hayler couldn’t stand the M25 a moment longer. He, wife Linda and children Grace and Rosemary have headed for New Zealand, where they are looking forward to breathing fresh, clean air and enjoying a healthier lifestyle
One of the first things Wayne and Linda Hayler planned to do after arriving in New Zealand as new migrants in September was to pop into their local video shop and hire a copy of Lord of the Rings. Linda (35) refused to see the movie, which was filmed entirely on location in New Zealand, until she knew their application for emigration would be successful.
Says Wayne (40), a floor and wall tiler: Linda wouldn’t watch it until we got our visas. Now we have, we can’t because we have sold our house and no longer own a video, but it’ll be one of the first things we do in New Zealand
The West London couple spoke to us just a week before they were due to jet off to a new life in Auckland’s North Shore. From start to finish, their emigration process took a little over a year.
Explains Wayne: "We first discussed the possibility of living in New Zealand several years ago, but for family reasons the timing wasn’t right until just recently. We went to last year’s Emigrate Show at Sandown Racecourse and spoke to the New Zealand Immigration Service and some immigration consultancy companies. We came away from that day thinking we’d really like to go for it. We were very impressed with the NZIS; they were very helpful and we picked up an armful of leaflets and magazines. We read everything we could and the more we learnt the more we liked the sound of the country. We wanted to do it before either us or our kids - Grace (8) and Rosemary (4) - get too old."
But it wasn’t until last September that the Haylers got serious. Although a qualified wall and floor tiler by trade, for the past dozen years Wayne has worked at Heathrow Airport for Air Canada as a ramp supervisor. He explains: “The floor tiling and ceramic fitting industries crashed in the late 1980s and early 90s, which is why I retrained for a second career, but over the years I’ve maintained my tiling skills by running my own small business”.
Wayne’s trade City and Guilds were assessed by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) and judged acceptable. With the help of The Emigration Group, the Haylers were ready to submit their application at the end of May.
Two months later they received their visas from the NZIS. “It was quick, but what we’d been led to expect,” says Wayne.
“Receiving our visas so rapidly slotted in very well with our circumstances as we were renting accommodation by this point.”
Says Wayne: “Our consultants, The Emigration Group in Chester and Taylor & Associates in Auckland, advised us to be ready to move as soon as we could after we got our visa. They pointed out that it would be a definite turn-off to any potential Kiwi employer if we had to tell them we would be delayed while we waited to sell our house.”
Looking back on the application process as a whole, Wayne says he was surprised at just how smooth everything went. “It was made easy for us and I’m still waiting for the ‘Big Hitch’ as it really has gone so well.”
None of the family has ever been to New Zealand, and in fact is more familiar with two other traditional migrant-taking countries, Canada and Australia. But despite this they say New Zealand’s the only country they seriously considered and know exactly what they are looking forward to: “A clean and beautiful environment, open spaces and the outdoor life,” says Wayne. “It has long held a sort of mystical and magical appeal to us,” he explains. “What with its green, environmental focus and laid back lifestyle . . . and we’ve never, ever come across a nasty Kiwi”.
Despite his involvement with Air Canada, and the fact that Wayne and Linda have visited Canada on several occasions, it’s never struck them as a country where they’d want to live permanently.” It’s beautiful, but too cold for us,” he says. “We’ve also been to Australia and have relatives there, but Linda would never be able to handle the spiders!” Besides, Australia just doesn’t appeal as much as New Zealand, which is a special place for us: the people, the landscape and its location in the Pacific.”
They do, though, admit they are a “bit worried” they’ve never visited the Land of The Long White Cloud. “Yes, it’s a concern, but we’ve read a mountain of books, talked to lots of people, and when I still had a computer we did a lot of research on the Internet.”
The family jetted out to New Zealand at the end of August 2002 without any worries about finding a job: Wayne had already lined up a role with a small family-run ceramic tiling company in Kakaporo, near Auckland.
“I enrolled on to the Taylor and Associates Jobsearch Programme and they put me in touch with a tiling company there,” he explains.
“As chance would have it, the guy who runs it was in the UK for a month and we met up in London. I had an interview with him, which went well. “He’s over 60 and was looking for someone who will eventually slip into his shoes and take over the company bit by bit. Three weeks after he got back to New Zealand Taylor and Associates negotiated my job offer. The job will be pretty much what I’ve been doing for years here, although they do a lot of pool surrounds and tile a lot more floors in New Zealand.” Wayne says the salary he’s been offered as “reasonable”. “It’s a pretty good starting rate and I’m happy with it,” he says.
On using a consultant, Wayne comments: “We are very glad we did. We met The Emigration Group at Emigrate 2001 and they sold themselves to us very well. We expressed an interest in them and later met up in a hotel at Heathrow Airport and had a very thorough meeting. We were very attracted by the fact that they have a sister company based in New Zealand. The biggest plus though was the link they provided to a New Zealand employer. The resultant job offer is undoubtedly the main benefit.”
On their impending lives in New Zealand, Wayne added: “We believe New Zealand will be a great place to bring the kids up in. We want them to have a healthier life than they would here, but we’d have gone even if we had had no kids. It‘s such a rat race in Britain, so crowded and polluted, and yes, like many other migrants, I’m going to mention how I can’t stand the M25 a moment longer! It’s also just so expensive here, which means you have to work so hard just to maintain a decent quality of life. We were quite sporty here, but we expect to do plenty of outdoors stuff in New Zealand. We’re looking forward to breathing fresh and clean air, and we hope its true that it‘s slightly old fashioned, and things move at a slower pace; we won’t mind one bit if it is really like England was 30 years ago!”
The family planned to live in a hotel in Auckland for a month or so, while they looked for a rented house. “We’ll take things slowly when we get there, and get to know the country a bit,” says Wayne. “And we’ll have plenty of time to see Lord of the Rings,” he laughs.
One of the first things Wayne and Linda Hayler planned to do after arriving in New Zealand as new migrants in September was to pop into their local video shop and hire a copy of Lord of the Rings. Linda (35) refused to see the movie, which was filmed entirely on location in New Zealand, until she knew their application for emigration would be successful.
Says Wayne (40), a floor and wall tiler: Linda wouldn’t watch it until we got our visas. Now we have, we can’t because we have sold our house and no longer own a video, but it’ll be one of the first things we do in New Zealand
The West London couple spoke to us just a week before they were due to jet off to a new life in Auckland’s North Shore. From start to finish, their emigration process took a little over a year.
Explains Wayne: "We first discussed the possibility of living in New Zealand several years ago, but for family reasons the timing wasn’t right until just recently. We went to last year’s Emigrate Show at Sandown Racecourse and spoke to the New Zealand Immigration Service and some immigration consultancy companies. We came away from that day thinking we’d really like to go for it. We were very impressed with the NZIS; they were very helpful and we picked up an armful of leaflets and magazines. We read everything we could and the more we learnt the more we liked the sound of the country. We wanted to do it before either us or our kids - Grace (8) and Rosemary (4) - get too old."
But it wasn’t until last September that the Haylers got serious. Although a qualified wall and floor tiler by trade, for the past dozen years Wayne has worked at Heathrow Airport for Air Canada as a ramp supervisor. He explains: “The floor tiling and ceramic fitting industries crashed in the late 1980s and early 90s, which is why I retrained for a second career, but over the years I’ve maintained my tiling skills by running my own small business”.
Wayne’s trade City and Guilds were assessed by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) and judged acceptable. With the help of The Emigration Group, the Haylers were ready to submit their application at the end of May.
Two months later they received their visas from the NZIS. “It was quick, but what we’d been led to expect,” says Wayne.
“Receiving our visas so rapidly slotted in very well with our circumstances as we were renting accommodation by this point.”
Says Wayne: “Our consultants, The Emigration Group in Chester and Taylor & Associates in Auckland, advised us to be ready to move as soon as we could after we got our visa. They pointed out that it would be a definite turn-off to any potential Kiwi employer if we had to tell them we would be delayed while we waited to sell our house.”
Looking back on the application process as a whole, Wayne says he was surprised at just how smooth everything went. “It was made easy for us and I’m still waiting for the ‘Big Hitch’ as it really has gone so well.”
None of the family has ever been to New Zealand, and in fact is more familiar with two other traditional migrant-taking countries, Canada and Australia. But despite this they say New Zealand’s the only country they seriously considered and know exactly what they are looking forward to: “A clean and beautiful environment, open spaces and the outdoor life,” says Wayne. “It has long held a sort of mystical and magical appeal to us,” he explains. “What with its green, environmental focus and laid back lifestyle . . . and we’ve never, ever come across a nasty Kiwi”.
Despite his involvement with Air Canada, and the fact that Wayne and Linda have visited Canada on several occasions, it’s never struck them as a country where they’d want to live permanently.” It’s beautiful, but too cold for us,” he says. “We’ve also been to Australia and have relatives there, but Linda would never be able to handle the spiders!” Besides, Australia just doesn’t appeal as much as New Zealand, which is a special place for us: the people, the landscape and its location in the Pacific.”
They do, though, admit they are a “bit worried” they’ve never visited the Land of The Long White Cloud. “Yes, it’s a concern, but we’ve read a mountain of books, talked to lots of people, and when I still had a computer we did a lot of research on the Internet.”
The family jetted out to New Zealand at the end of August 2002 without any worries about finding a job: Wayne had already lined up a role with a small family-run ceramic tiling company in Kakaporo, near Auckland.
“I enrolled on to the Taylor and Associates Jobsearch Programme and they put me in touch with a tiling company there,” he explains.
“As chance would have it, the guy who runs it was in the UK for a month and we met up in London. I had an interview with him, which went well. “He’s over 60 and was looking for someone who will eventually slip into his shoes and take over the company bit by bit. Three weeks after he got back to New Zealand Taylor and Associates negotiated my job offer. The job will be pretty much what I’ve been doing for years here, although they do a lot of pool surrounds and tile a lot more floors in New Zealand.” Wayne says the salary he’s been offered as “reasonable”. “It’s a pretty good starting rate and I’m happy with it,” he says.
On using a consultant, Wayne comments: “We are very glad we did. We met The Emigration Group at Emigrate 2001 and they sold themselves to us very well. We expressed an interest in them and later met up in a hotel at Heathrow Airport and had a very thorough meeting. We were very attracted by the fact that they have a sister company based in New Zealand. The biggest plus though was the link they provided to a New Zealand employer. The resultant job offer is undoubtedly the main benefit.”
On their impending lives in New Zealand, Wayne added: “We believe New Zealand will be a great place to bring the kids up in. We want them to have a healthier life than they would here, but we’d have gone even if we had had no kids. It‘s such a rat race in Britain, so crowded and polluted, and yes, like many other migrants, I’m going to mention how I can’t stand the M25 a moment longer! It’s also just so expensive here, which means you have to work so hard just to maintain a decent quality of life. We were quite sporty here, but we expect to do plenty of outdoors stuff in New Zealand. We’re looking forward to breathing fresh and clean air, and we hope its true that it‘s slightly old fashioned, and things move at a slower pace; we won’t mind one bit if it is really like England was 30 years ago!”
The family planned to live in a hotel in Auckland for a month or so, while they looked for a rented house. “We’ll take things slowly when we get there, and get to know the country a bit,” says Wayne. “And we’ll have plenty of time to see Lord of the Rings,” he laughs.
