Starting a new life

Hi. I'm Oswald Kilian. I'm a Process Engineer originally from South Africa, Johannesburg, and now I'm working for WorleyParsons in New Plymouth, in New Zealand. Then I was always in the back for a mindset that we want to move somewhere different. We talked about moving overseas a little bit, and then just a couple of things happened in South Africa that we didn't like, and New Zealand became an obvious choice for us.

We submitted our EOI on the 16th of December, 2012. My engineering degree was immediately recognized, but my MBA wasn't on the pre-approved list of qualifications, so I applied to NZQA, went through that process and got my MBA certified, got 140 points. It helped tremendously. The oil and gas industry in Taranaki in New Zealand in general is quite strong, and a lot of drilling campaigns are ongoing. From the time that I spoke to personnel agent to getting a job offer, in the end was about eight days. Leading up to the trip, we flew out on 28th of December. Upfront, it was a lot of work, we decided to bring across a lot of our personal belongings, and we didn't quite realize what an exercise that would be. In hindsight we probably should have left a lot more stuff, or got rid of a lot more stuff. WorleyParsons were great in that to speak, they paid for our relocation, they gave us accommodation for the first month, fully furnished accommodation. That gave us time to settle down here, look for a place to stay, that kind of things. 

We were hunting for a house in the internet while still in South Africa, and we saw this place - a little bit rural. Lovely house, and lovely settings, with cow and sheep as neighbours, and the kids, they really love it there. You can still get a, especially in the rural towns like New Plymouth, you can still get a decent house for a decent price in a decent location, 9 out of 10 areas are decent. 

You look at your monthly expenses, where, back in South Africa we had to pay extra for medical insurance, we had to pay extra for education, we had to pay extra for security. The lifestyle that you can have here which you don't have back home. 

Short and sweet, just do it. It's worth it.