My Travels In New Zealand

By Eric De Witt

My Travels In New Zealand
This book describes the many wonderful things you can do in New Zealand. I lived in New Zealand and found it to be a very unique country. Such a small country has so much to offer from snow-capped mountains to huge forests, open oceans and hot springs. You can explore these wonders of the world with all their splendour and breathtaking post-card like beauty.
It’s a country that loves the great outdoors from hiking to scuba diving and fishing which can be spectacular.
You can head up North to the Bay of Islands and go Island hopping to your heart’s content, or you can head down South and explore the Fiord-lands with its huge mountains and crystal-clear lakes full of trout.
It’s a must to visit New Zealand! You certainly won’t regret it. In this book I describe some of the adventures I enjoyed during the time I lived there.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eric De Witt
• Release date: May 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463238042

Eric De Witt

I was born in South Africa and grew up in Johannesburg. From childhood I lived for adventure and explored whatever there was to explore. I love the outdoors and being in the bush. I just love animals in the wild. I just could not get enough and I did some adventures up in Namibia. I eventually did a diving course and did a lot of diving off the South African coast and Mozambique coast. I experienced diving to the max, but I wanted to live at the coast. In 1999 I immigrated to New Zealand and found the diving and fishing there to be superb. I have managed to do over a thousand dives and had some major adventures there. I have written this book about some of the adventures I endured in New Zealand and they will "blow your mind"

Book preview

My Travels In New Zealand

My Travels In New Zealand

Written by Eric De Witt

Copyright © 2018 Eric De Witt

Published by Eric De Witt Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Eric De Witt using Reach Publishers’ services,

[e-mail]

Edited by Frankie Kartun for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Website: www.reachpublishers.co.za

E-mail: [e-mail]

Photographer Samantha De Witt and Annika Anderson

Contents

Introduction

1. Immigration

2. Housing and Cars

3. Goat Island

4. Buying a Boat

5. My First Sail

6. Lifestyle

7. Kingfish Trip

8. Jobs and Schooling

9. Weekend Sailing Trip

10. Trout Fishing, Rotorua

11. Day Trips

12. Camping Trip

13. First Maori Hangi

14. Motor Racing

15. First Diving Trip on Elisha

16. Napier

17. First Great Barrier Island Trip on Elishia

18. Getting Out and About

19. Fishing and Diving Trip

20. 4 x 4 Trip

21. Great Barrier Island Super-fast

22. South Island

Introduction

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

Once you’re there, it’s very different and to fit in you have to adjust very quickly to the locals. Once that is achieved, you will live a good life and, if you’re anything like me, you will have awesome adventures like no others.

The scenery in New Zealand is breath-taking. The bays around the coast and the fishing and diving will blow your mind. You can go on an adventure every weekend, if you like. I just about did, Summer and Winter. I didn’t let the weather stop me, nor my wife and children, who just loved it, too.

It doesn’t matter on what coastline around the world you live, you will always have wind and rain, four seasons in one day and rough seas. But, I tell you, the weather will always offer you a gap of sunshine and good clear skies, too.

I will talk about some of the adventures and missions I went on, as well as what you can and can’t do in New Zealand. I hope that you will have a good read and enjoy the book. If you have any intentions of immigrating to New Zealand, I’m sure this book will help you along. Like I say, when you have made the decision to immigrate, Just do it! You won’t look back.

This is my story.

Chapter 1

Immigration

The year 1997 was when we started thinking of immigrating overseas, due to my losing customers - I’m talking about professional people - on a daily basis. By the way, I’m a mechanic and I worked from home to be with my children.

Land with the Long White Cloud

One of my good friends and customers left to immigrate to New Zealand and sent me lots of information on what it’s like there, so my wife and I, at the time, decided to think about it very carefully.

My youngest child was four years old and we had to make a decision soon. So, we discussed it and then attended a seminar, where we discovered that New Zealand is a very interesting, awesome place. Obviously, they tell you all the good stuff - it’s safe, there’s no crime and it’s a cheap place to live.

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

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

New Zealand

The next thing we needed to do was let our extended family know of our plans. This, you must remember, was a huge decision to make. So, we got our parents together, had a barbecue and started talking about it.

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

Once our parents and friends had all agreed, we started the process. We went with a company that said that they do everything for you. First mistake! Don’t believe them.

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

After we’d paid our R12,000 and registered, it was all on. They told us how the point system worked with regard to age, 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 didn’t stop there.

They then told us that we needed all our certificates - the originals, not copies - as well as police clearance, medicals, my qualifications, certificates of our schooling, our parents’ birth certificates, our birth certificates and a letter from the army. You name it, they wanted everything.

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 must know 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 that we still needed this or that. It was crazy.

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

I asked, ‘So, what can I do?’ and they told me that I would have to do a course when I got there, get a job at a workshop and then I would be assessed. We are talking here about a bloke who had been a qualified A-grade mechanic, specialising in Mercedes and BMW since 1986, i.e. for 13 years. That’s 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, ‘I’m not stopping here and I’m not going alone. If we do this, we do it together.’ I then started selling up everything - our house, cars, bikes and boats. All we took with us was our furniture and my entire workshop, down to the last bolts. I’m glad I did that because I would need it, but I will tell you about all that later.

You must remember that, at that time, peoples’ immigration applications didn’t 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, which cost us R29,000 in 1999, but it costs a lot more now. They had originally quoted R21,000 but, you know how it is, it’s never the final figure! There’s always something else; in this case, it was the Exchange Rate. So that was a surprise. I didn’t take out any insurance, which was a huge risk, but I thought if I used a well-known removal company nothing could go wrong, although we were talking about all our possessions here. We had to close our accounts and settle everything; luckily for us we had no debt.

Then, guess what? The company that was dealing with our immigration called me and said, ‘Eric, you now qualify to immigrate.’ They had changed the point system by coming down, but we needed to re-apply. That was going to cost another R2,000. In spite of that, I was very, very happy with the news, believe it or not.

It was getting real close now and soon time for all the goodbyes. The container was on its way. Everybody held a party for us and I was pissed for almost a week afterwards! I had one problem, though: we were going to be staying at my wife’s folks’ place for the last week before we left.

I had one car left to sell - a ‘Honda 1300 - and had found a buyer, a black bloke whom I hadn’t yet met. He had to pay me R12,000 for it, but when he came with a mate, it was real scary. He gave me the money, but had to drop me off in Germiston, East of Johannesburg. We were driving along and everything was cool, but then we hit some peak hour traffic and the car started overheating. My passengers couldn’t see the gauge, but I was watching it like a hawk. We carried on driving and the temperature started coming down. I knew what it was - the fan wasn't coming on. Off we went again and I was praying, ‘Please don't overheat,’ but I could smell it. We were coming off the motorway and there was traffic and Africans everywhere. I was practically shitting myself, what with having R12,000 in my pocket and being in a danger zone. By that time, though, I had to stop the car to let it cool down.

They kept asking me, ‘What’s wrong with the car?’ I said that it was overheating. They then told me that they didn’t want the car anymore and started arguing with me. I explained very nicely that it was only due to the fan not coming on. By that time, a crowd was gathering and they were all talking in Sotho. I showed them how to bridge the fan with a piece of wire I found on the road. Remember, I had no tools anymore as they were all in the container en route to New Zealand. I put in more water and the car cooled down. I calmed them down, but from the looks I was getting, I honestly thought that I was going to get mugged and robbed. We pushed off again and I stopped three streets away from my in-laws’ place and walked the rest of the way, scared to death.

Keep in mind that I’m a small bloke, but I know how to get out of the shit. Arriving home safely, I uttered a silent, ‘Thank you, God. That was close.’ With just one week left, my adrenalin was pumping constantly. I wasn’t sure if we should do this or pull out, but the overriding answer was: ‘Go! Go!’ There’s one more story to this mission: My father-in-law lent me his car for the day. I dropped him off at work somewhere in Boksburg and thought I knew where it was, when it was time to go and fetch him in the afternoon.

I got my daughter, who was four years old, and off we went. I forgot my phone and had very little money on me, but I had my ciggies. Even though I thought I knew where to go, when I got to the area I discovered that