{"id":357483,"date":"2026-03-31T21:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/357483\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T21:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:44:11","slug":"when-the-australian-dream-takes-your-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/357483\/","title":{"rendered":"When the Australian dream takes your kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some 5000 New Zealanders are heading off to start new lives in Australia every month. Many are young adults. Mine are two of them, writes Gill Higgins. <\/p>\n

First, it was our daughter. Now it\u2019s our son. Both in their 20s. Both chasing better opportunities. And both at risk of building lives across the Tasman for good. <\/p>\n

That may sound dramatic. My kids would probably roll their eyes at me for saying it. Finding an Australian partner and settling there permanently is hardly top of mind right now. <\/p>\n

But for many parents, it\u2019s the thought that lurks in the background. I know several whose children made the move, fell in love, and never came back. It\u2019s enough to make you wonder whether, one day, you\u2019ll be the one following them. <\/p>\n

It has certainly sharpened my interest in what life is really like in that country that feels so familiar \u2014 yet is different in all sorts of ways. <\/p>\n

Are you thinking of moving to Australia and want to join a TVNZ programme on the issue? Fill in the form above. App users, click here<\/a><\/p>\n

My daughter Indi, 24, moved to Melbourne last year, a few years after finishing a conjoint degree in Commerce and Communications at the University of Auckland. She found work in her field in Auckland after graduating, but it wasn\u2019t her dream job. <\/p>\n

She saved, travelled through Europe, worked briefly in Amsterdam, and when the money ran low it was time to come home. <\/p>\n

Except somehow, I knew home wouldn\u2019t mean Auckland. <\/p>\n

She felt the city was too quiet and the opportunities weren\u2019t there. Almost all her friends had already moved to Australia or London. She wanted somewhere busier, somewhere that felt young. <\/p>\n

So she made endless pros-and-cons lists comparing Australian cities and landed on Melbourne. <\/p>\n

‘There\u2019s just so much more going on here’<\/p>\n

A year and a half on, she says she has no doubt it was the right call. \u201cI\u2019ve about doubled my pay and I\u2019ve doubled my weekly activities too, there\u2019s just so much more going on here.\u201d <\/p>\n

So I wasn\u2019t exactly shocked when my son Ben, 22, decided he was heading to Australia too, though his reasons are a little different. <\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben and his surfing friends are enticed by what the Gold Coast has to offer. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Again, better pay is part of it. As a physiotherapy graduate, he expects an entry-level job could earn him $15,000 to $20,000 more than it would in New Zealand. A quick look on Seek also suggests there are far more graduate opportunities. <\/p>\n

But Ben\u2019s pull is also lifestyle. He\u2019s all about the sea, surfing and sport. For him, the drawcard is \u201coutdoor lifestyle, good weather year-round, quality surf, and being among like-minded young people\u201d. <\/p>\n

So in May, he\u2019s off to the Gold Coast with two mates he\u2019s known since primary school. One is into surfing. The other loves football. For them, it all stacks up. <\/p>\n

Ben sees Australia as \u201ca good transition\u201d because it\u2019s easy to transfer his qualifications. The harder parts \u2014 finding jobs and somewhere affordable to live \u2014 are still to come. But they\u2019re young, excited and ready to give it a go. <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the conundrum. <\/p>\n

\"Indi<\/p>\n

Indi and friends at Strawberry Fields Festival. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

I\u2019m genuinely happy for them. I want them to have adventure, opportunity and the best possible start. Right now, those things seem easier to find across the Tasman than they do here. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s the part I find hard. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s sad they don\u2019t see New Zealand as the place that can offer them what they need, at least not yet. Maybe that will change. Neither of them is ruling out coming back. <\/p>\n

In the meantime, let\u2019s hope fuel prices come down. Time together matters, and it\u2019s going to be hard when seeing your kids depends on the next flight sale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some 5000 New Zealanders are heading off to start new lives in Australia every month. Many are young…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,111,43,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-357483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}