\u201cWe left behind a damp three-bedroom rental in M\u0101ngere, paying $350 a week, and arrived on the Gold Coast to rent a five-bedroom, three-storey home with stunning views for A$210 [$255] a week,\u201d she says. \u201cGroceries for a family of six could fill two trolleys for around $200 and Kevin got a job with better hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
After 28 years in Australia, Kevin and Christel Broederlow are returning to Auckland. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Eighteen years ago in Queensland, the couple started their own drafting business, which they continue to run remotely across Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia has been good to us,\u201d Christel says.<\/p>\n
Australia had been mostly good to North Islanders Cameron and Andre Macfarlane-Healey, too. <\/p>\n
They left New Zealand separately for Melbourne nearly 20 years ago to \u201cexplore the land of opportunity\u201d before becoming a couple. They were close friends at the time Cameron moved to Melbourne in 2006, and he then asked Andre, \u201cWhat have you got to lose? Come over to Melbourne\u201d. <\/p>\n
In their last year of living in Melbourne, they had a household income of more than $360,000. They had \u201creally good jobs\u201d, \u201ca house\u201d and \u201cgood friends\u201d, they said in a recent episode posted on the couple\u2019s YouTube channel about their travels. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe built everything there,\u201d they said. Cameron built his career in IT, and Andre in facilities and management. Both were working at law firms before moving to Christchurch.<\/p>\n
Cameron and Andrew Macfarlane-Healey. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Heading across the ditch has long been seen as a rite of passage for many Kiwis. But in recent years, the growing departures have attracted international coverage<\/a>. According to Stats NZ, a record 72,700 people left the country in the 12 months to September 2025, with many choosing to reside in Australia for better pay and job opportunities<\/a>. Adding to the exodus is Dame Jacinda Ardern, who confirmed her family\u2019s move<\/a> in February. <\/p>\n At a time when many Kiwis are ditching New Zealand, the Broederlows and the Macfarlane-Healeys have decided to return for good, saying New Zealand is now the country that will offer them a better life. So what changed?<\/p>\n Christel and Kevin are moving to Waiheke Island at the end of April. <\/p>\n She says Australia offered economic opportunity, but 28 years later, she believes the \u201cbalance has shifted\u201d. <\/p>\n Christel started to notice how comparable their Gold Coast life was to Auckland\u2019s. Since the start of the Covid pandemic, she says the cost of living on the Gold Coast has risen \u201cdramatically\u201d.<\/p>\n Inflation in New Zealand and Australia is higher than the countries\u2019 respective targets of up to 3%. As of February, Australia\u2019s inflation was at 3.7%, while New Zealand\u2019s was 3.1%.<\/p>\n \u201cRents and property prices [in the Gold Coast] surged and have not come back down,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n According to Christel, the rent for an average four-bedroom house for a family of six in the Gold Coast would cost more than A$800 a week. For the same price or slightly more, she says she could have a nicer property in a premium location in Auckland, such as Mission Bay.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are differences, of course. Fuel is more expensive in New Zealand, while some everyday costs like vehicle registration and insurance are higher in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n For Christel, quality matters more than cost. <\/p>\n \u201cThere is something about food in Aotearoa \u2013 the dairy, meat, kaimoana and the fresh produce \u2013 that is simply better,\u201d she says. \u201cI can drink the tap water in New Zealand without hesitation, even in Auckland City. But [in the Gold Coast] we distil the water.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s even more important to the pair is a reconnection to the land, to their whakapapa. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is not just a move,\u201d Christel says. \u201cIt is a return to who we are. <\/p>\n \u201cAustralia can offer opportunity, stability, and growth \u2013 and it has for us, and we are ever so grateful for the life we have lived here and our sons and their wh\u0101nau continue to.<\/p>\n \u201cBut there comes a time when the call of home becomes stronger than the life you\u2019ve built elsewhere. For us, that time is now.\u201d<\/p>\n Andre, 36, and Cameron, 44, moved to Christchurch six months ago.<\/p>\n Now, the couple are unemployed and living off savings after selling their Melbourne home and Tesla. They are travelling around in a motorhome filming content for their YouTube channel \u2013 but much happier. They say while Australia presents better job opportunities and salaries, it\u2019s \u201cmisleading\u201d, as the reality of day-to-day stresses is not often spoken about.<\/p>\n Cameron, originally from Whanganui, says going to work in Melbourne was one of the \u201cbiggest nightmares\u201d for him. <\/p>\n The couple lived outside the central city. Initially, the daily commute to work was just over 30 minutes. Eventually, it became 1.5 hours because of an \u201coverloaded public transport system\u201d, says Cameron.<\/p>\n \u201cThe simple task of going to work … just became hard,\u201d Cameron says.<\/p>\n Basic routines such as grocery shopping became tiresome. <\/p>\n \u201cOur day-to-day lives were getting so repetitive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c[The] supermarkets are packed,\u201d Cameron says. \u201cThe queues at the checkouts are extremely long because there are a lot of people in such a small area … it was becoming quite frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n On YouTube, Cameron said he felt crime was becoming more visible in Melbourne. \u201cThere were smoke shops and vape shops getting blown up … the atmosphere was getting heavier and heavier.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cYou never saw the police on the road because they were dealing with protests in the city,\u201d says Andre, who is originally from Napier.<\/p>\n They say they realised \u201cmemories are more important than money\u201d. Although neither is from the South Island, Cameron and Andre were drawn to Christchurch because it seemed like the \u201copposite\u201d of Melbourne.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople still say hello to you when you walk past them, they still have amazing coffee and they still have everything here that you need,\u201d says Cameron. \u201cFood is so much better than in Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know we don\u2019t have to spend a lot of money to be happy,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re more about enjoying what New Zealand has to offer in our backyard.<\/p>\n \u201cThat mental stress is totally gone from us.\u201d <\/p>\n On what the next 12 months look like, the couple say they\u2019re taking the opportunity to cross off one of their bucket-list items and travel around New Zealand in their motorhome. They will document it all on their YouTube channel, while planning when to return to Christchurch and if they should work for themselves or for another company.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to know what to do,\u201d says Cameron. \u201cI wish I had a crystal ball, but we\u2019re trying to come up with plan A, B and C for when we do feel like the time is right [to return to Christchurch]. I kind of follow what the universe tells us to do.\u201d<\/p>\n He says he has no regrets about moving back to New Zealand.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m doing what I want to do,\u201d he says. \u201cI am glad that I made this choice to move back and be closer to family; it really feels like there\u2019s a big weight off our shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n Varsha Anjali is a lifestyle journalist at the Herald. She is based in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe left behind a damp three-bedroom rental in M\u0101ngere, paying $350 a week, and arrived on the Gold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,1863,9442,12448,2082,26098,194,424,32033,111,43,139,69,13382,1361,8229,61,4276,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-374949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-back","10":"tag-better","11":"tag-couples","12":"tag-for","13":"tag-heres","14":"tag-kiwi","15":"tag-life","16":"tag-moved","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-newzealand","20":"tag-nz","21":"tag-returning","22":"tag-that","23":"tag-they","24":"tag-to","25":"tag-why","26":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374949","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=374949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}There comes a time when the call of home becomes stronger than the life you\u2019ve built elsewhere, Christel says. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Cameron and Andrew Macfarlane Healey’s first day back in New Zealand.<\/p>\n