Stories from the community
The huge plane did nothing to calm my husband’s nerves, but we were together and it was only 11 hours to Los Angeles. We hardly spoke and kept looking out over Greenland, amazed at our planet, and wondered what on earth we were all doing. – Elaine Cartlidge, who emigrated in 2002
Since 1960 people have travelled to New Zealand mainly by air, and a journey which once took several months has been reduced to a matter of hours. But the reasons for emigrating largely remain the same. Whether they are forced to flee their home countries as refugees, or are simply choosing to explore New Zealand’s opportunities, all immigrants stake a gamble on their future.
We asked people around the country to send us stories in their own words of the journey they or their relatives made, to begin a new life in New Zealand. Here is a selection.
What's your story?
Impressions from the deck
Graeme Eyre snatched his first look at his future country from on board this British merchant navy ship. The MV Canopic, a refrigerated ship on the Shaw Savill line, was on a two-year voyage to Australasia in 1960. Graeme was its third engineer - 'the lowest form of life on the ship'.
To find the sun
For George and Eileen Anderson’s six- and eight-year-old boys, pictured here during a stop-over in Malta, the voyage from England to New Zealand in 1968 was full of wonders. The boys experienced a vicious storm in the Bay of Biscay which smashed up the grand piano, they saw flying fish swimming alongside the ship off the coast of Africa, endured the Australis’s onboard ‘school’ and were fascinated by the workings of the ship’s huge motors.
From refugee to reverend
The Anandayagams arrived in New Zealand after four rootless years as refugees from Sri Lanka. Having been separated so long from family and friends, they were able to bring out Kumar’s mother to live with them. From left: Anchali, Gowri, Kumar’s mother, Kumar and Lakshman.
A 20-year stopover
Pictured are Bonnie Schroyen and son Adam, aged two, with their dinner. This was taken in 1983, while the adventurous Schroyen family were en route from Canada to New Zealand on their 9-metre yacht.
Assisted immigration
During their journey from Canada, the Cawstons (pictured in 1994 on the steps of their Christchurch home) discovered that Andrew’s passport had expired for immigration purposes and he would not be permitted to land in New Zealand.
A long time returning
Decades after her husband suggested they move to New Zealand, Elaine Cartlidge finally made the journey from England to the country where her life began. In this photograph, she and her youngest son Fletcher enjoy the sunshine outside their new home in Christchurch – a far cry from the 400-year-old gardener's cottage they left behind in an English midwinter.