Steve | Ōhakune, Manawatū – Whanganui

“Probably the bravest thing I ever did is moving to Aotearoa from, from England about 13 years ago. So, I’d already been to New Zealand. I loved the culture, the people, the geography, but it’s a big thing to leave your family, all your friends, jump on a plane, and move to this side of the world.

But here I am, 13 years on, no regrets, but it took a lot of bravery to do that. To leave everything behind, and go to something that you don’t know. Making new friends is obviously quite difficult. The older you get, the more difficult it gets. So, that was my bravest thing.

Since moving to New Zealand, I started working initially in Whanganui, which is an awesome little town. Great people there. Very friendly people. Very welcoming people. I worked in a great school, got to know more about the culture, and more about the people, and I met my current partner I’ve been with for six, seven years now. I made lots of friends, experienced lots of things that I would never have experienced in the UK. I had a great quality of life, a better quality of life than I could ever have had over there. And hopefully I’ve given something to New Zealand. I work with students every day in my role, and I did get exposure to something outside of New Zealand. You get to see someone from somewhere else, and see my belief system, and my values, and I think that sharing of values is something that’s good.

We’re predominantly Māori. We’re 70 per cent Māori here. Ngāti Rangi is obviously the local iwi, and  we as the school and, and our local iwi, Ngāti Rangi have a really close relationship. They actually are based onsite here and do a lot of work with the community and with our students. A lot of our students affiliate to Ngāti Rangi, and obviously we’ve got the moana just straight by us, which is hugely significant to us. We try and get the kids out as much as we can into our local environment and do things with the iwi, and for the good of the community. We’re a small community here. There’re only 1000 people here, and 1000 over in Raetihi, so we’re a pretty small community.

Don’t be scared of the unknown. I always think what’s the worst that could happen? I go over there, I don’t enjoy it, and I go back and I’ve had an experience, I’ve learned something from it. I always try to take the positives out of things. Relationships with people are important. It’s easy to feel lonely and to brood on it, and I don’t necessarily think that helps you. I think it can send you in a downward spiral. So, I think try and make some relationships. Try and have that connection with people. I think that’s really important, having those connections. 

I’ve learned not to fear change. I know my strategy is often to think of what’s the worst?  It doesn’t work out, then you go back. If I’m giving my best then really I have nothing to lose. I think that the other thing I’d say that’s really important is connection with people. It’s about relationships. It’s about how other people can help you and can lift your spirits. For me, being over here on my own, it’s quite easy to get down and having other people, and friends, and those connections with people that lifts your spirits – that keeps you going. That would be the main thing.

I initially worked in Whanganui in a much bigger school which was 1800 students, and it’s a great school, but 1800 students, you don’t know anybody. So, this position came up, I knew the area, I love the area. I think it’s great. I’m an outdoor person, and I think this is a great area to be if you’re that kind of person. The opportunity to work in a small school really appealed to me, because there’s 200 students here, and the connections with people are really important, and with 200 students, I know every single student. I know a lot of the student’s families. I know a lot of the students’ backgrounds, which means that you can really form those relationships. So, although I’m not from here, and I’m not a Kiwi, I feel that there is some connection and we can build those relationships. This is an area that’s not necessarily socio-economically particularly well-off. There is poverty here like everywhere in New Zealand, and I think it’s good to be able to give something back to that, to that community and to hopefully help lift some of our students and show them what they can be, and what’s out there. Really get them to fulfil their potential, and hopefully I can be part of that.”