We gave up city life and moved to New Zealand. We earn less, but the tradeoffs are worth it.

05.12.2024 - 01:29 / insider.com

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Brandon Chia, 31, a nurse in the South Island of New Zealand. Chia moved from Singapore to New Zealand in 2022. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

In 2022, my wife and I had our first baby. We were juggling the demands of parenthood while working as ICU nurses in Singapore.

After 16 weeks of paid maternity leave — the standard amount for Singaporean mothers — my wife, Jiar Lin, and I started working alternate shifts to care for our newborn daughter.

I worked the morning shift, and she worked the afternoon. We would hand our baby over to each other and go out to earn money.

Whenour daughter was about to turn one, we realized we weren't spending enough time with her. We were always exhausted from work and didn't have time to enjoy time together as a family.

So, we thought, what other options can we consider? Quitting our jobs wasn't possible because the cost of living in Singapore was high.

At that time, we noticed many job advertisementson social media from Australia and New Zealand that were looking for ICU-trained nurses. My wife said, "Just apply and see how it goes." So, I did.

Within two weeks, I heard from the hospital. Two hours after my interview,I received a job offer. It all happened so fast. I remember thinking, "OK, this is getting real." My wife and I had a chat and then decided we'd give it a go.

Initially, our parents didn't want us to go. The flight from Singapore to New Zealand takes almost 10 hours. But we told them not to feel like we were abandoning them. Rather, it was a way for us to have more time for our daughter.

At the time, my parents were full-time caregivers for my late grandfather, while my wife's parents lived in another city. We knew we didn't want to ask them to look after our daughter on a permanent basis.

In October 2022 — around fourmonths after receiving the job offer — I moved to the West Coast of the South Island in New Zealand, a three-hour drive from Christchurch. My wife and daughter joined me seven months later once things had settled down.

The South Island feels like the countryside. There are no shopping centers near our house, and manypeople grow their own fruit and vegetables. We live in a nice community where people and colleagues often share their produce. I also started to learn gardening and now grow tomatoes in our backyard.

From the beginning, I noticed a big difference in the work culture. The environment is less stressful, and there's a lot of emphasis on not bringing work back home.

The shift patterns here are more regular. In one week, for example, I'll work the afternoon shift for three, and then the next week, I'll work a stretch of night shifts. In comparison, at my