Patience pays off

Hi. I'm Asmita. I'm from Mumbai, India. And I have moved here in Auckland with my family.

I first thought about coming to New Zealand after I heard from my cousins, who were already living here. They love New Zealand.  They were living here since many years, and they highly recommended us to take the experience and visit New Zealand - stay here, work here, experience this lifestyle.

We were wanting to come to Auckland - We had decided to come here - to Auckland… well, Auckland is the land of opportunities. Probably it's big enough to accommodate people and leave room for newcomers.

Also, weather wise, so, the moderate temperatures, the climate, the sunshine, the liveability-- we also hear of other migrants who are here, so if you go outside in Auckland, we see a lot of Indian faces, and it's good. It's heartening to know that we are amidst a whole lot of people, who are taking this journey, being here.

The hardest thing I think was when we actually began to start applying for jobs and, I was really disheartened in the first few months - and then I found out that maybe we need to do something about the New Zealand experience.

A workplace reference is so important. We are new here, and you don't really know anybody. You've not had an opportunity to work, to build a referee for yourself.

So it was great, and ah - I applied for the Lion Breweries job. And I was called for an interview and I had a very extensive long interview over there.

I got a call back from them saying, that they would like to offer the position to me, and that's how I got the job

Living in Auckland is … ah - it's a nice experience. I think going for a walk is one of the most interesting things, to do here… and, it's just being one with yourself, being one with nature, being outside.

Then, a little bit of gardening. We just planted a few strawberry plants. We tried doing chili. We tried doing a few flowers. And it was fun.

We have a huge Indian community here, and we have lots of Indian stores. So we usually get the raw material, or any specified required material that we have at all our stores. There are plenty of them in Auckland especially.

Before I arrived I thought of - I didn't of New Zealand to be very as expensive as it is, because initially you're from a different country, you come from a different economy, it works really different.

We didn't know that we would require … that the New Zealand experience would be that important - be that important, but otherwise, New Zealand is a great place. The people are lovely.

At the workplace, they are very accommodating. I like the tag line coming in from New Zealand. At my workplace, anyway, "How may I help you?" I really like that.