Feature story for North and South Magazine, September 2016
What’s driving the New Zealand exodus from the lucky country?
The 39th floor of Melbourne’s Eureka Tower is not even half way up. From the window of their rented apartment in the 300 metre tall skyscraper baby-boomers Paul and Cate Roberts look out across a city the population of New Zealand. The apartment is a mess of cartons and boxes. The Kiwi couple are packing up 16 years in Melbourne; 16 years of hard work and big city living, earning good money, strolling out their front door and being among the shopping, nightlife and arts of what is routinely ranked the world’s most liveable city. Paul, 59, gazes out the window, across the Yarra River to Flinders Street. “We’re going to miss all of this terribly.” Cate, 62, nods. “Melbourne is just the most unbelievable city,” she says. “There’s always something happening.”
Something is happening alright. New Zealanders are going home….
