Dudley Heuvel’s life in New Zealand began the day he saw an advertisement in a Cape Town newspaper. “Basically my wife told me ‘this is the one, go and apply and find out what it’s about’, and I did.”
Over 600 people applied for nine jobs advertised by Christchurch construction firm, Luneys. Dudley, a carpenter/joiner with 15 years’ experience in South Africa, was offered a job and came over with his family on a work permit in July 2004. “We knew that we had to come with everything - our parents’ birth certificates, police clearance certificates, medicals, you name it.
We found out the processes and exactly what was needed before we started.” Today, he’s in the process of applying for residence.
Like any good builder, Dudley did some groundwork before choosing New Zealand as a destination. “I researched New Zealand on the internet, and attended a couple of seminars in Cape Town, so we knew that New Zealand desperately needed tradespeople.”
The family chose New Zealand over other destinations, because of both its similarities and differences to South Africa. “The weather is similar to South Africa, and we wanted to be away from big city life – also everyone we talked to said that New Zealand is the place to be – it’s just growing.”
Dudley admits there’s been a steep learning curve on the building site as he settles into the Kiwi way of doing things. “It’s been hard to get used to there being less labour on the site; in South Africa there is no way you’d touch a shovel. But once I got used to it, I enjoyed it,”
says Dudley. “In South Africa we are more used to brick and plastic, while here it is timber and gib, so what we did in brick, they do here in wood.”
More importantly, he says he notices the difference in his work environment. “I think the work environment is a bit more relaxed; the South Island is definitely more relaxed.”
However, no matter what materials you use, when it comes to the building site there’s a world-wide understanding, says Dudley. “Basic carpentry skills are the same in any language.”