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Phil O’Reilly

"New Zealand is simply a great place to live. We know it’s great for families, but it’s also great for couples without kids."

It wasn’t the lifestyle that brought me back to New Zealand, nor the clean green appeal. It wasn’t the idea of less stress and a better work-life balance. It wasn’t my friends and family, and it wasn’t even my fiancee. It wasn’t even a feeling of homesickness.

So why did I come back? Why did I turn my back on the good life in Sydney, my corporate HR role at Westpac, Australia, my expat life of five years? Lets face it. Sydney is outrageously gorgeous, so why did I leave?

In a nutshell, I came back to work hard and do a great job. It all comes down to opportunity. I’d kept my contacts up while I was offshore so when the opportunity knocked I jumped at the chance to take the helm at Business NZ.

And I’ve worked hard, and I haven’t achieved work-life balance, and I haven’t had time to play a round of golf at the club I joined a week after getting back. But that’s the great thing about working life in New Zealand. You can choose to work hard, you can choose to take it easy, or, increasingly, you can go down the work-life balance path.

And work-life balance is an easier road to take in an accessible place like Wellington. This is a place where there is no such thing as rush hour in any real sense, and driving time is measured in songs, not packets of cigarettes.

New Zealand is simply a great place to live. We know it’s great for families, but it’s also great for couples without kids. Going out in Sydney required booking weeks ahead for the best Sydney restaurants and the theatre or months ahead for the New Year’s Day Sydney Cricket test or other sports events.

In Wellington, it’s easy to get restaurant seats or stroll with mates through Willis Street and Thorndon Quay to catch the Hurricanes at the ‘Cake Tin’. And it’s almost impossible not to get to know people here. Wellington is a cosmopolitan city and therefore the people are open to saying “hello”, and inviting you in.

As I said, Sydney is outrageously gorgeous but Wellington has incredible heart, real spirit and local loyalty - not parochial but real pride.

And on a good day, Wellington is breathtakingly beautiful, looking out onto the harbour and the hills. And on those days it’s an easy place to walk around - staying active but still right in the middle of it all. And then, within twenty minutes drive, you can get out of the city and feel like you had never been there at all.

But I knew that before I came back. Despite being born an Aucklander, ten years living here in the ‘90s ensured Wellington was already in my heart.

When I first arrived back, I picked up a book of poetry about Wellington called Big Weather. And Big Weather is my lasting impression.

Even on a great day, the weather is big, shaping and defining the way we live. On a bad day the weather can be truly awful. Like everything, the weather here affects us for the better. When I’ve had to . . . I’ve barbecued in the rain. It sounds like a cliche but here in New Zealand we just get on with it.

Sure, there are challenges, and we all know what they are. We don’t have enough skilled workers, and we’re starting to run out of unskilled ones too. We could also be more productive and win the odd World Cup or two. But we have excitement and change, and we have business leaders and innovators ensuring that we create opportunities for the next generation coming through.

And that’s why I’m here. Like most Kiwis I could be anywhere, and I’m glad I’ve taken my chance to live overseas. Who knows, there’s every chance I will again. But the key for me is that I now have a genuine choice and that is because New Zealand now is a land of genuine opportunities.

This truly is a great time to live in New Zealand.

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Phil O’Reilly is Business New Zealand's Chief Executive

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