If we hadn't moved to New Zealand …
By Jules Older
It’s evening in Queenstown, New Zealand. Three old friends are sitting around the dining-room table. Barbara’s from Canada, Effin and Jules from the United States. We all moved to Aotearoa New Zealand many years ago.
Just in case you might be considering a major move of your own at this time, listen in on our conversation.
I go first. I'm talking about a mutual friend. “A while ago, I asked Roger what he’d be if he hadn't come to New Zealand.” Roger Hall is not only another old friend, he’s also New Zealand’s most successful playwright. And now, Sir Roger Hall. Decades ago, he emigrated from England.
I go on. “Roger told me if he hadn't come here, he’d most likely be an assistant manager at a British insurance company. Then, he added, ‘I’m forever grateful to New Zealand because it paid for me to go to teachers college and university — after I had botched up my UK chances for tertiary education by getting only four O-levels.’”
I look at Barbara and Effin. “Right. That’s Roger. What about us? If we hadn't emigrated, how would our lives be different?”
A thoughtful pause settles round the table. Then Barbara says, “I grew up in Vancouver, then lived for a couple of years in the Canadian Rockies, in a hippie haven full of artists and craftspeople. They seemed so exotic to me at the time. But when I went back a few years ago, the Saturday Market was full of women with straggly grey hair and missing front teeth. They were all selling macrame.”
She shakes her head. “If I'd stayed in Canada, I'd never have met the people I admired — editors, writers, illustrators. I wouldn't even know how to approach them. If I'd stayed in Canada, there's no way I'd have done there what I've done here.”
In New Zealand, Barbara Larson became two of those things she’d admired, an illustrator and editor. She then became a third — publisher and co-owner of a New Zealand publishing house. She tops up our glasses of New Zealand pinot noir, then asks, “What about you, Effin?”
Effin smiles. “I'm a Vermont farm girl. I'd never even seen a TV studio. Then, on one fine Dunedin morning, I spotted an ad in the paper. Television New Zealand was looking for a television presenter, a presenter who had to be comfortable handling building tools. I thought, Jules will say, ‘Hey, this is perfect for you!’.”
Barbara asks, “What did you do?”
Effin grins. “I hid that part of the paper.”
Now, everybody’s grinning.
Effin says, “The phone rings. It’s my friend Penny. She's all excited. ‘Effin, I've just seen an ad for a job that’s just perfect for you. I know you — you're not going to apply. But if you don't … I'm going to tell Jules!’.”
“I answered the ad. And got the job.”
Effin Older became co-host of two national shows, Of Course You Can Do It and The Renovators. She made guest appearances on other programs. She even got her picture on the cover of New Zealand’s leading magazine, The Listener. She says, “Thank you, New Zealand. This would not have happened if I'd stayed in Vermont.”
Barbara points a finger at me. “Your turn, Jules.”
“Okay. Truth is, because we made the decision to come here, I'm a more interesting person. And I've lived a far more interesting life than if I'd stayed in California or Vermont.”
“In what way?”
“Well, for one thing, I surely would not have become a medical educator — I'd never set foot in a med school. I wouldn't have created my Sunday night radio show, American Pie. And I sure has hell wouldn't have played the villain in a TV movie. Thank god, the villain I was playing had an American accent — my accent got me the role.”
“And?”
“Māoritanga [Māori traditions, culture, way of life]. I'd never heard of Māori. But here, I've been invited to hui and hangi, waiata and tangi [gatherings and feasts, songs and funerals]. Greatly enriched my worldview. Influenced the way I think and listen and talk. Ngā mihi, Aotearoa. [Thank you, New Zealand].
“Oh, and I'd never have published so much in such diverse outlets. The British Medical Journal? I'm not British and not a medic. In America, I knew all the reasons not to submit. But here, I didn't know the limitations — I could just go for it. So, I did.”
In 1972, Jules and Effin Older moved to Dunedin, New Zealand, where they stayed until 1986, when they returned to Vermont. Then, in 2020, they moved to Auckland., New Zealand. He and Effin and their whanau [family] are all dual citizens.
