From Africa and Asia, new Kiwis find heaven on the Shore

11 September 2010

Sara Wei Walker and Brian Casey may have vastly different backgrounds but they share a love for their new country, New Zealand, and their local communities in Albany and Browns Bay respectively.

They also represent some of the new blood on the Shore Voice ticket in Auckland’s upcoming local government elections. Sara is seeking a seat on the Upper Harbour Local Board while Brian is standing for the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board [East Coast Bays subdivision].

Their economic and environmental focus defines modern-day, multi-cultural New Zealand.

Sara emigrated from China in 2002 while Brian and wife Nadia left southern Africa for New Zealand’s shores three years earlier in 1999.

“I’m standing for the local board because I want to put something back into my local community,” said Sara Wei Walker – a sentiment shared by her Northern Rhodesian (Zambian)-born Shore Voice running mate, Brian Casey.

Sara and Kiwi-born husband, Andrew Walker – a former police officer, live in Albany and run a Lotto shop in Orewa. She first heard about New Zealand when a close friend returned to China on holiday and told her about this country which, to Sara, “sounded like heaven”.

She immigrated and put her tourism degree from Tianjin’s Nankai University and nine years’ experience to immediate use at a travel agency. Fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese, Sara has also worked as a tourist guide and interpreter, travelling through New Zealand.

Brian and Nadia fell in love with New Zealand after seeing a tourism video highlighting the beautiful landscapes and lifestyles enjoyed by a mussel farming family in the Coromandel.

“After holidaying in New Zealand in a campervan, we decided to move to New Zealand,” Brian said.

Chairman of the South Africa-New Zealand Charitable Trust, Brian manages an energy consulting company with emphasis on renewable energy solutions, and is an advisory board member of the Ice Angels, helping New Zealand start-up companies.

Brian has been involved at management and director level within a broad range of companies, including specialised construction materials, independent laboratory testing and consulting, international commodity marketing, corporate mergers and acquisitions, and fruit-bearing R+D.

Sara Wei Walker quickly adopted the Kiwi “can do attitude”, including “doing up” properties and selling them for a profit to supplement her income. This love of hard work is also reflected in her completing a post-graduate Diploma of Business from Massey University’s Albany campus, including attending summer school.

“I love to meet people from all cultures and walks of life,” said Sara who, when she ran the Milford Lotto Shop, sold three first division-winning tickets.

Another highly qualified and multi-lingual addition to New Zealand’s talent pool, Brian holds a commerce degree with honours and enjoys assisting New Zealand entrepreneurs with their ideas and new businesses to get ahead.

“I’m continually astounded by the extremely smart and hard working young local entrepreneurs, and I thoroughly enjoy using my international experience and contacts to assist these start-ups in attaining their goals and aspirations,” he said.

Sara is currently studying landscape design at Unitec on a part-time basis, an unusual choice for a Chinese woman but one which utilises her creative talents and love of the Kiwi quarter-acre paradise.

“Many Asians don’t get to touch the dirt but I love to get out into my Albany garden and enjoy my own piece of heaven,” she said.

Brian has also fallen in love with the local environment and has become actively involved in the plight of birdlife at local dams and streams.

“We have an obligation to ensure that our claims of being clean and green are matched by evidence in the health of our waterways, and their birdlife,” he said.

ENDS

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