Olivia and Lucie are one of six overseas-based couples who return to NZ during the pandemic in Stuff's new video series No Place Like Home.
Olivia and her British wife Lucie returned to New Zealand after Olivia's mother was diagnosed with cancer. Photo: No Place Like Home / Stuff
Stuff producer Naashon Zalk tells Jesse Mulligan he first had the idea for the series after hearing about the thousands of Kiwis living abroad who started planning to come home when Covid-19 hit.
No Place Like Home follows the difficulties faced by six couples who made the leap to make Aotearoa home again.
In choosing the participants, the creators avoided "high net-worth Kiwis" who wouldn't face too many challenges with relocating back to New Zealand, Zalk says.
He hopes viewers will relate to the amazing couples who are a mix of ages, Zalk says.
"It was more ordinary people, who had all sorts of things going on, all sorts of constraints, all sorts of difficulties, that made the most convincing stories."
The Covid-19 pandemic made people who'd been living overseas for years think again about what and where home is, Zalk says. Often the answer is where you have family, a connection to the natural environment and a sense of security.
"New Zealand is obviously not the place to make the most money so people were using Covid as a way of re-examining their lives and deciding what was important to them."
Zalk won't give away much about how the individual stories ended up but most couples featured in the series are still planning to stay in New Zealand.
Their stories are simultaneously uplifting, heartbreaking and joyful, he says, and Stuff was brave to support the series which is content not easily found on commercial TV.
