It might rain some times and prices are rising but there is no shelling and no war in your backyard.
The Nitsak family, Volodomyr and wife Valentyna and their six children, became New Zealand citizens this month in a ceremony in Balclutha.
The family is in daily contact with relatives in war-ravaged Ukraine.
Volodomyr and Valentyna Nitsak arrived in New Zealand in 2013, and all their children were born in New Zealand.
After more than 10 years negotiating the visa, residency and permanent-residency process, the family were very excited to take their oath of citizenship earlier this month.
"This was the goal we have been dreaming of," Mr Nitsak, who is second in charge of a dairy farm near Waiwera South, said.
"But in 2013 I was not even thinking about it."
Mr Nitsak grew up on a farm near Zolotonosha, Cherkasy Oblast (region) in central Ukraine — "the breadbasket of Europe".
He obtained an advanced agricultural degree and trained and worked in France, Britain and the United States before moving to New Zealand.
He said the historical animosity between Ukraine and Russia was not a factor in the decision to move here.
"Russia and Ukraine are in dispute for centuries — we know it always but we are used to it."
He felt the most important historical link with the present war in Ukraine was the Ukrainian-Soviet War (1919-1922) which ended with most of Ukraine incorporated into the Soviet Union.
Ukraine’s suffering under the communists, especially the 1932-33 genocide (planned famine), was so abysmal that German invaders in 1941 were welcomed as liberators until the horrors of the Nazi regime were unleashed.
The Soviets regained Ukraine in 1944, and continued to undermine local language, history and cultural-identity.
The Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s and Ukraine declared independence on August 24, 1991.
Disputed elections in 2004 led to the ousting of pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych, straining relations with Russia as Ukraine looked towards the European Union.
In 2014, Russia seized Crimea, sparking unrest in pro-Russian parts of Ukraine, and ongoing conflict led to economic decline and worsening corruption.
"He [Yanukovych] is a Russian agent. Most Ukrainians want EU and Nato."
Mr Nitsak believed Moscow infiltrated and influenced Ukrainian politics
Volodymyr Zelenskyy became president in 2019 after promising to end the conflict, but escalating tensions led to full-scale Russian invasion on February 20, 2022.
"Putin said Zelenskyy would deliver a good deal for Russia, but Ukraine is a democracy and presidents have to give what the people want ... Putin wants USSR 2.0. He wants Ukrainian land, minerals, food. The people he does not need."
Mr Nitsak said he and his wife had about 80 family members in Ukraine.
He said all families were well as far as he knew, but some had been shelled, shot at, endangered by mines and evacuated during the conflict which now has casualty estimates as high as 500,000 people.
"Many are dead [or have] lost everything," Mr Nitsak said.
"Food and energy is very expensive but Ukrainians make much less [money].
"We know every day New Zealand is a lucky country."
