For several years Darren and Denise Murray had talked about moving away from London.
The twice a day 90-minute commute to work and back home, plus the endless trips away as a specialist IT consultant, meant Mr Murray saw little of his family.
When he left for work, his children - Stephen (15) and William (5) were still in bed.
When he got home, even if he left work at 5.30pm, the boys were busy with their own activities, with William usually preparing for bed.
Now, Mr Murray leaves his Macandrew Bay home at 8am, drops his son off at Bayfield High School and is drinking a coffee at the Gen-i offices, in Tennyson St, before 8.30am.
When he arrives home, he gets plenty of time to play with his children and enjoy the Dunedin lifestyle.
Life is good, he says.
Mr Murray also believes he has the perfect job, a job he spotted in the UK and was interviewed about from New Zealand by Gen-i sales specialist manager Peter Thomas, of Dunedin.
When he and Ms Murray received the job specifications from Gen-i, they thought they were reading about the job he was then doing in the United Kingdom.
The job specifications were so close that when he was finding his replacement in the UK, he used the Gen-i outline.
Mr Murray works for Gen-i as a business solution specialist, sitting alongside client managers and salespeople to help them understand the business and suggest how technology can help improve productivity.
In the UK, he was a technical pre-sales executive.
"When I looked at Gen-i, it was the right type of company, the right job for the skills I have and the focus is getting the best out of IT. It followed what I was doing in the UK."
His skills often allow him to do the job directly rather than bring in a team from Christchurch.
His expertise is used throughout the country by Gen-i.
Mr Murray also deals directly with suppliers such as HP and IBM to understand their new products and how they can be introduced into a client's business.
Mr and Ms Murray had earlier considered moving to Edinburgh, but were leaning towards New Zealand.
As fate would have it, instead of moving to Edinburgh, the family moved to its antipodean sister city, Dunedin.
Without visiting New Zealand, except online for research, the family decided to move.
The decision seemed an easy one at the time.
The family had just returned from holiday when, on August 31, 2008, Mr Murray was involved in an accident.
"What were we doing with our life, we asked ourselves then. It was no fun for the children and what's the point if there is no fun," Ms Murray said.
By December, the couple had sold their house, packed up their belongings and booked their flights.
On the long flight to Wellington, the couple did have some moments of reflection, wondering what would happen if they got to the airport, took a look around and did not like what they saw.
However, Mr Thomas had kept in contact with Mr Murray and had put him in touch with a former boss from the UK who was working for Gen-i.
"I got a little bit of an inside story on the company and what it might be like to work for them.
"For me, I was enjoying my job in the UK but just didn't like the country any more. There was no time for enjoying my family. We would try and catch up at the weekend, but that was not always possible."
Ms Murray saw the South Island as "ideal" to settle in, Wellington was the second choice and Auckland a reluctant third choice.
The couple considered living in Auckland would have been too close to what they had left.
But after arriving on a six-month visitor permit, the couple were prepared to move to Auckland if it meant staying in New Zealand.
Asked what the reaction was in the UK to the family packing up and moving here, Ms Murray said a few people still thought they were crazy, especially when they sold their house without knowing whether Mr Murray had a job to go to.
"But at the time, it felt the sensible thing to do."
The Murrays had nothing but praise for Dunedin, Gen-i and the friendliness of the community in general.
The family had lived in Woking, Surrey, for 12 years, but they never called the place home.
They knew their immediate neighbours but they too lived the commuting lifestyle.
Macandrew Bay had a real "community feel" about it.
The children were settling in well to school and Dunedin life.
William was starting to learn Maori at school and getting used to saying football, not football, when talking about sport.
Sports facilities, such as the Edgar Stadium, were much more accessible than they were in London and the cost of using them was much lower.
The team at Gen-i were genuinely concerned that the family was settling down and enjoying life in Dunedin, Ms Murray said.
In the UK, a family was seen as a bit of a hindrance for some jobs.
"This is a real community we feel part of. The people are so friendly and unbelievably helpful."
Gen-i
>Gen-i was formed five years ago when Telecom Advanced Solutions (TAS), Gen-i and Computerland joined forces under the Gen-i brand.
>Today, the company has 3000 staff across 19 locations, revenues of more than $1.6 billion and a client list that spans 3300 public and private sector organisations on both sides of the Tasman.
