Kiwis at home in the Cayman Islands

By MEGAN SINGLETON

The difficulty comes when you want to change jobs. The Cayman authorities take a rather dim view of job hopping. So if you have a job in the banking sector, you will find it difficult to climb the corporate ladder by taking a job with another company.

But while job hopping is frowned upon, changing a permit from water sports to finance is even harder. Richie had to leave the country for three weeks while the bank he now works for did all in its power to get him a permit.

With the New Zealand dollar languishing against the powerful US dollar and the even more powerful Cayman Island dollar, Kiwis who come here really need to have a friend they can stay with.

But if you're lucky enough to secure a job in the finance sector, as Grant Jackson did, you might find it even harder to come back to little old New Zealand. Jackson is a chartered accountant who sauntered down to the Cayman Islands after two years in London working at Goldman Sachs. He transferred to the Cayman office over three years ago and is now the operations manager. He wouldn't tell me his salary, but he does look pretty good in his four-wheel-drive vehicle, towing a 5.5m Four Winds ski boat, and happily paying off his mortgage back home.

Perhaps if New Zealand could offer a boat ride to work, a scuba dive before dinner, streets paved with sand and every day a tanning day, some of the brain-drainers just might come home.