Why Baldish chose Ōtautahi Christchurch

Baldish shares his story about his move to Ōtautahi Christchurch.

Why Christchurch

Malaysia, Auckland, Christchurch.

Originally from Malaysia, Baldish’s family moved to Auckland when he was just 18 years old. After training here in New Zealand and roles at Air New Zealand and overseas with Malaysian Airlines, he was offered a role at Christchurch Engine Centre and hasn’t looked back since.

Why Christchurch?

As an aircraft engineer, I never thought of moving to Christchurch because I only knew Auckland and Wellington. When the Christchurch Engine Centre offer was presented to me, I didn't know what to expect because I'd never been to Christchurch.

I said to myself, take the risk and see what happens. I've been here for 18 years now, and I'm still here!

What were your first impressions of Christchurch before you came down, and has that changed?

Today you look at Christchurch, it's so diverse. One in four people that live in Christchurch are born overseas. The beauty of it is the diversified community we've got and the multicultural background, it makes such an interesting place to live. We can share different culture and learn from each other.

Do you think there are good job opportunities for people to grow their careers?

There are plenty of opportunities in Christchurch. Look around and you see a lot of new developments coming up in Christchurch.

The challenge we face at the Christchurch Engine Centre is attracting skilled talent, we are expanding and there are a lot of opportunities available. We’ve opened up our hiring criteria to automotive experts like diesel mechanics and people who are trained to work on different engines. Obviously with aircrafts we have very stringent quality. We have peer to peer training so opportunities are ripe for those willing to learn and grow.

Bladish Singh playing football in Hagley Park — Bladish and his family playing football at Hagley Park

Baldish Singh at the Avon River — Baldish and his family at the Avon River

Baldish Singh at Hagley Park — Baldish enjoying life in Christchurch

What makes life so good here in Christchurch?

We have a great lifestyle in Christchurch, I've taken my two young boys back to Malaysia on holiday to visit family, but it’s always rush rush rush. There’s no big parks and there’s loads of traffic jams. After a few days, they were ready to come back, Christchurch is home.

Today my commute is four minutes. We’re eight minutes from the central city. The boys love Hagley Park, scootering around and I personally enjoyed the laidback life.

We have beautiful blue lakes up to snowcapped mountains, beaches, rivers, parks and bush, you name it, we have got everything here.