By Nancy Keates

Timaru has become a magnet for medical workers fed up with the American healthcare system and seeking better work-life balance.

Four years ago, Dr. Brandon Williams, an internal-medicine doctor at a hospital in La Jolla, Calif., reached a breaking point. An increase in patients, not enough medical staff, the threat of malpractice lawsuits, and distress about patients’ inability to pay for healthcare got so bad that he developed post-traumatic stress disorder. One of his colleagues died by suicide.

He didn’t want to stop practicing medicine—but he wanted to stop practicing medicine in the United States. He and his wife, Ellen Williams, 38, started looking in Europe for a better option. Then he got a letter from a medical recruiter in New Zealand.

“As crazy as it sounded to go all the way to the middle of nowhere, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense,” said Brandon, 39, a California native.

The family sold their house and moved in November 2024 to the coastal town of Timaru on New Zealand’s South Island, which has become a hub for American doctors relocating to the country. “I’d never thought of leaving the U.S.,” said Brandon. “I’d never even thought of leaving California.”

Since COVID-19, many doctors say the U.S. healthcare system has become increasingly untenable for them, with many looking to leave the country. Interest from American doctors in New Zealand—where English is the prominent language, healthcare is free and many specialties require no extra training or certification—has boomed in the past five years, said Prudence Thomson of Christchurch-based Accent Health Recruitment. New Zealand hospitals are eager to have American doctors because there aren’t enough Kiwi physicians to meet the country’s needs, Thomson said, while the Americans tell her they are looking for a more sustainable pace of work and a better balance between career and personal life.

“We may not have gunshot wounds, but we have plenty of bungee-jumping accidents,” she said.

After COVID, the firm started getting 80 inquiries from Americans a week, up from around two a week, with about 20% actually making the move to New Zealand, Thomson said.

In 2025, New Zealand announced a series of changes to make it faster and easier for overseas-trained doctors to register and work in the country. There are currently about 530 American doctors working in New Zealand, up 29% from six years ago, according to the country’s health minister.

While there are now American doctors spread across the country, some small towns have clusters, said Sarah Dalton of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, a union that represents doctors and dentists across New Zealand. That is due partly to New Zealand-trained doctors wanting to work in the larger cities, partly to American doctors seeking lifestyle changes and partly to what she calls the “shoulder-tap effect”: One American doctor tells colleagues back in the U.S. about their move, and others follow.

One such hub is Timaru, population 29,000, located about two hours drive south of Christchurch. At Timaru’s public hospital, about 11 out of a total of 58 doctors are American, local doctors said.

One of the first American physicians to move to Timaru was Dr. Camille Hemlock, 66. Hemlock first went to Timaru in 2010 for a short-term stint while she was living in Austin, Texas. She loved it so much, she went back permanently and began encouraging other American doctors to move there. A small group formed, and they started holding Tuesday-night dinners.

It was one of those dinners that enticed the Williamses to move to Timaru after visiting various hospitals in New Zealand. “There’s a feeling of support,” Brandon said.

The Williamses sold their five-bedroom house in San Diego for $3.2 million and moved to Timaru, renting a home at first. There are so many Americans living there that the Williamses now hold Thanksgiving dinners for about 50 people.

Dr. Brandon Williams, 39

Internal medicine

Moved from: California

Timaru home purchase: five-bedroom house for $1.7 million in 2025

Their parents were devastated that they were moving so far away, and the move was a career hit for Ellen, a lawyer, who would have to take a number of different exams to practice in New Zealand. But “I wanted my husband back,” she said. Once they arrived, she found that the people were “aggressively friendly,” and helpful, especially after she had their fifth child in December 2024.

Many of the doctors said their move was tough on family members. Until recently, Dr. Katie Steele and her husband, lawyer James Steele, were living and working in Roanoke, Va., where they both had family nearby. “I felt like we’d won the game in the U.S.,” said Katie, 44. “I’m a doctor, he’s a lawyer—we should be set.”

But stress and long hours started to take a toll on Katie. Patients told her they’d go bankrupt if they had to pay for the treatments they needed. “The system felt nonfunctional, and that was stressful,” Katie said.

Dr. Katie Steele, 44

Emergency-medical physician

Moved from: Virginia

Timaru home purchase: five-bedroom house for $529,000 in 2022

In December 2021, they sold their Roanoke home and moved to Timaru. “It was a real leap of faith because we’d never been there,” said Katie. Their Timaru house cost more than the sale price of their Roanoke home, and Katie’s salary is 35% less than it was in Virginia. But she works far fewer hours in New Zealand, gets six weeks of paid vacation and unlimited sick days, and no longer feels like her care is bankrupting patients.

James has to work remotely as a lawyer as he studies to get his New Zealand certificate, but his brother and his family moved to Timaru recently, and he’s working on his parents. “They had a hard time when we left,” he said.

When Dr. Kate Ropp moved from Portland, Ore., to Timaru in 2025, her mother, Jane Young, was also upset at first. “It threw me for a loop,” said Young, 78. “It’s a long way to go to see your grandchildren.” But she now travels to New Zealand for three weeks at a time, which gives her more quality time with her grandsons, she said.

Dr. Kate Ropp, 44

Anesthesiologist

Moved from: Oregon

Timaru home purchase: four-bedroom, 2,600-square-foot house on 26 acres for $700,000 in 2025

Kate’s husband, Mark Ropp, also took some time to get on board when Kate brought up the idea. “I didn’t know anything about New Zealand,” said Mark, 45. He decided the move would give him a chance to reinvent himself too: Instead of working remotely as a lawyer, he became a stay-at-home dad for their two sons.

In Portland, they had a gardener, a housecleaner and an au pair. “We paid other people to live our lives for us,” Mark said. Now he has assumed all those responsibilities, including taking care of their 22 cows, six chickens, two cats and a dog.

Kate, 44, said working less hours means “I’m more present for my children and I’m discovering hobbies again.” The whole family is so happy, Mark said, “I think this will be forever.”

When Dr. Kelly Sweerus, 44, moved to Timaru with her family in 2021, she kept her house in Seattle just in case. “We kept saying, ‘Nothing is permanent,’” she said. But the shift from extreme stress to a better quality of life was so dramatic that they sold the U.S. house in 2023.

Dr. Kelly Sweerus

Pulmonologist

Moved from: Washington state

Timaru home purchase: five-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot house for $500,000 in 2023

There are some aspects of life in New Zealand the American doctors complain about. Katie has nightmares where she is driving on the wrong side of the road. A can of pumpkin purée for making pies on Thanksgiving is $5 on the American food store website, and it’s difficult to find a turkey. It can take months for a container of goods to arrive from the U.S.

Gabby Tu’itufu, 34, a midwife at Timaru Hospital, said she likes that all the OB-GYN doctors there are American. “They bring good humor and good candy,” she said.