All Is Not "Well-ing" If You Weight A "Ton" in New Zealand

If you're fat, you'd better think twice about moving to New Zealand. Richie Trezise, 35, a rugby-playing Welshman, was forced to lose weight to gain entry to New Zealand after initially being rejected for being overweight and a potential burden on the health care system. His wife, Rowan, 33, a photographer, has been battling for months to shed her extra pounds so they can be reunited and live Down Under but has so far been unable to overcome New Zealand’s weight regulations.

Trezise, who moved to Auckland in September after shedding two inches from his waist, said that if his wife was not allowed to come out by Christmas they would abandon the idea of emigrating. His employer-backed skills visa was initially rejected by immigration officials when they discovered that his body mass index, or BMI, was 42, making him morbidly obese under New Zealand regulations. BMI measures a person’s weight in relation to their height. Anything over 25 is regarded as overweight, and 30 or above is obese.

Trezise, a submarine cable specialist and a former soldier, said: "My doctor laughed at me. He said he’d never seen anything more ridiculous in his whole life. He said not every overweight person is unhealthy or unfit. The idea was that we were going to change our lifestyle totally and get outdoors and on mountain bikes and all sorts of activities." The couple, who both lived in Barry, Wales, were all set for a new life after the weighty Welshman was headhunted by New Zealand’s Telecom.

Robyn Toomath, a spokesman for Fight the Obesity Epidemic and an endocrinologist, said she was opposed to obese people being stigmatised. "However, the immigration department’s focus is different," she said. "It cannot afford to import people into the country who are going to be a significant drain on our health resources. The New Zealand Immigration Service said it did not know how many people were denied entry to the country because of high BMI readings. However, comments posted on the Emigrate New Zealand website reveal that many people have been turned down after medical tests revealed that they were obese.