A structured programme supporting international athletes through the move into New Zealand life — from pre-departure English and visa paperwork, through orientation and homestay, to housing, employment, and competition.
Moving country to chase a sport is one of the boldest things a young athlete can do. Most programmes pick them up at the airport. Fernway picks them up months earlier — and stays alongside them long after the welcome dinner.
The Sports Pathway is structured around three deliberate stages: Readiness before departure, Settling in the first weeks, and Thriving in the long arc that follows.
Preparation that turns a leap of faith into a deliberate first step. The work begins as soon as the decision is made.
The four-week landing window. Homestay, orientation, and the small daily competencies that make a country feel less foreign.
When the homestay finishes, the support doesn't. The Thriving stage is where independence is built — with help, not without.
A golfer needs to talk about handicaps and tee times. A rugby player needs to call line-outs. A footballer needs to communicate at speed in their second language — under pressure, in front of a crowd.
Fernway's pre-departure English programme is built around your sport. Vocabulary, scenarios, and role-plays are calibrated to the conversations you'll actually have — on the field, at the clubhouse, with teammates and coaches.
A typical four-week pre-departure block covers:
Lessons are 2 hours per session and include real role-plays, listening practice, and homework that travels with you to New Zealand.
If your sport isn't listed, ask. We've placed athletes into community clubs, national academies, and provincial development squads — the routes are different, but the support model is the same.
You won't be handed between three agencies. One Fernway coordinator stays with you from your first enquiry to your first competition — and beyond. They know your homestay family. They know your coach. They know your situation.
Athletes need to be 17+, legally able to visit New Zealand, financially solvent to New Zealand Immigration's standards, and able to live independently. We walk through every requirement before you commit to anything — in plain language.
Four weeks in a homestay isn't there because we couldn't find you a flat. It's there because the first four weeks decide whether you settle. Meals taken with a Kiwi family teach you more, faster, than a year of language apps.
IRD numbers, bank accounts, KiwiSaver basics, mobile plans. The unglamorous stuff that derails people in week three. We do it in week one.
Your coach knows you're coming. The club knows when you're arriving. Your first training session is booked before you finish customs. Belonging starts on day one, here too.
The hardest part of moving country for sport isn't the sport. It's everything else — the lonely evenings, the unfamiliar food, the long Sunday afternoons when nothing happens. Fernway exists to make those parts navigable, so the sport gets the version of you that's actually free to perform.
And when the sport is done — whether after a season or after a career — we'd like New Zealand to still feel like somewhere you belong.
Whether you're an athlete, a parent, a coach, a club, or a sporting organisation — the conversation starts the same way. Tell us who's coming, and what they're hoping for.