I didn’t really care for Waitangi Day when I was in New Zealand. My early memories are of my granddad yelling at protests on the TV. We had to learn the same history facts every year at high school – not much comfort when you were working in your mall retail job on February 6th! Then there was the one I missed entirely floating in a tube in Laos a couple of years ago - oops.

But now I’m living in London, it feels different. As I jot down my thoughts on a wintry afternoon, Nature’s Best is pumping in the next room over and a diverse group of intrepid travellers – North Islanders, South Islanders and even a couple of Australians! – are pre-gaming and singing along in my loft apartment. Soon we’ll be starting that most NZ of traditions – the pub crawl – and don’t laugh or tell my family if you see me in an All Black jersey on the news tomorrow in Oxford Circus, performing a deliciously impromptu haka with a group of keen Kiwi lads and gals.

If it sounds like I miss New Zealand, I do. So I ask myself – Nat, why did you leave in the first place? And what would make you come back? At a pot luck the other night, I realized I wasn’t the only Kiwi in my big happy family over here that was thinking the same thing. It was amazing as we went round the table. We're a mixed bunch: lawyers, accountants, IT consultants, and even a good old hospo worker.

Yet one by one, the same thing sprung to our minds. In our little circle, the way to reverse the brain drain was clear. If people like us are going to come back to New Zealand, it’s time for multinational outsourcing company G4S to be contracted to provide children’s social services across the country.

I know this sounds like a pipe dream. G4S’s international speciality is security solutions, from event management to fully outsourced justice services, I hear you say. But everyone says kiwis can’t fly – and I can’t see any other explanation for why I got here!

Call me a dreamer, but a country that introduced priority legislation to tender the operation of children’s residential homes and placement services to a proven FTSE 250 Index company like G4S is one this bird would sprout wings and fly right back for.

Back in NZ, I realise there’s always been a bit of a frontier mentality. If you can’t fix it with No. 8 wire, it can’t be fixed. But I also know that public-private investment in children’s protection is a bit of a wild frontier itself.

When they’re combined, foster care, special education and children’s homes are a market worth 7 billion pounds in the UK alone, and G4S’s share of that is growing fast. I know that my work friends joke about me being outnumbered by sheep when I go home, but that’s where I gently remind them that it’s a country of diverse and beautiful landscapes, idyllic beaches, big smiles, and 892,900 children.

Besides, we relish a challenge. When a young man named Sir Edmund Hillary set off to conquer Mt Everest those many years ago, he was a little bit like me. Ambitious, eager to get to the top and get in some cheeky tubing in Laos along the way. But what stopped either of us from bringing the adventure, ingenuity and fun back home?

This humble ex-part correspondent's opinion is that all it takes is a couple of attitude tweaks from the boys in charge. If he was alive today, I’ve no doubt Sir Ed would be ‘climbing’ in a different way. He would be first in line for a lucrative tendered contract to run a world-class juvenile unit through a non-profit subsidiary. That would really “knock the bastards off”!

Jokes aside, this isn’t a laughing matter. I miss home a lot. Thanks to the wonders of Skype, I can Skype my parents as often as I want (not as often as they want – oh boy!). And it actually gets the waterworks going sometimes – particularly when they talk about the future. “I want hold a grandchild,” my mum confessed to me last time.

And I had to come clean about my fears for the future – when that grandchild is put into temporary foster care, do I want that care to be administered by the Ministry of Social Development? Or do I want it to be administered by a company whose contractors have been praised for their strength, application and determination to maintain order at the Manus Island detention centre and Live8 concerts alike?

Mum messaged me a little later: “Thanks for the chat luv. Think you’re right. Was very nice to read about G4S’s core values of customer focus and performance :-) :-) :-)” (She’s really got into the emoji lately).

Some people will be getting angry about Waitangi Day – some because they’re racist, some because they’re never happy not matter what – but from over here, it looks like a pretty good partnership. But for too many like me in the brain drain, it’s a little like we’ve lost our way. Two groups of people, coming together to sign an agreement and share in an exciting new venture.

That’s how it all started. I think Ashley Alamanza, CEO of G4S puts it best (not one of Godzone’, but reading this you could be fooled into thinking he was): “Our Risk Management and Risk Consulting businesses deliver high quality services to our customers. Our major contract wins reflect G4S`s world class expertise and investment in sophisticated security services."

Next Waitangi Day, I dream of being home as a new partnership starts. Let’s build a NZ we can all be proud to flock home to.

Nat Elliott works in PR in London with a focus on developing sponsored content partnerships, and is a keen fan of travel, sport, and craft.