‘I thought, what the hell have I done?’: the people who moved abroad for love – and regretted it

Emigrating to be with your partner sounds wildly romantic, but what happens when the person is right and the place very much isn’t?I met my wife in Queensland in 2001. She’s from Bern, but was in Australia to study marine science. She needed help collecting fish for her project, and had heard that I was handy with a spear gun. We hit it off straight away, and began our romance on semi‑deserted islands near the Great Barrier Reef.We went on to make a life together.