INCREDIBLE PEOPLE, CANADIAN EMBASSY, REAL ESTATE AGENT, BANK MANAGER, ALL INSTRUMENTAL IN HELPING COUPLE START THEIR LIFE IN NOVA SCOTIA.

BY TINA HENNIGAR
It wasn’t initially Charles Otter and Nick Orlov Otter’s goal to move to Nova Scotia. The agent at the Canadian Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, suggested Nova Scotia after the couple shared what they wanted in their next move.
They did their research, drew a circle 100 kilometres around the Halifax International Airport and called a real estate agent they discovered online to help them find their new home.
“We told her what we wanted, and she totally got us,” said Nick. They bought the house having only seen pictures of it. As Nick drove up the long tree lined driveway in the seaside community of Mader’s Cove, he knew it was the perfect house for them. “We wanted a big house with lots of land with a view of the sea,”  Nick said in an interview from their private home that overlooks beautiful Westhaver’s beach. “ Nick is from Russia and Charles from New Zealand, the two have lived all around the world. It’s this community that they now call home, they hope never to leave. They got married on their . property shortly after arriving. Charles’s vast experience in Hotel Management enabled him to plan and pull off an event none of .  the 45 guests from 16 different countries would soon forget. “…after the wedding, we invited all our neighbours to join us for . a BBQ, and every single person showed up,” Charles said. “It was . incredible, the warmth and support we were shown.” Nick and Charles are part owners of Oh My Cod restaurant in Mahone Bay. Charles works in economic and community development and Nick is an entrepreneur who runs his own business in IT. Both play a significant role in the community, volunteering for festivals and the Chamber of Commerce.
“We need immigrants in Nova Scotia. We need new people, their ideas and what they bring.” Nick and Charles credit the community for helping them. “At every turn we were connected to all the right people, from our bank manager who helped us with our mortgage, our agent who helped us find a home, even our first taxi driver at the airport who, instead of charging me 50 dollars for a short taxi drive, put me in a hotel shuttle,” Nick Said of the kind people he’s met in this province. “It was pure goodness.”