In an empty room deep inside the Massey University library, Loyd Doron sits alone, eating his lunch, reflecting on the past four months.

The 22-year-old film student left his small countryside town in the Philippines in July to study in Wellington.

But his journey has been far from a fairy tale.

And he never anticipated it would be quite so lonely.

 “The first 1-2 months were so hard,” Doron told Focus. “I many times got to the point where I wanted to book a flight home because it was so challenging.

“It’s very lonely. The hardest thing has been that loneliness and homesickness.

“I still find it really hard to get out there, put myself out there and meet other people and make friends.

“It was so much harder than I thought.”

International students at New Zealand universities all but disappeared for almost two years during the start of the Covid pandemic.

Since the reopening of New Zealand’s borders they’ve slowly trickled back, but it’s predicted to take years before it builds up proper steam.

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In January this year, just 93 people arrived on student visas.

About 2700 arrived in October - still less than half the 7200 who arrived pre-pandemic in October 2019.

“It’s been challenging that there’s not a lot of people in the same boat as me," says Loyd Doron. Photo / Mark Mitchell

“There’s not a lot of international students. Most of them are domestic students or have already been living here in New Zealand for quite some time,” Doron explained.

“It’s been challenging that there’s not a lot of people in the same boat as me. It’s hard to meet people you can share your experiences. It’s one of the things I find really hard in terms of meeting new people.”

Back home, Doron had lots of friends.

They’d spend afternoons together, chatting, playing sports and just “hanging out”.

He also comes from a tight-knit family and is very close with his mum and grandmother.

He recently took to social media app TikTok to share his experiences in hopes to connect with other international students feeling the same.

One he posted last month which was captioned “why is it so hard to make friends here as an international student” racked up more than 7000 views.

“With that TikTok video, I didn’t expect it to have so much engagement, it was just random, sharing my thoughts about how I feel at that moment,” he said.

“So many more people reached out sharing my experience or offering the meet-up for coffee and telling me it’s going to be okay.

“It was a really nice way to share my experience and know other people are out there and willing to help support you.”

Despite the challenges, Doron says he doesn’t regret the big move and has high hopes for his future here.

“I hope once I finish my degree it will open doors to get into the film industry and start my career here and slowly connect with fellow creatives,” he said

“I feel like it’ll be worth it one day as long as I still have the determination and enough motivation to get through it.”