De Grandhomme decided several years ago he wanted to move to New Zealand. He remembered it was "pretty nerve-wracking at first. But it's worked out pretty well. I've made a lot of friends."
De Grandhomme cited former New Zealand player Dipak Patel as one of the key figures in his journey.
"I didn't know what I wanted to do after school so I thought I'd see how it is here," de Grandhomme, 25, said.
He harbours test ambitions, but for now his game is ideally suited to the shortest form.
De Grandhomme hits a seriously long ball, has the sort of strike rate which catches the eye of T20 coaches, bowls serviceable medium pace and is no slouch in the field. It is tempting to consider how Zimbabwe could do with de Grandhomme now.
De Grandhomme's Auckland teammate Ronnie Hira will make his international T20 debut either tonight or in Hamilton on Tuesday.
He was the standout spinner in the HRV Cup, a big contributor to Auckland defending their title, and qualifying for the Champions League in India later this year. Hira acknowledged this is a good time to arrive in the New Zealand side, who are on a roll.
"Obviously it's a nice place to be. There's a lot of good energy around the team, the boys are travelling well," he said.
Acting captain Brendon McCullum insists there will be no easing off tonight, having put Zimbabwe on the rack over the four internationals played on tour so far.
The teams met in two T20s in Harare in October, New Zealand winning both on the back of strong top order batting from Martin Guptill and McCullum.
"The T20 skill gap is always narrowed the shorter the games, and that means you've got to be even more efficient, make sure you're pretty sound tactically," McCullum said.
McCullum cited enthusiasm as the key ingredient new players bring to the operation. He and coach John Wright have talked about the importance of having them fulfil the roles that won them selection from their provinces in the first place.
And keeping minds on the job has been the most pleasing aspect of the ODI series in his book.
"We've been able to continue to raise the tempo of our game and execute better and better each game - and that includes chopping and changing to give opportunities to guys who haven't played for New Zealand before."
The next two games represent Zimbabwe's last chance to make any sort of impact in New Zealand. Too much of their cricket on this tour has been seriously disappointing, even allowing for the difficulties this trip would always present.
