Planning the Big move to NZ
 

Hi, Me and my Wife are planning the BIG move to NZ :scarper:

I am 36 and my wife is 32 we have a 7mo Son and a 4yo Daughter, we have always toyed with the idea of starting a new life in NZ before the children get too old and we do! :eek:

We decided on Tauranga as my wife's Brother and Sister-in-Law live there with their 2 daughters, we are close and they have offered a bit of information but they are still finding their feet as they only emigrated 2 years ago. But I would like as much Real life info, be blunt, tell me as much as you can please, I don't want to be disillusioned by some of these websites we find, I want to speak to people that have had every experience may it be good or not so good, if that's OK?

My wife is a Registered Staff Nurse in the NHS and has 9 years of experience in Emergency Medicine, Emergency Assessment, Clinical Nursing and currently in Gynaecology Nursing, since qualifying with a Diploma in 2008 from University of Nottingham. We would be moving on the strength of my wife's qualifications, if anyone can offer information to help us we would be very grateful, i.e. Shift patterns, general information on applying in the medical sector, stories of your own experience etc

I am Qualified in Gas fitting Natural Gas and LPG, Heating and Plumbing, I have minimal Electrical knowledge 12v and 240v Testing and investigation, I currently work in the Motorhome industry and would probably seek employment in that area if possible, I have taken a look and have found a couple of groups that deal in Motorhomes and Caravans, but would like more information if anyone can help?

The children, we would like them to go to School and Kindey (check me out!:thumb:) so all information regarding this would also be very appreciated :thumbsup:

It's becoming a bit of an essay now and I don't want you to get bored!!:lol:
Cheers

Re: Planning the Big move to NZ
 

Hi to you :thumbsup:
Great idea for sure. Just what we thought over 5 years ago albeit we were a little older :lol:
We live in Tauranga. Been here for just over 2.5 years after 2.5 years in Wellington.
Love it here in Tauranga, much more so than Wellington mainly because the climate and weather much better. The beaches are awesome and it's just a really nice place to live with a really nice lifestyle on offer. Personally don't have any negatives to state for Tauranga other than it's getting busier meaning the population is growing, the roads are getting busier, roading infrastructure is a bit lacking and will be for the next 5 years at least but there are plans to address this with new highways/bypasses. House prices are high and getting higher. Overall the cost of living in NZ is at least 15% higher than the UK as you have to pay GST on all goods, even food. In reality, with the cheap as chips prices for food in the UK I'd say it's more 20-25% more expensive here on the grocery shop, but in my opinion it's just something you've gotta get along with to have this lifestyle which we love.
Do your due diligence about whether or not you can afford it here.
Rent will be your highest cost and you're looking at least $500 per week for a remotely decent 3 bed house. On top of that you'll also have to pay between $150-$300 a month for power and/or gas, plus maybe $80 a month broadband, $30 a month mobile phone contract, $500 per year refuse collection, $250 a year water plus anything else you want like sky tv, a car, transport, insurance, savings for a rainy day and all that jazz.
When you have made 3 posts you should be able to send / receive PM's so you can get in touch with any specific questions.

My Mrs was a Sister in ICU back home in Lancashire and since coming here she decided to go down a different route as she didn't want to work shifts anymore so went in to practise nursing. She's still working on a casual basis covering sickness/holidays at 3 different GP practices in Tauranga which suits at the moment but she's hoping for some permanent hours asap now our youngest starting kindy this week. It's been difficult for her to find a permanent contract here. It was pretty easy for her to get a permanent job in Wellington but many people struggle here as it isn't as busy. Hospital jobs wise your wife may be ok, but not sure if she'll be able to get something in Tauranga. A couple of people I know who have recently come here and one on the way have failed to get work in the Tauranga DHB and instead have had to accept work in Hamilton from Waikato DHB which is 120Km away.
Not sure about shifts. When my Mrs looked in to Tauranga Hospital there was only 13 hour shifts available days and nights but our Aussie neighbour is also a nurse in aged care there and she does earlies/lates/nights so it may be dependent on the department ?
First thing she needs to do is to apply for her NZ Nursing Registration at the Nursing Council of NZ. Unlikely any employer would be interested until she has this or at least is on the road to getting it. The website will tell her all she will need in order to apply and secure this. It's a bit of a pain so the Mrs says but necessary. Takes around 3 / 4 months as you have to apply to your UK nursing training provider for transcripts, get police checks and pass IELTS academic min overall 7.0 etc. Once she has the registration she can then apply for a certificate to practice which is what you actually need in order to work in the medical sector here.

A friend of mine here who is from the UK was also a gas fitter, plumber but got out of it. He worked for himself in the UK but since he was the ticket here he accepted a job offer to get the visa but hated working for someone else again. Didn't like the hours or the pay and he was also classed as a trainee until he got through the registration process and was being trained by a guy half his age who had half the knowledge. Pay and hours was poor and the prospect of earning a good salary in that game not good unless you work for yourself and can win a contract etc. He was mid 40's and back to crawling under floor spaces so jacked it in for a contract manager job in council housing projects. He's way happier now. It may be difficult getting work in Tauranga depending on who you wanna work for. Maybe there's work to be had in the building game as there's loads of housing going up now and in the future. Again you will have to look in to getting registration from the PGDB I think. Their website will tell you all you need.
No idea about the caravan/motorhome business here.

The Mrs can get some contacts for your wife if she needs ? Bets thing to do is apply directly to the Department head at the DHB.

Re: Planning the Big move to NZ
 

Have you used the points calculator to figure out if you qualify for residence, and/or what your pathway is?

Re: Planning the Big move to NZ
 

Thank you, it will be a long process but we plan to get there somehow, someway! I appreciate all the info you have mentioned, the wife is getting on with all her nursing requirements.
Regarding securing work, it seems no different to anywhere here, we all have to commute to get the job we need, I'm sure we'll work something out or have to compromise on where we choose to live

Re: Planning the Big move to NZ
 

Good luck to you with your plans!

We are in the midst of planning a move to Tauranga too, like you we already have friends and family there so we will use them as our 'insider info'.

Keep up posted on your move :)

Re: Planning the Big move to NZ
 

Tauranga is difficult to find permanent nurse roles in, irrespective of experience. I have a couple of kiwi nurse friends who moved down there from Auckland over the past couple of years and neither of them have secured permanent roles as yet.

If you aren't doing 12 hour shifts, standard shift hours are 0645-1500, 1445-2315 and 2300-0700 pretty much across the board, so lates are very late and with no EU time directive hours between shifts is shorter.

I didn't take a nurse role in the DHB as didnt like the shift hours, so worked for NASC for a while then 8-430 in community palliative care.

Good luck, Tauranga is lovely if you can get work - we lived there for 6 months back in 2006

Re: Planning the Big move to NZ
 

Thank you for the advice, I will pass it on to my wife, every bit helps with the plans :)

Re: Planning the Big move to NZ
 

Will do, I try to get on a computer as often as I can, I will update this thread :)

Re: Planning the Big move to NZ
 

We've been here almost 9 months, so still new at this game! We live in Cambridge and my husband and I both work in Hamilton, so can't comment on getting work in Tauranga.


I agree with the comments made above regarding the cost of living and what you will have to pay for. A considerable increase to things back in the UK.


And I can only speak from our point of view, but something we didn't know before coming were the poor t&c's regarding employment, and again this is in relation to our employment, not sure if it's the same across the board. We had well paid jobs with great t&c's in the UK (i.e. my husband had 5 weeks annual leave, I had 6), he had private company health care, I had up to 6 months sick pay (pro-rata over 3 years). We were able to afford for me to work 3 days a week. Here I have to work full time (40 hours a week), my husband works in excess of 50 hours a week with less pay in a job that he doesn't particularly enjoy, as his skill set is very unique. We get 4 weeks annual leave, which you have to 'accrue' weekly, and 5 days sick leave in the first year, increasing to 10 days in the second year.


Our primary concern is how to afford to live here if one of us is off work due to illness and we have used your sick and annual leave?


Don't get me wrong, NZ is an amazing country. It's stunning, safer, more spacious, but the financial implications are definitely something I would recommend you consider, particularly if you have a good standard of living in the UK.


Best of luck to you and your family whatever decision you make.

Re: Planning the Big move to NZ
 

To be fair, the amount of sick leave you had in the UK was not common. Most would have nothing like those conditions so to throw them up to someone else is silly.
It sounds like you simply didn't do your homework before coming to NZ because there are literally dozens of threads on here and other forums about the cost of living and related costs of life in NZ.

Re: Planning the Big move to NZ
 

Hi Justcol

I don't think what I said was silly, as I mentioned I was speaking from my own situation, but was merely suggesting it would be worth checking this out.
Perhaps our homework wasn't thorough enough. We were well aware of the increased cost of living, but at no time did I find threads regarding employment t&c's.
I was sharing my view and didn't expect a backlash.

Re: Planning the Big move to NZ
 

Don't worry Maz, I had a similar response from Justcol when I posted something slightly negative about my experience after 6 months being here. Some people just can't help being unpleasant, Justignore.

Re: Planning the Big move to NZ
 

Many thanks, really appreciate your reply. I was only after advice not criticism, hey ho, it is what it is I guess! 😀
How are you getting on here?

Re: Planning the Big move to NZ
 

I agree with you T&Cs at work are piss poor and it is a biggie when you consider most come here for the 'lifestyle' and unless you get a job offer before arriving you don't know what to expect. Very few people can be choosy or will consider the impact of fine print when just needing a job asap / or desperate to get a job to get a visa.

That 'lifestyle'/ work-life balancing bullshit can be majorly compromised when you suddenly find yourself contracted to work all the hours god sends and lose a week or more of leave in the process.

I'm in that boat with only four weeks of leave, as opposed to five in the UK and sucks even more when you are forced to take two of those weeks off over the Christmas period.

I used to work 35 hours per week (regular office hours) in London: here we have some very loose terms that say you must work a minimum of 40 hours. i.e. Anything more that 40 is expected and you're simply supposed to put up and shut up, even if required to work until midnight. :thumbdown:

We get minimal sick leave (10 days ) - we too must have had a fairly generous scheme in the UK with many weeks accrued according to length of service. I'm pretty sure we had six months or more available to us also.

Re: Planning the Big move to NZ
 

I see not much has changed on here in the months I have been away.
Its still full of people grumbling and moaning about life in NZ
I used to have this or that in the UK and I dont have it here, everything is so expensive
You cant buy the same food here, its not the same, they talk funny and dont drive very well.

These are the same things that have gone round and round in 90% of the threads for years
Are any of you lot actually happy to be living in New Zealand, because it doesn't sound like it
it seems most of you are here because you cant afford to go back to the UK