valleygurl

We have been offered the oppurtunity to pursue a life in NZ! It's been 5 years since we were there last what's changed? What's the comfortable amount we should expect to be able to live on in New Plymouth? Both working, with children of 12 and 15?

escapedtonz

Go because if you don't you'll always regret not giving it a try.

$120k to be comfortable I'd say. This will allow you to rent a decent house or pay a decent mortgage and will allows regular savings for other activities/holidays.

Don't know what has changed in that period - only been here 4 years. I suppose the cost of living will be slightly more expensive. May not be an issue if your salary has also risen slightly.
Vehicle license has reduced for cars but not for motorbikes.

Not so sure about New Plymouth myself. Yeah it's a nice place to visit, but unsure if there's enough there for my family to live, be settled and remain happy. It all depends on the life you want to lead of course which may be very different than mine. After our last visit we just felt there wasn't much to do once you'd done all the touristy stuff - walks, rides etc etc and it's hours from any other large city.

valleygurl

We found new plymouth lovely when we were there, we stayed 2 years before and there was always something going on. We do regret leaving the 1st time but were left with no option as we had to come home (a lot of family related problems) now we've had this offer out of the blue it's thrown us a dilemma as the kids are so much older now and we've rebuilt our lives and businesses back up..... Jesus it's so confusing not knowing whether to put the 2 years we had down to memories and an adventure or to take the leap and never look back

Justcol

Things have changed in the past 5 years.

thers more choice in the shops and supermarkets
NZ has been trying hard to catch up with the 21st century and has made big strides
in available technology and internet speeds.
There's a few more Chinese and asians around the place
The racism is still around but maybe that's just us Brits being to PC
There's big infrastructure investment with new / better roads being built.
Coronation street is at Xmas 2013
Cars are still expensive
Folks are still friendly and its still a nice place to be.

valleygurl

To be fair they weren't that far behind with technology when we were there. I also found their furniture to be on par with what we paid here. But the housing market was great although looking at it now it doesn't give you much hope of buying what you want!

Justcol

That all depends on what you want and where you live

Once away from Aux, chch and welly even average wages can buy a very nice home