Tom H

Time has flown since arriving in October 2011 and the 5th year of living here commences.

Since achieving a new qualification, which has made me become part of the elite in my field of work, life has changed a lot. I now do plenty of work for IT meet up groups, as well as the ANZTB. It's really hard doing all this, on top of raising a family and keeping the wife happy. However, the days become more enjoyable and help with the battle against homesickness.

House of Travel is a brilliant organisation, constantly in the top 10 places to work in New Zealand and I can see why. I've been in the organisation for a year now and everything about it is enjoyable. It was tough to begin due to the changes for the IT team to move to a 'agile' method of work but its got better and better. For the non-techy people, agile is a type of iterative software development life cycle. As an example, the census from Statistics NZ is prepared and developed via agile.

Then we move onto Pegasus and what a fantastic place it is to live in. The best place to live in Canterbury in my opinion. A real close-nit community spirit, with fantastic sporting facilities, an excellent beach and a lot of enjoyable social things to do. Things are also being developed now in Pegasus, the new playground is almost complete. Our new medical centre is coming on nicely and even better - a Robbies will be here. That'll be packed when it's open and the good thing is that the majority of users will use it sensibly. Many tend not to go to the Bunker and the Flat White is more a café. It's been a success at Sovereign Palms (another beautiful place to live) and it should be a success at Pegasus. The only downer about Pegasus is that you need a car to live here. No car and well unfortunately options are very limited.

The wife loves it here. She passed her theory test recently and is now learning on the Pegasus roads. Good news is that she knows what the left arrow on one lane and the straight arrow mean on the other by a notorious roundabout we have. She also has a very active group of friends, on top of participating in this 'box fit' workout at the school on Wednesdays. Plus, Pegasus is brilliant to bring children up in. My boys are so lucky as they'll only have a minutes walk to their school when they're older. In my day, it were a 30 minute bus journey!

Other positives about being in New Zealand

Wildlife
Golf
Seafood
Wellington
Tauranga

Wellington and Tauranga are fantastic places to go and visit. If I could move Pegasus somewhere else, it'll be within commuting distance of those two places. Wellington in particular is becoming more attractive for IT workers due to salaries being better than Christchurch (source Absolute IT salary survey 2014/15) and Tauranga is seeing a boom in IT work. Despite loving Pegasus, Wellington really does interest me due to the wages and being able to use public transport to get to work. Tauranga is beautiful and hopefully more opportunities will come soon for me and for the wife. The only negative of Wellington and Tauranga is that you'd have to fly to Arrowtown and Picton (from Tauranga). Arrowtown and Picton, two stunning locations to visit on the South Island.

However, despite the positives, there is the big negative and that is the homesickness. Despite living in a fabulous place and living in a beautiful country, it isn't Britain. It doesn't have the advancements that Britain has, nor does it have the little things here, such as wide choice of wines, amusement arcades on beaches, train network etc.

I also have found that deep down, if you aren't a Rugby fan - this country isn't the place of sport for you. I got fed up of rugby in the end (mainly due to the fannying around of the scrum each year, poor atmosphere and Wayne Barnes haters) and Sky Sports in particular became a waste that I got rid of it. I wish Sommet could return as the football coverage, plus the AFL coverage was excellent. I have taken up watching the AFL and the Aussie Rule fans know how to create an atmosphere. In fact, Australians really do know how to create an atmosphere in Rugby as well. Going to Canterbury or Crusader games doesn't have that atmosphere, bar the Mexican wave being attempted to start every 4 minutes, that's it. You have the horses which are great but then there's a lack of atmosphere. I even find it the same with the All Blacks, I went to the game v Argentina down here and was nothing like I expect a national match of that calibre to be. No wonder why many go on about how fantastic Lion tours are (the Lion fans know how to create an atmosphere). Last year I flew to the Super 15 final and those Waratah fans knew how to create an atmosphere. The Crusaders semi final victory that season was quite disappointing.

Anyway despite the homesickness, we move on. Not many more years now before we become citizens which is the main requirement before The Clash ask us what the next move is. Giving our eldest the opportunity to live and work in Oceania and Europe is an opportunity we can't let him not have. Our second has it and our eldest should have it too. The opportunity to have 4 fantastic opportunities in the future is too good for him and unfair for him not to have.

Snap Shot

Very good, carry on. You live in an enviable sounding place.

However, like me there are things in the back of your mind and the bottom of your heart that cannot be denied.

I do, 'Box Fit' for exercise. It's hard but good.

BEVS

That's a fabulous update TomH.

I'm happy that you are happier as I did feel you were struggling. Pegasus sounds great. Oddly I did suggest this place to MrBEVS when it was still a bit of a concept. I think we were four years in then and I was already wondering if a move might be right for us.

Long may your happy lives continue wherever you live .

Sparkleydiva

Great update. Homesickness visits us all, but you can see what it is. Hope the good life continues