Re: Anyone else feel like this
 

You are a very normal person. These feelings are natural.

Good luck with the move, hope your dreams come true;)

Re: Anyone else feel like this
 

I'm so glad that other people feel the way I am feeling. I have a 16 month old boy and he is the only child and grandchild in the family. We have a great life, love our house and life. But I feel apprehensive about moving and taking away my little boy (Harry) away from everything he knows (and we know). We will be moving to no-one we know. Has anyone else done this? I do feel that it is a better life in Oz and you only get 1 shot at life and we have the chance to move and like so many other people have said you can always come back if it doesnt work out.
How far have people got with their applications/moving plans - our next step is the VISA application - which we are putting off!
x
:)
:unsure:

Re: Anyone else feel like this
 

Don't be sorry, been there done that, no simple answers, good luck. Life here is so good (today). Miss family so much. YOu will get though this
xxxxx

Re: Anyone else feel like this
 

Hi Nicky

What a small world, so when did you leave Weymouth? and where abouts did you life.

We are hopefully heading to Adelaide, Just done our medicals and police checks just come back so just waiting now.

We are moving to my mums on Portland on 14 Sept, she has a granny annexe attached to her house so it makes sence to move in with her rather than rent. Only problem is my mum does not want us to go and she might put a bit of pressure on the kids, but at the same time it will be nice spending time with her.

Did you have jobs to go to? and how are you finding the cost of living?

Nicky

Re: Anyone else feel like this
 

So glad to know that I'm in good company:)
We are still awaiting on OH's exam needed for skills assessment so fingers crossed wil applying in October - because his skills assessment has been so long winded, he started in March - some of our initial excitement has dwindled and I keep thinking of all the good things we have here. We are not moving for any particular dislike of our current life but like many others on here feel that we have talked about this for long enough and life really is too short not to get out there and do it!
There, I've convinced myself we are doing the right thing again!!
As so many of you feel the same at some point, this is obviously just another part of the process, I think that because it is generally a long slow process for most people, it gives us too much time to think about all the consequences.
Good luck to you all, especially those who are almost there!

Sammy

Re: Anyone else feel like this
 

Yep - exactly how I felt three years ago. We are now in Oz and I still feel the same!!!! Yep, we have decided to return.:eek:

Re: Anyone else feel like this
 

Sorry to be a whinging pom, but life isn't always greener. We're been in Oz for 8 months and we're already thinking about going back.

We're on the Gold Coast and house prices and interests rates have shot through the roof...now cannot afford a house here.

Re: Anyone else feel like this
 

Hello

I left Weymouth in 1992 and moved to Portsmouth. I lived in many places around Weymouth, even in Kings Arms Pub on quay. Owned a house on Portland for a little while. Dad owns fish market on the quay. Good idea about moving in with your mum and not wasting money on rent.

Hubby joined RAN after finishing 22 in royal navy. I'm not working at moment but will find something soon. The food shopping I think is about the same price wise as uk but meat and veg are better quality. You can get weekly deals just look in flyers that come. Petrol is cheaper I just paid $1.15 per litre, but does vary from day to day.

It's not a bed of roses and takes time to adjust. I think I found it a little easier because we had both moved away from our families and I have been used to hubby going away for months at a time. Hope things work out really well for you all. Take care

Nicky xx

Re: Anyone else feel like this
 

I think it's normal to get the jitters. I have been feeling very unsettled recently and I'm wondering not if we are doing the right thing by leaving the UK (I know that is the right thing for us) but if we are going to the right place.

I'm wondering now if we shouldn't be going to New Zealand after all. The landscape is more beautiful, the climate easier to adjust to, none of the scary creatures hiding under the loo seat...

I keep swinging from one to the other. I know that we can always change our minds and if Perth doesn't suit us we can still go to NZ but the thought of all that upheaval twice! Gah! Hope we are doing the right thing. :confused:

Re: Anyone else feel like this
 

Funny that, we orginally looked at NZ before deciding on Oz, probably Tasmania. In my moments of worrying (and there lots of those) I keep thinking we should have chosen NZ, as we have spoken to lots of people who have said they would always choose it above Oz - very confusing!!!
I see you already have NZ visas, is that because you have already lived there, or one of you already a Kiwi?
We have found that from looking at job adverts and house prices etc that the cost of living will be higher in NZ which is what put us off in the first place.
We have visited Oz but not NZ, so its difficult to be able to compare the two.
This emigration lark is very confusing:(
Sammy

Re: Anyone else feel like this
 

hi Sammy,

We visited Oz and NZ last year and thought that the visit would make the decision easy. Nope! :D

NZ was always my first choice although DH hankered after Perth. When he was offered a job in Perth we decided to give it a shot. We decided to get the NZ visa just in case anything went wrong with our visa application for Oz. It's a contingency plan I suppose.

Houses are a lot cheaper in NZ although the interest rate is much higher there. Food is a lot cheaper and I thought that the produce in NZ was the best I'd ever come across anywhere in the world.

there don't seem to be as many opportunities there though compared to WA (although a lot more than in our part of the UK!)

Like I said, I thought it would be easy after visiting both places to decide which would be best - but they both have very good points. I suppose that's a happy dilemma to have.

Re: Anyone else feel like this
 

Ah, there was me thinking that if we had only visited both places the decision would be easy.
We visited Tasmania on our holiday and loved it, we had read before hand that it was like a mix of NZ and Oz, which what appealed to us in the first place.
But I keep looking at NZ and thinking perhaps we would settle there better, not really sure why.
OH not very impressed by my drifting opinion and is still dead set on Oz as he feels we cannot possibly consider the two - out of interest how did you get your PR visa for NZ as when we looked into it appeared to hard to get visa without a job and hard to get a job without a visa.
Sammy

Re: Anyone else feel like this
 

It's pretty easy if you have a degree and work experience. It seemed so much more straighforward than the process for Oz.

Re: Anyone else feel like this
 

Plenty of interesting comments to this thread. We have been in Sydney for 16 months. It is a great place for kids, vibrant cosmopolitan city, great beaches, but....you really need to be 100% of your motives. When we were planning to come over, a post noted that if you have a great lifestyle in the UK, you may want to think twice - after a few months on "holiday" you may want to get back to friends and family
Yes, you only have 1 go at this life and if you are adventurous then give it a go. We still have doubts most days, get homesick etc especially June-September due to the winter and the houses just are not warm enough -check out the weather in Noosa today.
Life is what you make it - enjoy:huh:

Re: Anyone else feel like this
 

For those who where wondering what it's like to live in NZ and Australia we have lived in both and can tell you life isn't rosy in either!!! Saying that Australia is the best if you have money in the bank. :frown:

We went to Auckland, NZ May 2006 and we lived there for 8 months. We found it to be very expensive and not as family friendly as they say. House prices average $400K+ for a wooden shack and in not a very nice area. Within 2 months of us being there houses prices and interest rates went through the roof and by the time we left house prices averaged around $500k+. The weather is dreadful and can rain most days. In the winter it gets frosty and is very cold for about 6 months of the year. What makes it worse is there is no heating...so you can imagine it can get very cold (about -2 degrees or colder) without any heating...it's not fun!! New Zealanders use convector heater or gas heater for heating and they can be very expensive to run. NZ do have poisonous spider, called White Tails. They bite and can cause serious infection which takes a long time to heal...at worse can lead to gangrene and amputation.

We also found food prices expensive and the fruit and veg not to be fresh. They are treated the same as in the UK because they still have to be imported from elsewhere and they go off very quickly (buy one day and they are off the next). For examples of prices, Peppers (capsicums) are $12.00kg, Vine Tomatoes $10kg, dozen eggs $7.50 and a loaf of bread $5.00. Most of the cheaper fruit/veg are imported from Australia anyway. Wages are not very good in relation to the cost of living. We had no other option but to leave and go to Australia instead.

We have lived on the Gold Coast, Australia for 8 months now and we're still finding it hard. We've spent all our money getting here and can no longer afford a house. Wages are better, but house prices in Queensland especially the Gold Coast are very high...and still going up. They are even advising people to sell there houses and rent because there is a mortgage crisis! There's also a shortage of houses to rent. My advise is to look very carefully at where you are planning to go. Make sure there is a job lined up and you have money in the bank.

Although we looked very carefully into coming to Australia as we didn't want to make the same mistake as we did in NZ. Things still haven't worked out for us. After we arrived we noticed rental properties started to go up as well as house prices. When we were looking for rental properties there must have been 30+ people after the same house. In the end we had to settle for a house more expensive than we wanted and also in not as nice condition. We pay $420.00 a week in rent. Which is half my husband's wage :thumbdown: I don't work as I'm a full time mum of two with a baby on the way. You really need to be a double income family to suvive...I guess it's the say as the UK

Flights back to the UK can cost $10,000 (2 adults, 2 children). You have to pay for doctors consultations...you do get money back from Medicare, but not all. My daughter (4 years) had to have antibiotics last weeks, which cost$23...you cannot claim this back. You have to pay for children's school books. Kindy fees can be expensive although not as expensive as NZ. We pay $124 for a 3 day week at my daughters kindy...you do get family credit if a PR.

We do not have PR as there is complications. My husband needs to have an electrical license in order to start the process of immigration (this is due to his line of work). 8 months on and that's still not sorted. The examination board in which can give the go ahead for the license are taking their time. The Aussie's laid back life and no rush to do anything has cost us a lot. We had hope to have PR by now. It could be another 6 -12 months or longer before we get it. It's all turned into a nightmare...

We're now planning to return to the UK and cutting our looses and moving in with my parents to start saving to buy another in the UK. It means starting all over again and for what? :curse:

Hope your life works out better than ours...just make sure you have money in the bank and PR. You can get a home buyer grant of $7,000 each when you buy your first home in Oz. Just don't move to the Gold Coast, 600 people every week are doing just that and it's caused no end of trouble.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, we still haven't seen a snake and only one Redback...which was soon eradicated with a size 11 shoe. We do see Huntsmans but they're OK, if left alone...Huntsmans eat Redbacks so they're quite useful to have around.