red.debz

Me and my husband are looking at moving to Christchurch for a while for work. We emigrated to Darwin almost 5 years ago and I love it, however the heat of this wet season and current slow down of work in plumbing have made us look elsewhere. I'm wondering if anyone on here has done the move from darwin and how they have found it? We have 2 boys also, 7 and 10 months. I'm not worried about my baby but I do worry how it will effect my 7 year old as would have to start from scratch again and it was hard enough the first time.

Buzzy--Bee

Maybe ask on the NZ forum? Christchurch is a reasonably nice city, but living in NZ is very different proposition from living in Aus. Not sure about Darwin specifically as I haven't been there. Trades are in demand with the rebuild in Christchurch, but that is slowing down now a bit, also the rebuild has not been as organised as it might have been and trades have been sitting at home waiting for jobs to be allocated.

Christchurch is of course bigger than Darwin, so that may make a difference.

The weather in Christchurch is not my favourite, it can be quite sunny, but often very windy, so you're either getting wet or blown around or both! Not very many warm, still days.

One question - are you Australian citizens yet? If not, I suggest you get this before you move to NZ as Aus PR would expire once you had been overseas for a few years.

BB

red.debz

Yes, getting our citizenship in April and won't go without it! I've posted in the nz forum but it's really for English going straight there, not from aus, so it's all positive feedback mainly about the weather. I'm worried we will be making the wrong move if work is slowing down over there,I don't want to mess my older boy around but also see it as an adventure for us too and he is good at making friends and loves the outdoors. Maybe I'm over thinking it? It's just so hot up here in the summer and this year has been especially tough so we become prisoners in our own homes because of the air con! I know darwin is very unique and that's it's charm, is nz really similar to uk?

Buzzy--Bee

People often say that NZ is similar to the UK, or even the way the UK was many years ago. It is in some ways, but not all of them may be good.

NZ is VERY expensive. Don't underestimate that. I reckon you might well save on housing costs moving from Darwin but that would be about it. Day to day living is exceptionally expensive. I used to live there, I visit every year (going next week in fact) and I reckon things in NZ cost between 2 and 5 times what they do in Oz.

The absolute worst thing that I find about NZ and the main reason I can never live there again, is the people's parochialism. Everything / everyone from another country is not as good as New Zealand, and is to be attacked. You see it in the NZ papers almost every day "NZ only came 15th in a global survey, but it doesn't matter, because Australia came 16th" - that sort of thing. I get more "pommie bastard" type jibes at me in NZ 2 weeks each year than I get the whole of the rest of the year in Melbourne, where I find people are much more worldy-wise.

You also really have to consider the earthquakes. If you are not used to them (and even if you are!) they are very frightening as you can't tell whether the rumbling you are currently hearing will pass, or will intensify and knock your house down. People in Christchurch do not have anything breakable on a mantelpiece!

Have you considered an Australian city further south? We have found Melbourne to have the best of England and New Zealand rolled into one, with better weather, job opportunities etc. But you may not want to live in a large city.

Hope that helps a bit!

BB

goldchoccycoin

Maybe, like Buzzy--Bee suggested, consider somewhere else in Australia. Brisbane has a lot of building work going on at the moment (residential particularly) and while nothing is guaranteed I think it will continue for a good while. Better weather than Darwin - we have had a few weeks of heat and humidity but I imagine it's like a breath of fresh air versus Darwin. No issues with playing/being active outside year round and lots to do for active kids.

Best of luck with whatever you choose to do!

red.debz

Thanks guys, your time taken to reply is very much appreciated. I think you've just confirmed my thoughts.

Buzzy--Bee

Given the replies you have had on the NZ forum, I'd be very interested to hear what thoughts have been confirmed, as everybody's experience can be different!

BB

red.debz

I was thinking that the work has got to slow down at some point over there, and half the reason we moved here was the weather. I did think about the earth quakes but then my husband counters it with the fact that we live in a cyclone zone. I was also thinking of staying in aus but going south, I like it here and I like the space we have.

Buzzy--Bee

I guess the difference between a cyclone and an eathquake is that you do generally get warning of a cyclone heading your way these days!

I reckon any of the southern cities would offer you more of what you're looking for than Christchurch. What about Adelaide? I haven't been there myself, but it was designed by the same people as Christchurch and is supposed to be a larger version of it.

BB

Amazulu

Yes. Costs in relation to income (purchasing power) are crazy

DC10

There are exceptions to every rule, but you might struggle to adapt to life in NZ and the way of thinking over there. As mentioned above, it is expensive and wages are low. As an example, it's the only place I know of where electricity bills come monthly - people would struggle to pay if the billing period were any longer. Benefits such as penalty rates all but disappeared decades ago. The concept of employer pension contributions (or indeed any pension other than the state one) is a novelty: there have been some highly publicised tippy-toe steps towards puny contributions in recent years but even those have been trimmed back. 15% GST applies to EVERYTHING (including things like council rates - surreal!). In the workplace there is a huge focus on "team" and racial sensitivity almost to the exclusion of anything else - fine, I guess. Job advertisements almost never mention the salary - not sure why, guess it is only a minor consideration (and you can bet it will be low). On the whole, people are exceedingly tight and, as mentioned above, misguidedly parochial. There is an obscure national way of thinking which sees as very important things that barely rate a mention in other countries and does not even think about the things which dominate national debate elsewhere. Christchurch itself is ok, as mentioned above warm weather tends to come with wind. The winters can be frigid and smoggy, and the housing stock generally poor quality. There is a surprisingly sizeable underbelly of gangs, drug dealers and prostitutes for a city of that size, which pops into the news from time to time.
I wish you the very best of British/Australian luck...

Buzzy--Bee

This is probably the most accurate summation of life in South Island New Zealand I have ever seen.

BB

DC10

Williamstown it ain't

On balance, I should have thrown in that there are some cracking outdoor activities within an hour or so of Chch: skiing, beautiful lakes, wineries, beaches etc. If that's your thing.

Back on the negative side of the ledger, it is quite a "clicky" kind of place (it would pass for a class system on this side of the world), a bit like Adelaide (if you've been there) or the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne: "what school did you go to?" kind of thing. Of course unlike Britain "class" is almost directly correlative to first-generation wealth rather than anything much to do with family history.

paddy234

NZ wages especially in areas like construction have risen sharply in the last few years due to large demand of oversea's skilled workers while Australia on the other hand is seeing a slow down in construction in many parts of the country. As for lifestyle, it's what you make it, with plenty of lakes, bays and beaches to visit aswell as Ski fields on your door step you'll be spoilt for choice. I'd definitely say though that NZ is more geared towards the outdoors in terms of activities to do more so than Australia. As for Climate, coming to NZ made me realize there is such a thing as too hot. All those people on here saying how they love the hot climate of Australia when they spend almost all of their entire working hours in an artificially cooled environment make me laugh. Almost all of those who work outside in those hot summer months say while they love the sunny hot climate it was hell to work in. Christchurch gets plenty of warm/hot days without being too invasive and is also a very dry city

Amazulu

Talking to a kiwi guy at work today and he was telling me that the whole idea that rebuilding Christchurch was going to create a load of employment has been a farce. Basically wages have been too low to attract decent artisans and only the deadbeats have turned up. The whole project has been very badly managed

Australia's economy may be too narrowly focused on resources (although this is changing) but NZ's is laser beam focused on agriculture

If you look at per capita GDP (nominal and PPP), HDI, disposable income etc, Australia is streets ahead of NZ - which is basically a 2nd world country branded as 1st world