NELSON NZ Update!
 

Just been prompted by Southerner that I hadn't posted an up-date on our progress here in Nelson, well if you're interested,

Yeah, we're still in Nelson, (Iknow, we were up & down the country a fair bit as we couldn't make our minds up where to live!)

renting a nice house, good views etc. (you know the speel by now!) Finally got the furnature etc. up here & the bike, been out on that a bit last W/E, awesome roads!!!!!!!!!!!! Good biking crowd here too which helps heaps, wanna get a bike to race now!

Wife has just been offered a good job in city & son has been working with Tyco electrical & should get an apprenticeship with them.

Me, no job yet, mind you, I am being a bit choosey!, awaiting feedback from some applications/interviews, so all is not lost. Anyway with Sue & Dave working, the pressures off for a while I reckon! lol

Still not met TIZUS, we will arrange something soon, but have been in contact.

Nothing really to whinge about, made some good friends, going for a rehearsal with a local band (I'm a bass player) on Sunday. So I'll hopefully get back into the "band thing" again!! (It's been a while)
Lovely day here today, very warm in the sun, temp about 19 C, not bad eh!

Arghhhhhhhh! run outta beer!
:beer: :scared: :D o well, gotta sleep now:zzz:

nice one alan..

seems things are starting to sort themselves out...
i hear nelson is a great place to be too..

cheers

richard

It's a great place to live, the locals & everyone else who lives here really love it too! True, the wages are a bit low, the houses very expensive, but what do you expect?! The beaches, scenery, the area in general is lovely.
We will continue to try & make a go of it here, buying a house isn't everything, can't take it with you, ya just gotta enjoy life & be happy with what you already have.:)

So, you haven't been near the freezing works yet then - PHEWWWY! And what about the big MDF factory?

You've picked on the only two big employers there are. Maybe Alan is thinking of becoming a freezing worker (slaughterman/butcher in an abatoir for Brits)?

if anyones money obsessed the freezer works in Gore down south pay just under 1000$ per week in your hand,for a 40 hour week though :o

We are a long way from the MDF plant, it's gotta go somewhere!!
Freezer plant? new one on me, where is that? what do they do?

Hi Alan

Was just browsing and saw your thread!! I know! I know! We said we would meet up!!!! Been a tad busy Tezza and co arrived last Sunday oh and we bought a house on Tuesday!!!

Fancy meeting up at the market on Saturday??

Will send an email to confirm
Tori

Hi Alan,
glad to see things are working out fairly well for you so far - I'm sure the dream job will come along soon!! Can i just ask if there is anything that you felt/feel takes a bit of getting used to, or overall do you feel quite at home there already!! Also anything you really miss apart from the obvious family and freinds etc?

Please cocntinue to pop into the forum when you can and keep us up to date with life downunder. It's taking so long to sell our house that NZ is starting to feel a lot further away again! All the best!

Initially, you get the feeling that you are on your own, no-one knows you & vice versa. You see bits of England on tv shows etc. and that sometimes brings a bit of homesickness.
A lot of things are very similar to back home (gotta stop calling it that!) but it is true, as was said on another post, that some consumables that you have been using all your life, you suddenly have to find an alternative. Petty it may seem, but it's not a whinge, just an observation! lol.
The jobs seem to be coming right now, it's a case of getting out there into the system & mingling.
I ride a motorcycle & that is a great medium for friends anywhere, NZ is no exception, as we have already made good contacts through that. I am also a musician & an ad in the paper etc. soon got me sorted with other musicians.
One tip is, if you can, bring as much as you can with you, if you are shipping your stuff over. As we had to go out and buy quite a lot of what we left behind & you find yourself saying "why the hell did i leave that behind etc. tv's & videos are a prob though as the frequency is different & have been told that "chipping them" is more ex than is worth.
Give us a shout when you get here & good luck with the house, you'll be right, sweet as!!!

How much we talking and for what size of house?

Hard to say really as each house seems to have it's own value depending on what colour the walls are!! lol
They put great emphisis on how tidy the garden is, landscaping etc. & how the interior is decorated. Best to buy a doer upper! for less and spent a bit of time tidying.

For a reasonable sized modern 3 bed on about 800sq/m section with garage around Nelson/Richmond is anything from about 300-400K which converted into GBP's doesn't sound bad, if you've made a bit on your UK house, but thats all we did make....a bit!

The housing has gone up about 50% in the last 6-8 mnths and everyone keeps saying, "you should have come here about a year ago and bought then! I could spit!
There is quite a lot of new houses going up here, it's supply & demand, maybe one day it will be more a saturated market & the prices might drop.

Have to have a mortgage about the same as UK I guess, oh well, we made it here & it's lovely.
Live the day, as they say in Nelson.

You have my sympathies Alan.

It's def. something that's starting to worry me about going to either Oz or NZ, it seems that house prices are rocketing all over the shop, particularly in the previously cheap area like Brisbane / Perth etc in Oz and Tuarunga (sp?) etc. there with all the expats going there.

If we went now we would hope to have about 60-70K GBP which when we started this looked like a decent amount. Now with property prices shooting up and the ever diminishing exchange rate it's starting to look more like a deposit!

We've decided to get/validate PR Visa then wait until my wife has done her Nurse training so we'll see what it's like in about 3 or 4 years!

Good to hear you're enjoying it there anyway, best of luck!

It's right what you say about bikers as well isn't it? When I had my R1 last year (b4 I smashed it up), I was on the R1 Forum.com all the time reading post from Melbourne, posting pics from over here etc. and they all were very friendly "look us up when you get here", "how's the applications going" etc. etc.

Andy.

With that amount, you'll get a nice place with only a small mortgage, we will virtually start from scratch again!

About your PR visa, once you have entered NZ and validated your PR Visa, I thought you had only 2 years to return b4 the visa ran out! Or maybe you won't get indefinate returning PR visas, I can't really remember off the top of my head.
You had best check that, we were on a tight schedule as we were waiting for our son to finish his GCSE's.

Good sportsbike crowd here, been out for a few blasts with some kiwis already & out caning the twisties myself today. Good ole' Hodgy aye!!??

Hi Alan,

As a biker and musician (my business is in guitar repairer/luthiery) myself it's great to hear that the music scene and roads are so good. Can't wait to get there next month. Primarily heading to Wellington...I see you didn't have a job offer to get into NZ ? Is that correct? Which route did you take to get in?

all the best, Rich.

The independant skills cat. which i understand is going through major changes now.
Give me a shout if you cross to the south Island. I've got a frettless bass that needs the neck sorting!

P.S Why Wellington?

We are applying for PR sponsored skilled designated area for Australia which as I understand means that we will have 5 yeras to emigrate after validation.
(can go to NZ using our OZ PR Visa if we want e.g. if we don't like OZ)

Yes, good old Hodgson! Can't wait for next year when he should be in GP's on the Duke.

Andy.

Hi Alan,

Wellington...because the music scene is huge - there are 9 music stores alone with only one part time repairer, I've had excellent feedback from Rockshop NZ, and it's central for a lot of bands and muso's to use as a base to tour from. Add to that the venue numbers, the uni's, the jazz and folk festivals and I have a reasonable market to go at. Wellington may not be the prettiest place in NZ, but it was the best market for my business and it beats Crewe by a long shot.......

If you want your fretless bass sorting - wait for me to get there and post it across.....I built a German guy his Les Paul that way!!....

all the best, Rich.

Bikers
 

Hello there, this is the first time i've posted a message on this forum. We've been planning to take our Harley sportster over to NZ but read a rather scary thread on ***** site describing how someones bike was just forciblily taken from them on the road by a motorbike gang. In your experience is this common place. We noticed when we were in NZ last month that not many motorbikes were on the road.

Re: Bikers
 

Never heard of anyones bike being hijacked, but there are a few bike gangs out here. Where we are, there is one gang, but the local bikers say they are a pretty good bunch & keep the bad guys out of town! There are more gangs in the north island, but pretty much all over, though don't be put off, people dont ride scared over here, its not an issue. They fight each other really, not even seen any gangs so far!

There are lots of bikes out and about around here, especially on the w/e. We have a good biker crowd here, for all tastes & quite a lot of Harleys too. Meet ups & ride outs etc. The scenes good.

I shipped my bike (CBR600) over here, probably just as easy to sell it there & buy another, but I've owned it from new and its MINE!

Let me know if you need any advice on shipping your bike. Now change that "smile" to a :D

taking Harley
 

Alan, you've made me feel at lot happier, We only had the bike 5 days before we visited NZ last month and had to take it back to the dealership for storage while we were away. But now we are back in UK we are enjoying riding it and would really not want to part with it. Hopefully we will move out to NZ August next year, have to get residency for my husband but I am a Kiwi. I may get back to you nearer our move to pick your brains about shipping, duty etc. How are you liking NZ? Regards Trudy

Re: taking Harley
 

Glad to be of assistance, ask away anytime!

We are now settling in well & we love it here in NZ, it can now only get better, bring on the summer!!!