Hi,

I wonder if anyone can help us decide. My wife and I are looking at emmigrating to either New Zealand or Canada. We have tickets booked for both Expos at Leeds this year for more info on these areas. We get very excited looking on the net at these wondeful lifestyles, but its scaring the c**p out of us incase we opt for the wrong area. We are looking for a rural lifestyle, but not too rural - say about 10 miles from the main areas. I dont mind a lengthy drive to work. We are looking for a property with some land and some privacy.
We are both in IT, but my wife is considering a career change - very good at photography - arty stuff etc We were just wondering what are the main pros and cons of each area? What are the basic expenses e.g. council tax, house prices etc. What are the main expenses each year? Could anyone shed any light on this, or point us in the right direction?

Many thanks in advance.

Iain

Unless one of you gets a job offer in Canada or your profession is in high demand its better to forget Canada and concentrate on New Zealand because if you are eligible to go there the process of immigration seems to move quite fast. For me most of Canada has cheap house prices but high council taxes. Main complaint in New Zealand seems to be high house prices, poor NHS and low wages.

We chose Canada over NZ for several reasons:-

(1) Cheaper mortgage interest rates (NZ range from 8.90% to 10.45% so you could never afford the same size mortgage as you have in the UK);

(2) Less natural disasters. Ok Canada gets some pretty severe winters and quite a few tornados (although they're not dangerous unless they touch down), but a friend of ours said the taxes in NZ keep going up and up to pay for all the natural disasters they have (such as earthquakes which are pretty frequent);

(3) Lack of ozone. Probably not a biggy unless you're living on the west coast of the South Island (although that's where the lovely beaches are), but even with factor 50 on you still get burnt as there's practically no ozone there, so we wouldn't want our kids anywhere like that;

(4) Wages. Ok so Canada also pays less than the UK in a lot of sectors, but our other friend who emigrated to NZ 2 years ago is set to move back to the UK because he just can't afford to live over there on his wage. He's a very experienced carpenter and manages a team of 10 guys and works 6 days a week and comes out with about (the equivalent of) £300 a week (before tax). My husband is also in IT (hardware - small to medium-sized businesses, system admin, etc) and he's looking at a drop in wages for Canada but we won't be any worse off as property is cheaper so we'll have a small mortgage (hopefully) so less income going on the essentials (like a roof over your head);

(5) Distance. NZ is the other side of the world and if any of our family members died we wouldn't be able to afford to fly back for their funeral - how bad is that?? My parents don't 'do' long-haul so basically, if we emigrated there, it would be the last time I'd see them alive. Canada is, at most, 9 hours away (we're going to Winnipeg which is 8, but Nova Scotia / New Brunswick (lovely rural areas, would suit you probably?) are only 5 hrs away);

(6) Housing. NZ houses are cheaply built and look really awful (unless you've got lots of money to spend). The ones we looked at all had vinyl windows and polystyrene ceilings and looked like converted shops! Canadian houses are more substantial (well they have to be I guess, given the weather!) and look a lot nicer - even if you're on a small budget;

(7) Wildlife. Canada has lots of interesting wildlife, NZ only has the kiwi and the Taratua (big lizard thing);

That's all I can think of at the moment - they were our main reasons but there might have been a few more (trivial) ones which just added to our final decision. That said, NZ is a gorgeous place to visit and we'd love to go back there one day

I'd suggest you look at property prices in both countries (can't remember the NZ sites but good Canadian ones are www.mls.ca or www.point2homes.com), look at interest rates for both countries, look at employment opportunities, wages, etc. Of course you'll be able to find out a lot of this info at the Expo... Just make sure you go 'armed' with a notepad and pen (with all your questions written down already).

Good luck with whatever you decide!

Anita

Eh?

http://wdc.dlr.de/data_products/SERV..._southpole.php

Fair point, but this informtion wasn't available to us when we made our decision a couple years ago, and I was just saying what swung it for us (obviously that was just one of the factors and not a crucial one unless we planned to live on the west coast of south island, like I said).

So long as the ozone holds steady over Winnipeg (what with their lovely hot summers) I'm a happy bunny

Know a couple of New Zealanders from Auckland here in Spain and all mention the ozone layer problem in NZ. They say you are likely to be burnt just after around 5 mins there in the sun. Even with the much higher temperatures and blazing sun here in Spain nobody gets burnt here that quickly.

Worth having a look in the Returning to The UK thread - it puts a little perspective on your plans. There are a lot of posts from people heading back from Australia and one of the principle reasons (other than the Ozzies themselves ) seems to be distance from family - I would guess the same issue is relevent for NZ. Go visit......

The ozone hole doesn't extend as far north as NZ (although it probably would have done by now if the Montreal Protocol hadn't been adopted in 1987). Even if it did, the hole is a seasonal phenomenon and "fills in" again each year by about early November, i.e. before it gets warm enough for sunbathing.

So what makes them burn so quickly just the strength of the sun there?

Putting aside that your question is based on anecdote, rather than evidence, if this were the case it'd be much more likely due to the much lower levels of particles in the southern hemisphere compared to the northern (especially at mid latitudes). So, yes, "the strength of the sun" in terms of the UV flux measured at the surface.

ohhhhhhhhhh Just wait.......................I`m going to inform those silly Aucklanders on some real facts about their country now. Just think people go around telling lies like this to keep people away.

well we had factor 50 on and burnt within 20 mins. go figure...

p.s. it was our tour guide who told us about the ozone layer so we just assumed he knew what he was talking about.

see post #10. I've never been there myself, so I don't doubt your experience. Just it ain't the ozone.

<slaps head>

With factor 50 on, you could lay on a beach on the planet Mercury and not get burnt................NZ must have some very special problems