Rascal

And NZ is soooooo wonderful, only 4 million people want/chose to live there. The NZIS spend thousands on promoting NZ as a 'wonderful lifestyle', come live here (just in case you say that NZIS make it hard to let just anyone in!)

Rascal

Valitus, I am even beginning to suspect you ARE a Kiwi or married to a Kiwi or have Kiwi rellies???

valitus

I would love to try NZ but thats not saying i wouldnt leave if it didnt suit.

I would love to see these figures that someone has of the returnee's out of the 350,000 who left.

valitus

No wish i had then i could go and see for myself tomorrow.

Old William

Council tax - currently £1200 p.a. on my 3 bed detached house, for which I get mainained street lighting, rubbish collection, the road maintained, daughter at a good school plus a few other services...property tax on my 3 bed Florida detached house $5000 a year. For that I got no street lighting had to pay for garbage collection seperately, had no mains sewerage, had to pay HOA fees for road upkeep, paid for the local sherrifs in a seperate tax and schools via other fees.

Council tax seems quite a bargain to me.

Granted Income tax is higher in the UK but overall cost of living is lower than
it was in the USA.

SNP may well be an issue...but have you seen how divided the US is recently with ol' Georgy Boy and his mob?

Sure the SE is crowded, but where I live it sure isnt....

valitus

Does appear to be the hardest to get into for some reason though doesnt it??

Rascal

Nice to see it, scenic and all that, not as nice to live (exist)
Save the flight money for Europe. Most Kiwis do that too.

valitus

You may be 100% correct but????????????


Anyway if there was a perfect country to live we would all be fighting to get into it wouldnt we??

Rascal

No, Australia is by far, harder. Thats why lots and lots of migrants 'use' NZ as a back door into OZ. They get their Kiwi passport after 'surviving' here the 5 years (was 3 but the Kiwi government got wise to all leaving) and then they hop over the ditch to join the other migrants/Aussies/kiwis etc/
You'll be surprised at how many actual Kiwis go live in OZ.
And before you ask, No I am not one of the ones who will be getting a NZ passport, could have done it last July if we wanted, but would rather not have a NZ passport/identity however tempting living in OZ may be.
Going to go for OZ PR instead.

Rascal

Yes, as I say only 4 million choose to live in NZ, figures say a lot don't they?
Perfect its not. Perfect to lost of Kiwis, yes, they'll even have you believe it too!
Should be grateful really, I aint married to one so dont have to pretend I like it here.

valitus

So why is there thread after thread here about how bad OZ is? or is it just rubbish??

valitus

OK Rascal here's you chance.

What exactly is wrong with living in NZ? and i dont mean crap sausages and no choice supermarkets cause there are plenty of them in the UK aswell

Rascal

Ask the ones who live in OZ, I dont, I haven't lived there yet, just had a glossy eyed tourist holiday there, you know the ones that make you think you have found Utopia?
But, but but....luckily I have lived in NZ first so am NOT expecting Utopia and am half prepared, at least, to know what we are heading to.

HiddenPaw

Difficult to calculate. Not all people who leave "emigrate", but are included in the figures of those who are leaving. Many go overseas for a fixed-term (work ,adventure, lifestyle change), with every intention of returning.

The world is a smaller place - people move overseas because they can, not just because they need to "escape" the UK.

I have left, returned and would leave again. At the same time, I love living in the UK. Any decision to leave again would be based on what we, as a family, would gain, and not what we could run away from.

IMO, figures don't really prove anything. Unless you're going to delve deeply into exactly what they represent.

valitus

A sensible post i think.