Is anyone moving back from New Zealand to the UK and if so why?

Its likely that I'll move back to the UK, although I'll probably wait until I've been here for two years before I do....so far I've been here for getting on for a year and half. There are aspects to my life here that I enjoy (i'm currently in Auckland) but also aspects of my life where I think I enjoyed those things a lot more in the UK.
Ironically for a country with such a small population I find that I have problems here with traffic and with the affordabilty of houses (relative to wages)....this is in Auckland, where I'm currently renting, not the rest of the country, but unfortunatley there's a lack of work in my field (it) outside Auckland, so I haven't been able to move somewhere else. Also I find i'm missing the buzz of being in the UK. Of course there's a lot to do here for outdoorsy people, but there just isn't the same cultural scene here, even in auckland, and I find life is a tad monotonous....too far from anywhere else to travel much as well. Not that I dislike living here, but I want a bit more from my life than NZ has to offer.

I'm work as a business analyst and we plan to move to New Plymouth therefore I know the probability of getting a job in my field will be slim so I have no idea what I will be doing.

We are going over on my husbands qualifications and he's a sheet metal fabricator and welder, lots of work for him there.

I would like to be more outdoorsy with the family and I'm seeing this as an adventure, hopefully it will be all that I expect it to be.

Good luck
Kara

Well we tried NZ. Stuck it out for as long as we could. People worked dammed hard and its lovely. (apart from the driving). We stayed 18 months but were slowly but steadily sinking money wise. We have two kids and nursing and teaching in the area we where didn't make the returns. We liked NZ but when money becomes the biggest worry and you cant afford to see the country around you whats the point?
Advice:- one should try it and pack your own container!
Called into Oz on the way home and have stooped here. Great jobs, own house, great schools but........

We left NZ last year because of wages. Now in Oz where salary etc are much better. Really just stopped off enroute to home (north). Advice take everything and sell what you dont want in garage sales (very big in NZ and Oz). Jobs wise people worked very hard (transort manager friend worked 6 days a week). Yes its safer (felt safer) but driving is bad. I mean bad. Something like 3 times the death rate of GB. A lot of expats leave NZ in nursing and teaching and go across the ditch (Tasmen Sea). No snakes. spiders etc to speak of. We were paying 185 nz dollars per week for a house. Petrol was about a dollar a litre. Second hand wagon (estate car to you and me was 4000 dollars (1992).
Oh dont get the robbing so and so's from a certain removal company to move you.
Why we left - primary health care was expensive, child care was variable and we had concerns about the education in the local schools. Enough reasons? Dont know just was not right for us. Think it was the money worry and being on your own with kids.

I've been in NZ (Auckland) for nearly 3yrs - I do miss the UK but less so now that i've been here so long & accept now that things are different over here - it's just how NZ is. If you migrate (not just to NZ but anywhere for that matter) and expect things to be the same or similar to home then a) you'll be in for a shock and b) was there much point in migrating in the first place?!

As for me, I will be moving on, *not* because I don't like NZ, but because I'm still reasonably young & want to travel/see more of the world. The next stop will very probably be Melbourne for a couple of years (thought about Perth, but too hot/isolated/red-neck for me, and Sydney to expensive, ugly & pretentious!) after that a couple of years in Canada appeals. At some point I'll move back to NZ....I did think about going back to the UK, but have a nagging doubt that if I did go back after about 6 months I'd only get fed up of it and want to come back to NZ. Someone said something the other day that sticks in my mind "the real reason for leaving never really goes away" which I think is quite accurate.

Russ.