NZ_Narbetts

Can i just say - we returned from NZ a few days ago for near enough all those reasons above.
1) Long working hours in NZ, Hubby worked nights and had to do overtime.
2)Taxes was 33% in NZ and i have reason to believe income tax in the uk is 23%.
3) Helen Clark - A joke!!
4) no comment, time will tell.
5)NHS was a gods send compared to the prices you pay in NZ.
6) House prices are high in NZ, not like it used to be.
7) People speak out and have their own opinion there too.
8) Weather was pretty much the same as the UK, with slightly milder winters (where we lived) Still bloody rained - floods, houses clasping, land slides.
9) CRIME!!!!!! That's everywhere.

I know we have ony just returned, but to honest, i didn't find it much different to where we are from in Cornwall. If anything the beaches and the coastline is better than the lower half of the north island.

Anyway, thats just my opinion and i know probably many more people will have many more different opinions!

Freedom of speech and all that!!!!!!1

TheArmChairDetective

Uk income tax is 23% !!!!!!!!!

I must ask for a rebate.

Biddy

Wow - that's a lot of information after staying only a few weeks.

Lenmil

We have been back for 18 months now and want to go back to NZ, we are trying to get our PR so that we can. Kids want to go back desperately.

Am Loolah

May not be the right place to post a thread as kow you lot hate itwhen we who are thinking of emmgrating crash your threads. But just had to comment. We're leaving Cornwwall for NZ for all of your reasons for returning!!! Funny old life? I go with the context - Cornwalls not for me (won't go into personal reasonings) like NZ's not for you.

But good luck anyway.

Freedom of speech ditto et all!

Genesis

Its a shame that you think you are crashing people's threads..where does it say you are not allowed to post contrary stuff..I too have been called insensitive and had lots of abuse from certain parties who think they are the Forum Police..yet strangely I have not been challenged once by the moderators..perchance cos I like you have done nought wrong!!!! By the way..NZ is jolly marvellous..18months on and loving it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sue

It's great you are happy where you are but I fail to see why you are posting in this section of the site when you are clearly not "Moving back to the UK"

No one is saying that you can't have opposing views, but it's how those views are expressed. As it says in our forum rules : "BritishExpats.com is an interactive site, and everyone who participates is "in it together", please treat others the way you wish to be treated. Personal attacks will not be tolerated. Challenge others' points of view and opinions, but do so respectfully and thoughtfully "

Genesis

"BritishExpats.com is an interactive site, and everyone who participates is "in it together", please treat others the way you wish to be treated. Personal attacks will not be tolerated. Challenge others' points of view and opinions, but do so respectfully and thoughtfully "[/QUOTE]


Well I have not attacked anyone...which is more than I can say for some of your more experienced posters!!!! I have had some right abuse..veiled and direct. On another forum I have never had such abuse. I find it quite funny..others I know take it personally. As far as posting goes there is nothing wrong with expressing a different or unrelated view. I started one on crime and it ended up with water quality. Things evolve..some people on this forum need to alight from their steeds!!!
Nobody said YOU had attacked anyone. Please re-read my post.

Amanda

Can you elaborate more on what you do not like about the UK since you returned and what do you miss about NZ?

Thanks Mandy.

Budowsky

in reply to your post

1) working hours are typically not longer than the UK. I work a 37 hour week have 5 weeks holiday a year (which my employer allows me to take all at xmas if I want to). Shame! Hubby had to some overtime...

2) Taxes 33%? Wrong. It's 19.5 % up to 38000 and then 33% on the rest above that up to 60000

3) At least she didn't send troops to Iraq on a fake WMD dosier...

4) Kids in England a lot worse no question.

5) Not sure about that. Where I live is a free ambulance service but not sure about hospital prices, and ACC contribute to some accidents.

6) You are dreaming! Compare to where exactly? You can buy a good house in most parts of NZ for a fraction you will pay in England.

7) Good!

8) Weather is NOT the same. It's heaps better. Even where I live in Windy Wellington during the winter you get loads of crisp sunny clear days. Not like grey, dull, depressing England. In places like Nelson, Tauranga, Napier, Gisbourne etc you get superb weather in the summer, and the rest is pretty good to! You also get great ski-weather on the ski-fields.

9) Crime? Not sure what part of England you left from, but I have lived in Blackpool,Manchester,Salford, Bournemouth, Christchurch, Luton, Blandford, London, Andover, Highcliffe and Nottingham and I can say without doubt there is NOWHERE near as much crime in NZ. I've left my garage wide open by mistake one day when the automatic door failed to shut, with thousands of dollars worth of scuba gear, surf-boards, wetsuits and 5000$ bike in there. In manchester it would have been cleaned out. I got back that night and it was untouched. This was in Newtown the so called rough area of wellington.

Lenmil

Hi mandy, we miss the laid back way of life, the open spaces, the parks for the kids to play, the better weather, the wider roads etc. The UK is too over crowded, dirty, too pushy, arrogant people with attitude, the feeling of not feeling safe walking about. Yes you can make more money here but you can't relax and be calm. NZ is not perfect, no place is, but we miss the place. Our kids were never home in NZ, always out playing etc. Here all they do is sit playing computer games. Any play parks here are danger areas with broken equipment, broken glass every where and graffitti and morons hanging about ready to have a go at you. Looks like we may be ping pom poms too if we get our PR.

Buzzy--Bee

We returned from NZ because of lack of work, pure and simple. We gave it 18 months there so I think we gave it a good go, but with me unable to get any work at all, not even car cleaning / working in shops, and my (Kiwi) wife having to take a job in a hardware store paying next to nothing we couldn't survive. In the UK we both had professional white collar jobs, and had similar jobs again within 2 weeks of landing back in the UK.

We would have loved to have stayed for all of the lifestyle reasons discussed above, but you can't eat the scenery!

We are hoping Oz will give us some of the best of both worlds.



Buzzy

Genesis

Hey sounds like you lived in my old neighbourhood of Northampton town centre!!!!! The reasons you give (and many more!!) are the reasons we moved to NZ..and we adore it!! It is ALL the things you mention..then some! Of course it is not perfect..and its not for everyone..but those who can hack the NZ ways, its geographical isolation, less money, etc, etc it is getting close to nirvana!! I think we all miss people and things about the UK..because much of it is wonderful..but in reality my hampster wheel of life was 90% and over, centered around my naff neighbourhood. Now almost 100% of my hammy wheel life is centered around a beautiful neighbourhood in a beautiful location, endless space, deserted beaches on my doorstep and on the wholw what appear to be friendly, open, warm people. My kids have so much to do (as do we) and the quality of our life has skyrocketed. We both work less and spend more time together as a family.

Budowsky

I found it incredibly hard to find work here - I was out of work for about 10 months. It was an incredibly demoralising experience and it made me bitter. I would be put forward by agents for Jobs I knew I could only to be knocked back again and again. I went to one job interview and the guy told me I was too laid back for the company. I couldn't believe my f-cking ears!

Another Job I went to for two interviews his mate got the job. That was when I realised that in the goldfish of New Zealand economy it's not always what you know, but , more importantly, who you know. And it's a fact immigrants are at a huge disadvantage until you can demonstrate NZ experience. Its a catch 22 situation. You only have to get in a taxi and strike up a conversation about what the driver did before he came here. I've spoken to Engineers, Doctors, Computer Programmers etc driving cabs. A lot of it is to do with a distrust of foreign qualifications (or so they say).

In the end I was employed by an Australian employer which spoke volumes to me.... Without her, I would have left NZ. I was about to come home and think things through - it's really tough to see your savings dwindle away to nothing. It's not something I have ever forgotten really. That's one reason why I am going to OZ. An Ozzy basically gave me a chance.

One agent I spoke to in Auckland on the phone told me I would have no problems getting work here as I wasn't from India and didn't have a pakistani accent.

That is one thing I have a huge problem with in NZ. The attitude of the people to migrants. When I first arrived Winston Peters was gaining a lot of popularity for his stance on migrants. And now this f-wit is the foreign affairs minister....

I couldn't believe how outright rude immigration staff were in Auckland to me when I was applying for my PR. Their attitude basically was "I don't give a fck if you get a visa or not, im stressed, I don't care and I see no reason why I shouldn't be rude into the bargain." I really had to bite my tongue.

I met a guy in a similar position to me. Getting hassle from immigration about PR. At this stage they had lost all my certified copies of references, degree and wanted me to get them again. He was having similar problems. He told the immigration official he was going to go to the English media and tell them how shoddily he had been treated. Surprise surprise he got his PR visa within a few weeks.

Lenmil

Sums it up for us. We were in Christcurch by the way. As others say its hard to get work and some times you do get bad vibes from the Kiwis, but most of them were great. Every country has it fare share of idiots. Seen them here in the UK as well as Canada, USA, NZ. They all love to knock us Brits, but i like to say we are you not proud that many foreigners want to live here. Makes them think sometimes.