katie8383

Hi all

I don't come on here much but wanted to come online to share my 1 year update for anyone considering moving over/in the process of doing so.

We have been in Wellington (in a suburb called Ngaio) for 1 year now and we love it here. So pleased we made the decision to move - absolutely no regrets.
Wellington is a fantastic city, small and compact with everything a good city needs. Great food, coffee, bars and so diverse. Partner is loving his job in construction and I have been extremely lucky to find a job where I work with the most wonderful bunch of people I've ever met who feel like family.

Expenses - we don't find it much different to the UK in terms of how it all balances out at the end of the month. We pay more on rent and groceries, but less on electric bills, mobile phones etc.

I know it's early days yet but we don't miss the UK one bit. Missing family can be tough but facetime is a wonderful thing and we use it all the time. We are due to go home (Manchester, UK) for 2 weeks in 2020, we don't really feel the need to go back, but we have very elderly family we would like to see as it may be our last chance.

I don't mean to sound like it's all sunshine and roses, I think we have been extremely lucky with everything and understand it might not be like this for everyone.

If anyone has any questions on making the move I am happy to answer

Have a great Christmas wherever you may be!

Katie

Mishclark

Great update Katie! Glad it's been good for you.

My 1 year isn't far away, this is my second round in 10 years, this time by myself. Also not always a bed of roses, but no regrets and still happy.

Have a lovely Christmas as well 😊

EyeResign

Will be a making a move with my family next year to Auckland. Can I ask, have you made friends outside of work?

katie8383

I have friends who I don't work with, however I met them through work people e.g friends of my colleagues and also have friends who I met at work who have now left and I keep in touch with. I also have some friends through my partners work
That said - I haven't really put myself out there to make other friends outside of work as I haven't felt the need to yet.

escapedtonz

Good to hear the first year has gone well. Ngaio not a bad place to base yourself. Have a colleague that lives on Heke St.......easily noticeable if ya ever see a plonker kiwi cruising around in a green Jag XK8 supercharged that's him
Wellington is a pretty cool place to be. We lived there for 2.5 years and only left because we wanted a better climate, more sun, way less wind and proper beaches. I go back a couple of times a year for work and always enjoy my time back there.
We didn't really miss the UK, other than family & friends. I had no inclination to go back but after a cancelled trip to Vanuatu because of a cyclone back in 2015 we went back to the UK instead and that was 3.5 years after we'd left and I put up such a stroppy fight not to go.....anyways, I lost
It was ok though, enjoyed going back to see family and friends but sooooo glad to get back to NZ and haven't had any desire to go back again since. Have been told it'll happen one Christmas soon, so I'll just bury my head at the beach and hope it doesn't happen.
Mrs had to go back at the end of October for 2.5 weeks as her father passed suddenly and since all the remaining parents are very late 70's I expect the next 10 years are gonna be pretty painful. That experience has taught us how far we really are from loved ones but nothing has changed our minds that NZ is the place we wanna be.

Merry Christmas!

Charismatic

Ikea, Sainsbury's etc?

katie8383

Was always more of a Morrison's girl myself.

BEVS

What's Morrison's?

Jerseygirl

Morrisons is UK Supermarket chain,

escapedtonz

Yup we used to shop at Morrisons and could never get out the door without sampling a huge full english for like 3 quid

grant r

3 quid?? How long ago was that it's a lot more than that now

pleccy2000

Hi Katie,

Glad it's all going well! I moved from UK with my now wife and we also chose Ngaio. We've been here ever since - lovely suburb!

BEVS

How much is it then?

I had a bit of a google and it seems a monster huge breakfast big enough to feed 2 to 3 people really is around a fiver ? And there seemed to be a lot of special offers also.

Breakfast at a cafe near us costs $25 = around 12 quid. For that you get.

grant r

They do what they call a "big daddy breakfast" which is like 3 sausages, 3 bacon, 3 eggs, beans, tomato, black pudding and fried slice for £6 which isn't bad I suppose.
Yes breakfast is always going to be more expensive in a "cafe" than a super market, but then maybe it's cheaper to cook your own lol

Mishclark

Yum but I've just put on 10kgs reading that. ..