British Expats - 2 years and 9 months in...

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- - 2 years and 9 months in... (https://britishexpats.com/forum/new-zealand-83/2-years-9-months-522309/)

2 years and 9 months in...

Yep, we've been here for 2 years and 9 months, as you've probably guessed already. I posted a 1 year update.... why didn't I post a 2 year update? Well, I had post natal depression last year.... I wasn't in a particularly good way and didn't feel it fair to do an update. I feel 99% OK now so its time to let you know how we are getting on.

We still love Beachlands.... I loved it from the first time I came here, sometimes you just know eh? I sold my tiny house in South Lincs a year after we moved here and managed to put down a good deposit on this old house we have now, pay off all our debts and buy myself a new-ish car too. Then last January my OH decided to cut his last tie with England too and put his house up for sale, it sold straight away like mine did and we still have that money sitting in a Westpac GBP account here. We are waiting for the old dollar to weaken and then finally we will be mortgage free (fingers crossed).... our mortgage is pretty huge at the moment. :(

We came here with our 19 month old son who is now 4 and at morning kindy all week, he loves it. I ummed and ahhed about getting preggo again (horrible experience first time) and then hey presto, we are pregnant after 1 month off the pill.... :lol: We had our little kiwi princess last January, she is great and our family is complete. I have to be honest and say that if I had still been living back in Peterborough I would never have even thought about having another baby.... yes it was really that bad what they did to me!:ohmy:

My OH joined the volunteer Fire Fighters here, well.... the station is literally across the road. My son loves watching the Fire Engines go out... that blasted siren is a bit loud though! Hes been there a couple of years now and has done all sorts of things with them.... he even managed a helicopter ride last week... lucky sod! :D When we were in Peterborough he wasn't allowed to join the volunteers as he wears contact lenses, here it is fine so long as he wears them! I cant see us even moving back to the UK as he loves his volunteer work so much, he'd miss it just too much.

We keep a horse here but as a full time mother of 2 pre-schoolers I don't get to see him very often. Luckily the horses live out 24/7 here in Auckland so no mucking out... and the yard manager checks them for you twice a day. The riding where I keep him is lovely, you can ride round the mangroves and down onto the beach and its simply beautiful, I feel at peace down there and always wonder at the beautiful place we now live in.

My parents have been out twice now and think we are so lucky to live here... they miss us of course but wouldn't want us ever to move back as they agree that its better for the kids here.

.... and as some of you know, we are the ones who had full central heating put in our house.... yep, we hate being even slightly cold! It took months and months to be shipped from Italy and a few K over what we budgeted but its so worth it!

The weather here is much nicer than where we lived in the UK. This summer has been totally fantastic, its still gorgeous now in Autumn and we have only had 2 wet weekends lately. Houses in Beachlands have rain water tanks, the water companies have certainly been busy this summer.

We love it here, I don't miss UK at all now. I miss my family of course but that is the only downside of living here that I can think of. No, we don't think NZ is perfect either, but now we can laugh at the things that bug us... we just kinda expect it.... my OH says NZ is kinda half-arsed.... everything is half-arsed here according to him.

So the move worked for us, and no we had never been here before, we just did lots of research. Good luck to all of you who are thinking about or making the move. We don't regret our move here one bit. We are happy here.:D