mimuk

How does the housing market differ?
Do you have to pay private healthcare?
Are there large amounts of british expats?
Thanks

BEVS

How long is a piece of string.

It will depend on what you are earning. Where you choose to settle & what you are used to by way of expenditure. So, in that respect that is the same as the UK or anywhere else .

It is very hard to know what to write without knowing a little more about yourselves really as my response may not be relevant to you at all. Likewise a family of 3.

Are you a couple?
Friends?
Young?
Have kids?

BEVS

Crikey o'Reilly.

You are nurses looking to find jobs at the District Health Boards. THat tells you that there is public funded healthcare, although some things are paid for at point of source. GP fees and prescriptions. There are plenty of posts about this on the forum. A search will help you with that.

Are you looking to buy a house then?

I have no idea if there are large amounts of British immigrants. THere are immigrants here from all over the world. There is a breakdown chart on the NZ immigration website that could help you with that.

Have you started the NZ nurse registration process yet , or looked at it ? You need to really do that first.

jen_jen

The cost of living is a strange one, we are a no children couple in our early 40's. Grocery shopping in Queenstown is more than double what I spent in the UK and quality and choice is much poorer. But in the UK we had a huge Tesco 3km from the house and always got reduced food. No such thing here as reduced food (well maybe 20c off if you're really lucky).

Indeed there are only a few supermarkets (Fresh Choice, New World and Alpine (the expensive one)). But we are promised both a Countdown and a Pac and Save both of which are currently being built so who knows, maybe it will get cheaper soon with the increased competition.

Power (electric) is more expensive, but its colder especially in winter and there is no gas except for bottled which some cookers run off. Look for a log burner in any rental place and you'll have to buy wood (should be cheaper than electric).

Internet, more expensive than UK and some packages have data limits. You could always get a mobile contract/pre pay with data, again way more expensive than the deals on in the UK. Look at Vodaphone NZ, 2 degrees, Skinny and Spark (some companies that do phone contracts etc)

In rented accommodation, if you are sharing you will be contributing to what the bill payer/bill arranger already has for the household. If you rent a whole house/apartment for yourself you will have more control.

If you rent, there is no council tax or rates its all paid by the landlord. So power and internet and sky if you want it is about it.

Look at Home » Lakes Weekly Bulletin for rental rates for shared and accommodation, you should also find ads for the main estate agents in there. It comes out every week. I can't warn you enough though about the standard of housing. It is generally pretty poor - badly insulated, badly maintained and if you are sharing it can be messy/filthy and urgh!! Don't commit yourself to anything without seeing it. We looked at many many houses/flats when we first got to Queenstown and honestly if we hadn't found a very rare housesit deal we would have gone home by now!

No need for car insurance (cars are pretty banged up) so depending on your level of risk you can legally drive without it. Obviously tax and WOF (mot) are needed but about the same if not cheaper. Petrol is cheaper but distances are greater, long distance buses are slow and trains are not really an option for many places especially in the South. Its easy to get around Qtown with just a bike but not much further.

Clothing, white goods, 'stuff' - all more expensive. If you are definitely coming for 2 years pack well, bring your ski gear, bring your walking boots. Much cheaper than buying from NZ.

Lots of migrants from all over in Qtown. They say (who are they?) the second biggest population is the British then S.Americans then probably other European. Along with 'travellers' and 'holidayers' its probably not a typical Kiwi town. Some people love this, others hate it and will live further away - Wanaka for example is probably more Kiwi.

These are good questions and I understand your need to know, but you may not really know until you get here, if you do arrive come for a welcome brew!

moving2NZ2013

South Island canterbury. Lots of out door things to do. I love it here.

Tomsk

Hi, welcome.
Sorry, but being just a little bit boring and practical I can't help feeling that maybe you'd be better looking at visas & work opportunities before getting too hung up on areas. Once you've got the visa, and an idea of whether or not you can get nursing registration, or if indeed you want to nurse over here - if you're young enough you may be able to qualify for a working holiday visa which would allow you to work as a nurse (with NCNZ registration of course) or doing more casual, possibly seasonal work, elsewhere if you don't qualify for registration. Then you can assess where the jobs are and where you want to be. It's nowhere near as easy to get nursing registration over here as it used to be. Currently there's a lot of new graduate nurses qualifying and then failing to find employment, and that's having an impact on how many overseas nurses NZ is currently employing. There are still areas in which experienced overseas nurses are welcomed - but you need to check that out.
In terms of areas I know very little about South Island, I've been to Christchurch a few times, but I've not yet had the opportunity to travel to the more scenic parts of South Island. I will get there - soon I hope, but certainly I'm in no way qualified to comment on areas there. However I will say do your research about what work may be available. South Island has a much smaller population than North Island, and I'm pretty certain that the hospital at Queenstown is more of a rural / cottage style hospital than a major health provider. I don't know how frequently jobs come up there. Certainly I work for a national community nursing service …….. & job vacancies in Queenstown are as rare as hens teeth!
I'm seriously not trying to put you off, I'd wholeheartedly recommend a couple of years experiencing life over here, despite some of the difficulties (distance from friends/ family, higher cost of living etc etc), but I'd recommend working out how you can get here first, even if maybe you need to accept a North Island job to begin with. Easier to transfer to a new location once you're here, or to take lots of trips to visit the rest of the country.
Anyway, good luck with the process.

moving2NZ2013

Well balanced post. Great advice.

jmh

I think Tom makes a good point. The reason why so many end up in Auckland is because that is where most of the jobs are. While many people who live there love it, many do not but are prepared to make the compromise between a good selection of employment opportunities in their field vs high house prices and long commutes.

I had an expat client a while back who was living in Dunedin because everyone told him to avoid Auckland. While he liked Dunedin, he couldn't find any jobs at his level because it was a small jobs market. He decided to apply for a role in Auckland and got it. Now he is more satisfied in his work, and coping with the negative sides I've already mentioned.

I would suggest you get the job first and then move to that area. You can then take the time to decide whether you will stay there long term or move on after the first year or two, to somewhere nicer.

For balance, I had another expat client who got a job in Auckland. After 3 years he moved to Hamilton and is very happy in his new house, which is a short drive to work in a job that he enjoys. Sometimes you have to make compromises to start off with to get where you want to be in the end.

moving2NZ2013

I live about 1hr 15 mins from Chch lots of people commute. I couldn't it would drive me mad. My husbands in a specialised area of agricultural so we are lucky that we have the freedom to live where we want in South Island and still have a job. Sometimes you have to go where the work is and then move where you want later down the line.i think every expat has made hugE sacrifices to be here. So maybe this is yours x

BEVS

It's most always like that if you are total immigrants without family or pals in the new country. You must go where the work is in order to financially survive to start with.

Totally agree.

Ten years ago we could choose where we wanted to be as time served career plumbers/gasfitters were in extreme shortage here. He had at least 7 job offers on the table spanning the entire country. He chose the Nelson /Tasman area & although it doesn't quite fit really, he made a good choice for us.
It's not like that now though for those people hoping to emigrate here. Job offers have become the golden egg for most lines of employment , so it really is find where the work is first .




.edit.....

BarnsleyMatt springs to mind here. Hardly anything in his field so he actively sought that work to get him here.

Charismatic

Anywhere but Auckland. East cost has more sunshine and less rain than the west, North is warmer than the South. HTH.

M_and_M

You sound a bit like you're at the exploration stage and have some decisions to make to get more specific answers. I live at the bottom of South Island if you want to know anything specifically.

mimuk

Hi all...... thanks for interesting and thoughtful comments. Couple of friends in late 20s. We have said to the agency that we are with that we wouldn't mind anywhere in the south island so I was just trying to gauge an idea of south island destinations. We are quite open and as some of you have said we will.go where the jobs are..........

BEVS

Two pals in your late 20's ? No commitments or other responsibilities?

Grab life right by the horns. Take up 12 month working holiday visas. Arrive and have a good look around.

If you are degree trained nurses, communicate with the NZ Nurse council to ensure you can be registered should you decide to work as nurses.

bourbon-biscuit

South Island is much quieter - are you sure central North island wouldn't suit you better? My advice for a couple of 20-somethings wanting to spend some time in nz and enjoy all it has to offer would be to head to Rotorua because you have the lakes, the geothermal areas, lots of Maori cultural influence, loads of bush, the redwoods to mountain bike in, ski fields close by, beaches within an hour or so and are near enough to get a chance to explore some other cities too. I can't think of somewhere more suitable for fun and getting to know NZ than Rotorua. Bottom of the South Island is beautiful but you can go see that while you are here.