happynz

Whoa...Wales. What a tough crowd.

lardyl

ah the joys of Palmy - you do know that they make you pay to leave on a plane from their airport don't you??????????

squiddley

Thats where im going to be working!!!!!!!!

Cheesehead

You've no idea about hoons or drinking problems til you've experienced Newport, South Wales. My german husband thought he had stumbled into a mad max film.

Cheesehead

how have all of you managed to find jobs before moving? am i missing something?

lardyl

hey was only joking - they have a local airport tax, you ahve to buy a $5 stamp on departure - BTW when you live in Palmy you will need to develop a thick skin as the place is the butt of many a joke/comment from Kiwis and some from a certain John Cleese!

bourbon-biscuit

Some places it is, most places it is not

NZ has many migrants arrive here every year. Some leave, some stay, some love it, some hate it. Try to take heed of negative posts- eg let the damp housing posts inform your choice of home or the noisy hoons ones inform your choice of location, but there's no reason to let a few negative ones completely blow your plans



TBH, you find people complaining that society is 'going to the dogs' the world over. It's happening in UK, Oz, US etc. The irony is that living standards have never been so good in many of those places.

Deep breath. Don't panic. One persons hell is another's heaven. Just write a list of what you want from the move and match it to location

There are loads of families here who have a lovely lifestyle by bringing cash in with them enabling small or no mortgage and many of us who just work hard for a lifestyle we could never have afforded in the UK.

That's utter rubbish. I have a small number of POM friends and *all* the rest are Kiwi's. I socialise lots and have found my kiwi friends have opened their hearts and homes to me in a way UK peeps seemed to take much longer to do. For me it's been one of the real 'highs' of living here- people drop round and I do the same. We share our worries and joys and we delight in our cultural differences
Anyway, must dash... I'm off to a (kiwi) friend's for coffee

crap coffee

Fed up with the rat race in U.K!

luvwelly

I would certainly agree that you are setting yourself up to be lonely by seeking to exclude Brits and fellow-expats among your friends which the OP seemed to do.

I avoid Brits when on holiday but not when living in foreign countries. In more transient expat locations....living in an Expat bubble is even more the norm. That's not necessary here because there is no language barrier here but the older you are, the harder it is to integrate since people already have their little circles and busy lives.

I would say the most important issue to get clear in your mind is whether financially you will be ok here because as someone else said the scenery doesn't pay the mortgage. As for shops in Wellington I can find most things I need and even have choice and access to higher quality stuff but from my holiday on North Island, I can see how it would be more restricted in smaller places. Shopping in the UK is like the new national religion so actually I'd rather have more choice in coffee shops than clothes shops but that's just my preference .

Lardyl is right about the 'going to the dogs thing'.....it's just that I am used to hearing it from Brits about the UK, not from Brits about NZ. I don't actually think either country is going to the dogs and the grass is most definitely not always greener. But then I was forced to globetrot by my OH's job and never actually wanted to leave the UK but have been very happy in all locations so far. As for Governments just be glad you live in a democracy in either country...many many other people in the world do not have that luxury.

What NZ can offer you is a more peaceful life and probably a shorter commute but yes it is very isolated....in the UK you can be in a different place within 10 minutes by car or less......here it's not like that....fantastic scenery separates locations so depending what you like to do, it could seem boring.....but isn't it rather depressing in the UK when everyone goes out to the shopping malls again on Boxing Day after only one day without their fix of retail therapy??? Shouldn't it be a day for family and friends to do something better (and I don't mean anything religious at all) but just spend time together...not shopping?

I wouldn't emigrate here without seeing the place first but I think for most people the make or break is probably the finances....because if they work out, most other things can be overcome with positive thinking and a dose of good luck....don't forget to budget for adequate heating as was said in another thread recently.

I suspect the gang stuff is not worth worrying about...any more than it is in the UK.

lardyl

TBH that is utter ......mmmmmm.....subjective opinion.......
all you have to do is speak to other Brits/ex-Pats out there and look at the posts here to find many other people with the totally opposite view.......
*Your* experiences may be based on completely different groups of people in completely different parts of two countries - having lived in several parts of the UK I'd say that you could easily find some areas where folks were far less amenable to long-term, deep friendships than they are here, other places people were far more friendly and accepting than they are in most parts of NZ.......as they say, there's nowt as queer as folk!
What Luvwelly says is true for me.......and I suppose it depends on where you live - where the OP and I live it can be quite insular even compared to 30km down the road in Auckland - perhaps its the nature of the place around here, lots of transient people arround, holidaymakers, longer term lets, older people, etc that makes it harder in some ways than in the City, but it is the experience of some people and its not just their personality, its the enviroment too.
Chin up Libby!

spid

This is a hard one - there are those who think 'a place is what you make it' and those who expect the place to make them. As most of you know I move an awful lot and yes, as time goes on, I find it harder to make friends. Here now for 8 months and only just really beginning to 'settle', I've made friends, some (well one) much better than others. We live in a strange community, i imagine a bit like an expat community, should anything happen to anyone and they need help we all jump to. Very, very few of us have family within a few hundred miles, and so we are all each others support network. I found it hard here to begin with (it's a flying station and there are a lot of youngsters about with very new babies) and I'm an old fogey with teenagers. But we all get along and make the best of what we have got. Yes, there is an end in sight as we shall all move on in the end, but, actually that is worse in some respects as we end up saying goodbye to everyone all the time. i am of the school that a place is what you make it and if you don't like it move on. SO I think the OP is doing the right thing for her.

I must admit when we have lived abroad it was very difficult to fit in with the locals. We were always considered different but we Brits just got on with it and made friends as best we could with whomever we could. Also moving to Norfolk (UK) was like this when I was a kid. Unless you had lived there for 20 years you weren't counted as part of the villiage. 16 years after moving there my parents were still considered new and outsiders.

Life is what you make it - personally i love boring (sea, sand, sun scenery and good red wine - that's all i ask for), but horses for courses. Think about why you want to move seriously and weigh up all the pros and cons. For us without hubbies immediate pension it would be a no goer. We are lucky, money won't be abundant but it will be enough.

Anyway, enough of my two-pen'uth.

crap coffee

hey bourbon

that's not utter rubbish

Kiwis just don't let you in ---> loads of Expats agree

I went to school here (half way through from Japan - well. I am a British/born in UK, but Not brought up in UK!) and I am sure I've lived here (NZ) much longer than you do however - I have only about a couple of people I could call a (Kiwi) friends but not close friends. My best mate (of 11 years) is English (who I met here but originally from Manchester). What does that tell you?


Kiwis are not my cup of tea anyhow.......

crap coffee

exclude Brits?

I don't understand what you are talking about

sorry

and what do you know about me luvwelly?

luvwelly

Excellent post... Spid. I can so relate to the saying 'Goodbye' thing in the expat bubble circles...I don't know which is worse saying goodbye to someone else or being the one leaving...the trouble is I think people can become a bit dysfunctional and avoid getting close if they lead that transient lifestyle for too long. But most posters on here expect to move to NZ for good so they just need to be reassured that they can make friends (kiwis or fellow emigrants) and things should then work out ok....other things being right in the mix. I too think 'boring but peaceful' can be good but then Welly is not really boring!

luvwelly

No, I'm not referring to you at all. I am referring to the OP saying that she excluded Brits and saying you are right...that is a bad thing to do because it can indeed be hard to integrate with Kiwis.