Tentun

Hi everyone

This may seem like a strange question but I'll tell you why I'm asking it. You know how the grass always seems better on the other side of the bridge and then when you get there you think 'oh it's not as nice as home' so you go home and then you suddenly realise the reasons you left in the first place??

We are living in the UK but planning on moving to NZ next year for a number of complex reasons but mainly we want to try something different and have a different way of life, particulary more outdoors living, but we have a pretty nice life here in the UK and I'm afraid that when I get to NZ I will just want to jump back on a plane and get right back to the UK. And I was just wondering if anyone had actually done that and then when back in the UK what they thought? Were you glad to be back in the UK or did you want to go straight back to NZ?

I am particularly interested in the opinions of people with young children and we have a young one.

Thanks for your help everyone
K

mazi

I don't quite fit the category of person you want an answer from but I lived in NZ for three years, didn't enjoy it, and returned to Europe (but to Italy not the UK, though I am British) and no, I absolutely have not regretted it. I'm finally getting back to normal and being me again. In fact, if anything I regret having gone to NZ in the first place. Well, maybe not going but staying so long. I'm grateful to have had the experience of having lived and worked there but I really should have listened to myself 6 months in and come back then rather than wasting another two and half years of my life being miserable there.

Avid

You'll find a lot of answers to your questions on the 'moving back to the UK' forum on this website.

One thing though, if you have a 'pretty nice life' is it really worth making the move to NZ? You could find a style of 'outdoors living' by moving to Scotland or somewhere in mainland Europe. It would probably be just as good and a lot easier to get 'home' if things went wrong.

On another level, thinking about leaving somewhere before you have even arrived might indicate you are having doubts?

Buzzy--Bee

We moved back to the UK from NZ. We don't regret moving back at all, however to paraphrase U2 "we still haven't found what we're looking for". In NZ we were looking for lifestyle, I suppose, but you still have to pay for stuff, and with *no* job at all (and we were prepared to do anything), lifestyle isnt achievable. Unless you work in a job which can be done anywhere, you have to be near a CBD, and NZ really doesn't have those as we know them in the UK.

So next week we are emigrating to Melbourne, in the hope that it can provide a "best of both worlds" between the lifestyle of NZ and the employment opportunities of the UK. Hopefully we get it right this time.

Oh, and btw we don't dislike the UK. If there were no other options we would be perfectly happy here. But we have the opportunity to give other places a try, so why not?

Buzzy

jonesey

We went back to UK in 2003 as we had a two year WTR visa and wanted PR in NZ, lots of reasons drove us back to UK and it would take me hours to type it all, so briefly all family members decided on a vote and putting the negatives and positives to one side we made our journey back to Lincolnshire. After all the pain of flying back to UK finding a job/house rental, we settled down to our daily life in Lincoln and not without trying for two years, we are now back on the North Shore and 8 months in now. We have also paraphrased those U2 words often "Still haven't found what were looking for" We moved to Melbourne back in 1997 and lasted the two years before we yearned for the Pom lifestyle again, then off to the Costas to see what life would be like in the Med near Alicante, but the Morocan Gypsies robbed our property twice and became very unstable around the region for a while. So once again we returned to UK and settled on the East Coast for a short while and then I landed a job in the CBD Auckland, and second time around we are sure now we can settle for the sake of the children and a better lifestyle without so much peer pressure. Of course life is still the same in many respects to UK as regards the every day work cycle we all go through, the yearning to see family members you left behind often springs to mind throughout moments in your day or night, but with Skype and holidays we get by and you follow the daily routine like most people back in UK, but with differences like better lifestyle, simple life, with simple pleasures, going to the beach, not so much peer pressure as we had in the UK, we are not doing too bad. Who knows what the future may bring our way maybe a big lotto win........