Oh the boredom is real. I have a 1 year old and I wish there was more things I could do with her here. I get jealous seeing all my friends back home taking their little ones to all these fun places and fun days and there is diddly squat here. Im in Hanmer trying to convince my kiwi partner to move nearer Christchurch. We are hopefully to visit England (Colne Lancs) next year and I’m secretly hoping he likes it and we can make the move. I feel like I don’t know what to do with the rest of my life here. Like I need to take up knitting or something.

Hi Umbrellagirl. Sorry to hear your situation has not improved with the move. I understand fully your predicament. We moved back two years ago and I have to say that whilst really enjoying being back with family and loving the countryside and diversity here, the shine is beginning to wear a little thin now. We were in Auckland for 13 years and I can't believe how much UK has declined in that time. The roads are full of potholes, the high streets are mostly dead except for charity shops, betting shops, pound shops, tattoo parlours and Turkish barbers... Brexit has had a very depressing effect on the economy and most people with all the uncertainty surrounding it. House prices have come down, which is great if you want to buy but rents seem to be much higher now than when we left..and fewer people are now able to afford their own homes and are stuck in the rental system..becoming much more like NZ in that respect. I have actually been working in children's services for the past 18 months (admin) and am horrified at the workload and stress put upon the social workers..they are leaving in their droves and many of them are stressed to the limit. Funding cutbacks everywhere have meant there are just too many cases for too few workers and I actually left due to the constant pressure of having to meet statutory deadlines even though nothing ever changed or improved the lives of the children in need. It felt like there was always a tragedy just waiting to happen. And we live in a relatively affluent area in the South East...I can't begin to imagine what it must be like in many of the more deprived areas of UK. So.. all in all I would think long and hard about returning to the UK if you really enjoy life in NZ. For all the negatives here at the moment, I am still glad to be back in this part of the world..NZ never felt like home to me and I never settled there. I enjoy the proximity of Europe and the amount of things to do and places to visit. However, we now realise we detest the long, dark, cold winters and can't envisage staying here forever. I don't think we would ever return to NZ permanently but we are definitely looking at options and considering retiring somewhere warmer than UK when the time comes (we've got a couple of years to go yet) and with that in mind we are looking at France or Spain....although that might be much more difficult now with the Brexit debacle taking place. There is definitely a very unsettled feeling here and I don't think it's the ideal time to return...maybe wait and see how things go after Brexit? Sorry to be the bearer of not such negativity....and this of course is only my own experience. Others may have an entirely different view and experience. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Your are most welcome.. I do hope you find your happy place

Thank you so much for your lovely reply. It’s really nice to know that someone else feels the same despair haha! I think I’ve actually been to Kaiteriteri when I did a kiwi ex bus tour when I first got here. You are so lucky he wants to leave with you. I think I am slowly getting used to the fact that I will probably be here forever, and have resigned myself to having a pint of Guinness (that doesn’t taste nasty like it does here) in my local back in Colne, in my head sat at the bar at least once a day. I can almost taste it and feel the nice relaxing pub vibe and see the little doggies sat under the table. I miss dogs in pubs. I miss good pubs.
I understand this is probably a much safer place to raise a child than the uk, especially in rural parts like where I am stuck.
I just hope I can find a nice office job wherever we end up and make some good friends that won’t travel on and leave me like I was nothing to them! Breaks my heart.
i want to live somewhere less insular, there is an awful lot of bullying where I am that goes on with the locals. I’ve never before witnessed it in grown men and woman it’s awful, the fire brigade are rife for it and the ladies are so bitchy and catty. Very pretentious too. I miss real folk that care not if you’re foreign or female. Had a bad instance of racism the other wk off a sales man in the hardware store. I’ve complained and will have to see what if anything happens. Means we have to go 70miles to get our diy gear now.
I would love to check out Dunedin but I don’t even think he would go that far. He compared moving to Christchurch like me moving from England 🙄 I almost killed him. X