mcuddy1

Well all you greenhorns out there a word of warning.

NZ is not all it seems or what it is portrayed to be, the implication of a true green unspoiled country is all a big lie. ( Don't believe the hype)

You will be moving to a backward country with backward bigoted attitudes, racism is alive and well and is not frowned upon. There is a dislike of the English, they just tolerate us, as long as we bring something to NZ. Could be money or skills they need. Outwardly friendly but shallow underneath is my take on it.

Wages are not good maybe 60% on average of your UK wage, alas the prices are not much different and consumer choice, well let's not go there. The fact is, there is a toleration for being ripped off and not complaining. Beware being called a whinging Pom.

Green and clean er well just look at the gas guzzlers they like to drive, along with extremely loud exhausts. Burnout marks riddle the town and countryside and worst of all it's tolerated.

Driving standards are S*** if you have any pride in your roadcraft, forget about it here.

It has a few good points, but if you have a soul it will come back to bite you in the end.

Education, talking from a primary perspective is good for social interaction but poor on the academic front. There also seems to be a toleration of swearing among the young kids in my experience anyway.

NZ sells itself as the most beautiful / green country in the world. That's part of the dream you buy into, and the NZer's actually believe all this also. There will be no appreciation of other cultures and the UK is portrayed as just one urban jungle.

A very blinkered view of the world, How sad. Good luck to you newbies.

TeamEmbo

ok now breathe slowly, in and out, in and out and relax... feel better?

Dewb09

Cant win them all

Alas I am another blinded by the hype newbie,
mind you I have visited four times and done stacks of research,
so hopefully no biting on any of my body parts

Dewb

mcuddy1

Funny haha, It's just a statement from my point of view and it doesn't deserve a smart arsed comment from you.

But you just can't help sticking your nose in when you read something you disagree with.

It's the same old story and same old people.

Patrick2007

When i lived in Auckland (Hibiscus Coast to be precise) a local chap said to me "i cant really believe how you all live in those small houses and cramped streets we have so much space over here", he was referring to Coronation Street and literally thought everyone in the U.K. lived in that kind of set up. Another bloke thought everyone lived in the maisonettes like on The Bill.

dannigirl

Sorry mcuddy1, it seems as if you have had a bit of a rough time.

Definitely some valid points about the negatives with regards to living in New Zealand.

Just speaking from my own point of view, what can be frustrating is that when people complain about being shot down for writing 'negatives' about NZ they sometimes fail to see how black and white they are being. Just as you get frustrated with people being too positive thus missing some of the faults, people get frustrated when they see only negatives, missing out the many great things NZ has to offer.

You obviously feel very strongly about NZ and it's many faults. These as you rightly point out are YOUR views and YOUR experiences.

Posts like these always stir up lots of emotions, but it is important for people to read them to gain a wider perspective on moving to the other side of the world.

Good luck to you.

dannigirl

Just like everyone thinks NZ is the perfect Utopia. Literally everytime I say to someone I am from NZ they always ask why the bloody hell are you living in the UK....I have my reply down to about 3 sentences now! It works both ways.

Justcol

Unfortunately most who read your post will think your either bitterbecause things havent worked out for you or, the usual one, your homesick.
I have to agree with most of what you've said.
Brits are "tolerated" by the majority as a neccersary evil, however, we have been here for just over a year now and we have made some very good
friends both expat and kiwi. Kiwis are pretty narrow minded and truely believe that the "kiwi way" is the best way.
They dont/cant understand there is another way to do things and that maybe, just maybe the way the rest of the developed world do things could be better.
Driving down here is a joke. This week there was a campaign started to highlight just how bad it is. Kids are allowed a licence after sitting a scratch test with muliple choice answers, they are then allowed to roam like mobile accidents to their hearts content. these kids can then progress to the must have V8 with a minimum of suprevised training, if any at all.
Education is pretty poor on the whole. Many brits say its good because their average kids suddenly become top of the class students. My eldest is just finishing year 13 and the stuff he is being taught is nowhere near the level he was at when we left the uk when he had just completed his A/s level exams. He has essentially been treading water at school for the past year.
One thing i miss about the uk is the right to roam we had. there are public rights of way and footpaths every where. I am in Cambridge which is surrounded by beautiful rolling open country side but i am not allowed access to it. there are no rights of way, no footpaths, no tracks where you can simply wander along or go walking for a few hours to a local peak just to get out among nature. There are a few well used tracks in the scenic reserves but its not as the migration brochures or tourist boads would have you believe.
Racism, thats a odd one. there is the "bloddy maori" attitude amongst some but to be honest i've really had my eyes opened. the rasism that i come accross is directed at the white people from the maori's. The majority i put down to the fact that most are from the lower social ecconomic group and their attitudes stem from poor education and even poorer social economic backgrounds. These are breading grounds the world over for racism but its ostrange living in a country where its directed at you (not personally but as a race) I dont let it bother me although it can be a little frustrating at times.
I suppose the wages/cost of living thing can be a pain. We are DEFINATELY poorer down here. Not just a little either. We are both doing the same jobs we did in the uk and we knew we'd be earning less but the high cost of living means we dont have much left at the end of the week.
I will NEVER settle for a lifestyle that doesnt allow me to do the things i want and i am a firm believer in the "work to live not live to work" ethos. Thats not to say we dont work hard at what we do but if things dont get easier in the next few years we will be drifting accoss the tasman where we can earn more, play more and save more. I dont want to cut and run without giving NZ a fair go.
One thing i like is that there are more business opportunities available here and working for yourself seems a lot easier to get into and there are fewer barriers and negatuive attitudes preventing you from giving it a go.

If i could pass on one piece of advice to you it would be dont be bitter about your experiance of NZ.
I've been where you are many years ago when a planned life in australia didnt work out. you can return to the uk and end up carrying a lot of negative feelings around for a long time and you get a feeling that you've been cheated, not only out of your dream but also financially.
Its not New Zealands fault if things havent gone your way. This is who they are and this is how they do things. Its up to us, the migrants to addapt to the kiwi lifestyle. If we cant we should simply put it down to one of lifes lessons and move on.
Some things here piss me off but i have no wish to return to the uk as i remind myself regularly why i chose to leave and things in NZ would have to be a lot worse than they are for me to even consider going back to the uk

Jan n Neil

you are right in most of the things you say it isn,t utopia far from it but as i said to Jan last night "It,s just a really nice place to live and work" we are no better off financially but i wake up every morning to fresh air, snow covered mountains and no noise

I like the place, am going to stay but you are right it,s not for everybody

Neil

Genesis

All very valid from your perspective and NZ does have many many problems. Agree with you on a number of your comments. However I think it is unfair that to suggest IF you have 'soul' NZ will bite you back. That is your view on something that cannot be quantified..ie who's got 'soul' or not in the first case. Well I think I have 'soul' and I am content here and don't feel 'bitten'.

TeamEmbo

Oh dear. Somebody needs a hug

I don't see where in my post I disagreed. I read your post. It seemed like you'd got a lot off your chest. I presumed you felt better for it, hence my post.

I don't see why I deserve such an angry post from you in return.

lardyl

yeah, its a bit like that but the other way round at times here "so WHY did YOU move to NZ??" - although there is something of the "rhetorical" in that cause the other person seems to know you are going to fit into one of a few "types" of immigrant.....

in most cases it's about lifestyle choices - life outside of work is great for us here and if you can get the finances to work then NZ can be that paradise, if not then it can be more like hell on earth.

lapsed kiwi

I'm with you on that one - so often, unhappy migrants' posts skate around the money thing but very few seem to be financially OK (or perhaps better off than in UK) in NZ and return to UK.

I know there are a host of other reasons and this place isn't for everyone though - which for me is great because the thing I like the most is the low population density!

lapsed kiwi

Is there a danger of confusing "whether" NZ is clean and green with "why" here? Yes, NZers probably have a higher carbon footprint per capita than UKers (although with all the renewable electricity here and use of firewood even that's debatable). But because there are vastly fewer in the same area, the impact is much less - result, NZ is a beautiful, clean, green country.

The analogy I would use is would you rather live in a 3-bed semi house with 3 slightly messy people or with sixty extremely clean and tidy ones? For me, it's the former.

Numptyhead

I just want to say that I actually appreciate when people post the negatives as well as the positives, so thank you OP. Please don't think I am being factious, I'm really not. Sometimes its not comfortable reading but so much better to be said. I know certain things will p**s me off. The driving standard for one But I don't intend to spend too much time in a car and I'm not going to live in a city.

I know that in order to live the lifestyle that I crave, we will have to work really hard and that life, will at times, be frustrating. There are insular ignorant people everywhere.....even in Cornwall Actually especially in Cornwall

I have found that in all situations in life, you have to weigh up the good with the bad. If the good outweighs the bad...all is well. If it doesn't you have to either do something about it or like so many, live with it and be unhappy and or bitter.

In truth, I have no idea how our experience of NZ will pan out for us, but it is worth the risk and expense to find out. Some people love it and others will hate it...we all have different life experiences to bring to the challenge of immigration....that is the way of the world xx