Caoimhe07

Hey!

Sorry, posts like this are probably on this everyday. Just looking a little bit of reassurance regarding living and working in Christchurch.

Myself a graduate civil engineer with project management and estimating experience and my boyfriend a automotive mechanic are making the somewhat risky move to Christchurch on 26th August.
Flights booked, visas sorted and first weeks accommodation organised..that's it!
No jobs as such yet, still applying and hoping for something to come up..(any advice or help here greatly appreciated).. having read a few posts and I see a lot of people saying they regret the move and cant make ends meet as it is so expensive to live??

We have researched a lot of things i.e. rent food bills travel etc and have a good idea of what to expect

We plan on moving into shared accommodation to cut costs but can anyone in preferably similar situations shed some light if we will be out there merely surviving wage packet to wage packet or is the quality of life as good as we are hoping i.e can we afford a few beer and a meal out most weekends and maybe the odd trip away at weekends to explore the island.

Just hoping its not all bad news and we can make a good go of it! Any info at all is welcome..Thanks

MrsFychan

sorry but without jobs so no idea of your income can't see how anyone can say if you will be able to afford to live here and afford to go out and about.

how are you going to finance yourselves until you gain employment? what visa's are you coming over on?

paddy234

I'm heading over on the 5th of August to ChristChurch myself. What i'm doing is applying for job's mainly in seek.co.nz and trademe.co.nz. While i haven't been guaranteed work simply applying online, when i did apply, in my cover-letter i clearly stated i was moving to ChristChurch and on what date i was leaving, three place's so far have replied back asking me to contact them when i arrive for an interview. I therefore would highly advise doing all the above, especially in detailing when your leaving. What job site's are you using mainly?

pippalonghorn

Hi there,

I applied for around 100 jobs on Seeknz before I left England but was unsuccessful. I have been in Auckland for 2 months and have just secured a job which is on a casual basis. Have you any children? I have a 4 year old which makes it a bit more difficult in finding work to suit my childcare needs (I have no childcare). We are staying for a year and then returning to England. NZ is indeed a beautiful place to live and the people are very friendly. We just have not got the quality of life which we had in England. You may be in the higher wage bracket than us which will make life alot easier for yourselves. Do not let us put you off coming here. You will only know the answers to your questions when you both secure work. Whats the worst that can happen??? You dont like it and return to England. Youll return with alot more life experience and those people who say you are mad for returning would probably never have the guts to give it a try themselves. Good luck with the move and keep us posted. Hope this has helped.

BEVS

Hi there and welcome to this NZ forum.

When you say "visa's sorted" what are you meaning please? WHV?

You may find The Canterbury Rebuild Hub website helpful.

NZ is not a cheap place to live these days. What you can afford will depend on what income you generate when here & also, what your future financial plans are.

Caoimhe07

Mrs Fychan we have our working holiday visa and have savings to do us for a month until we can hopefully arrange work

Paddy234..what is your line of work? I have applied to 2 or 3 jobs and have a skype interview soon as well as being registered with a recruitment agency so I am hopeful especially with me being involved in the construction/engineering industry and there being a lot of work happening out there at the minute..
Or am i kidding myself and the work situation isn't as good as it is made out to be?

Pippalonghorn...thanks for your feedback, you often hear stories of people going over to well paid jobs but you don't often hear the struggle it can be to secure a job. Good luck with your job..No, no children which makes it a lot easier for us.

We have researched quite a bit and see that even for admin, packer, bar/waitresssing staff there is quite a lot of work. Worst comes to worst we are hoping that we could get by doing this sort of work for 2-3 months until we get settled. We are hard workers and by no means expect to have spare cash about us for the first year, but as long as we can work towards something we will be happy.

Thanks for the replies

MrsGreen2013

Good on you, if you don't try it you'll never know !

I am sure that you will find something in your line of work. we too are planning the move at the start of next year I have not started the hunt for jobs as yet and would hope to find one before I arrive but am realistic that I will probably need to be in NZ to secure something.

We are just about to start selling our house and are a bit wary that may take an age. - Are you selling property before you go over?

Please let us know how you get on, We have been over to NZ recently (Christchurch & Timaru) and to be honest coming from Surrey we didn't find the cost of living too high yes somethings are more expensive but then you just need to adapt, or learn to grow veggies! - it depends what lifestyle you are after.

I guess if you are living in Auckland with the city life then that will cost but for us we are moving to NZ to ditch the city (after commuting for the best part of the last decade) and to slow things down a bit. Like you happy to live frugally for a year or two before we are 100% settled.

I would love to hear how you get on - we may head to Canterbury too so any updates on the job front would be great stuff.

GOOD LUCK!!! and Have Fun !

paddy234

I was a Roofer for two year's several year's ago. Two of the place's who are interested in interviewing me are for a roofer position and the other one is for a general hammer-hand as by applying for more position's i'll increase my chance's, if didn't get into roofing straight away i would be willing to do generally anything just to tie me over till i did get into it. Anyway let's hope i do. .

You have only applied for 2 or 3 job's and already have a Skype interview?? I'd call that good progress, especially since's i've been applying for dozen's . Anyway i know several lad's now out there and i have been told there isn't enough worker's there that's needed, there working all hour's and getting great pay. The place is now full of Irish i'm told

U.T.V did a documentary on the Irish worker's now heading out there, it was filmed over a month ago. Click on the second video " NI helps NZ" and you'll get an idea just how much demand there is for worker's in construction

http://www.u.tv/news/NI-workers-rebu...8-b72a4dfb332d

Snap Shot

Paddy234 - nice that you've got job interviews lined up. When dozens of jobs applied for become hundreds, that's when the real fun starts ! (Been there, done that !)

My husband was in Christchurch yesterday for a business meeting. He got home just after 9pm. It's still cold there, what with it being winter. Probably gets cold in Ireland in the winter too !

Good luck for your flight a week Monday. Happy landing.

Wiz'n'Ton

I recruit for a civil infrastructure firm here, and can honestly say that you will have few issues in finding work here if you are a Civil Engineer with either a degree, or a diploma and some on-ste experience.

We have employed several recent arrivals from both England and the Emerald Isle, and there's even a gaelic football league and all sorts here now due to the influx!

As was suggested earlier by another poster, email out to all those advertising / dealing with civil infrastructure in Chch, with your arrival date and the fact you have a visa and can start immediately, and you'll get some takers for sure.

Good luck with it, I'm sure you won't be looking back.

kazandav

Can't offer any advice as we're not there yet but just want to say good luck

chippy64

Although it was cold first and last thing, it was still 16C for a good part of the day. Not bad for winter

paddy234

Thank you, yea hopefully i find employment quite quickly and as i said i would do generally anything to begin with till i got into roofing. About the weather, like a header i keep a tab open in my browser which is just for Christchurch weather lol, just to see what to expect, yesterday it stated it was around 18-19 degree's for a while. Definitely a huge difference in our Irish winter which for week's will rarely go above 5 degree's

Caoimhe07

thanks everyone for the info, big relief to hear everyone's experiences.,Wiz'n'tom big reassurance regarding the job front, thanks
MRS GREEN2013, I will be on this site often when i get over to share my experiences, hopefully I will be of some help to you we have no kids and no house to sell so less stress for us but as you say, we can but try and make the most of it while we are out there.
Paddy234 from what i see construction trades have no problem getting work so you'll be fine! and sure if you have friends over there youl be settled in no time. Heard that there is quite a few irish out there too and have already had a nosey at the irish bars

any ideas of where to live, we would like near the beach woolston or north/south brighton? but what i have read riccarton seems to be the spot?

chippy64

Woolston is very industrial - however, there is quite a lot of regeneration work going on, so it may become ChCh answer to Hackney .

New Brighton suffered quite a lot of damage in the quakes. Of the two, I would say North New Brighton is the preferred area. We live in Parklands, just up from New Brighton. Close to the beach and forest, good bus service and a small shopping area with a Westpac Bank, Fresh Choice supermarket, Post office, Chemist, several takeaways, a gym, and library.