Jasenc

Hi guys , I'm sure you have had this asked millions of times before. So I'm a south African living in the UK now for around 12 years. I have 3 kids, 12,10 and a 5 year old. Ive been offered a job in Tauranga and the company will help with the move, sponsor our visas and pay for tickets over. So life in the UK for us is pretty cool, I have a decent job, my wife works part time and we have a lovely 5 bed house. So I I've read how expensive NZ is and how difficult it is to buy your own house. I know NZ will have a better life style for my kids , the lifestyle we had growing up in Durban.
Could you guys pass on some advice on areas to look at to rent and which areas to avoid, my job is located in the Tauranga itself.
My wife works as a support worker in the community and helps patients with their rehabilitation. Would she find work easily ? And what sort of salary could she expect? My worry is that she doesn't find right away, and my salary wont cover all the bills etc.

I know its not going to be easy to start again in a new country , and dont want to mess things up for my kids ..... is this move worth it ????

dfjordan

Justcol

Support workers get paid peanuts here in NZ

Mishclark

Hi OP, ​​​​​​
If you have a great life in the UK I would seriously sit down and work out what would be better about NZ.
I'm from Australia and love living in Nz, but I've lived here before, and my 18 year old wanted to come back. But it's only a three hour flight to go back to visit or them to come visit me.
It really is down the other end of the earth, and it's as expensive as you've read. The only thing cheaper for me and to my advantage is the housing is cheaper in Christchurch for me than Sydney so it evens out for me.
I love it and have no intention of going back to live in Australia again but as I said it's not far for me.
Seriously think about it as the return home rate for expats is quite high as Justcol has mentioned.

Good luck with your decision.
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BEVS

A part of the key here may be that the OP is originally from Durban SA so a large part of the pull might be the weather thing.
I know. I know. The NZ weather isn't perfect by any means but the SA's I have known and know that ended up in the UK sometimes have a difficulty with the UK weather.
They find it limiting in some oddish way

Much will depend on what 'lifestyle' the OP felt he had in Durban.

My young lifestyle in the SW of the UK was that I was always out and about doing outside activities no matter what. My family was like this so I was too. The beach was my garden. So were the meadows and the woods , yet I lived in a town. It was easy . I also though enjoyed all the other 'stuff' on offer too. Diversity, history and all that. The young families back there that we know still have this today.

Nz is an expensive place to live and is rather limiting on several fronts. However if one is discontent with the UK, having moved from SA, then an NZ move might be the answer.

Mishclark

That's a fair point Bevs, I hadn't thought about it that way. One of my friends is from Sa and lived in Uk as well and they love the weather in Chch, they've been here 10 years. This reminded me how she said they had missed the weather in SA.

escapedtonz

Hi,
So, we had a similar background. UK life was pretty cool. 2 adults and 1 baby boy. I had a great job, worked shifts, really good pay and lots of time off. Had plenty cash to afford a couple near new cars, a motorbike, a couple holidays a year and always had surplus for savings. Had a huge 5 bed house overlooking countryside outskirts of Preston. Wife was on a long maternity period off work for around 18 months until our boy would go to private nursery then she was going to go back part time. We longed to migrate overseas for quite a few years regardless of our lifestyle in the UK and settled on NZ. Many relatives and friends thought we were mad but we just didn't want to get old and regret not trying something different. It took a while to get through the visa process. We knew NZ would be different, more costly and at the end of the earth but it didn't matter as thats where we wanted to try. With hindsight it was probably a little more different and even more costly than we expected, but no sweat, we took the bull by the horns and carved out a new life in NZ even though it was difficult at times. My job paid probably 40% less here than in the UK and with the Mrs not at work it was tough going. We were lucky to have around $80k to use to set ourselves up after changing our UK mortgage to Interest Only and then increasing our borrowing to take back the GBP 40k we'd paid off the mortgage in the 5 years we'd owned that house. Without that rainy day fund we would have seriously struggled and I'd say we may have moved back to the UK ? The first year was pretty full on with the big move over, living in temporary furnished accommodation for a few months until the shipping container arrived and then moving in to our first more permanent unfurnished rental. NZ is very expensive. The research doesn't lie but I'd probably add another 10-15% on top of that to cover for the fact that you have to pay GST on virtually everything and I didn't feel that those CoL reviews included GST ?
It is a huge decision....should I go or should I stay ? For us, it didn't matter that our UK life was sweet. We wanted to live elsewhere in the world and nothing was going to get in the way of that.
Anyways, we are now in Tauranga. Have been living here 5 years now. Started of in Bethlehem and now live in Te Puna - more rural but still only 15 mins from Tauranga CBD.
Where to live and rent is subjective as I don't know anything about what you class as rough or pretty but my take on areas here seem in line with how others see them.
Avoid (suburban) - Merivale, Parkvale, Gate Pa, some areas of Greerton, some areas of Welcome Bay, some areas of Brookfield, Judea, Hairini, some parts of Papamoa, some parts of Mt. Maunganui, some parts of The Avenues - in no way are these places anything like some of rough arse estates of the UK but they are at the lower end of the socio-economic scale in NZ terms and as such the people living there are at the lower end of that scale.
Nice (suburban) - Bethlehem, Otumoetai, Matua, Bureta, Cherrywood, The Lakes, Pyes Pa, Ohauiti, Oropi, Maungatapu, parts of Omokoroa, parts of Papamoa, Papamoa East, some parts of Mt. Maunganui, some parts of The Avenues.
Nice (semi-rural, rural residential, rural) - Te Puna, Minden, Whakamarama, Omokoroa, Pyes Pa, Ohauiti, Oropi, Tauriko, Lower Kaimai, Omanawa.
Renting here is difficult. Huge demand and little rental stock to go around. You'll also pay around $530 a week for a decent 3 bedder. Property to buy is expensive and getting higher by the day.

Clappy

I remember working with one person in London that had moved there from Port Elizabeth in South Africa and missed being able to grab his surfboard at the drop of a hat while at work and running out to grab the best sea conditions.

That lifestyle might be possible in somewhere like Tauranga but I don't know for certain.

escapedtonz

If getting in the surf is high on the OP's agenda then yes it is very possible in Tauranga. Anywhere along Mt. Maunganui main beach extending all the way down to Papamoa East is good surfing although most tend to frequent at the end next to Mt. Mauao or adjacent to Leisure Island.

Jasenc

Hi all. Thank you for all the responses and guidance. I'm excited and very nervous in the same breath. I worry that my salary ( 85 to 90k still under negotion) wont be enough for the bills if my wife struggles to find work, like I said she works as a community support worker , helping with patients rehabilitation. I know this isn't a highly paid job in NZ but how easy is it to find work out in nz ?

escapedtonz

Community Workers in NZ start from approx $40k per year up to $75k per year full time of course. It is classed as a skilled occupation and there is a shortage of people with the right skills for that role. There are a few jobs being advertised on www.seek.co.nz at the moment (for Tauranga) with Healthcare New Zealand and a few other Support Groups so I'd guess her prospects are pretty good so long as she has the right skills and experience. There is no formal requirement for qualifications in the role although if she does have some then that would be a huge bonus. One thing she will really need is knowledge of the specific community they are wishing to work in, its languages and cultures. She will come in to a lot of contact with Maori and Southern Islanders who reside in NZ so researching those cultures and the Waitangi Treaty would be ideal knowledge to have for any potential interview. I'd even go so far to say learning the basics of Maori will be essential.
Have a look at Oranga Tamariki and the Vulnerable Childrens Act 2014.
https://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs-dat...-enter-the-job

Jasenc

Thank you everyone for taking the time to post a comment,

WBHB

This will largely depend on your lifestyle and what you'd expect when you come to NZ. There have been some really good comments on here already but I'll add that if you if you come over here with not very much money in hand and you're on $90k with 3 kids with no other income you are really going to struggle to support your family. Personally I think a family of 1 or 2 kids in a 2 or 3 bed house needs a combined income of $120k in city like Tauranga or Auckland as a minimum to have enough money for a rental, food, bills and the odd holiday/trip here and there and to run a single vehicle for the family.

If you're selling up back home and bringing the money over to buy out here it may be different but I wouldn't advise doing that, we keep our home rented in the UK and will do for a few more years while we decide if it's for us out here. It's quite comforting right now to know we can simply move back into our old house if things don't work out after giving it a good go out here.

I will add also that even if your life is good back home don't rule NZ out, we were in the same boat. There was nothing wrong with our life back in the south of England but the itch to travel and do something new was enough for us to come out here and give it a go for at least a couple of years so we don't regret coming out here one bit.

BEVS

True enough,

Jasenc

so how you finding it in NZ, anything you miss from the UK ?