livewire

For all of you peeps out there who are expats - ie. immigrants living in NZ how would you answer the following questions:

Would you have emigrated to NZ if you knew then what you know now?

What would you have liked to have known about before you came?

Hopefully we can keep this an open and honest discussion without offending anyone as I hope that anyone thinking of emigrating will find it useful.

Thanks

Rascal

Answer to Question 1. NO, I definately would not have chosen to live here if I knew what I know now.
Q2...... Tough one as it covers so mnay things......
I would have liked to know the REAL cost of living v salary and the HIGH cost of power and the cold damp houses which are unbearable in winter unless you have a revolving house that rotates to face the sun!!
I didn't know that othodontist for children was not free, neither di I know that eye tests and glasses are also not free.
I didn't know that school force a $100 'donation' on you for each child per year, neither did I know that school subject fees are charged in Intermediate and High schools as well as all the school stationery.
I didn't know that Australia took on board the NCEA and it failed there, so NZ took over expecting it not to fail here, but has (in the opinion of school teachers I have spoken to)
I did not know that there is a fee to sit NCEA exams too.
I did not know that there is a fee payable for doctors to see children as well as adults.
I was not completely aware of lack of choice and competition between supermarkets meaning that nothing can be bought 'cheap' here......
I also did not believe that winters got as cold as they do, I expected shorts and T shirts all year round, as thats what I heard!
I did not know that in winter it is actually warmer outside of the house than indoors on rooms that have no sun.
I didn not know that asthma was rife in NZ partly caused by the damp consitions of the homes, some have NO heating at all in them.
I did not know that poverty is quite high here.
I did not know that you dont get child benefit either here.

I could go on, but at the end of the day, I wouldn't want to stop people from coming, just be prepared more than I was.

NZ can become a one way ticket, you can become trapped here.
Really, really do your sums before making that huge step. Dont fall into the trap of looking at nice glossy pictures of the beach and sea and imagine life will be as idylic as the pictures, it quite often isn't.
Prices of property here have risen so high this last few years........that dream house may not be as affordable as you think. If a house you see on the net seems cheap, it will be cheap for a reason, possibly location,

Lifestyle was far better in the Uk and affordable with money to spare for us I am afraid.......but we burnt our bridges......

Look before you Leap is now my motto.

uk+kiwi

Hi, interested in this thread so would like to revive it in an attempt to get more replies

Also, where abouts on the north shore? My OH is from Mairangi/Browns Bay & MIL now lives in Waiake.

Rascal, sorry you have been so disappointed, hopefully mainly only from a financial point of view, although I do realise how stressul this can be. If it makes you feel any better, we also have a compulsory 'voluntary' donation for our schooling in the UK (possibly not everywhere, but certainly at my daughter's school),and I can remember my parents paying for my O & A level exams - about £50 each for O levels, more for A levels I seem to recall and that was back in the 80's. How burnt are your bridges??

Rascal

Bridges?? ....... Beyond recognition.........own fault, thought the grass was greener but found out it wasn't.......its just not for us this country. Doesn't mean to say it wont work out for anyone else but IMO it has a lot to catch up with to be a serious contender for the rest of the Western World.

Just way behind with lots of things and it feels very miserable living this kind of existance when you have had better.

Sorry......but thats how we all feel in our family.

Loxley

Seems to me that your research wasnt that good.
Did you realy expect to get child benifit once you arrived? My opinion is that if you cant afford kids, dont have em.

uk+kiwi

Oh dear, how long have you been there and whereabouts are you? Is there not anything good about where you live - ie schools are fab or eating great food, have great friends etc etc. So do you have an exit plan, or is the plan to stay put and ride it out?

Oh and apparantly you can claim family allowance if you have PR, in case this helps you. I don't know the details personally but read it on this forum.

Hope things pick up for you.

uk+kiwi

Loxley, I do agree with you about good research prior to emigration, but to be honest, I would also say that people don't know the real costs of children before having them. I would agree that people need to pay for them themselves though, but it's just not realistic for some reason.

To illustrate, who sits down starting a costs spreadhseet of having children itemising the costs such as - if our child walks before they're one, that will be at least one pair of proper shoes at c£26 in Clarks, £36 Startrite or £10 Woolworths etc etc. It's just not on your radar. But having written that, it does make food for thought and LOL.

SarahB

Hey I got ripped off then... my lad was walking at 10 months old and his first "proper" shoes from Startrite cost me £44!!

Loxley

Agree with the kids thing, ours are grown up (or so they think) and not so much of a burden.
Rascal paints quite a grim picture but I suppose not every cloud has a silver lining and everyones situation is different.

Panda_Pops

That will come as great comfort to those who have gone through expensive IVF treatments in order to try and have kids - at least they've proved they have the reddies I suppose!

FFS - kids are not commodities.

SarahB

Anyway back to the subject of the original post....

Ive not been here long so I can only give my opinion which is probably a load of cr*p ...lol..in fact dont bother reading it as I waffle on and talk rubbish.

Would I have emigrated to NZ? I really can't answer that yet as too soon to say. Ask me again in 12 months time.

What I would like to have known? Well I read expats a lot and got loads of info from there before and during the moving process... so I thought I knew a lot.

Nothings a really huge shock really apart from how much I miss my family....that really is the worse thing. Having nobody to talk to as you dont know anybody is hard as you know from my previous posts...

I have always been honest on here about how I felt about Auckland so
ok I WAS shocked about how built up Auckland was....I never expected to see houses on such tiny tiny pieces of land...made gardens of the new houses in the UK look big!! We went around looking at places to rent and knew that when it was a number followed by "A" it was built in somebodys back garden. I have never known that before. I didnt want a shared driveway where I wouldnt know if my toddler would be safe....I didnt want to be 2 foot away from the next door neighbour.... I wanted some grass to mow and for shorty to play on, not just a strip of concrete round the house. I didnt read up about this before I went so I didnt expect it...thats probably been the biggest shock. I got so hopefull everytime we had to look at a house and everytime it was crammed in or they wanted 600 a week for it as it was in the "grammar" zone...ok look at my toddler.... does he look like he'll be needing a grammar school just yet? lol

Yes other things are different but thats part of living in a different country isnt it?

scottish

In answer to question 1 no and to question 2 yes I wish we had known. We didnt do the forum thing before we moved to NZ but hubbys new boss and office staff painted a def picture.

Some things were unforeseen like shite employer in Auckland, couldnt get a job for months in BOP, rip off landlord in Auckland and then again BOP (promised us a long term let only to put house on market 3 weeks after moving in, just as container arrives). Then the best bit hubby bitten by a white tip and in hospital with blood poisoning for a week and off work for a month.........

The people we asked here in the Uk who had been and people who we knew of in NZ didnt warn us about damp houses, wages, price of peppers and how iggnorant people can be re accents... and if one more Kiwi ever said to hubby did you come over here with all your money, us being rich as they see it we could have screamed... we were poor expats... not rich ones but to them we are all the same.

Panda_Pops

Yeah, I'm sorry about my earlier flame - I just took exception to those comments.

Anyway,

We haven't been to NZ yet personally, we're hoping to go for a 'rekkie' next spring, but I do have an aunt who lives in Coatesville (N AKL) and friends who live in Wellington.

Most of the feedback I get from them is that NZ is a wonderful place to live, work and bring up children. Just don't expect it to be a carbon copy of England - you'll have to go to the Costa Brava for that

It is expensive and over the last couple of years house prices have doubled, mortgage rates are high @ 9% and there is a growing fear that the whole economy is about to implode (UK circa. 1985).

However, the NZ government do seem to have a much better grip on how to grow the economy, maybe it's because they're a little more direct in their actions and have the benefit of other people's hindsight.

My aunt, who has lived in NZ since 1978, frequently bemoans the support offered to the Maori population by the government, relative to the support given to pakeha. I have to say that she can be quite bigotted in her views, but I suppose it's no different to the issue of asylum seekers in the UK.

She also mentions that the rise in house prices seems to be a direct result of more immigration (primarily from UK) and returning Kiwis who've made a mint on property elsewhere in the world (most likely UK!)

Now, none of this is rocket science and everybody is going to have different experiences and opinions on whether they should've gone, should've stayed at home etc... But you're never going to know unless you try and remember that NZ has always been a country that favours determination, innovation and resourcefulness. If you want to succeed, you will succeed.

Personally, I can't wait to get stuck in.

PP.

Rascal

And you think you will be better prepared more than we?
Doubt it, unless you are kiwi. If so, I can well understand your comments which I find are shallow. Maybe your parents should have adopted the same attitude.
As for your remarks about affording children I could well afford them back in the Uk, its since moving to this place that we struggle very hard. No wonder poverty is so rife here and children go without basic things, its just short of being a third world country.
And the question was aimed at ex pats living here to which I qualify, it seems from your location, you dont.

Rascal

Besides there is no grey cloud there Loxley.....just facts.