Bo-Jangles

Regarding mortgages I think possibly some misunderstanding there. I am guessing that whilst your OH may be 'older' than you he would not be so old in the eyes of the banks as to prevent him from getting a mortgage. The banks have nothing to lose, as they will have their security against the property, so that really don't care a great deal how old you are.

We have a repayment mortgage that extends way, way beyond the end of our likely working life and certainly was not a worry at all for any banks here. My FIL got mortgage in the UK after retirement age also.

KOH2

Thank you for pointing it out Bo-Jangles. I've just had a quick google & yes, the tide against mortgages for oldies seems to be turning.

However, we really do have a Jerry Hall/Rupert Murdoch type of age difference (although we're younger than them by about 20 years).

And as we'd have to move within the UK anyway to achieve our dream of a larger property, we might as well go the whole hog and move to his homeland.

Justcol

Just a side note to a comment from the OP
You said OH was to old to get another mortgage.
My wife and I are in our 50's, with normal jobs.
Last year, when we renegotiated our mortgage,
we were offered a 30 year mortgage from all the big
banks down here.
I wouldn't right off getting a mortgage

Alilek

Hi, I will PM if that's ok?

LittleGreyCat

I am obliged to ask "Which one of you is Jerry Hall?"

On a more serious note, you know the options and have decided to go for the big move. Probably a good time to do it.

scot47

"Something to be said for the NHS" There sure is. I have lived in countries where there is no such provision. Great to be back in what its critics describe as "a Nanny State".

moonie2011

Hi, we came over as a family of four, we had to move to wellington as that's where hubby's job was. We had plans to rent for several years to suss out areas but after 4 mths of not living in our own home I couldn't stand it anymore and so we bought and haven't regretted it. We bought a old house and have done major renovations but we have an amazing place and love it.
The area we chose was reflected in commuting time to work for hubby, we had a choice of bush or beach and choose beach.
I would say stay with your relatives or get a holiday house or accomodation for a month and use this time to have a look around, when it feels right you'll know it. Houses sell quickly here so it won't be long until your in your new home. Good luck

HarytNZ

Hi. I haven't read all the posts here, but having moved here from the UK myself, you will have to wing it a bit. If you try and tick all the boxes ahead of arriving you'll never do it.

Snap Shot

Hello KOH2, you're welcome

You asked me, 'do you feel physically comfortable in your own home ?'

Yes I do. In my head and in my heart our house is home. This country, New Zealand, isn't home.

Do I do any gardening ? Um, a bit of planting. I love a nice garden but I'm to lazy to do more than drink Pimms and lemonade in my garden. In fact, we planted a Pimms garden. What's that I hear you ask ? It's cucumber, strawberries, mint, apples, lemons. You know, all the garnishes that you would find in a Pimms and lemonade. The cost of a bottle of Pimms in NZ That's why it's a treat at Christmas. It makes Christmas in the summer more bearable you see !

What are the garden centres like ? There's a D.I.Y. superstore called, 'Mitre 10' here in NZ. At our local one there's a gardening section. That's where we get all our plants and seeds from. All good. There's independent garden centres in Whanganui too.

Does it rain much, do the lawns look dry ? There's been no drought this year. Which is almost unusual as there was a drought in summer 2012/2013 and a pocket drought in this area 2014/2015. One of our tree ferns died in the fernery. First world problems exist in New Zealand too !

There were floods in Whanganui in winter 2014.

In June of last year Whanganui has a one in eighty five year flood which cut Whanganui off from the nearest towns i.e. Palmerston North in one direction on State Highway 3 and New Plymouth in the other direction on State Highway 4 for a few days as the roads were flooded too. That was an uncomfortable feeling. The Mayor of Whanganui declared a local state of emergency. The Red Cross, the army and the police were visible in town for a couple of weeks.

There is a PYO farm about 5kms from Whanganui, 'Windermere Berry Farm' their strawberries are the biggest, best and juiciest I've ever had. We just buy them from the local supermarket. The berry farm welcomes visitors, they have a café and make their own ice cream too.

Zoning for schools ? I get the impression they are not that strict about zones. Phone around the schools in this area and ask. Don't feel tied to an area because you think it's all about school zones, then it turns out you could have purchased a house just about anywhere.

Did we bring a lot of furniture with us ? Yes, everything we owned. OK, I had a big clear out of unwanted stuff before we came as we had a twenty foot container. We gave away our bbq and our petrol lawn mower. Just to much aggro to get it clean enough for NZ MAF satisfaction. There were other things too, 'that's not coming to New Zealand' was my motivation for chucking things out.

We bought our Fridge/Freezer with us and considered ourselves very lucky that it fitted the slot in the modular kitchen in the new house ! We purchased another fridge/freezer when the current one stopped working a couple of years after we arrived the old one didn't owe us anything.

We didn't bring our old gas cooker with us. It was 15 years old, so pretty much at the end of it's life anyway. We will have to leave behind the cooker we purchased and had installed in our house should we move out in future. The cooker is part of the chattels in a New Zealand house and can't be removed. It doesn't even have to work properly, (as we found out the hard way) it just has to be there.

So, you might be disappointed if you bring your cooker and there's already one in the kitchen. Also, check whether there's natural piped gas in the area you are moving to. Where we are in Whanganui we have it. Otherwise you will be on gas cylinders, Google, 'Rockgas' as they have larger gas cylinders than those little gas bbq gas cylinders or you could live in an all electric house.

Well, once you're in NZ, it's all barbeques isn't it ?

Justcol

At my docs
Kids free
Over 13 $20
Adult $45
Follow up appointments are half.
I've never paid more than $10 for a script
Ambulance recently cost me $80
I was recently rushed to hospital, had many scans and surgery, in Hosp for weeks....free
If you want private, its available but I don't see a reason for it

KOH2

Hello again,

That's a good start. I've read some of your older posts on the forum & I could fully relate to them (except my gripes were with the UK and the British people In the over 20 years we've been in the UK we've made hardly any British friends for reasons similar to the ones you've given. However, I've accepted I will never feel FULLY at home in any country I live in as once you've spread your wings & can compare different cultures there's always something good/better & of course bad/worse about the place you're in. So the next best thing is to make sure you feel physically comfortable in your immediate surroundings and hope other things will fall in place over the course of time.

Wow, that's lovely & also one of the reasons for our move. I've only got a small border in our UK garden (back in Poland when I was growing up we always had HUGE veggie gardens & even an orchard at one stage - that was way too much work though and really put me off gardening throughout my teens & twenties, but now I've come back to it & really enjoy it on a smaller scale). I look forward to growing my own veggies & berries & perhaps an orange or a lemon tree.

Can't wait to get there and compare their selection (plantwise) to what we've got in our neck of the woods. I intend to bring a lot of my own plant pots & planters & yes, I've already started scrubbing them & will do the Jeyes stuff shortly before we leave

Did you have a water ban during those drought periods? I don't mind the lawn looking a bit tired due to lack of rain but obviously it's a different matter when you're growing veggies.

Yes, we followed that on the news obviously (what with family living there) + I survived a 1 in 100 years floods in my home town in Poland back in '97 so definitely could empathise with the Whanganui situation.

That is excellent news !!! (she rubs her hands with glee) + I love NZ ice-cream (I'm a fruit-loving person & could never find decent enough ice-cream over here - the pink coloured strawberry ones never had anything to do with strawberries apart from perhaps colour

Yes, will definitely research it closer to our departure date or even once we've landed - want to have a feel for how long it will take the kids to get to school on time. Google streetview is excellent but sometimes there's nothing like doing the trek yourself.

That's our intention too - I think it helps you settle in when you're surrounded by familiar objects. Having said that I am getting rid of all our wardrobes as have seen that most NZ houses have them built in + am stocking up on IKEA bits that I can flat-pack so as not too take up too much space in the container and they're ever so handy for displaying things (did I mention I'm an IKEA fan

BTW did you bring over your TVs? If yes, did they work straight away or did you have to get them converted. Also can you get British TV over there - I've seen some people getting nowTV boxes before moving to NZ - I'm not that great with technology but it would be lovely if we could still watch those lovely programmes from the UK (& I don't mean Corrie or Eastenders - not a soap fan at all).

Well, as both our fridge + freezer are just under 3 years old I feel loathe to part with them as I'd only get a fraction of their original price & of course would have to fork out much more for new ones. I'm prepared to have a new kitchen put in if the house we buy is a renovation project & if the kitchen is ok I'm sure we'll be able to accomodate them in the garage or somehwere They're just not going to be left behind.

Yes, heard about that too so as the scouts motto goes: 'Be prepared!'

Oh, I hate gas. I finally managed to get rid of our old gas cooker 2 years ago & have a lovely induction one that I'm not parting with. We've already spoken to a local electrician & he sees no problem fitting it & if we do have to move house at some stage we'll just buy a cheap replacement & my lovely free-standing one will just come with us on our life journey

Ah, yes - is it mostly gas barbeques over there? Might have to source a brand new one as our old charcoal one is certainly beyond rescue

Also with regard to lawn mowers - do people mostly use petrol ones? We've got an electric one atm but obviously it's not worth cleaning it so a replacement for that one too is certainly on the cards. Same with the washing machine. Still not sure about a lounge suite - I worry it would take up too much room in the container but if a brand new one turns out to cost some astronomical sum then we'd have to organise something cheaper over at this end. We're already contemplating a 40 ft container but will only know for sure once we've sorted all the stuff & had the shippers do an actual visual inspection in order to give us a quote.

Finally, if there's anything you miss from home do feel free to message me & I certainly won't mind bringing it over (as long as it's legal by NZ standards) especially as we're going to be neighbours

Many thanks once again for your exhaustive reply.

I'm quite in awe of this forum with people giving up their own time to help others. It certainly is MUCH appreciated.

KOH2

Thank you Justcol.

Our younger has just been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes so we're still adjusting to the new situation.

Anybody got any experience of treatment over at the NZ end?

Our older one is a lifelong hypochondriac but healthy as a horse

Hubby and I are getting ourselves checked out on the NHS + getting all the dental work done so hopefully we'll be all right for a while once we arrive, although emergencies can happen at any time (at our age we're adjusting to expect them.

Is there no discounted rate for OAPs though?

And yes, we've had excellent health care from NZ hospital team on one of our previous visits so certainly know that when it comes to the crunch they're certainly there for you.

KOH2

Thank you moonie2011 for sharing your experience.

That's our plan too - we're not too scared of undertaking a renovation project as long as we end up with the much needed increase in our living area.

Spoilt for choice, eh? ATM we're 15 min walking distance from our beach so certainly appreciate it. We'll have to see what will be available once we arrive.

Yes, I remember when we were house hunting for our current home - it just felt like we'd never find the right place & yet as soon as we saw it we knew this was IT.

Yes, and the way I understand it the whole process is more secure than over here (i.e. not much time to back out, etc). I'm already dreading having to go through the selling process in the UK but as we're in the SE we expect to get an offer fairly quickly and are keeping our fingers crossed for a chain&pain free transaction.

Thank you and hope you keep on enjoying Welly

simonsi

KOH2 - re water, many homes in NZ are on tank water, each house has its guttering draining into a (typically), 10-20,000 litre tank, water is then pumped to the house. So in a drought if your tank needs refilling you pay for it and get a tanker delivery, that cost is normally enough to avoid any water bans.

In general, NZ gets about 2x the rainfall compared to the UK, but it falls on average 4x as fast! :-) so less time spent waiting for it to stop LOL.

KOH2

Thank you for your reply simonsi. Just to carify - does the drinking water come from the tank too? Not the mains like in the UK?

That's good to know - I hope there aren't any drainage issues associated with the heavy rainfall. We've sometimes had surface flooding in our town due to drains not being able to cope