blueholly

Hi Gizmo27,

You will love it!! I have been living in NZ for 2 years this Sept and have never looked back. Where will you be basing yourself? Your feelings are perfectly natural and they will go, you are just at the toughest stage at the mo but hey you've made the decision to do it and thats brave too.

Gizmo27

I don't know where I will be based. I am flying into Auckland, but don't have a job or anything lined up yet (No consideration or interviews until I am in New Zealand) so.................

zoexr

Hhahahha!! How smooth...
Im blushing a little!!

Gizmo27

That's right folks! Despite all evidence to the contary, I DO have my moments!

Charismatic

I’m going to share some sage kiwi advice with you that I was given once, put some harden up cream on Giz . You’ll be in the kiwiland soon so pack your woollen cardigan and be prepared to step back 20 years into the depths of a winter without heating.

Gizmo27

That's just what Mum said last night Charismastic. Have you been speeking to her? lol

PSW2010

We 'moved' to NZ twice, the first time on a working holiday visa, couldn't wait to get there, the minute we came home (12 months later) we started planning to come back permanently, worked hard, saved up etc etc, then at the airport I am sure if we hadn't given up our flat we'd have gone back & never got on the plane.
So yes, I get where scared is coming from.
Your q's are interesting about how you buy a car without getting ripped off, how you start a life etc etc, honestly, I'm not sure, despite having done it.
We landed in Auckland first time around, didn't like it instantly, got the train down to Wellington, loved it & the rest is history, so if you don't like Auckland, go somewhere else.
As for starting a life, first of all I guess is find somewhere you can afford to stay, then take it day by day, find out where you are, your way around, read the paper, saturdays are good in Welly at least for properties (or wednesdays, but less so), buy a map, jump on the bus to visit places see if you want to live there, ask people who work in the hotel / hostel etc where they live.
I remember us being sat on Cambridge Terrace with nowhere to live, 2 suitcases, 12000 miles from home after mis-understanding prices quoted at the hotel thinking 'OK......what next' our house wasn't available to rent for a week, we didn't want to spend hotel prices......
we bought the paper, found a beach hut up in kapiti for a week for $200, had a great time, the woman who owned it gave us loads if advice, loved it again the rest is history.

Don't be scared, it's an english speaking country, I'm assuming you have some cash to make yourself safe initially,
talk to people, ask questions, read the paper, search around, book into some agencies,

you'll do just fine, people on here will help

What I will say is that the pressure you envisage now will not come to pass & you will feel liberated by the choices you have !!!!

blueholly

Hi All,
I just wanted to appologise for attempting to support and encourage your decision to move as I obviously caused offence to some people!
Is this the spirit of this forum because if it is then I am in the wrong place!


Re: "You'll love it"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diddy Dianne
Quote: mine!
You will love it!! I have been living in NZ for 2 years this Sept and have never looked back. Where will you be basing yourself? Your feelings are perfectly natural and they will go, you are just at the toughest stage at the mo but hey you've made the decision to do it and thats brave too.

Diddy Dianes comment was:
Hope you don't take offence, or take this the wrong way but there's just a few things that I was wondering about....

1. How do you know this person will 'love it'? do you know them personally? lots of people don't love NZ? and many of them do leave, often a lot poorer for their experience.

2. If you love it so much and have 'never looked back' why are you still posting on an emigration forum 2 years after emigrating?

It occurs to me that perhaps you don't love it as much as you think you do. Perhaps if you can persuade others to make the same decision as yourself that somehow validates your own choices?

Just a theory, that's all.

Bit I do that think that it's best not to tell people to jump in because the water's lovely; not everyone can swim.
And not everyone alongside you is waving, some are drowning.

Best wishes
DD.

simonsi

Hi Blueholly, I guess DD made those comments to you by PM?? Obviously DD has issues and has, frankly, a bizarre reverse logic they are applying. If we all actually thought like that nothing would get posted as no-one can have perfect knowledge of others circumstances. Don't mistake DD's comments for the spirit of the forum generally (or mine!), the forum is a mix of views and is the better for that.

Maybe DD will post such comments publicly next time as they must apply to most posts on the forum - and remember DD's assumptions are worth no more than anyone elses.

Persephone

Blueholly, welcome to the forum and don't worry!
Diddy Diane is not a name I've heard of and though my memory may sometimes be slightly addled due to the ravages of time and alcohol, it's not that bad and I'm not that old!
Must have been sent via PM so I'm interested as to why they weren't posted for all of us to see and comment on. I can guess as to why Interesting post history from DD as well if you do a search!
Negative posts are useful as it does give some idea of the downsides to life in NZ but no one would ever do anything if they worried too much about how it could all go wrong. It doesn't work out for some over here but it does for others. Suck it and see and have an escape route planned if you decide to go back

Gizmo, it's normal to be scared, worried, panicky and want to back out as the time gets closer. Moving as far away as you possibly can is a leap into the unknown however much you prepare for it. It may not turn out to be for you or it may turn out to be the best decision you've ever made but how will you ever know without trying? My flashpoint was booking the one way ticket, Mr S was terrified for a couple of days that I was backing out and it was all over. I was not prepared for how bad I felt at that point in time, questioning everything and feeling like I'd leapt into the whole move on a complete whim and that it was not what I really wanted in life. Been here about 1.5 years now

zoexr

Just checking- is it normal to be scared from the time you completed the EOI??!!
Im a little fragile, as I had a tiny tear shedding moment next to the foil in Sainsbury's today... that will be the last roll of UK foil I buy.

JohnThePom

I've not really been here long enough to comment with much weight on the purpose of the britishexpats site as a whole, though I think that labelling it as an emigration site is missing the point a bit.

Sure, a lot of the traffic is linked to immigration and emigration issues and many of the posters, like myself, are aspiring ex-pats rather than actual ex-pats, but still.

I would have thought the main purpose of the site was for people in their country of choice or on their way there, to share experiences from our shared and peculiar british perspective. No time limits to that are there?

Where else would it be appropriate to discuss shedding tears over Sainsbury's tin foil in-country or overseas??

WP

Droidling

It's important to hear a balanced viewpoint on important topics,this forum would be pretty pointless if every thread topic was positive and every other contributor agreed. Not sure sending a PM is a good method,a bit gutless ?
One of my first posts was a reply to someone in the 'Returning to UK' forum. I got slaughtered as I tried to point out what I thought was not so good about life in Cheshire/UK:
Baptism of fire or similar. Tread carefully in that forum I say,you may light the touchpaper !
I suppose there's always a danger of catching someone having a really off day or regretting a major life decision. Or others just out there kidding themselves and trying to justify that decision. As they say,nowt as queer as folk.
Over the last 15 years I've lived in Margate(Kent)>Auckland>Christchurch (NZ)>Perth>Manchester>Brisbane>Bedford>Margate>Wat chet(Somerset)>Taunton>Exeter>Chester. The things you do as a cursed ex-Expat (the grass is greener) and what you have to do to appease future ex-partners and stay in employment in IT. (should have been a traffic warden ... now there's a job I always promised myself !!). Auckland had the most ticks in boxes by a country mile,but that's my opinion. But then it could be the differential in coming from a terminally declining British seaside town (Costa Del Dole) to a fresh bright clean NZ ? Had I been brought up in Exeter I might not have even thought about emigrating.

lisamct

Blueholly, just wanted to say that I got an equally negative PM from Diddy Dianne in response to one of my first posts on this forum looking for advice on moving to NZ. Basically it suggested this forum was full of 'rose tinted spectacle' wearers and that I'd be better off on another forum where I'd get a truer picture of how bad life was in NZ for ex-pats.
Needless to say that PM was filed in the 'thanks but no thanks' for the advice drawer

127luton

Well being in Sainsburys sometimes has that effect on me tooo! Zoexr
Look dont worry about those neggy comments! - you of course will feel a bit scared about decisions like this... I am going over in August too.. worry about loads and loads! - bt if someone told me tomoro 'sorry u cant go' - i would feel devastated!! Good luck ... anyway...
Berni
xxx