Good and Bad points about New Zealand please.
 

Hello Everyone

I am new to this site and I would like as much advice as possible please.
At the moment my husband, daughter and I live in France, we moved here form the UK just over 3 years.
We are now thinking of moving to New Zealand (North Island) as we have been told this is best.
We have never been to NZ before but we are looking at coming for a month to check out as much as we can.

Hope some of you can answer some qusetions for me:

My husband is a sheeter, cladder by trade but since been in France he does renovations, plasterboarding, tiling etc. Is this type of work available there or are jobs hard to find?

What is the schooling like? Our daughter is nearly 13.

What is the health system like?

My head is buzzing with allsorts of questions but probably lots of you like me would have been in the same situation.

I would appreciate all comments ie: things to be aware of, do's and dont's,
prices of food and houses etc.

Thanks in advance

Annemarie

Re: Good and Bad points about New Zealand please.
 

Hi and welcome to BE. Have you searched any of the threads yet? A lot of information you're after has been discussed (at length :rofl: sometimes) in many other threads. That might give you a start. There is information links at the top of the BE NZ page for education etc that you might find helpful. And I think if you scroll through the first 3 or 4 index pages you'll find recent discussions regarding areas to live, food and fuel prices, the perpetual argument re north v south and the weather. Hope this helps :)

Re: Good and Bad points about New Zealand please.
 

Thanks ever so much for that TeamEmbo.
I am reading quite a lot of the discussions with interest.

Re: Good and Bad points about New Zealand please.
 

NZ speaks English, but apart from that Id much rather live in France.

Re: Good and Bad points about New Zealand please.
 

Browner Where abouts do you live at the moment?

Also I forgot to say I am looking at 2 areas Tauranga and Palmerston North.

Re: Good and Bad points about New Zealand please.
 

Blimey BoP and Palmy - well at least they are different from one another..........almost as "chalk and cheese" as it goes on North Island.......

Ignore us misery guts Whinging Pomms, NZ is great, its not too cold just yet and allegedly being a few years "behind" in the realms of sausages/cheddar/supermarkets/motor vehicle insurance/central heating this is not the end of the world, most of the time.

Plus the days are longer up here in the Winter and its not raining too much/enough yet.

Here are a few snippets that are so new and un-newsworthy that they won't be on the other threads yet.....

You'll soon be able to recycle your mercury ridden low energy ligthbulbs by packing them off to Oz and pay the cost upfront as there won't be any incandescent bulbs available here.....

I've just learned quite a bit from a TV show on gangs in Auckland about how the gang can act like a lawyer and mediator without using violence to get people's debts settled.......

A poor senior traffic cop has been knocked off his bike on his way home and killed down south.......RIP

Kiwi roofers can be amazed at laldder stand-offs and those brackets that hold your ladders to the roof racks.........

Battlestar Galactica (new version) is coming soon to C4, sort of MTV meets Channel 4..........

The Black Caps were "robbed" of victory over the Pomms yesterday/today - according to Teletext here.........

Radio ads will tell you where the nearest "Gentleman's Club" is on the North Shore, which lawyer can get you a restricted licence for $$$$ should you be silly enough to get disqualified from driving, and how to overcome premature ejaculation (other than thinking of Helen Clark in her undies........)......

I could go on - perhaps that gives you a small insight into NZ life..........hope so :D

Re: Good and Bad points about New Zealand please.
 

I live in Tauranga area and love it. Don't know if I'll still love it come tourist season.

NZ has a lot to offer it depends on what you like, quiet and rural or hussle and bussle.



House prices high (supposedly dropping)

Food prices and lack of variety

Crusty rolls are not actually crusty but soft

Minimal choice of pate and cheese - one aspect I do miss is cheese and pate

Lack choice in many areas of retail (but I don't find this a problem)

No central heating or house insulation as stardand - hot houses in summer and cold damp houses in winter. Can work around this.

Wages lower

You do need to be able to drive, hate to generalise but kiwi's are bad drivers but you may not think so having spent so long in France.

Have heard no complaints about schools.

Refreshingly politically incorrect, which is a big bonus as far as I am concerned- I can't believe what I hear on the TV and Radio. Mary Whitehouse would have a field day. Makes me both laugh and cringe at the same time.:rofl:

People re-cycle household goods

Quieter pace of life, but not everyone likes this. I do

Roads are not congested.

It's the shortest day tomorrow and I got 3 loads of heavy items washed and dried outside no problem.

I could go on. I personally feel the Pro's outweigh the Cons.

Pauline

Re: Good and Bad points about New Zealand please.
 

Thank you for your response Pauline.

As you already live in Tauranga, What is the work situation like?

My husband is a roofing and cladding contractor but also does renovations.
I would do anything to keep me busy and bring a bit of money in.

I am finding it so hard trying to find work in France so I really wouldn't want to come there and have the same situation.

Re: Good and Bad points about New Zealand please.
 

Bad Points

Petrol prices - (whole world over is in the same boat I believe)
GST on food!
Limited shops - no Tesco, Asda, M&S etc. (also supermarkets don't sell spirits so have to go to a liquor store to get gin!!)
Fruit available only when in season
So far away from the Nothern Hemisphere!
TV poor way and internet slow
Lack of radio and tv news re the rest of the world
Seems very insular
Poor driving standards and stupid driving rules (like giving way to people turning left coming from opposite you when you want to go left as well!)

Good Points

Fantastic scenery
Beautiful beaches
Relaxed way of life (well in the South Island anyway)
Houses much bigger than in the UK for your $$$ against £££
Laid back people
The All Blacks :)
Can drive for hours without getting into a traffic jam down south
Shortest day today and the sun is shining and the sky is blue(has been all week in my town!!) Got loads of washing done!!
Stores selling English items (even if they are pricey!)
The flat whites and and New Zealand Natural shakes, ice creams, smoothies etc.


I am sure there are many more that I can't think of right at this moment, like Pauline I think the good outweighs the bad. Hope that helps some.

Re: Good and Bad points about New Zealand please.
 

Must just be me, but I actually like the shops here! I don't find food shopping here restrictive. There's plenty of choice, some might be makes you're not used to seeing but apart from rose water (for making turkish delight at Christmas) I don't think I've had a problem finding anything I need. There is a huge selection of cheeses - even double gloucester with onions and chives (one of my favourites), meats & salami & pate, and we've found bacon and sausages that all the family likes. I buy fruit and veg from the local market shop. Yep, they're cheaper when in season but with veg I tend to buy when cheap, then blanche and freeze. Even the glut of tomatoes we grew got reduced and frozen in batches. I also make seasonal veg soups and freeze those. I don't particularly miss Asda or Tesco and was never a big M&S fan anyway, for food shopping. I do miss the cheap clothes in them though. I like that the aisles aren't crowded and you don't have to fight your way round. I prefer buying the basic raw ingredients and doing my own baking anyway. I find chicken expensive but then prices have gone up everywhere so I buy whatever is on special. I usually shop in Woolworths and like most supermarkets here there are weekly specials and discounts and a lot of the home brand products are really very good.

Petrol prices are sky high everywhere so whilst it is limiting it's not peculiar to NZ alone.

Despite having a car accident last month, when the guy says he simply didn't see me, I don't actually find the drivers here that bad. I don't see the road rage there used to be around Telford and Birmingham. Drivers seem more polite and don't get enraged or act threateningly. But then even in the UK I'd slow down so tailgaters could pass.

I find odd things expensive, carpet and paint are two that spring to mind.

The people here seems so much more warm and friendly. They take the time to chat to you when serving you and no-one in the queue behind gets tetchy about this. I like that it's so much more laid back and easy going. And that you don't have to get dressed up to go down town - it's not unusual to see someone in gumboots and shorts in winter or barefeet and PJs doing their shopping! Materialistic things and fashion don't rate you as a person here, at least where I live anyway, maybe this isn't so true for Auckland or parts of Cch city.

I also quite like being so far away from the rest of the whole and the keeping up with the Jones's rat race lifestyle.

We've got Sky so keeping up to date with world news isn't a problem.

I find the openess and non-stuffiness of the news readers and radio hosts etc very refreshing. It really is gobsmacking when you first hear some of the adverts and some of their comments but I love the unpompessness (if that's a word) of it all.

There is less competition here for some things and it took a while to get used to bank charges and mobile phone charges for things were used to get for free. Like on pay as you go there's a charge for accessing your voicemail. I find that odd. And setting up automatic payments (like direct debits) at the bank to pay the school fees. The bank teller said there's a charge and I said no, I'm not paying as we have our mortgage with them and she said ok then and waived it. I find things like that odd too. And everything seems to have a negotiable price. You just tell them what you want to pay and they usually come to some agreement.

But anyway, that's just how I find it. It has good things and bad things but I'm so much happier here.

Re: Good and Bad points about New Zealand please.
 

Hilarious....and so so true :thumbsup:

Re: Good and Bad points about New Zealand please.
 

Palmy North! get onto Genesis... he's your man for Palmy North....

Re: Good and Bad points about New Zealand please.
 

Wellington, and I dont think I could live anywhere else in NZ, not without a complete change of career.

Hmm let me see, Palmerston North or France?
I think we are talking about 2 different ends of the culture spectrum there.

Re: Good and Bad points about New Zealand please.
 

Yep - I can see how you'd struggle with that one.:D

Re: Good and Bad points about New Zealand please.
 

If I could summarise this thread and the dozens like it that have come before:

Good things about NZ:
its a small country
its isolated
its people are laidback
the service
the weather
opportunities to get ahead
kids upbringing

Bad things
its a small country
its isolated
its people are laidback
the service
the weather
opportunities to get ahead
kids upbringing

What I guess I'm trying to say is that what really matters is what you want from life, because invariably everyone seems to have a different view on what NZ gives them. One man's nectar is another's poison.