Drsplib

Hi all,
I've been looking through the threads and found some great stuff with searches. But some questions remain, so i'll start posting them when i get a moment.
Introductions - I'm a Laboratory Manager with a chemical/drug discovery company in North Cornwall, my wife is a Letting Agent. 2 kids, 9 month old Viggo (yes, i know) and a 6 year old daughter, Ellie. I'm hoping to relocate to NZ next year, preferably South Island - i'm thinking Dunedin/Christchurch/Queenstown(!) etc., basically somewhere where there's a good chance of snow in winter, and great outdoors for canoing/camping in the summer months.
Several questions to follow, but firstly, anyone else on here doing lab work?
Cheers,
Splib.

TeamEmbo

Hi and welcome to BE!

I don't know of any Lab workers, sorry, just wanted to welcome you to the site. It's good to seach through some of the previous threads but if you can't find what you're looking for or want a quick answer, just post away, there's usually someone around who'll be able to help.

Your job sounds fairly specialised. When we came on our recce and my OH had interviews, he had to have psychometric testing for one company. The guy who did this gave us some sound advice about NZ, so I'll pass it on. He said, forget about location, weather, north or south island, first you find the job, then you find the best school within the location of the job, then you look for the house that suits within the zone for the school. This is simply because there isn't the same amount of scope here company wise, with only 4 million population in total. Without the job you have nothing, so that's why you sort that first. A lot of people say oh, but I really like the look of... or I want to live in... great if you've oodles of cash, can be mortgage free, don't mind a commute or working away all week etc.

We live 25 mins north of Christchurch. OH works in city at the mo. We love where we are and OH doesn't mind the easy commute. Queenstown is beautiful, remote and expensive, house prices are way over the top as is the cost of living there as it is a major tourist hotspot.

So my advice, and it is just an opinion, find the job first, the rest will follow. Good luck with it all.

Drsplib

Thanks for the tip. That probably would have been our outlook to be honest, plenty of time once established to try and relocate inside NZ to a better location. I currently drive 45 mins each way in to work each day (mental traffic in the summer months.) Coming from Padstow, we are familiar with house prices being over the top! I believe North Cornwall has the greatest discrepancy between house prices and average wage in the UK - a small 2 bed first time buyer is now over £150K. I think that is one of our attractions to NZ, i've looked through a good deal of advertised real estate and we could get a bigger place than we have now and no mortgage... but the posts on here about cost of living are a concern.

happynz

Doc, if you haven't a mortgage you'll be laughing.

No mortgage => Doc=>

Am Loolah

Leave the Land of the Inbreds, we did, and it's soooooooo much better here. 10 years on the edge of Bodmin Moor, ewwwwww, thank God we left ...

Drsplib

Therein lies the nub, as far as immigration is concerned - i have no formal qualifications past GCSE (Drsplib is a nickname i've had for some years and use on other forums. It's kinda tongue in cheek...)
Starting a NEBOSH certificate next wmonth plus an A level in law to give me more points, but the wife is going to be the biggest obstacle i fear.

DTHarrop

Hi

We are also hoping to move to Dunedin and I have noticed a job with Otago University- Laboratory Manager, Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

I don't know if it is worth investigating - www.otago.ac.nz/jobs (under general vacancies)

Hope this helps

Tina

Drsplib

Thanks a bundle Tina, i'll take a look.