Justcol

Its because everyone outside of Auckland is unemployed
There are no jobs anywhere, we're all on the bones of our arses
living off cabbage soup and fish heads and shivering in
our cold, damp, rickerty run down houses.

Happy Days !!

Bobogib

There was a new one yesterday (20th) it's on iplayer, it was the Rowsell family.

It was absolutely shocking. It had been his dream for over 20 years, so what do they do. Show him around Auckland and a house with a value of $1m (ok just under) then hit him with the mortgage costs. By the end of the show the poor guy was in tears thinking his dream was over. He did say he wasn't going to give up as he could look elseware, but as mentioned before, people watching here in the UK will be put off before they have even begun.

I might apply to go on it and ask to go to the south island, just so they remember that is part of NZ too.

barnsleymat

We watched that one last night, I felt so sorry for the bloke. His wife was a disgrace, the poor bloke had held this dream for 20 years and as they were revealing the house prices all she could do was laugh at him, the mans heart was breaking and his dream was dying. I wanted to strangulate her, the daughter was just mirroring the mum too with her miserable take on everything. If you read the Wanted Down Under facebook page it looks like he's coming to NZ on his own and I can't fault the guy, I'm hoping this has opened his eyes. It still confuses me why a family from a small sleepy town in Suffolk (I think it was Suffolk) were sent to look at vastly overpriced urban sprawl of the North Shore. Make absolutely no sense. Out of the 3 NZ episodes so far this series they've all followed exactly the same pattern.

MrsFychan

When we were looking to come over Auckland was the first choice, just because everyone has heard of it, daughters primary teacher even told her it was the Capital of the country, daughter did put her straight but she didn't believe here

The programme makers do ask you where you want to look, would make more sense for them to offer at least 2 options just to show the diversity of each place and be a a bit more like location location location show them what they could achieve if they just stretched their search area.
I know the programme makers are restricted by cost and time restraints but as we are aware the current format of the programme is not giving realistic views.

S_and_T

Couldn't agree more mate. The look of pleasure every time his 'dream' got a battering was uncomfortable viewing. There is an update on the WDU BBC page which echoes what a poster mentioned earlier. He's coming anyway for a year and leaving the family at home. In all fairness, he's going to have to make a fair few bob to be able to live in Auckland and send money home....

BEVS

If Mr & Mrs Rowsell are serious about him doing this, then he needs to look outside of Auckland .

There is also the small matter of visa eligibility.

What is his occupation?

barnsleymat

Maintenance Manager

BEVS

Erm.

You got any more than that ?

Save me having to stick pins in my eyes and watch the prog.

Oh wait. I'm going to defo watch it later on.

Did it sound like he would have enough to meet the NZIS work visa criteria?

simonsi

TV shows want ratings, those come from "personal drama", I've never looked on WDU as a documentary.

cxx

Just watching ep. 7 and can't believe the child jumping all over the beds as they look the houses......

Hazelnut

Watching the latest which is based in Wellington, housing is around half that of Auckland.

Husband would go FT work instead of being PT but family income (after expenditure) would be over £600 more in NZ than UK. Totally different to Auckland.

It's interesting as this is the first series I remember in a long time where some of them would earn more in NZ than in the UK. I think this is starting to reflect the reality of UK salaries at the moment, I've not had any pay rises in years and my salary is now worth 13% less than it was five years ago.

This family really struggled with family and friends being so upset at the thought of them leaving and the wife was also really upset which I think tipped them into staying in the UK.

davros1984

I've seen the first 2 in the series, the first where the mrs was a Kiwi and in the other, it was a guy who had lived in NZ but wanted to go over there with his wife and kud.

I think this series has been a lot more realistic in terms of Auckland and the crazy prices, though I'd say the series has become more noddy-like in nature. I completely agree with comments here as to "why they are sending them to Auckland" but ultimately, that's where a third of the country are and where most "skilled" jobs are. Its one of the major bottlenecks of NZ itself in that too much is focused around Auckland (go Winnie.../NZ First)

The weather and scenery in Auckland is pretty special for a good part of the year (the expat dream as such). Once you go half-way down the North Island the climate really isn't that different to living in the south half of the UK (in my experience).

Funnily enough it shows that for 250K-300K GBP you can't really get anything for your money in Auckland. On both occasions they would have to go well above what they can afford yet be considerably worse off in the region of £1800 a month! For £250K up north aka Sheffield where they were from you can get a lot of house for your money.

The real joke for is that they were taking them to places such as Pukekohe and Waiuku - which are some of the cheapest areas in Auckland and would you really emigrate to the other side of the world to live there? Gosh we almost bought there, but soon came to our senses and how desperate we became in terms of trying to buy in Auckland. Having done the drive, they are looking at at least an hour and 20 minutes to commute into the city.

I do hope other brits watching realise how bad the situation is in Auckland (like it is in London) and consider other areas in NZ, UK, Europe or abroad! Especially once you've read articles like this..
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/nation...-london-and-la

I look forward to watching the rest in the series, I believe the latest is based on a couple looking at WLG.

Justcol

I'm not sure when you left NZ but things are now getting much much worse, places like Huntly and Te Kauwhata are being
hawked around as "commutable" for Auckland, it has reached ridiculous levels now.

simonsi

LOL, just LOL - maybe if you work at the Bombays BP service station