johnevans

Hi All from Lincolnshire UK,
Hope your all well & must say this is a great site for information.
My name is john & for the past 28 years i have worked in the construction industry (18 years working overseas in different locations mainly rebuilding citys after wars & catastropeys: Kuwait city / Chechnya / sierra leone / Basra....).
I have been approached to come and work on the Christchurch re-building By 2 agencys & 1 company and have a few questions if i may.
Is anyone here in construction & working in Christchurch?.
What is the construction industry like in NZ (i am used to a 12-14 hour day and 3 hours stuck on the M1 & M25.
Has anyone information on the company " CITY CARE" ?.
What sort of pay would a construction site manager receive.
how much would a good Jap pick up cost or a nice subaru WRX

Both Me & the Boss " Wife" have thought about coming to NZ for the past 15 years , but never took the plunge.
I would be on my own for the first year with the wife (Karen) popping over for visits.
I have relatives in the North Island But lost contact with them 3 years ago, last i heard they were having a BBQ & a 8 pint bowl of vodka punch & petrol instead of fire Lighters to get the BBQ going.
many thanks
John

simonmarkellis

Hi John,

Welcome to the site... can't offer any advice on the construction industry in NZ, but welcome all the same... IRNBRU if he pop's in will know about that... so here's hoping he'll spot your post...

Simon

alanmacc

Hi and welcome

Dont know too much about city care but I do know that you will not be stuck in traffic for 3 hours, if i get stuck for 10 min i get a tad peeved now !!!

Chch will take some real rebuilding as you probably have seen on the news, at a guess id say 12 hour days would not be that uncommon but a totally different environment to work here as opposed to working in the UK

as far as a car goes lookup trademe or http://www.autotrader.co.nz/used-car...subaru-wrx+sti

scrubbedexpat094

Just wanted to welcome you to our friendly NZ forum. I can't help with any of your questions I'm afraid but hopefully someone will be along soon who can.

May I suggest asking your questions in the Main forum as more people are likely to see them there

Good luck with all your plans & happy posting

fayemd

Hi John my husband works in construction and we are heading back to UK as his wages have not changed in the 8 years we have been here they have actually went down.He knows alot of people who have left to work in OZ as the wages are alot better.

rossojo

Established in 1999, City Care has an annual turnover of approximately $145 million. City Care is a Council Controlled Trading Organisation (CCTO) operating under the Local Government Act 2002. Our sole shareholder, Christchurch City Holdings Ltd (CCHL) , is one of New Zealand’s top 100 companies with total assets at 30 June 2010 in excess of $2.28 billion.

Jan n Neil

Neils (limited) experience of the christchurch construction scene is that it is networked to the heavens, so make sure this is a REAL job offer and you have a contract. The big companies (including City Care) are very prone to employing "someone they know" over someone with the right CV.

City Care wages seem to be about the same as other outfits here, but depends what level you are going in at so I couldn't give you an example.

The days here (pre-EQ) were 10 hours, usually, with Saturday mornings at some places. Could have changed now. Accomodation might be a problem, there are not enough rental houses for those made homeless, and the expected influx of construction workers is thought to be a problem waiting to happen.

Traffic is very bad in Christchurch in the moment: the closure of the city centre (effectively) means that more traffic has to get through by other routes, and from the day after the EQ until now journey times have doubled. On my worst day day recently it took me 50 minutes to do 28km, which, unfortunately, puts it on a par with Manchester. However, as the city opens bit by bit (and it is doing) this is easing.

On the positive side, there is about 10 years work here And you won't be stuck on a motorway as there aren't any

Hope this helps, it's an exciting time that we are part of down here (I am involved to a certain extent too) and I would go for it. Get some more posts up, then you can use private messages and we can give you a bit more info via PM.


Jan

PS I didn't mean to make this sound as negative as it has turned out !!!!
PPSSSSS Salaries: the Hay guide suggests the following:

Pay for construction site managers varies depending on the size of the project they are working on, and their experience and qualifications.

Most construction site managers earn between $70,000 and 90,000 a year, though some earn $100,000 or more.

Source: Hays, 'The 2010 Salary Guide'.

nickychris67

Hi,

We moved to New Plymouth from Leicestershire 9 months ago and my husband works for City Care in New Plymouth.

He says that they are a good company to work for, with good prospects. If you are used to working long days you will be fine in Christchurch as they are currently working 12hrs a day, 7 days a week. Guys from City Care, New Plymouth have been going down to help out on a roster basis, for 3 weeks at time since the first quake hit.
City Care is Christchurch based with offices around both islands, mainly doing work for various local councils. Everything from parks to re-laying sewer lines. they employ around 2000 people and wages are average for NZ.

If you would like any to ask my hubby some questions, send me a PM and I'll give you his email.

hope this is useful to you, if you have thought about it for a while then perhaps this is the excuse you need to make the move. If you don't like it you can always move back to the UK,but at least you will have given it a try. This is what my hubby and I told ourselves when decided to make the move and we don't regret it.

all the best and good luck
Nicky

johnevans

many thanks all for the replys & found nickychris67 & Jan n Neil information very interesting & helpfull Thankyou.
What does your husband do Nicky & did he get the job with city care before you left the uk ?.

Many thanks again all
John.

P.s tell your hubby nicky that the A46 dual road Leicestershire -newark is nearly completed .......but now has 13 speed cameras on it

nickychris67

Hi John,

Really glad you found the info useful

He foudn teh job once we arrived, I'm an engineer and I was the principle on the visa so he couldn't look for work until we knew where I was working. He worked as a temp for Rymans healthcare for a while before being offered the job with City Care, but that said we had only been here a week before he got his first temp job.

The one thing he has found hard is that the job descriptions don't match what he did in the UK and he has experience not qualifications, so the hardest part was finding someone who would give him a chance to prove he could do it as well as talk it, if you know what I mean. In the UK he had been a groundworker. ie he laid pipes, did kerbing, drains, block paving, concreting, laid tarmac and much more. Each of those jobs is viewed seperately here, there is no one job that covers all of them.


Glad to hear about the A47 being nearly finished....but what spoil sports with the speed cameras. They are something that are as rare as hens teeth over here..well in Taranaki at least.

Glad to have helped
Nicky