Moomoo

Been here since October 2008 and felt settled straight away, def home

Jobry01

Its such a big move, there seems to be so many differences from uk

People move for all different reasons and unless you extremely lucky and find an area, job, house etc. that offer up all your looking for you will feel homesick

I am still in uk and don't feel at home (after 12 moves) still searching for that elusive place where i want to stay for rest of my life and i can reccy places as much as i want. Moving to NZ is mainly a big shot in the dark

So when we do move we have said through what ever happens we are going to stay for 4-5 years before we even think of returning even for a holiday

I just wish we were there

Perry Groves

We have been here 10 months now. I am starting to feel it is home. It was not easy at first, I felt like it was a bit cold and windy! But although I consider U.K. to be the "motherland" as Kiwis here call it, I am staying put.

Luckybird

Best of luck to you and your family, agree that better to have tried than to never try at all .....and I hope you get some heating soon!! x

mrsmcgoo

Moved here May 2001 - liked it at first - hate it now - no sense of "home". Had to go back to UK in March to organise my Dad's funeral (I'm an only child), was good to spend time with Mum - but felt guilty leaving her although she is happy. Found everything in UK so much cheaper than here. However, I didn't like the Tracy/Sharon/Essex girl attitude of nearly every single teenager and older I met. They all seemed to smoke, have an iphone at age 15 and be pushing a stroller! Anyway that's by the by....I have 2 teenagers and a 7 yo daughter, and at the moment would find it difficult not only financially but practically of leaving 2 teens in NZ coping for themselves, not an option really. I would love to try living in Malaysia or somewhere warmer, NZ is is a lovely open place but the prices have sky-rocketed in recent years, it's a joke. I do not intend to invest any more money here, that's for sure. Biding our time....

SparkyGaz

I would have to say that the only reason the UK seems cheaper is because of the huge choices you have, which forces 'price wars' between suppliers.

You can find cheap stuff here in NZ, but we are just havin to look harder.
Having to budget tightly for now on 1 income instead of 2 is quite tough, but we try an put a positive spin on everything, and just think that it's teaching us that we were wasters in the UK

We find that lots of things that are free here (parking, weather, cheerful people, beaches, weather....did I mention weather) are taken for granted by the people who haven't known anything different.

The open 'can do' positive attitiude of every day people in NZ, tells me I have made the right choice.....I won't be going to the UK unless I have to.

You can't please all of the people all of the time.

SparkyGaz

It's also worth mentioning that financially, this was a terrible time to emigrate.
It was now or never though as we felt our 11 year old would struggle to settle if he had to go straight into college and not intermediate school.

We lost money a fortune on our house, exchanging cash, in fact every thing you can imagine we lost money on.
In this for the long haul and my belief is thatNZ has'nt been hit anywhere near as hard as the UK in the recession.

If you are looking to make money from emigrating...think again.

Wessa

I got here 2nd of April this year.. So also know about the winter to winter thing.. Im whiter than a Ginger girls Ar*e.

I am still trying not to mention the "at home we" statement alot.. As im still have the missing home feelings. My family are not here yet so that is hard..

As the place goes i really like it as i knew i would from our previous reccie. There are alot of stuff & people i find "retarded" but then alot of "Awesome" stuff & people too.
I think it does take most people some years to call it home, although i think this place will never have 100% of my heart. For as much as i dislike the UK, it will always be my home.. I dont miss the place, just my friends.

Good luck.

Bo-Jangles

We came her six years ago and arrived in winter so know exactly where you're coming from. I consider this to be the place that I live; it's certainly not 'home'.

I have heard of some people that have turned around and gone back before their stuff even arrived, so you are doing better than some.

It is a dilemma and I quite admire those that know their own mind well enough to cut the losses and run from the start, because the longer you 'put up' and 'shut up' about not being settled the harder it comes to undo.

At what point do you give up and consider the possibility that you're flogging a dead horse; knowing that you're not happy and just going through the motions and being told it it will be better when.... your stuff arrives / when summer comes / when you've been here for six months / one year / or two years or when you move somewhere else in NZ because you 'should have gone to..'

There are of course those that do go back very quickly and come to the stark realisation on arriving home, that perhaps they acted too hastily and forever wish that they had tried harder to make it work. There's been a few ping-pongers on here.

Whatever you do now, don't make any rash decisions that can't be undone. Go back to the UK for a visit if you have to, it might help reconfirm why you left or at least might confirm where you really do want to be.

bevissa65

Two years in October. daughter and I settled in straightaway and we are happy to call this lovely country home. I do miss family and friends although the friends I am making now compensate alot. From my partners point of view things have been hard, he has struggled to find work and is going back to Uk for a few months work. He still loves being here but we are finding it hard financially. The money we have left in UK is staying there to see if this crap exchange rates improves. I hope he does not decide Uk is where we belong as I would struggle to return. Good luck Bevissa

Moliknickers

been here 10 months..first 5 months awful job but stuck it out to get visa restriction lifted.moved up north much better environment hubby has great job have kiwi relatives here which is good, apart from that it has now turned from a "could be forever move" to a two year adventure! return after the visa is stamped.. only so daughter can return if she wishes.. not for us..too many cons not enough pros unfortunately.

bourbon-biscuit

A bit over 4.5 years, 6 months of that in Oz and the rest in two different NZ locations. I feel reasonably settled but not as settled as I thought I would at x months in. I think I had naive expectations about how long it would take us.

Gill and Rob

Guess we are "old timers", been in NZ for just over 8 years and here to stay.
Happy with our decision to move here.

Gill

love30stm

So did you not like OZ?

Batty

When I came back from Ireland recently I actually arrived in Auckland on our exact 6 year anniversary - down to the same flight arrival.

I was back in 2008 and was very homesick when I returned. This time, not a bit but I don't think Auckland is home forever. We would like to live in the country and are loosely planning around that as something we'll do in a couple of years time. In the meantime, werever I lay my hat......I think (as far as anyone can be sure) that NZ is home. I'm very much in agreement with Genesis over many things here and it can be very frustrating with the lack of vision and courage to deal with the hard asks. But then I look at the Irish news or the "wherever news" and think "frying pan, fire"