dupe

Just been reading Jad's thread about doing a 3 week recci (sp) of NZ.

I just wondered how many of you guy's went for PR in NZ without ever being there (NZ) before and roughly how much does it cost for a family of 4 to do a three week recci?

mickey_d

We (family of 4) did a 3 week recci in Feb 2005, 1 night in a hotel in Auckland when we got there, then about 17 days in a campervan, then 2 nights in a hotel in Christchurch, cost about £4500 + spending.
Sounds expensive, but was well worth it

TeamEmbo

Welcome Dupe.

It cost us just under 3k GBP to do a 6/7 day recci for me and my OH. That was in March this year and included getting to Heathrow, car park (purple parking?), return flights (economy Air NZ), accommodation in Christchurch, taxis to various interviews, eating out, internal flight to Tauranga (Air NZ via Wellington), accommodation in Bay of Plenty, car hire, fuel costs for sightseeing, etc. Motel costs were roughly $105 - $120 per night, breakfast was $15 each extra each day, if we wanted.

We didn't bring the children so there first visit here was when we actually emigrated in May. We came out on work to residency visa but now have PR.

We came for interviews and to look round, but plenty seem to do the move without having been before and just come on a VV, get a job once here, then apply for WTR or PR and sometimes just the main breadwinner comes for interviews and a recce. It all depends on what suits you and what you are comfortable with.

jackietyfry

Hi Dupe
We are "thinking" about NZ too and have booked a 4 week recce in Feb. I did a lot of research re flights etc and the cheapest I found was with Royal Brunei for £650 pp which is very good for time of year. However because it will be a holiday for us as well as a recce (can you do both) and I have an OH who does not travel at all well - we decided on the more expensive option of stopovers and transfers all sorted out for us. We ended up paying £950 pp all in.
As i said could have got it cheaper but wanted to keep my stress levels as low as poss.
We are travelling in high season when prices for flts and accommodation are most expensive, if you can travel a bit later you should save quite a bit.
Jackie

dupe

Hi Mickey-d. I dont know, that sounds resonable to me, I must have been googling the wrong sites, lol.Cheapest flights I found were about £800.00 each and about £68.00 per day for a 4 sleeper camper. Add the hotel costs and I guess that matches up with your costs, considering it would be about 3 years later. Lot of money to 'find' though, we'd probably have to borrow on the house for that.
Any regrets?

dupe

Thanks Jackietyfry & Teamembo,

All very informative, don't think the kids would let us reccie without them,
no one to offload them on anyway. I'd be inclind to take a blind gamble and just go for it but Hubby is too sensible for that!

teambwr47

I couldn't imagine moving to the other side of the planet without having been to the country to 'see what its like' beforehand but hats off to those that move to NZ without visiting first....much braver than we could ever have been.

The forum can give you lots and lots of info but there were things we wanted to check for ourselves and we only did just over a week i total but used every last bit of that week on just fact finding as opposed to sightseeing (start that now we're here).

For us my wife was the 'skilled' migrant but as she had a job in london we could only get the week for the trip anyway. Potential employers in her field of work would only take things further if we commited to visiting NZ.
Numerous recruitment companies said that in some jobs, companies will no longer get into drawn out discussions with people from the UK only for those people to pull out at the last hurdle when a commitment is needed.
The visit to NZ was enough to make the list of companies wanting to interview her more than treble.....

Others have said about their EOI and points issues but i'm sure the investment in a visit here could well lead to many having job offers and therefore the EOI boost in points that would lead to people getting here as residents much sooner and maybe less stress...

I know many will not be able to afford a trip to NZ for a 'reccie' and if thats the case then so be it everyone's circumstances are different.

Cost wise we got flights at £650ish per person return with Air NZ spent about £500 on a nice hotel, about £150 on a weeks car hire and maybe another £500 on spending money so all in less than £3000.

TeamEmbo

Erm, Mickey_D's prices were from 2005 - think they might have gone up since then

dupe

Yeah, I'd considered that.
It must be a logistiacal nightmare, timing interviews with visas and points and PR offers?

dupe

Do you get extra points if your occupation is on the ISSL?

TeamEmbo

Motels are cheaper than hotels, and they're not like Crossroads! or sleezy pits. Least not the ones I've come across. they are clean, bright and spacious and have full kitchen facilities, TV, Sky, 1 or 2 bedrooms, great shower rooms, towels and bedlinen, and they have those little bits you get in hotels - shower gel, shampoo, tissues, biscuits, tea, coffee etc provided and for around $120-$150 per night (that's per room/unit NOT per person) you can't really go wrong at that price! Some also have pools or spas.

There are also Top 10 Holiday Parks, never been to one myself, but hear a lot of good recommendations about them.

Plus the more you are with the locals, in motels, eating out etc, the more information you'll get. Chat to anyone, they're all so friendly and tell them what you're looking for - you'll be surprised how many will tell you of a mates who's got a job going, or a contact that might be able to help you, that sort of thing.

Happy planning!

TeamEmbo

We went in March already having an offer on the house. 11 interviews in 6 days. OH got job offers in April, accepted one in Christchurch. Had medicals in beginning of May and booked container. Already had police checks done in January. Put in for WTR visas in May. Exchanged on house. Got passports and blue stickers back within the week. Booked flights, Air NZ, super saver global max discount economy cheapy cheap tickets tariff, 19 May leaving party. 22 May Packers in. 23 May completed on house, stuff loaded into container and EOI successful. Stayed at in-laws for 2 nights. Taxi 10am 23 May to Heathrow - bye bye UK.

Sounds simple written like that - but yep, stressful, nightmare to live with all the things that could go wrong etc. But as long as your fairly flexible and laid back and don't mind roller coasters, you'll be fine

mickey_d

When we were first looking at coming here, looked at all prices for flights, hotels, campervan hire etc. seperatly & it came to quite a bit more than we expected, so we went to our local Travel Agent & they sorted it out as a package for us.
Some friends of ours did the same last year through a Travel Agent(November), but had a week in a`hotel & 2 weeks campervan. They did it for less than we paid!
We couldn't really afford it, but decided it would be cheaper to pay that out than ship everything over here & then find that you don't like it (which some do).

dupe

Pie in the sky anyway, still waiting for a points estimate

mickey_d

Better exchange rate now though, so probably not