Browner_

I agree.
Admittedly when I did have money, I went to Raro,Fiji, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney.... . Great , all of it.

But now, as money and work dwindles, its not so easy.
From Wellington, once you have done the weekend trek to Wanganui a couple of times and realised there is nothing much there, you may start to feel more isolated.

Admittedly I lived nr Gatwick so getting on a Easyjet flight or on to Eurostar was so easy, as was driving to London, Brighton, Dorset, Kent, Bristol, S Wales, Oxford, need I go on?

CarolineSwan

We didnt get very low last minute deals as we were in scotland,and most of the cheapys you did see were based on flying from heathrow so once you added on from glasgow it was a cheap deal no more

Batty

Same here PLUS most cheapies were Ryan Air and when you added on all the extra taxes and the price of the train from the airport that was 100kms from where you wanted to be!!!!!!

To be honest, I don't think cheap flights are what they used to be anyway - you can only take one piece of hand luggage (that can be your handbag) onto Ryanair flights now without being charged extra.

BEVS

I can understand that.That's exactly how it is for us here in Nelson. Add on an internal flight to Welly/Auckland or Xch or a five hour drive to Xch if you want an international flight anywhere, so no cheap , last minute cheap deals for us either. Not that we can afford such things these days to be honest.
We were in Bournemouth in the UK so plenty of cheap deals by air and ferry to Europe , America and beyond what with the airport and ferry ports nearby.

We've lived here in NZ for nearly 5 years now so, yes, the question of being so very far from anywhere comes into play. It can be dull not being able to go visit anywhere other than somewhere else in New Zealand or to be more precise the top of the South Island. Trips, accom, petrol are expensive when on an NZ wage & after a while it can be all a bit samey.

We had the idea that we could holiday in Oz,the South Pacific or Malaysia once a year but that simply isn't possible. We haven't had an overseas holiday since we arrived.

Returning to the UK is something that most of us have to do at some point & maybe more than once. That is incredibly expensive & can wipe out savings, holiday entitlement for the year , if not more.

Fooferfish

And you still get hit with the kids holiday scam and now our daughter is 12 tomo , so will get hit with adult fares, true like Bev says, getting around NZ can be expensive, dont think you can just throw in a tent, because the weather can change so quickly it would be that plesent camping around this coast.

We were lucky with internal flights as i get Flybuys on business card, so used them for trip to CHCH to catch flight to singapore, but still had nights stay in CHCH to pay for.

We to thought that we would pop across to OZ and all those gorgeous Pacific islands just across the water mmm yum, more like NOT, my wife had been studying for 2 years and has just got a job, so that might help, but what with the global reccession, we are keeping a close eye on $$ trying to recoupe after UK trip, we even brought back some Pounds and exchanged them last week and used that for fire wood ready for winter.

If we ever wanted to journey to North Island then we are looking at 8hr drive, a good $150-$200 fuel, ferry across, and stops on way, NZ is a beautiful country to visit, but once you are here working under Kiwi wages and your own steam, things start to fall in to same pit as UK did, unless you are one of the privilaged few, who have gained the qualification to give you a $$$ wage, then for the common folk, doing those trips to OZ and beyond become a distant thought.

NZ can oh be so far away.

luvwelly

Even then you've got the annual leave issue especially with return trips to UK.
They love advertising holidays here in a misleading way e.g. NZ$ x and when you look, flights aren't included (LOL) and the accommodation which is included is for 5 nights...the idea is that you pay for extra nights I suppose but very strange unless it's taking into account the long flights and the lack of annual leave.

I usually book stuff on the net independently and avoid agents anyway.

Another slightly different aspect of isolation, is the lack of relatives/ close friends on the ground...in the UK I suppose you might regularly take off to a town a couple of hours away because your relatives live there and it might make you feel like you've had a bit of a change of scene. Here you are always like a tourist when you visit different places in NZ....I don't want to drive to the Wairapa every other weekend because it's a long windy(bendy) drive and when you get there, once you've had your coffee/meal in twee little town, it's time to come back BUT if like some people I know, your kids' Grandparents live over there...going there once a month would be sth enjoyable and family orientated to do.
You feel the lack of rellies most on Bank Holidays especially Christmas....I realise for many this would be a bonus lol! Maybe for a couple of years it is!

I'm not saying don't make the move...but don't do it without thinking these issues through first..because it is a hard step to undo (financially) for many people.

shirl

Yes it was nice to be living in Devon too with everything close by and I do miss the sunday afternoon drive down the coast in either direction. Nowadays we have a day out or a weekend and go to Timaru or up to Kaikoura or Hanmer from where we are. But saying that, before we came here we knew it was the furthest country in the world from the UK on the map. We can all see that surely and we all still made that choice to come here!

Genesis

[QUOTE NZ is a beautiful country to visit, but once you are here working under Kiwi wages and your own steam, things start to fall in to same pit as UK did, .[/QUOTE]



NZ will never be the same as the UK if ONLY for the fact the population of NZ is a fraction of that of the UK.

Life is life. My life was a tad hampster wheely in the UK, it is now..however there is always faaaaaaaaar more to do here (thus waaay easier to get off that wheel) and everything in NOT crowded..the roads, the shops the beaches. Most people agree the last thing they came to NZ for was to be better off fiscally......they did it to be somewhere sooooo different from whence they came. Whilst we have had a plethora of problems since our arrival in NZ (shit happens EVERYWHERE) and some really serious ones and one potentialy life threatening, we are certainly NOT in the same 'pit' that we left in the UK.

I guess we adopt the attitude that the glass is half full. Your thoughts create your world. Positive in positive out. Fill your mind with negativity and your life will be thus.

luvwelly

I don't disagree but it would be dishonest to dismiss isolation as an issue and say I don't feel it, when I do. I didn't initially though, but the decision to come wasn't so major for me as I haven't emigrated as such.

All the Kiwis I know in the UK (it's only 3 lol) cite isolation/lower wages as main reason they don't plan to return to NZ.

Coda

student loans :curse:
Living in London, there are stacks of kiwis here. Im building my funds to return to the SI and buy a house £'s go a lot further than $$

CarolineSwan

The only kiwi i knew back in the uk is the reason we are here , he went to britain to go to college ,once he was done he couldnt wait to get back,and he spoke so highly off it we changed our 5 year plan of canada and moved here . thank god.

While in the UK we never took trips anywhere within britain 1, we worked weekends (hubby 7 days aweek) 2, the weather was crap 3, when we took a holiday we liked to go abroad . maybe this is why isolation suits us we now get weekends together as saturdays are voluntry in hubbys work so he doesnt do them, i told my employer b4 i got job i couldnt do weekends. so now we just love having time to take run to beach or parks or the lake or one of the other beautiful places that we have here, we are at the minute booking a holiday for next year abroad to a place we could only of dreamed of before . so if this is isolation I love it