Bo-Jangles

Kiwi life: Since we're all gearing up to be in holiday mode and looking forward to some time off to enjoy the best of what NZ has to offer, I wonder if we might have a bit of Summer holiday fun and go at answering the same set of questions:

Kiwi Life: From the UK to Christchurch | Stuff.co.nz

Kiwi Life: From Melbourne to Manukau | Stuff.co.nz

Kiwi Life: Living the Dunedin dream | Stuff.co.nz

Kiwi Life: Swapping Seattle for Auckland | Stuff.co.nz

Kiwi Life: From France to Motueka | Stuff.co.nz

Kiwi Life: From Dublin to Auckland | Stuff.co.nz

What inspired your move, and how long have you been here?
What do you do here?
What surprised you most when you arrived?
What are the greatest advantages to living here?
Disadvantages?
How expensive do you find it compared to back home?
What do you do in your spare time?
What are your favourite NZ foods?
How do you get around?
How do you find the shopping?
Favourite after­ dark activity?
What are the top three things you recommend for visitors?
Besides family and friends, what do you miss most about home?
How easy is it for you to go home?
If you could change one thing about New Zealand, what would it be?

Bo-Jangles

What inspired your move, and how long have you been here?
Just an off the wall random comment about wanting to try something different and been here for eleven years.

What do you do here?
Work full time and study at Open Polytechnic and fill time keeping myself, house and garden reasonably clean and tidy.

What surprised you most when you arrived?
How busy and chock-a-block that Auckland actually is and how close together peoples houses were.

What are the greatest advantages to living here?
Relative closeness to Aussie and Pacific islands but that's just me being a tad rosey-eyed and optimistic that they may one day become more accessible, as in reality they may as well be a million miles away.

Disadvantages?
Distance from other places

How expensive do you find it compared to back home?
Very

What do you do in your spare time?
I don't really understand the concept of spare time as I work full time and study (or procrastinate) in between times but I am always doing something. I like to go to nice restaurants, wineries and such like but usually finances are a limiting factor.

What are your favourite NZ foods?
I like most things from Lewis Road Creamery, Kumara Chips and Roast Pumpkin or Butternut Squash with my Sunday dinner; most other things I like are not specific to NZ such as Arnotts Scotch Fingers and the abundance of Strawberries in summer.

How do you get around?
Almost always by car, as public transport is near to non-existent and taxis are way too expensive.

How do you find the shopping?
Pretty dire but it has got better over recent years but still do most of my shopping online from overseas

Favourite after­ dark activity?
Going to dinner and then a show or theatre but that's a very rare treat; so default to Aussie Masterchef or The Great Brtish Bake Off and a cup of tea.

What are the top three things you recommend for visitors?
Rotorua, Bay of Islands and Coromandel but they are all a bit of a touristy cliche that you must do at least once. After the third and fourth time it gets bit boring.

Besides family and friends, what do you miss most about home?
Affordibility of travel and ease of access to Europe and the rest of the world.

How easy is it for you to go home?
Very difficult, it's too expensive and never enough time or money

If you could change one thing about New Zealand, what would it be?
Pick it up and move it a few thousand miles closer to other civilisations.

Genesis

Please see above for my answers

escapedtonz

Great idea for a post :-)

What inspired your move, and how long have you been here?
I'd had a nightmare with an Ex. Wife, a kid that turned out not to be mine - we both found out just before his 10th birthday, a bitter divorce and split family support.
Mrs and I had always fancied having an adventure & I was eager to escape the UK so we started the process late 2009. Arrived March 2012 as Residents.

What do you do here?
I manage the National Grid as System Operator, so I run the national energy/reserves/frequency keeping market, manage the grid volts all across the country and system security to make sure the lights remain on.
Mrs is a practice nurse.

What surprised you most when you arrived?
Lack of people, traffic and the high cost of living.

What are the greatest advantages to living here?
It's a long way from home, although it now feels like home.

Disadvantages?
Unfortunately there's no other country further away from the UK.

How expensive do you find it compared to back home?
Very, but it is what it is. Cost of items is slowly causing me less grief the longer we are here.

What do you do in your spare time?
At the moment it is majority spent at the new house we are having built and looking after a huge garden 1 acre. Never had a garden bigger than maybe 300 square metres before!
Try to spend time with kids as much as I can. Any other time left I like to golf / hike. Did have a motorbike but sold it so we had more in the pot for the house.

What are your favourite NZ foods?
Pavlova.

How do you get around?
Car. Try to ride the MTB when I have chance. Miss the motorbike so much. It's like I've lost a leg.

How do you find the shopping?
I'm a man. I don't care about shopping unless there's food in the deal.

Favourite after­ dark activity?
Young kids of 5 and nearly 1. I can count on one hand how many times weve been out in darkness since they were born! If we could do it now it'd be 2/3hr sleep in the cinema, a meal out, quick beer then bed for zzzzz's.

What are the top three things you recommend for visitors?
Bay Of Islands/Russell, Skiing/Snowboarding, Queenstown.

Besides family and friends, what do you miss most about home?
Decent fish n chips, decent Chinese food, decent Indian food/proper popadoms, convenience of buying anything in the supermarket cheaply, history of the UK and old villages/pubs. Proper city centres for shopping etc.

How easy is it for you to go home?
We could just about manage to at the moment but assume those savings will be spent on the house soon. From that point it'd have to be credit card. No plans to go back again for a while.

If you could change one thing about New Zealand, what would it be?
Ridiculous economy/high cost of living/low salaries in comparison to the UK/housing here really is crap quality rubbish and should be priced accordingly....Grrr!

Clappy

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baconfamily

Just want to say this is a great idea for a thread. I am due to come over on permanent residency in 7 weeks time and it is safe to say I am fully in panic mode so it is great to read about everyones experiences since emigrating.

MrsFychan

What inspired your move, and how long have you been here?
MrF wanted to emigrate. MrF since Sept 2011, myself and the kids Jan 2012

What do you do here?
Same as I did in the UK, kids, housework, p/t work

What surprised you most when you arrived?
The low standard of housing, the expense, the amount of swearing especially from women

What are the greatest advantages to living here?
Being closer to the sea and the night skies. errr?

Disadvantages?
Less money, lack of choice, expense, weather (so much more extreme, be it hot or rain) cockroaches, ants. Earthquakes, road & transport closures, much more than in the UK. Lack of administration, policies and procedures.

How expensive do you find it compared to back home?
Massively more expensive over all

What do you do in your spare time?
Walk the dogs, have a spa

What are your favourite NZ foods?
Choco Crunch biscuits

How do you get around?
Car, don't do public transport unless its life or death situation

How do you find the shopping?
Frustrating, food shopping isn't to bad but most decent stuff, clothes, books, foot ware etc I shop in UK online.

Favourite after­ dark activity?
Thats a bit personal. Spa, looking at the night sky and of course BE

What are the top three things you recommend for visitors?
Eat some pies - recommendation from the FIL
Drink some craft beer
Keep your eyes open - scenery and wild life can be magnificent. Look heavenwards at night.

Besides family and friends, what do you miss most about home?
Historical places, NHS, choice of nearly everything, Policy and Procedures.

How easy is it for you to go home?
Its not possible.

If you could change one thing about New Zealand, what would it be?
The wind/weather

Baz036

What inspired your move, and how long have you been here?

The ethos of the average kiwi was less than the 'me first' attitude of the UK. Volunteering was necessary to keep basic services running and rather than bleating about lack of government action on something people just went and did it.

What do you do here?

Police officer - twenty years in the UK strangled by those making an effort to find reason not to do things rather than having the conviction to just get on with what needed doing made me want to change (maybe the rant should have been added to question 1!) .

What surprised you most when you arrived?

Standard of housing kiwis willing to accept and the cost of same. Immigrants from all parts of the globe saying 'it's just like so and so twenty years ago' with halcyon glasses on when talking about one aspect of life but complaining about how 'not up to standard' it is the next.

What are the greatest advantages to living here?

Living in Marlborough. Diving for seafood, hunting, beautiful weather and great wine. Government job where wage is outstanding for local economy but would be average in a major metro centre.

Disadvantages?

Distance from other places and lack of available airlines.

How expensive do you find it compared to back home?

Relative. Being in a structured pay scale job I can see with exchange rate I am earning about 50% more than I would be at equivalent rank in UK. After being back to the UK in June 16 realised that my lot here was not that bad.

What do you do in your spare time?

Dive, hunt, target shoot, voluntary work, cook and play computer games.

What are your favourite NZ foods?

Local seafood and game meat.

How do you get around?

Job is car based so I sold my private car forcing me to walk and cycle when not working.

How do you find the shopping?

Very limited. Expensive for items where there is a lack of competition. Make full use of on line opportunities.

Favourite after­ dark activity?

Relaxing, hunting, socialising.

What are the top three things you recommend for visitors?

1. Bay house cafe, Tauranga Bay, Westport. 2. Driving from the West Coast through Arthurs Pass to Chch on a warm summers evening. 3. Getting out there and meeting the locals.

Besides family and friends, what do you miss most about home?

Easy flights with competition to keep fares down. Out of season vegetables (wife is a fussy vegetarian!).

How easy is it for you to go home?

Not too bad, same percentage of my wage as the ticket was in the old country. Been four times in the ten years here,

If you could change one thing about New Zealand, what would it be?

Negativity of the media - leads to doubt and questions about many things that when compared to international norms show we really are not doing that bad. Reliance on volunteers for basic services and those that complain about same .

bourbon-biscuit

I don't live in NZ anymore but did for best part of nine years. I'm going to give this a crack (must be Xmas - I never do things like this!):

What inspired your move, and how long have you been here?
Came out backpacking with dd1 in 2000 and fell in love with the place. It took us a few years as we had another child when back in the UK and dh trained as a nurse (partly as we knew he would always have work - this has proven to be so true and possible one of the wisest things we have done!). Made it back to NZ in Jan 2007.

What do you do here?
I studied psychology at two unis; volunteered with the Red Cross, as an ESL teacher, and in various primary schools in roles ranging from PTA secretary (ugh!) to reading support; mumming; did TA work in primaries at various points as well as NCEA exam supervision; uni tutor in the final year.

What surprised you most when you arrived?
I can still remember this. We flew into Hawke's Bay in January after a wonderful fortnight in Western Australia and I was most surprised (and distraught) by the denuded hillsides, the mediocre beaches, and the general shabbiness. But I tried to put a brave face on it.

More general surprises were the cultural divisions in NZ. This is impossible to ignore in Hawke's Bay because you can drive from Havelock North through to Flaxmere in 20 mins.

What are the greatest advantages to living here?
Fresh chance; physical freedom; proper summers; small population affording opportunities; coffee.

Disadvantages?
Insularity (monitor the front page of The Herald for a few months as a case in point), parochialism, microwave sun, having to pretend we lived in a hot climate without really having a hot climate (e.g. Xmas as likely to be a rainy day as a beach day), wind-whipped beaches with rough surf, lack of biodiversity.

How expensive do you find it compared to back home?
Swings and roundabouts. Stuff is more expensive but then there's less stigma about mend-and-make-do, so if that's been your modus operandi in the UK then it's quite liberating.

What do you do in your spare time?
Didn't have heaps of that. Often frustrated by the lack of nice local walks (not multi day tramps).

What are your favourite NZ foods?
Kumara chips, coffee, Whittakers chocolate (all of it), pavlova (yes, it's Kiwi not Oz, ffs), snapper, date scones, Kiwi fish and chips, feijoas.

How do you get around?
Car. Two of them and that depressed me. Public transport non-existent and distances between stuff too great for cycling to be main mode.

How do you find the shopping?
It improved in the nine years. At first we couldn't even buy yoghurt without gelatine added.

Favourite after­ dark activity?
Anything that allows me to enjoy the night sky.

What are the top three things you recommend for visitors? Going from where I lived, I suggested visitors went to: Rotorua - never got bored of that and was even given a lifetime pass to Wai-o-Tapu for coming so often; the NI ski fields whether it is winter or summer as I loved riding the chair lift up on a bright summer day; Raglan for the funky Kiwiness of it, the black sand and the surfing.

Besides family and friends, what do you miss most about home?
These days, not much. At first I found Xmas hard but now I'm OK.

How easy is it for you to go home?
Hard to answer as we were helped to visit home a couple of times.

If you could change one thing about New Zealand, what would it be?
Honestly? Domestic violence and poverty. Crushes the life chances of too many Kiwi kids.