Dibsica

Hello

I joined here some time ago but don't think I have actually posted yet. First just to introduce myself I life in the Midlands (in the UK) am a student midwife and have a husband and two boys aged 4 and 5. We are looking at the possibility of mosving to NZ in 2-3 years once I have qualified and worked for a while.

As part of my course I can do an elective placement so am hoping to go to NZ to check it out (with my familiy) so any tips about a good place to base ourselves would be great.

Also I was wondering if you would mind posting your top 5 things about living in NZ and the 5 worst things and the 5 things you miss about the UK? Just to get a snapshot picture really.

Thanks

Dibsica

Tayberry

Hello Dibsica!!

Here's my wee list of things about NZ
Top 5 Good things about NZ
1. Beautiful scenery
2. Fine wine and choice of fine wine plus green lipped mussels are out of this world!!
3. Opportunity to meet many different cultures-particularly Maori and Pacific Island cultures
4. Being close to the Pacific Islands (I'm off to the Cook Islands for a fortnight in May)
5. For the last 3 months, the weather has been glorious-of course it tipped it down with rain today!!

Top 5 Bad things about NZ
1. Feeling you are not part of the "real world"-very removed and remote in terms of the international scene. That might be a bonus for others though. The media doesn't help matters. Parochial reporting and sometimes, very unprofessional. (If kiwijetpilot chooses to quote me on this, I will scream. I do know The Sun, The Mirror etc are utter garbage but we have a choice of papers aimed at different types of readers).

2. Public transport-just horrific in Auckland. Can't speak for the rest of NZ however
3. General expense-well, wages and cost of living makes life a tad tricky
4. Academic qualifications and experience not recognised. I'm a G Grade DN with 11 years post reg experience (1 honours degree, 1 post grad degree and diploma) and getting paid as level 3 "district nurse"-I'm more qualified than my "charge nurse" who has never done a day's work in the community. Kiwi "DN's" not undertake post reg specialist practitioner degree to undertake this role. Role is also highly restrictive in terms of clinical practice. Worst career move for me. I'm going back to the UK because my skills are decreasing by the day. Also quite antiquated in their approach. For example, they are really into portfolio building-I was told to go on a day to learn about this when in fact, we've been doing portfolio's for over 10 years.
5. Lack of consumer choice and shops in general. Again, some might view this as a positive aspect.

Top 5 things I miss about the UK
1. BBC and good quality newspapers
2. Marks and Sparks
3. Christmas in winter
4. Historical sites and places of interest
5. Scenery-even though the scenery is lovely here, it's equally as lovely in Scotland and the UK in general.
6. Proximity to Europe....sorry I know I'm cheating!!!

I dont regret coming here one bit at all, even though it's not worked out for me. It's a once in a lifetime experience and one I'm very lucky to have had.

Dibsica

Thanks for your reply.

Do you mind me asking how long you stayed for?

Dibsica

POM IN NZ

Here are some ideas,
BEST THINGS
Weather
Fresh foods
Friendlyness
Relaxed and safe way of life
Scenery

LESS GOOD THINGS,
No city life or shopping (Nowhere like Birmingham or other large UK cities)
Very limited cultural scene.....opera, ballet, theatre.
Village or small town mentality (you either love it or hate it)
Limited career opportunities (its a tiny economy)
Newspapers

FROM UK
Radio Four (internet is not the same)
Huge variety of activities and things to do
Cities (Auckland is more like a spread out large town)
The buzz of politics and the feeling of being in the centre of world events
History and culture all around

Overall Impression.
A great place to be if you have the cash to live well and travel abroad periodically.
Its horses for courses.
I hope this helps but you will soon know if its for you when you do your placement. Good luck with your studies.

Deb+Chris

Top 5 things in NZ for me were:-

1. The kids there are much nicer than the cheeky little devils in the UK.. the schools are so much better and less stressful for the kids.. if only I could have picked my sons school up and brought it back with me!!
2. The beauty if NZ.
3. The fresh meat... very good quality.
4. Less populated.
5. The feeling of being safe.

The top bad things were:-

1. The cost of living versus wages, knowing you will never get the money together for a trip home... ever!!
2. The feeling of not being in the right place... you feel very cut off from the 'real world'.
3. The working conditions... husband went back years, the equipment/safety issues were in the dark ages, bully for a boss, no 'crack' with the lads at work.
4. The lack of decent heating/insulation in the houses there was depressing.
5. Distance from city to city was absolutely miles!! and nothing in between.

The things I missed most:-

1. The buzz of the UK, the UK media (as Tayberry say's, the NZ version is a joke).
2. Choice... just being able to shop around etc.. not much competition.
3. Europe.
4. British humour... missed this an awful lot.
5. Central heating!!

Don

I'd echo this, pretty much goes for me though the one big negative for me was earning ability (ie low) vs NZ's relatively high cost of living.

The isolation was a plus for me, though.

However, my biggest 'miss' was old Europe - mediaeval towns and all the history plus I love spending time in all the foregn countries on my doorstep, each one of them offering a very different feel.

If you're into nature & wildlife, NZ is great, esp out of Dunedin.

ps_wardle

Hi Dibsica,
good luck with the studies, firstly, i dont think you'll regret it if you move to NZ. We lived there for a year in 2003 & are going back permanently in June. As far as basing yourself on a trip over there, we lived in Wellington, which is a lovely place. Not too big, but has a lot of business there, has a lot of cafes, museums, theatres there too. The suburbs are close enough to the city not to have to worry about travel to work too much, the airport is near a lot of places but is only small so you dont get a lot of noise, plus you get the added bonus of being able to travel to Sth Island on the ferry, which is decently priced & a wonderful trip.
What i will say about NZ is give it a bit of time, when you get there, you feel like it's miles away from home (which it is, but you dont realise until you go how far), its different than the UK, & sometimes not for the better (not often though), it can take a while to slow down coming from the UK to their pace of life, but if you do, you'll feel the benefits & feel more relaxed & healthier. Give yourself time (i guarantee you'll feel homesick) & give it time to grow on you, a year or so is no time when living there to discover a lot of things it has to offer (travel around the country, its wonderful, Sth Island, Bay of islands up north, coromandel etc etc), if & when you go, be determined to make it work or it will be really easy to give up & come back.
Good luck with it all

babybella

Quote
LESS GOOD THINGS,
No city life or shopping (Nowhere like Birmingham or other large UK cities)
Very limited cultural scene.....opera, ballet, theatre.
Village or small town mentality (you either love it or hate it)
Limited career opportunities (its a tiny economy)
Newspapers


Hi all, haven't posted in a while, but will now stick my oar in.

SHOPPING- Wellington or Auckland are great, I even managed good shopping in Queenstown (the most beautiful place in the world). I hate going shopping in Nottingham, too many people, too many beggers.

CULTURE- I went to the opera, ballet far more that I do here in the Midlands.

MONEY- don't know if we were the exception but I felt much better off in NZ, we spend so much money here, not even on exciting things, just living.

TRAVELl- I love Europe too, in fact the best thing about the UK is that it is close to Italy.
NZ also has loads of travel options, we used to take holidays in Thailand, Singapore, Fiji, Cook Islands, Australia not to mention lots of trips in lovely NZ.

HEATING- I am now boring myself with this one, central heating does exist and it does not cost that much, a friend of ours with a beautiful big house put hers in for about $8,500.

SETTLING IN - Yes it takes a big effort to make a new network of friends, same as moving to a new town within the UK. I hated Nottingham for at least the first 6 months, now I have some lovely friends that I will miss when we leave.

Good luck with your decisions, go with an open mind and set yourself a time frame of a couple of years to see if it works out.
cheers KAZ

ps_wardle

Hi,
Hurrah for you, a positive email about NZ for once, seems that a lot of people on this site want to moan about it. I posted a thread the other day saying people if they were iin NZ should come back to the UK for a year or so to see how its going downhill, then NZ will seems like paradise.
I fully agree on the spending thing, we were better off over there, the money people spend in the UK on nothing is unbelievable, we earned less there & had a better life than in the UK, besides money really isnt everything is it.
Also, we lived iN Welly & the shopping is great, i think NZ has a hell of a lot to offer, which makes up for the fact that you're earning less, having said that, a lot of things cost less too, when was the last time anyone in the uk bought fish & chips at the beach for about £1, common place in NZ, or rented a 4 x 4 jeep for £35 per day, or a mid size car for £18 per day as we did, & then paid 40p per litre for fuel.......
I'm all for positive posts !!!! keep them coming.
We're going back permanently to NZ in June after a wonderful year there in 2003 & cant wait.

ps_wardle

Hi,
Hurrah for you, a positive email about NZ for once, seems that a lot of people on this site want to moan about it. I posted a thread the other day saying people if they were iin NZ should come back to the UK for a year or so to see how its going downhill, then NZ will seems like paradise.
I fully agree on the spending thing, we were better off over there, the money people spend in the UK on nothing is unbelievable, we earned less there & had a better life than in the UK, besides money really isnt everything is it.
Also, we lived iN Welly & the shopping is great, i think NZ has a hell of a lot to offer, which makes up for the fact that you're earning less, having said that, a lot of things cost less too, when was the last time anyone in the uk bought fish & chips at the beach for about £1, common place in NZ, or rented a 4 x 4 jeep for £35 per day, or a mid size car for £18 per day as we did, & then paid 40p per litre for fuel.......
I'm all for positive posts !!!! keep them coming. Also, you're right, NZ deserves a decnt amount of time to get used to it, give it a chance !!!
We're going back permanently to NZ in June after a wonderful year there in 2003 & cant wait.

Deb+Chris

Hang on a minute.. aren't we all entitled to an opinion? you say you get tired of moaning or negative posts, but we get tired of being critised for telling it how we saw it!!

Read the original question... Dibsica asked for good/bad and what we missed.

babybella

[QUOTE=ps_wardle]Hi,
when was the last time anyone in the uk bought fish & chips at the beach for about £1.

Hi yummy NZ fish and chips. We never ever buy them in the UK, disgusting, greasy things. However we did find a good one in Elgin, Scotland, they did remind us of the yummy one's we used to have in Wellington.
Cheers from a now hungry KAZ

ps_wardle

not criticising anyone & certainly not yourselves, was actually responding to a largely positive reply, my answer wasn't really even in response to any other posting, but in response to your question of course everyones allowed their own opinion, but a lot of things on here seem to be about money, earning less is a big problem there etc, is that all brits are interested in,
a lot of the comments seem to be negative, surely everyone on here must have enjoyed something about nz. I just prefer to take the positives out of things, there were things that really wound me up about nz, but not as many things as wind me up about manchester (where i live) & the UK in general.
Yes everyones allowed an opinion, but people (in my opinion) shouldn't be just negative, i did read her question, i just chose not to be negative, when everyone else had done that on their posts.
I didn't realise people got criticised for telling things how they saw it, having said that, one persons experiences aren't the rule are they, which is why i said on my post to give it time to allow yourself to see if you like it.

Deb+Chris

He he.. we're getting crossed wires here!!! I was talking about Kaz Hen and the way she picked at POM in NZ's list of not so good points... I just don't think it's fair to comment on the way someone else saw it.

I live in Manchester too and don't agree with the way you view it.. but hey...that's you and this is me! LOL!

ps_wardle

Must be getting wires crossed, but you had used my quote on the reply, so figured it was mine.
I like Manchester actually, mostly anyway. Its not Manchester that bothers me so much, its the UK as a whole, council tax, negative immigration, house prices ( & before everyone starts, you can get them cheaper in NZ & with the way mortgages work over there, its easier than here to get on property ladder), gangs in certain areas, shutters on shops making places look like war zones, its dirtier in the Uk (surely no-one can question that), too materialistic in the UK, i could go on, but i wont, its all been posted on here a thousand times, i just personally cant understand why apart from easy travel to nearly everywhere in the world, anyone would defend the UK, thats just my opinion, it sucks....
I do like Manchester though, & will always be a manc.........