Originally Posted by Jan n Neil

I have direct experience of my own staff leaving to go to Oz after the earthquakes. They are Kiwis mostly and have had enough of the ChCh shakes. They are very skilled, and it's a sad loss to NZ. but out of our control.

I went back to the UK 3 weeks ago for a short trip and was depressed by the situation there, all my family are adversely impacted, including us as we still have a house there which is now almost certainly in negative equity. My son lost his well paid job, our friends are worse off, and the government seems to be hanging on by a thread.

Jan

Originally Posted by Droidling

Oz is hugely overrated in my opinion. I got all the the 'well if you like NZ,OZ is sooooo much better' guff when I was in Auckland.
Being younger and impressionable i sucked it in,and me and the ex moved to Brisbane after considerable personal endurances (and a 6 month recce) and we had had enough after a year. Then moved back to uk to find work again.
The reality is if you like the outdoors life and variety NZ is hard to beat. You can tramp like nothing else/canoe/Ski/surf/Motorbike/all in a weekend. And jeez I hope it will still be the same when I get back there.
You go to Oz,live to work again,get a house in an outer suburb in dullsville (because that's all you can afford) and dream about all those wonderful exciting weekends you had in NZ because everything's too far away in oz.Oh but you can have BBQ's ...
To bring out an often used adage OZ is a place for a sabatical or backpacker 6 months adventure,not for working/living.
My 10 penneth.