fired50

If my wife and I enter New Zealand on a renewable one year work visa, what medical cover will we and our child be entitled to? We'll be paying tax so will we be covered in a similar way as we would be by the NHS in the UK? What's the score with opticians, dental, etc?

Lacking an IKEA, can anyone suggest a similar place to do our furniture shopping (from scratch) that wont cost the earth in or around the Auckland area. Any idea of the names of some of the big furniture stores?

Can anyone suggest any decent outlet stores to pick up a decent new laptop (and phone), again around the Aucklnad area?

Many thanks

F50

drrobert

As far as I know, as a tax payer you will be covered by the NZ health system. Dental work is quite expensive (I don't know if kids get free dental checks). No idea about opticians.

I don't know Auckland, but just ask around - there will doubtless be large rows of out-of-town furniture shops with everything you need. Big Save Furniture sells lots of cheap stuff, often in packages. Personally, I bought all my furniture second-hand through TradeMe.co.nz (the NZ auction site). This was much better value, and better quality! The process of viewing and buying the stuff allowed me to see lots of different local suburbs first-hand.

There will be hundreds of stores selling electronic goods. In terms of the mainstream chains, you could check out Dick Smith Electronics or Noel Leeming.

Laptops are okay here, but the phone deals are awful compared with the UK. There are only two mobile providers (Vodafone and Telecom), and call/rental charges are high. My partner and I bought our phones in the UK before coming here*, then just got pay as you go deals. We use landlines for calls, and just use our mobiles for texting.

* We were both with Virgin Mobile in the UK - it turned out we had both spent enough over the previous year to get about £60 credit off a new phone, so just before coming to NZ, we each bought a new phone for next-to-nothing, and got Virgin Mobile to unlock them (which they can do for free over the phone).

lardyl

Work visa will not entitle you to cheaper doctor's visits - you need PR for many subsidised services/benefits - can you apply once you get here??

Opticians are expensive and glasses/contacts are extortionate - last month I paid $510 for a pair of safety glasses that I would have paid about $250 for in the UK.

Dental is expensive and the school check-ups are free but not as good as real examinations.

One option is to get your laptop from Dell outlet in UK as they come with 3years of on-site business warranty (or at least they used to) and Dell should honour it in NZ (again check the fine print).

Lots of places to buy electricals over here -

www.pricespy.co.nz

for laptops

http://www.pricespy.co.nz/cat_22.html

is a great place to check out online NZ prices for computer/electical gear (and find the cheapest stores) if you don't need the "support" you would get from the chain stores (eg dse.co.nz , noel leeming, harvey norman etc, etc)