ibennett

Interesting and varied repies form all , and I thank you. Personnaly I'm not leaving the UK as a means to become rich on the back of anything the UK has given me, nice thou it is to have an equity of £100k. My reason is the over crowding, the dirt and in one simple word Chav's. I'm not about to start UK bashing and if you want to go post elsewhere. But it is a fact Britain is/has become a collection of have nots-wanting something for free. Even the Asians I work with moan they are being pushed from their homes by the relentless tide of migrants to London, legal n illlegal, national or international.

If I end up in NZ it wont be for a quick buck, it wont be for an easy life, stress free and scenic views. It will be a bloody struggle of that I have no doubt-in a place where I am the 'imigrant'.

I am under no illusions, I earn £x's a month, half of that goes on a mortgage. I am unskilled and unqualified (as a project manager/telecoms engineer) with just 100% work experience to real on, so there are no easy doors to open, but as long as 1/2 of my NZ$ covers my mortgage and the rest goes into an overdraft then may be NZ is the place for me to try. If I end up with a 3/4 mortgage from my monthly nz$ wage packet then things seem quite different for the common ly held British view point.

can any one substanciate their terms of worse off in NZ? is your mortgage 75% of your take home pay, or simply that you have no money to pay for the luxuries of live, SKY tv for instance (as in another thread). the pub 3 times a week?

turkeytickler

I can do that although I am not exactly comparing apples with apples so to speak...but i think this makes the case clearer...

I have the same income i had in the UK because I kept my job coming over so income wise the move was financially neutral.

SO without discussing my income, using www.xe.com for todays exchange of £1/$2.46...

- Weekly Food Shop in UK £60 ($147.60)
- Weekly Food Shop in NZ $200 - (we had to cut back on things like chicken to get to this level)

- Quarterly Power Bill (Gas + Electricity) in UK £130 ($319.80)
- Monthly Electrcity Bill NZ (average so far) $138 (x 3 = $414)

- Price of my favourite cycling mag £4.95 ($12.77)
- Price of same cycling mag in NZ $22.95 (6 months out of date + New Zealand doesnt produce any of its own so i have no choice) - OK it has to be imported but 2x the price??

- Price of a bicycle tire in UK (Michelin Pro Race) £22 ($54.12)
- Price same bicycle tire in my Local Shop in ChCh $88

- Price of book "Marathon!" for my wifes xmas pressie in UK £12.99 ($31.96)
- Price of same book in the local book shop $64.99

- I use a pay as you go mobile phone here because the contracts tie you in for 2-3 years on really bad rates. I heard somewhere they are the most expensive of any OECD member state.

Hope that gives you a flavour - im sure there are other examples..... like i say - my income has stayed the same (thank god) but at some point if we stay i am going to start earning a NZ salary.... i dont know what we are going to do then....

Pompey_Paul

How much for a carbon frame......?

In NZ is it just as expensive to buy books and CDs etc from Amazon? i could not live without books

turkeytickler

For a carbon frame.... depends on your choice of brand and spec etc.... you simply cant buy the european brands in shops over here unless you import them yourself... its mainly american or generic taiwanese stuff....

http://www.burkescycles.co.nz/images...vanti_road.htm

To be fair the bikes arent too expensive compared to elsewhere but they are pretty tacky compared to the likes of Colnago and Bianchi (but them im an italian bike fan so I would say that!) - its the cost of the spares that gets you..... $120 for a SRAM-PC89R chain (£25 in the UK)..... you get the picture...

RE books - there is no such thing as Amazon here... you can of course order from .com or .co.uk...... you certainly dont want to be shopping in a book shop - to be honest, its best for all concerned if you dont, because you will probably give the assistant a heart attack..... the people in my local book shop havent sold a book in 15 years

Pompey_Paul

Or read one probably......we quite often send books etc from Amazon UK to peeps in NZ and it doesnt work out too expensive.........

I used to cycle race a lot, raced in France, Holland , Belgium and Germany ....raced for the Southdown Velo.....then i got old and ran marathons played football and wrecked my knees..had two ops and cruciate reconstruction ...i now am eyeing my old Ken Bird sat in my shed......thinking...........its about time i got back on the rivet....2 months to go and i will be twiddling again!

turkeytickler

Are you in NZ now? Returned home? Coming soon?

sky

The librarys are a god send here. They're very good, I love sitting in the peace and quiet of them reading for hours. I always bought the kids tons of books in the UK but I hardly ever do here which is terrible when I think about it. Only on birthdays and at Christmas do they get them now.

turkeytickler

There is a shop in ChCh that sells magazines for Christmas presents - thats how expensive they are!!!

Does anyone know whether the NZ Govt slaps GST on the price of books here? Does that explain it?

uk+kiwi

Sky - How old are your children?

Carmen.

mumomonty

Good post TT!
It's quite a rip off here eh?

sky

My boys are 6,12 and 18 .. mad gaps eh? have spent years tying little peoples shoe laces lol.

melting pot

Sounds like you are just about ready for number 4.....

deedee

I agree with you regards bicycles and prices here in NZ, they are indeed the most expensive in the world , only behind Australia.However, i would say just import what you want, same as so many other people do.There is an up and running supply chain here in NZ of anything to do with cycling and the freight costs are minimal.Same goes for magazines.Cyclesport for instance is always 2 months behind for sale here.I get it mail order through Asia at exactly the same time my friends get it in the UK, and for less than half the shop price in NZ$.
As for carbon frames, there are few frames now made anywhere other than the one of two autoclaves in China.Even Trek outsource their mid to low end carbon frames to China, and they have their own autoclave!
Avanti don't make anything in any country other than China, and for some strange reason they've just removed their lifetime warrenty from all their products.
If you need any bits, email me and i can probably supply them cheaper than if you could get them wholesale.
I actually had one frame imported from the states, and another from England, both cheaper than NZ$ prices by far.Just a thought

turkeytickler

deedee you have mail -- and some karma while im at it

uk+kiwi

brilliant. just brilliant.