bourbon-biscuit

Do you have the statistics to back this up?

As for the kids going about without shoes on, it would be grossly simplifying the matter to claim it's a result of poverty as it's also a cultural issue. My dd attends a decile rating 9 school and at the end of term BBQ last Friday (midwinter) half the kids were shoeless, although there were many shoes kicking about outside the classrooms etc. The kids in the local intermediate do cross country running barefoot. My mil often speaks of her father running barefoot in London because of his Kiwi roots.

reecefam

Decile 9...is that a good School rating?
I am not being funny...i can show you schools inncer city here, where kids cant where shoes and where there is gun crime etc?
I am lucky enough, where i can afford to live in areas where this is not common place and crime is rare.
Are you saying in New Zealand crime is everywhere, wherever you live, or like over here, if you live in a poorer area, you expect to see more crime etc?

howardk

...statistics ??? who cares about statistics....we have lived here twice...best suburb in chch...drive away from our house and poverty is there to be seen..it is th eplace that we have lived in where people rent toasters and kettles...no joke..but hey,this thread has gone on long enough for me...you can only really make up your mind by living life here..we have had good times here,but have several options ( several pr's & citizenships ) and have realised it is not the country it is cracked up to be or indeed the country it portrays it self as...so my advice is leave property and investments etc ( we did ) at home and change money at the right rates and experience life here...it doesn't have to be forever....

reecefam

Thanks Howard...have a good day.

Ian & Sharon

True.

Am Loolah

I like it ...

maysie

been here 18 months and the only crime I have seen as such is boy racers

Decile 10 is the highest rating for a school

it's whatever you want to make it, I went for an interview for a very well known Engineering group here and the guy interviewing me was wearing no shoes, don't think it had anything to do with poverty. When we first arrived I was horrified when I saw the amount of kids with no shoes on. My kids no longer wear shoes at school... it's just the way things are here

Rustie

I do hope you are doing other research than asking on here? You know the salary you'll be on, you know how much house prices are and you know that if you sell your house how much equity you should have to put down as a deposit.

Take a look at some bank websites like www.asbbank.co.nz to get some idea of how much mortgages are and what they will lend you and some people on here have already told you how much electricity, etc. costs.

I put the links to the information about the schools and decile ratings on either this or one of your other threads asking for advice.

Boopy

In the summer in UK, I used to kick my shoes off. In fact I used to drive barefoot, sat my test barefoot. They had to check it out - but there was no literature to stop me (passed first time as well).
I've only once seen racers on the motorway - I wouldn't say they were boy racers, they looked in there 40's and just looked mad with each other.

Happy Wanderer

Good point about doing other research We won't be able to progress our application for another 18 months or so because of my husband's current contract. In the mean time we've been trying to research as much as poss to get the most balanced view. I've copied some of the websites, though you may already be looking at them.

We read the papers and the trade me sites on a regular basis. The others are just for interest with trying to decide on schools and suburbs etc.

Schools: This may be useful if you're deciding between two cities or areas. This one gives you the ERO report, a little like our ofsted (as I understand it anyway). If you choose a few of schools and then read the reports for them all, you can get a pretty good idea about them since they use the same references and language. They also have a decile rating, with 1 having children from the poorest areas, 10 having children from the richest areas. It doesn't suggest that rich are better than poor, but NZ has the same social problems as UK - you may as well know what you're heading into.

http://www.ero.govt.nz/ero/publishin...nt/Home%20Page

This next one lets you search for schools, then check which housing zone they're in. Once you narrow down your schools - you can look for your suburbs.

http://www.tki.org.nz/e/schools/

A great on-line street map - http://www.zoomin.co.nz

Houses for sale:
http://www.allrealestate.co.nz/
http://www.finda.co.nz/business/cs/r...rty/alpha-asc/
http://www.ljhooker.co.nz/
http://www.harcourts.co.nz
http://www.propertytalk.com/componen...ws/Itemid,156/

This is a really good site, it tells the story of a family who made the move - http://newlivesnewzealand.com/

Has some good things including a cost of living calculator - not sure how accurate though: http://www.emigratenz.org/salary-finder.php

http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/nz.htm - I found the papers a little alarming, but it appears that every incident is reported in every paper. Where as, at home - abuse in Leeds wouldn't be reported in the Shropshire Star etc, though I may be wrong.

There's a site for the Sensible Sentencing Trust which lists all of the murders that have occurred in the country since the beginning of the year.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/ Trademe is a little like Ebay but with message boards. You can't bid or post on the message boards because you don't live in NZ. The message boards are a pretty good read though and tend to reflect what's going on with the papers etc. The Real Estate is a great message board to follow, look out for posters Gunerz and Keys - they seem to know their stuff.

There are a lot of links I know, but sift though as and when you can. I know it's not the same as being there, but it feels good to be doing something.

Good Luck

maysie

thank you happy wanderer enjoyed the newlivesnewzealand link. This is where we have settled and the info there is spot on

Happy Wanderer

Your welcome