For me the answer is likely yes although that is by no means certain. I would have done my time for my citizenship I think. It leaves one's options more easily open.

For me, yes. I love NZ (and now Australia) but I wish we had not burned our bridges and got carried away with "emigrating".

Yes, I agreed to 5 years to get Citizenship, mainly to give the kids options, but if I could have my time again I would of left after 2 years, unfortunately its now to difficult for timings with the kids and college and money issues

What are your main reasons for wanting to return to the UK if you could do things differently though? Is it financial, family or not what you thought it was?

We are doing our decision trip in November; I totally get everyone is different but I suppose i don't want to make a decision based on rose tinted glasses.

These things are very difficult to put into words . Sometimes it is simply about whether a place, any place, is a good fit for an individual or not. Sometimes that cannot be known until after living in whatever the new place is. That can apply to a move within the same country as to a move to another country.

Writing such thoughts & personal reasons can result in other posters seeking to somehow put down that person in some way simply because they had not settled 100% .

NZ is fine enough, it is simply not enough for me personally. I would have had to have lived here a bit to have ever known that or felt it. Will I return to the UK ? I do not know. We have been here 15 years now. Returning was only really relatively easily possible within the first two year window. After that all manner of issues come into play.

Did I do the homework? Yes. Did I have unrealistic expectations? No. Had I crunched all the numbers ? Yes. Do I regret an emigration ? No.

Thank you BEVS, that makes perfect sense.

Maintain a means to get yourself home if its not for you.
there are so many people who feel "stuck here" its not real

I've only had one big homesick pang during my 11 years here. It was for personal reasons and it passed once the issue was resolved,
but at the time the urge to go was overwhelming. There are however so many who have been here years who would go home tomorrow if they could.

It would be interesting to know where on the West Coast the OP is moving to and where they live now. Even people who move within a country can feel stuck and some who swapped city life for rural living suddenly realise it's not for them. Moving to the other side of the world can then even be more challenging.

Moving to Westport

I'm actually just over an hour away from Westport but the one in Ireland:-)

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Westport ? Take it you have been down the South Island West Coast and visited Westport?

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Bring as much as you can get into your container. Don't think of buying new here if your current stuff is serviceable- buying new can be expensive - we could have got a lot more in our container had we known. don't bring anything that might have had soil on it . We didn't but customs assumed that a large Asian 'pot' was from the garden so came to the house to inspect it before we unpacked, spent less than 5 minutes checking it and left. The cost of the inspection - $250. That was 10 years ago so it would cost more now.

Thank you