catzohm

Hi Anyone/everyone

We've been thinking of trying to get into NZ for a while now, but judging from a lot of the comments on this site, NZ is'nt all it's cracked up to be. Lots of negatives about poor pay, poor housing and high cost of living. Are things really that bad?. Our situation is that we would be coming out just the two of us as the kids are grown up and gone (sort of !!), hopefully we could be nearly mortgage free and could both be in full time work. Wife's a nurse so apparently she would have little problem finding work, for myself I'm a brickie but my UK qualifications only equate to level 2 on the Kiwi scale and I need to be at level 3, however I also hold a Heavy Goods licence that is recognised as a Class 5 in NZ, this is on the immediate skills shortage list for all areas in NZ so although it's not my preferred option it's maybe the best one as far as work is concerned. In anyones opinion would it be possible for us to eke out a reasonable standard of living? We're not after the earth, just Mr & Mrs average e.g reasonable home, ability to have one decent holiday a year, run one decent car and a runabout and enough left to enjoy leisure time. We're thinking about the Nelson area, so would be grateful if anyone could give us any info about this area and if possible about nursing and trucking NZ style.

Thanks
P&G
p.s as for poor housing, would probably build me own, I became a brickie cause I wasn't happy with the way houses were stuck together UK style (although standards are better these days).

dlummis

you will have no worries mate as you both work, no kids to sap the pennies. you will find alot of negative threads here, people say houses are cold well you just buy one with central heating, wages are not good but with no mortgage your money is your own, cost of living is high because you only have 4 million people buying power compared to 64 million in UK. my mate is married with 3 kids lives near Christchurch wife does not work and he is a sparky he has no mortgage and lives in a 5 bed with indoor pool his place is fantastic and he lives fine what more can i say. be sensible about what you spend.
you will soon find out that everybody has a different view as we all have different lifestyles and standards of living.

catzohm

Thanks for a reply on a positive note, was beginning to feel that we would be better off staying put. Maybe many of the negatives are from "middle Englanders" e.g choice of 4 supermarkets within 3miles of home and living within 40 -50 miles of a big city. I can recall a time spent on the West coast of Scotland, the nearest "supermarket" was a small Safeway a 30 mile round trip for a poor choice of high priced essentials, nearest city was Inverness which was a 120 mile round trip. If you wanted a "tradesman" to do any work you had to be able to accomodate them or do it yourself, if you ran short of materials it was a full day to pick them up or wait three days for an expensive delivery, also a poorly paid area with a lot of seasonal work but high property prices due to wealthy "professionals" from the cities buying up homes for weekend and holiday lets. Is NZ any worse than that scenario?

Batty

No You'll be fine, although Nelson is one of the most expensive areas. We're both working, have no kids, and do have a mortgage. My hubby is a car salesman so his salary fluctuates but based on his basic pay, we're sweet. We've never taken his commision into account for budgeting purposes before we came here so still don't. It all depends on what you want out of your life. For me, it doesn't take much to make me happy so I'm almost at ecstatic right now

mumomonty

I just want to say I'm pleased that people are giving you positive posts but did they buy in before it all went mad pricewise on property? Mind you, you being a brickie can build your own, so I reckon you'd be okay. But it really depends on how much you can bring over with you I suppose and what your aspirations are i.e. 100 acres and go self sufficient, suburban with pool , buy half acre and self-build or combi of all three.
It is not cheap here (where is these days?)
House prices are mental (same ol same ol)
Buying power here is less because of the low population and it can show itself through lack of choice but I think in the UK we've possibly become spoilt - a bit like we used to think of the Yanks in the 70's and 80's when they came out with comments about our 'quaint little country'.
All best.

Machlome

We were so relieved to hear some positives. We started reading site only recently seeking reassurance having submitted EOI on cold sunday after stressful week. Since then we have read so many negatives here that when we heard on friday that appliction successful (4 weeks to the day after eoi) I panicked and hubby became so depressed that we started to re-think.
We will also be more or less mortgage free - (maybe not if we want pool etc!!!!) and although we have no work - one application is in with Police and we are waiting to hear. Plan is that for the first time since she was born I can bring up my 2 year old alone and rely on kindy for friends rather than to allow me to work. House in Cornwall is bloody freezing in winter and wood burner suffices so no probs. I like my material possessions so trips to Wellington will probably be required. We are also thinking of nelson/marlborough and would appreciate ANY feedback on this area as at the moment NZ is lots of names that are difficult to pronounce or the same as towns here!
We will be holidaying fro 2 weeks and are interested in motorhome from Auckland and drive to Christchurch to explore but this is likely to be pretty late on. has anyone ever done this - any Kiwis out there know of a good set up that we could approach/
Looking forward to replies. Charon & Mark

Batty

I'm not a Kiwi but ......... here you go anyway
http://www.maui-rentals.com/

mumomonty

We used a company called Pacific Horizon Motor homes a few years back and they met us at the airport and took us to get the Motor Home. Same on the way back from a different location.
I don't know the areas you mention. Wellington has a nice feel about it though.
It's similar to the UK in a lot of ways here. It's not as cheap as Oz, the wages aren't as good but it's not boiling hot, it suits animals here i.e. if you are brining a dog or cat and the climate is quite UK-like, which in winter can be a bit of a bummer if you live in a cheaper property with no insulation!!!

slacky-uk

I am not sure if I know which one of you is putting in the transfer application but whoever it is drop me a line. I'm 14501.