jerry106

Hi, this is my first post.

I am looking for my family and I to start a new life. I am married and have one young daughter.

Having looked at a few other countries New Zealand seems to satisfy what we are looking for and that is a good quality of life that is centred around family living within a good community environment.

I am seriously planning to move to New Zealand however where do I start, my house is up for sale and we have registerd for assessment via an agency, is this the best way forward?

I understand that the weather can vary, does new zealand have proper seasons unlike here?

Both my Wife and I are qualified to a level 5 standard within management, combined with many years experience in the public and private sector.

Lots of waffle however I would appreciate some feedback/advice

Looking forward to hearing from you!

BEVS

Hi and welcome to the little NZ forum.

Happy Postings.


No would be my honest opinion. It is better that you understand the process so you can assess your position for yourself. If you then want to spend money on a migration agent do so but make sure the agent is NZAMI registered. There are good and bad agents out there.

Your first port of call is the POINTS INDICATOR on the New Zealand Immigration website.

Genesis

Hi, yes NZ does have proper seasons..strength of sais seasons depending on where you choose to live..ie the South Isle has harsher winters than the North. Summers here are way better than in the UK..winters milder. NZ is known for its wild weather too..I always say if its good, hot weather go to Oz or some will say go and live in the micro climates in Hawkes bay and the Nelson area. Been her 4 yrs with our 3 nippers..we love it..no going back aye?

jerry106

Hi Bevs,

Thank you for your response, did you use an agency how long have you been out there?

jerry106

Hi Genesis,

It sounds like you have settled very well and you are all happy. Good to here that you have children as a major concern for us for our 9yr daughter and how she would integrate into the school system both socially and academically. Do you pay school fees?

Did you have a job to go to and how was this done?

By the way I am guessing you are scottish or Geardie, no offence meant if I have got this wrong but I worked with a guy who ended most sentances with -aye

cleverchap

Sounds like you've never been to NZ then eh? Its the replacement for punctuation here

Best of luck with your research.

jerry106

Thank you for your comment. any advice on NZ?

cleverchap

I have only been in NZ for a couple of months so will try to answer any questions you have as best I can.
A couple of years ago we (my wife and I) began looking at emmigrating.
After researching it for a while we kind of gave up on the idea as lots of people said it was to hard, to expensive and to much hassel. I have to point out that none of the people had actually emmigrated themselves!
One day last May my wife came home from work and told me she had emailed her CV to a recruitment firm in NZ and they were positive they could get her a position very easily. A couple of days later they had set up a couple of video interviews and had offers of work in Wellington and Auckland so we chose Wellington. My wife is an accountant and I worked for the Dept of Transport in the UK. I was made redundant at just the right time which saved me handing in my resignation and gave us a nice 'nest egg' to start our new life.
We packed our bags and left the UK last October so haven't been here very long but have found it very plesant to date. What else do you want to know?

Am Loolah

Hi Jerry,

If it is a better life for your daughter than, personally, I think NZ stacks up very well.

We came out nearly 2 years ago with 4 kids, then aged, 14, 11, 8 and 4 and they seem to have absolutely flourished here.

NZ has seasons, but it will depend where you choose to settle as to how mild or not these seasons are. With your experience I am not sure as to whether you will need to be based in one of the "bigger" cities such as Auckland or Wellington? We live in the Bay of Plenty and are the top city for the North Island last year in terms of sunshine hours!! As I like to mention often on here it has a micro-climate which we specifically chose.

Wellington - apparently windy.
South Island - apparently cooler than North, although Blenheim and Nelson get more sunshine!

We came over as my Hubby is a Kiwi so easyier for us and haven't had to jump through hoops like most people, hence my experiences of immigration etc different to the majority. But the majority consensus is DON'T use an agent, you can fill out the forms and get qualifications assessed yourselves.

Best of luck.

Loolah

jerry106

Hi am loolah!

Yes our daughter is a major priority, we want to give her a better quality of life, as she is only 9 (going on 19) I am sure she can adapt to the change.

All we would like is a place where in the Summer you actually get Sunshine, and the winter as it should be.

I guess with your hubby being a Kiwi intergration was easy?

Thank you for your comments

Jerry

Am Loolah

The education system is different to the UK here. There seems to be more emphasis on rounding them as individuals and perhaps less on academic hot housing. Lots of sports and social/pastoral/community integration. I would say my 2 eldest found it very/too easy academically having come from private school in the UK. My son, who is now 10, not remotely interested in academia ... now he has an outside sports interest, sailing through school!

The 2 eldest look like they will want to attend Uni; whether that be here or back in the UK I'm not sure yet? To be honest, would be heartbroken if they went back and "left" us - but because of our mad family unit, can't see it happening! Who knows, it's a risk we took with teenagers!

I think it would be useful to you and your wife if when exploring employment opportunities you also look up climate/weather patterns for where it seems you may get the best jobs - as it would appear NZ is a law unto itself on the old weather front!

Did you mean integration (ie: with the Kiwi's) or immigration was easy with Hubby being Kiwi?!

jerry106

Hi am loolah

It sounds just right, our daughter is performing very well currently but the idea of a mix, with focus on becoming a more rounded person is very appealing.

Here there seems to be a constant pressure for schools to hit very high targets/standards of which is all good but when do they have time to enjoy themselves and not be so pressured?

I think there comes a time when children leave to do what ever they desire, Uni or the like and it would be heartbreaking for us too! just as long as you can give them a good start in life, hence why we are looking to move to NZ.

Sorry, what I meant was, how were you received by the local Kiwi community being a pom and all?

Jerry