Brianbrain

Hi All!

I am a new comer to all of this in so many senses so please be gentle!! My husband and I are in the very early stages of considering imigration to New Zealand and we are still at the stage of feeling rather overwhelmed by it all. We are both 39 and hubby is an HGV1 driver and I am a school business manager. We currently live in a small market town in Gloucestershire and we just feel the time has come in our lives to make a change. We have two children (girls of 12 & 6). If I outline some of our reasons for consideing this move and what we hope to gain from it then maybe some of you could offer me some advice as to how realistic we are being. We would greatly appreciate any thoughts based on your personal experiences.

Reasons for considering change:

• The continuing prospect of raising our children in the UK doesn't thrill us, we would hope that a life in New Zealand could offer children so much more.
• Most important to us is a general better quality of life. By this I don't mean financially or in a materialistic sense but we would like to feel less stress and be able to start really enjoying life without everything being a struggle to maintain a certain posession-based lifestyle (not that I feel we are particularly materialistic at present, it just seems we are ready to focus on us and our life quality).
• Also, to be frank, and I hope this doesn't offend anyone, we are sick of so many things in the UK. From increasing crime rates, to the unfair nature of the benefits system, the dreary and unpredictable weather and the ever rising cost of living.
• We have a lovely house but it leaves us with little spare cash to spend on ourselves. We feel we would benefit greatly from downsizing our mortgage to enable us to live a little (I know we could do this in the UK but somehow we feel we need a bigger change)

I should say that neither my husband or I have been to NZ and we are basing our thoughts on the country on information from friends who live there or have visited and some very thorough internet research. If anyone has an opinion about whether or not they would advise a visit prior to us packing up or leaving then I would love to hear it. I do however sense that I know the answer to this!

I would just add though that we are so determined to make a change in our lives and we feel ready to get out there into the world and offer our kids more opportunities than in UK. We intend to leave with enough money in our pockets to last a year without work if we had to and enough left in the UK to get us back to the lifestyle we lead now if it had to come to that!

Anyway if you have successfully got through my ramblings I would very much appreciate your thoughts and would love to hear about your personal experiences, both positive and negative equally.

Thanks for your time!

spackster

Hi and welcome. I would definatly recommend a visit as you only learn so much from friends and the internet. We're moving out in Feb 07, and done two reccie before we decided NZ was for us. Also there are some very imformative threads on this forum, so have a browse through.
Best of luck.

Jac

beaudixon

Hi,

There is lots of info on the forum but we found very little regarding HGV driving.
Hubby has HGV class 1 and we move in 4 weeks!!! Can't wait - all very excited (2 children 4 & 2).
Not sure if you would get residency with your job but there are ways with HGV if you know how. PM me for more info!
Hope all goes well - trip would be good in advance but we only had 2 week holiday touring South Island which doesn't give you fill insight.

Good luck, Judy

Apple12

I don't think you mention in your post that you have checked that you *can* get into NZ to live and work.
The first thing you need to do is find out about visas, tot up your points and see if you are actually going to be able to immigrate.
Apologies if you have done this already.

Amanda

Hi There,

I would definitely recommend a trip out here beforehand. We emigrated 4 years ago without having been here. We always knew that if thing did not work out we could always return. We are in the process of returning to the Uk and it is a logistical nightmare!!

NZ is a great country and especially for children.The education is fairly good (although I don't think the cirricurriculum is broad enough). At my husband's company, the trainees which they employ seem to have less knowledge than our 11 year old son (these are trainees that went to Macleans College, one of the best schools in NZ) and these are not isolated incidents.

I just find NZ so isolated from the rest of the world ( lots of people probably like that aspect). I don't think until you live here, you quite realise how far it is.

Crime does happen here. I have seen more crime here than I ever did back in the UK. Statistics show that per 1000 people, more crimes are commitedcommitted the UK!

Still the winters here are much better (in Auckland), the sun seems to shine more and the beaches/sea are wonderful.

I hope this has been of some help. Lots of people on this forum do not like negative comments on NZ, but everyone has there own individual opinion and experiences of living in a different country. Looking back to our lifestyle in the Uk we had a very good one. We came here knowing that we could always return if it wasn't for us and to look upon it as an experience, which it certainly has been.

Good Luck.

Am Loolah

Hi Amanda,

Sorry to hear it hasn't worked out for you.

I live in one of the most sought after areas in the UK, especially for people wanting a better quality of life, great beaches etc. We live just outside of a town called Bodmin. Current population 14,000. 2 years ago Bodmin had the highest murder rate in the UK per capita?! We've only stayed in the hope our neighbour would be part of the statistic so we could say "I saw nothing Guvnor!" Only joking (?)

Nowhere will ever be all you want it to be. It's just not feasible. So long as people realise this, maybe we stand a chance of making better lives elsewhere?

Lenny the Lion

Sorry to here you are returning back to the UK and I hope it works out for you. Just a word of warning though.....in 4 years you will notice a lot of changes on your return and most of them, well .........:scared:
Most of the crime in NZ is centered around the larger towns and cities and is always well reported. In the UK it is everywhere and largely unreported because of a cant be arsed attitude or fear of reprisals.
Best of luck to you anyway,

Amanda

You are quite right nowhere is perfect! We all have different perspectives on what we want. I just hope we are not making a mistake by returning to the UK :scared: If it does not work out we can always come back (Not sure my husband would agree to this. He has said once we go back that is it).

Once we sell our house, all the fun begins. Does anyone need a large house in Cockle Bay, Auckland?

kwprwn

I would love a house but not sure if you will accept my offer of $1....can push it for $2 we are looking for a house but if I remember rightly you have lots of children..were as we are just 2 little peoples, so think yours will be

a) too big
b) out of our price range

Amanda

May accept $2, if we get really desperate. I am already fed up with these Open Homes (we have only had 2 weekends of them so far). People tend to see them as an afternoon out and are not seriously looking for a home. We have had loads of neighbours around, just to have a nose and to see what we have done to the house (we modernised the downstairs and built an additional upstairs). Yes the house would probably be too big. It has 5-6 bedrooms. This is one thing I will be sad to leave. No doubt the house we will have in the UK will be half the size!

kwprwn

I can imagine it must be horrid, we have been to a few open homes and now have real estates plaguing us...but they cant get their head round the fact that we can not give them a completion date for the sale of our house in the UK...we are just waiting for it all to be completed

Good luck with the selling of it, I hope it sells quickly, houses here seem to sell quickly I have noticed that...which real estate you selling with...being dead nosey now?

SarahB

We didnt come here before moving out but did a fair amount of research on the net, books, relocation programmes..... talking to all and sundry who had been or lived here. My opinion now is that you should talk as much as possible to expats who have made the move and not kiwis who live here... youre likely to get more valid opinions that way.

We've been here since June 05 so 15 months now. We kept both houses in the UK and rented them out. We rented here for 12 months and then suddenly I decided to sell my house in UK and buy one here instead.... that was all easy and the sale went through without a hitch.... easy to do over the internet and snail mail. We've used the money from the sale to put a fair sized deposit down on a house here just outside Auckland near the sea...and pay off all debts and pay off 2 cars. (it was a 1 bedroom house I had in the UK...got good exchange rate).... now my partner has just put his town house up for sale over there too and quite honestly.... we cant see ourselves going back now.

Everything isnt all rosey rosey here and yes there are the same problems as youre probably used to but IMHO the lifestyle here is just so much more laid back and less stressful.....which is what you said you wanted. I love living by the sea..... the climate up here is so much better than where we lived in UK. The winters are shorter and milder....but boy it can rain here!! lol

We love it here in Beachlands..... OH has his fireman volunteer work which he cant do in the UK and he can go fishing just down the road.... I go horse riding when I can and riding in the sea and down past the mangroves is gorgeous. We feel that settled now Ive got pregnant again and there was just no way I was gonna have another bub when I was back in the UK.

You can keep in touch with home pretty easily....we use Skype to ring home and chat to rellies every weekend via webcam.

Good luck with your decisions and if you come here I hope it works out for you like it has done for us. Its a stunningly beautiful country.

Cheers

SarahB

Jude J

We didn't come first either. It was a very spur of the moment decision. We had discussed the posiblilty of living abroad at some stage as my hubby worked for Amex, but never NZ. Then one morning on our drive to work, stuck in traffic, I was talking to him about NZ as I had a friend that was thinking of going for 6 months. He said 'shall we go?' and I said 'where?' and he said 'New Zealand' I said 'OK'
That was exactly how the conversation went! He did the immigration bit, it was different back then, 4 years ago. We talked to the kids who both said a big "Yes!!!' I did a bit of research on internet about 2 months before we moved and sort of knew I wanted to head for this part of Auckland.
9 months after the discussion in the car we left!

My daughter was 12 at the time, she is pretty intelligent and had just spent a few months in a private school (long story) so she was well ahead of her peers when we got here. She had the option of going a year ahead but she really didn't want to and rightly or wrongly we let her make that choice. She was mentor to her classmates for a while and now is in college she is in the higher level classes, not exactly excelling but enjoying school and doing alright.
She was very grown up for her age back in uk. A bit obsessed about what she wore, height of her heels etc. we had many battles about clothing! Within a few weeks of being here we went for a walk along the beach to go to the local shops. She was now wearing pink knee length boardies (shorts) with a t-shirt and flip flops. She looked like a 12 yr old again.
My son who was 14 at the time made friends quickly and loves it here. He is 18 now and is leaving school in a few weeks and may go to uni, he may not, he doesn't know yet!
Like Sarah, we have also had another baby and we have always said that if we had not moved here we would not have had one! Dont worry, it doesn't make you more fertile or desperate to breed it's just once you get into the relaxed way of life, have more time for family, and are generally happier it just feels right. (speaking for myself, I was always happy in uk too but just didn't have as much time to sit back and enjoy it).
It hasn't been without its troubles. My hubby was diagnosed with a lifelong illness not long after we got here and we dont know if the care would have been better on NHS, so far it's been alright here.
We have had a few teenage probs with our daughter, but lots of help was available to us and we have come out the other side now.
Anyway, that was a bit of a ramble, sorry!!

Jude

SarahB

You go ahead and ramble!! Its always interesting to see how other people get on here too... I'm just nosey!!

What amazed me when I got here was the teenagers in groups that say Hi to you as you walk past.... I think I mustve looked at some of them very suspiciously to start with.... wondering what their game was.... but they just wanted to say Hi. I've never had that in the UK.... in fact when I lived in Peteroborough I dared looked at a teenager once and he asked "what the F you staring at?". I had my car p!ssed on at night once when I lived there.... I heard a noise and looked outside and some guy was p!ssing on my car front door and then walked off.... it took all the polish off!! lol

I'm not saying that things like that dont or wont happen here but Ive had no evidence of it yet where we are. In the summer when I walk round the village here with my littlun sometimes it can take hours as people just stop to talk and you end up nattering for ages.

As for breeding.... part of the decision was because I hit the big 40 next year and thats my mental cut-off age for having more bubs.... another reason as my son has no siblings so basically no family here for him after me and his dad go. Its just a nice place to bring up kids.... even Auckland has parks, beaches and reserves everywhere. The kids are kids here...they enjoy themselves outside.... last winter was milder than this one we just had and the kids were able to play outside all winter.

Maybe we have just been lucky but we wont be going back to live in the UK in a hurry.

Amanda

We are selling with First National. Friends of mine actually. Probably a bad idea, mixing business with pleasure!!