Is NZ really that bad?
 

I've been a long time lurker on the verge of emigrating to Canada a few years ago, but didn't. For the last year or so I've really been looking at NZ instead. I've been out there a few times and loved it, but holidaying and actually living there on a day to day basis are very different.

For me, the UK has massively gone downhill in the last 5 years or so. The crime is bad, the costs are high and the standards are declining. Don't even get me started on the weather! Looking on here, those that have made the move to NZ seem to be on a bit of a downer about it and TBH I can't see how it can be any worse than the UK is right now. From what I've read, I get the impression that people who had a large circle of friends and an active social life in the UK are the ones that are the unhappiest, as they have been unable to recreate that in NZ - however, that's just my perception.

Please can those who have regretted the move advise why they feel the way they do, as from my few visits to NZ I fail to see how it can be so bad.

Re: Is NZ really that bad?
 

I vent sometimes about the bad stuff re NZ but it is not all bad. We came here for a better life and we certainly improved on the one we left back in the UK.

In fairness NZ has delivered what we expected and we do have a good life here. But like every where there is negative stuff, you probably have heard it all before. Alas we have had a number of issues relative to losing large amounts of our savings, in some way due (and IMO) to what I call 'poor, unfair and shoddy administration'.

This taints my view on NZ and with the recent decisions NOT to regulate RTD alco pops AND loan sharks I think 'when are these people going to wake up and smell the coffee'.

I do not use loan sharks and my kids are very young so the RTD's is not a personal issue re the latter 2 issues.
What pisses me off is seeing a perfectly good country go down the plug hole because the govt. does not have the will to make NZ a better place.

They also recently chose not to drop the alco levels here re driving after a plethora of reports came out saying how it would decrease the number of those who die on our roads..WHAT IS THAT ABOUT????????

The govt. still allows any person to ply our roads WITHOUT insurance!!! WTF??????

The govt and Reserve bank refuse to interevene in our overly strong currency when virtually all other nations on earth devalue their currency when needed.

Just how many heads do we have in the sand here?

The major plus for us is our standard of living but mainly from an ethstetic point of view rather than a fiscal one. Also the unpopulous nature of Nz is a big plus if you like the quiet life.

I don't think anyone should be put off coming to NZ by a ranting loony like me.

The only way you will ever know is to come and have a look see.

Re: Is NZ really that bad?
 

Hi

I guess it all depends really on the kind of life that you are happy leading. We have been here for 7 years now and plan on returning to the UK either late next year or early the following.

The things that have pushed this move for us on a personal level are financial - we just can't seem to get ahead here and things seem so expensive.

Being so far from family has been a lot harder than I imagined too.

I also really miss being able to have a day out where there is actually something to do/see.

We have found it very difficult to make friends here and living rurally we don;t have a lot in common with the locals.

I don't regret coming but do regret staying so long as I am probably going to have split my family up by leaving eldest daughter here.

We always thought we would be able to travel to Australia and Fiji ect for our hols but have managed 2 days in Sydney!

I also struggle with the inward looking mindset that is prevelant here. When people say to you that they have no interest in ever going to see anywhere else in the world it has to be a worry!

I guess if you love rugby/camping/hunting you will fit in. However if you want culture/travel/history ect its not ideal.

Just my personal opinion - I could go on but won't!

Re: Is NZ really that bad?
 

It really all depends on you...and what you aim to get out of life...also your own personal family values plays a big part too.

My husband loves new Zealand. I haven't seen him in a pair of jeans since we left the uk, he laughs about the crap tv, doesn't mind the terrible supermarkets, loves the non materialistic attitude to clothes, slower pace of life and loves tramping and camping. He has developed a love for sports and fishing, and he enjoys rugby. He is also not particularly close to his family in the uk and copes really well at knowing he won't be seeing his mum and dad for another year or two.

I, on the other hand, have never settled.I was warned so many times that unless you are frugal or mortgage free, you will struggle financially. But I just stuck my head in the sand as I saw it as a huge adventure. Now I really wish I had done my homework on the place and realised that nz wasnt for me. No, we actually won't have a cat in hells chance to be able to have a summer holiday every year to Australia in fact in the 6 years that we have
Lived in nz, we haven't been able to afford to go anywhere except one camping trip!, that I actually will probably hate the fact that lots of people do their shopping in their pyjamas, and not really give a monkeys about how they present themselves.. Food, drink, eating out, holidays, taking the kids bowling, cinema, holidays, diy, home improvement etc etc are unbelievably expensive. All the above that I love doing. You also need to be prepared to learn how to bake and cook every meal from scratch.. This is something positive for me as I now have developed a love for cooking..but my point is that you don't have a choice in the matter... Unless of course you are prepared to eat battered/fried/ sausage flavoured crap. You also cant just throw anything you fancy in the trolley..get out of the habit of using peppers in every salad,casserole etc because a lot of the time they are hair raisingly expensive!

Family.. This was the ultimate killer for me..watching younger and older members of the family become unrecognisable in photographs...seeing the pain my mum and dad went through every time they saw my kids on the webcam and realised they..and us had missed another birthday..or Xmas. The best way i can describe it is feeling like i was a guest in a foreign country and in a kind of bubble.. Living at the arse end of the globe cut off whilst life continued in the northern hemisphere..up there. Xmas is very very different. If you are not a fan of the traditional spirit of Xmas, Xmas carols, the general build up..then nz is for you. I went xmas shopping on a saturday afternoon three weeks before Xmas last year and the place was deserted.. Not many people around, no Xmas lights, feeling or fuss. I did all my shopping in one afternoon and the car park was half empty. Would you find that bliss? Or would you feel a bit gloomy?

Friends, you really have to be prepared to put yourself out there in terms of creating friendships..kiwis are friendly but hard to crack and they will keep you at arms length.. Of course I am generalising but they don't need you..as much as you need them. they have their families here and they are not really bothered about creating new friendships.. They would prefer to go to bed early instead.:D

The general feeling for me, which probably accounted a lot for where I was, was the hillbilly feeling..feeling like it was about 20 years behind. Recently a new department store opened up. People travelled for miles..one family travelled a two hour round trip, so they could have a ride on the escalator!!! Because they had never been on an escalator before!!!

So really to sum up, it depends on you.. Your situation..And what things matter to you the most. For me, home is where the heart is, not the scenery.

Re: Is NZ really that bad?
 

Pommiechick I couldn't have put it better myself!:)

I also hate feeling overdressed in jeans! :(

Re: Is NZ really that bad?
 

Great podt..do go on, I am interested as I have always fancied living in NZ.

Re: Is NZ really that bad?
 

I agree with most that was said so far. NZ has not lived up to our expectation. So we are off back to Europe in a few months time.Working here is a real hassle unless you adapt to the "I give a sh*t"- attitude a lot of Kiwis have. Friendships are hard to come by, living costs are very high, cultural entertainment is very limited even in Auckland (and also very expensive), travel opportunities are few, being separate from family and friends is unbelievably difficult for us, and even though the sun shines a lot more, we don't really enjoy it that much because the sun is very strong. Sun block, heads, sun glasses, long clothes and shades are much needed. We are also disappointed with the accessibility of nature here (we are living in Auckland).

That said, I know immigrants that are happy here. It really is a very personal decision!

Re: Is NZ really that bad?
 

Assanah I know what you mean about lack of access to nature. We live rurally but all the native bush looks the same - they will probably have been dropping poison anyway so you can't take dogs out with you.

I really miss public footpaths through beautiful countryside, colour - sooo sick of green! Also they are so intent on killing anything that isn;t native that you can do a walk and not seem to see a single interesting bird/animal.

:unsure:

Re: Is NZ really that bad?
 

I think theres a degree of financial woe now descending on NZ and people are feeling the pinch.
With this in mind its always easy to look back through rose tinted glasses and think maybe
the green is greener elsewhere, just as they did when they left home to come to NZ.
Compared to anywhere its a nice place to live. its peaceful, quiet, has space to live and breath.
Its not really a place for the ambitious or people who like to stand out. Its a nice place to live,
a little slow and backward compared to most big European citys but thats about it

Re: Is NZ really that bad?
 

Brilliant :lol:

Re: Is NZ really that bad?
 

Well said.

Re: Is NZ really that bad?
 

we love it but have only been here 7mths. Live in a lovely Bay, kids school has less than 200 kids in total and that covers 5-12yr olds. Close to 6 beaches, lots of nice area's to walk. last 2 days I have taken kids to school then popped to beach to walk the dog, wouldn't be able to do that in winter in UK.
made some good friends, luckily we befriended someone on Facebook before coming over who introduced us to another family with kids same age as my eldest so she had someone she had spoken to here before we came over and they were at our doorstep day after we arrived asking for my kids to go over and play whilst we settled in.
Rental was nasty and I hated it but we have managed to buy and things are improving, not that heat pumps will ever warm a house like central heating does.
Things are more expensive here and there is less choice but everyone should know that before they come if they have done their homework or just popped onto a forum, people told me is was like going back to the UK in the 50's and to be honest that does quite sum it up. You can adapt and change ways you do things. We are now hoping to be growing some of our own veg, not something we could of done in UK as small garden with hardly any sun. Kids are more active and more creative. Lots less TV watching and more sitting creating things from boxes, paper, lolly sticks etc. and then out playing with whatever they have made.

We have been lucky as I fell into a part time job a couple of weeks after arriving that fits round the school day and have now been taken on permanently, hubby had a full time job working in IT (our route into being here). For us it has been a positive move, not saying its going to be forever home but we are enjoying all the new experiences we are gaining.

Its what you make of it and what you are prepared to put up with against what you gain. One man's treasure is another man's junk.

Re: Is NZ really that bad?
 

Haven't read this thread but this caught my eye Mark Smith

I heard the exact same tale from my lovely next door neighbour & her friend just last weekend.:D Both are around the same age as me.
Her friend decided one time that my neighbour should travel further afield so took her down to Christchurch for a overnight trip coming back via Kaikoura. This would be several years ago.
Anyway they hit the shops and one had an escalator . My neighbour hated the thing ! Couldn't quite get the timing right to get on the thing and then stumbled off at the top end. Apparently the air was completely and utterly blue.:lol: She has never been on one again , although we do have one in a local small mall. Same with elevators. No chance !
She also lost her false teeth somehow:sneaky:. Couldn't tell her husband because of the cost so had to get more secretly and pay 'em off on the never never.
Was a great trip all round by the sounds of it. :nod:

Re: Is NZ really that bad?
 

While I was in Blighty on holiday in may I was shopping in London and got stuck behind an older arab man
who simply couldnt get on the down escalator, He got in a bit of panic as the woman who was with him
stepped on and proceeded to gracefully glide from sight obviously thinking he was behind her only to
then jump on the up escalator to return and get him just as he managed to step on the downward.

All I could think of was Laurel and Hardy

Re: Is NZ really that bad?
 

I really struggled to settle in NZ. The first eight months in NZ last year were, frankly, a write off. Things seem to be on an even keel at present for us. We will, on 2nd September, celebrate our first year in the house we purchased last year. That makes me feel settled. I might have missed the $49 bottles of Non Vintage Moet and Chandon in Countdown last week. Does anyone know if the offer is still on ? I'll get good old Lindauer fizz if not ! (I could have got NV M&C in my local co-op in Surrey for twenty quid)

Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with 99% of people's negative experiences of NZ, may I please remark on the following:

Cooking from scratch - been doing this for years, doing it NZ is no different from Britain.

Eating Out - Angora is a lovely Meditaranean restaurant which is always busy, Ceramic Cafe is good and the local food served there is delicious. Beijing Chinese is so - so. We have a couple of chinese takeaways from takeaway bars, the usual overcooked mush that we had in Britain. Have yet to try the Spice Guru for a curry. Went to Bombay Nights for a curry - um I've had better. They renamed the restaurant shortly after, just as well. We have two fish and chip shops, I've never seen such a range of battered/crumbed fish. One of them, you choose it from the window, then they cook it for you. You could also just buy it raw there like from the fishmongers. Both produce good quality fish and chips. Your order will be heavily salted prior to wrapping unless you ask for no salt which becomes code for, 'English customer !'

Friends - we are the 'quarantine couple' it's rare that anyone visits, we don't visit friends this is how we lived in Britain and are perfectly happy doing it here too.

Culture - Went to the cinema after work, husband and I, to see the Meryl Streep film, 'Hope Springs' a comedy with a slow storyline but weeknight pictures after work but before tea would have been unheard of in Britain for us. Oh, there was an 8.15pm showing of that and other films too.

More Culture - Went to the local rep. theatre to see the Alan Aykbourne play, 'Absurd Person Singular', also the t.v. show, '7 days' came to our town last year, we went to see it and it was good. The Comedy Convoy was touring last year, we saw it in our town. I've also seen, 'The potted Mikado' at another theatre in this small provincial town. We've seen 3 stage play versions of Alan Bennet plays done as a triple bill at the local college theatre. We saw a locally written stage version of, 'Are you being served ?' I also saw an amateur dramatic play which could have been entitled twenty first dates. It was about 20 sketches on love and life and was funny and well acted.

We walk at the beach, at least four to choose from, we walk around our local lake, we walk around our local botanical gardens. we walk along the bank of our river. That's on successive weekends, not all in one go !

OK, the cost of a lot of things makes me go :eek:, just don't get me started on the cost of tomatoes in the winter in NZ either ! The fact that Kiwi's are moaning about the rising cost of petrol here, I think, is laughable ! It's about 111p per litre here compared to what it costs in Britain.