Campbells

Greetings,

Came across this story one of the NZ info sites and it is somewhat scary. Be interesting to get some feedback on this ??

Cheers Campbell……………… …………………� �€¦â€¦ :scared:

http://www.emigratenz.org/mshenry.html

soul222soul

THAT IS A VERY SCARY STORY :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared:

Linda Maxwell

alas he forgot about the poor education

Campbells

Short but to the point Linda. You care to expand on that as I have only heard good reports about the NZ education. We have a wee lad, nearly two and being Scots myself find your addition to the thread a concern.

I take it from your other posts that your (ex) daughter in law was from NZ?

Where in Scotland are you and are you happy to be back now?

Cheers the noo .

Campbell

sofistek

It's a mixed bag. He likes the life style. He misses political correctness (go figure). Workers are more laid-back (good). His quality of life is better.

I'm not sure where he gets him income tax figures, but, if National Insurance is included in the UK figure, I calculated a noticeably lower tax for my projected earnings.

I was taken aback by how friendly the NZ people were, when I was over there, so I don't recognize those aspects of his criticism.

I'm also not sure what he means by "one way ticket". Certainly emigration costs money but house prices have been rising faster than in the UK in the last few years. There will always be a way back for those that can't stand the place.

Lenmil

I have to add to this and say there is a lot of truth to this letter. Sorry but i cannot disagree with any of it. It is just too close to my own experiences here.

Linda Maxwell

Hi Campbell, there has been quite a lot of post's on the forum about the standard of education in NZ, some from teachers who have worked there.
Personal experience - daughter in her room at this moment with two friends studying hard for her higher pre-lims which start on Monday. She is my clever one, and has had to work very hard to catch up with her peers, kids here were streets ahead, and we were paying for a good private school over in NZ.
Our middle daughter left school in NZ with no qualifications, she was bullied terribly, the system over there is a case of, once you have left school, that's it, you cannot go to college and resit what you missed. I could not get her into a decent course that she wanted to do for love nor money. She is now doing an access to nursing course here in Scotland for free, and love's it.
I worked as a kindergarten teacher in NZ, and I quite liked the kindy system.
We are home in Argyll, and everything is looking good so far, we have been back for 3 months now, and I am still shopping, it's brilliant.

scottish

[QUOTE=sofistek
I'm also not sure what he means by "one way ticket". Certainly emigration costs money but house prices have been rising faster than in the UK in the last few years. There will always be a way back for those that can't stand the place.[/QUOTE]


The only way back for us was to sell all we own to get home. We didnt have a house here to sell so its just our furnishings etc.

Totally agree with all that he says.

You have to live here to experience it, not holiday here. The Kiwis love you spending your holiday $$$s.

The amount of people that I have met who say the same story is shocking. Alot of poorer people leaving NZ in the coming months.

A friend of ours (English) was told the other day by a Kiwi that if he could change his accent maybe he might not get ripped off.

binman

Hello Cambell. There is a recent thread on the ***** on this subject and a number of older posts which you may wish to make search for. Cheers binman

Campbells

Greetings to you all out there,
Thanks for all your replies. Looking through a lot of the other posts involving folk returning back to the UK from NZ it is interesting that folk say that they can not run NZ down and WOULD go back if the $$ situation was better over there.

I could be wrong here but I’m starting to build a picture that NZ can be a place where you end up living on the bread line and that in-turn deprives people of enjoying the nice things that the country has to offer.

We experienced a similar thing when we moved down to Cape Town 5 years ago. Stunning place LOTS to do in terms of outdoors but it was / is rather Jurassic in terms of salary structures. Most of the folk that lived in our area were overseas investors coming over for 3-6 months of the year so the local pay (or lack of) didn’t affect them. We returned to Jnb & my salary times that of CT.

I see the whole thing as, we are in a different situation because we are leaving South Africa due to the huge volumes of violent crimes here plus the gov corruption that sets standards which is filtering down making it very difficult to find honest folk to do business with.

I am still very fond of Scotland but memories of that being rather “driech� not to mention the lack of jobs. I also found it rather amusing that when I was back there in 99 for a good look-see I got some stick for being a foreigner (due to my accent). I found that a lot of folk there were on the dole and on the make for a tenner here & there. Don’t get me wrong the folk were / are brilliant but I am saying that my experience over there was scary too.

We also saw folk in Scotland that have awesome standards of living but obviously had a few bob. I must admit that the “yobs� in the UK in general I find VERY off-putting. Go into most towns / cities in UK after pub-closing time and you see lots of eye-openers. Not a pretty sight to see folk vomiting over cars or urinating over shop windows and I won’t even go the route of the soccer yob stories.


Not having a go at the UK here but what I am trying to say, for example, Scotland is a very beautiful country and there are scary stories from there too if we choose to focus on them. Nor am I trying to defend NZ as I am not in any position to do this as I have not even been there. Would kinda be like the UK folk telling me that they know what’s going on in SA as they have read all about it in The Sun!

I guess we are going to have our own experience in NZ and hope that it works out for us.
We are attracted because of the open space & outdoor life which we have here but it is not safe to go anywhere in this country anymore. We like the idea that we will be able to afford a detached house in NZ and not have to live in a flat. We see NZ as a developing country which usually presents opportunity.
There are huge volumes of South Africans moving over to NZ (not our reason for going) and we get the feedback that most are happy there & would never come back here. So I’m not comparing NZ to UK but rather NZ to SA.

I guess all in all we are rather nervous about the whole thing and can say that our little excursion (10 months) down to the Cape was an experience we don’t regret. It did cost us a lot of money etc but we would never be in our current situation had we not have tried it down there.

With the different opinions we are receiving with regards to NZ we now understand and will try our best to prepare to be cautious with money over there. We will not buy until we feel that we can settle and on a mission in term of job seek as want to get a decent paid position that can offer us to stash our $ that we will take with us and have that as the safety net if it doesn’t work out.

I am going to TRY to post some info during the various stages of our move over and hoping that I will be there for 4 – 6 week job hunt next month. If I get the vibe that NZ is not for us I don’t know what then but I am very positive at this stage.

The UK? I can tell you that I got info from the UK immigration that my SA wife would have to go through a five-year process (which was very daunting) to get her UK passport.
We were also informed that I would have to offer that I could sustain her without her being a burden to the state etc etc otherwise she wouldn’t get through immigration at the airport.

Anyway, before I write myself in circles thought the post below was quite interesting from same site but a lady from Edinburgh.

Cheers and all the best

Campbell.
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scottish

Cambell, only you and your family will now if NZ will be right for you or not. We all have different exp, some with a common factor.. money, or lack of it.

My only advice would be rent first then buy. Keep your options open and money in the bank "just incase".

Good luck with your move.... 2 days and I am back in Scotland, my home.
xxx

JWW

Totally agree. We have been over here in Chrictchurch 6 years and absolutely love it. Also, due to working for two large companies, I know over a hundred ex-pats and I can't think of a single one who has gone back to the UK as yet. We are all well paid as well.

I think there will always be a vocal few where things have gone wrong, and they are intitled to their view on NZ, and it is true it doesn't work for everyone. Things ARE different. NZ is not a suburb of London. Also, the three main cities have very different characteristics....choose carefully. I would never live in Auckland or Wellington for instance.

WheelsOfSteel

The pay is bad and unless you earn lots you won't be able to travel much and therfore feel quite cut-off. However, that said, it is still a wonderfull place.

We have been here 2 years and have had no real problems making friends from many different nationalities, including Kiwis. We do live put in a smaller community which I guess helps.

We are going to get our fix of Europe for a while and make some money, but we are looking forward to coming back once done... Each to there own. NZ is not short for New-Zealand-on-Sea a place, just down the road like Southend-on-Sea. It is a very different country, with a very small economy and all the benefits and disadvatages that go with that.

Have fun...

Gill and Rob

Our experiences of NZ?.....well we love it. I have a great job, Rob has had the opportunity to work for himself and our kids have flourished under the more relaxed, socially stimulating school environment - they have both grown in confidence of performing in public and in thinking in a more dynamic manner with regard to home work. They are physically more active and lead a much more "adventureous" life. For us we can not put a price on the huge rise in our quality of life, sure money helps, but we still had hard times in the UK too.

We were told by the agency that set up my job interview, that moving to NZ was a step backward in life 2 years, friends here say it's more like a 5 years to get to the point you left in the UK.

I know NZ is not for everyone, but it was, and is for us.
Gill and Rob

DReynolds

I think what you get out of NZ is very much down to your expectations.

We lived in Napier for 15months only to return to the UK 2 years ago, regretting it ever since. Napier is a beautiful city (town really!) and is kept beautifully clean, unlike the majority of the UK! The filth along roads here and the way everything is grey through pollution is shocking!

NZ has it's problems of course, the wages are low outside the major cities, but we found most items were cheaper (except paint!). There is still a race problem which does get on your nerves as they harp on and on about it, but is that any different to the UK? The choice when it comes to clothing is abismal, especially for blokes. The national dress is a rugby shirt and shorts!
But I went to work in shorts, a shirt and sandals, and I was a manager!!, so it can't be all bad.

The weather on the east coast was superb, with only 1 or 2 frosts a year and we made friends easily, a couple of who we still keep in touch with. People are so much friendlier, even spotty youths working in supermarkets want to chat as they serve you, unlike the sullen teenagers in the UK!!
A traffic jam in Napier would be 3 cars long and all the houses are detached. No more living on top of each other.

Since returning to the UK I now work as a police officer and I can tell you that crime, especially drunken mindless violence is a much much bigger problem over here than in NZ. Most UK towns are a no go area after dark. I did not feel this at all in NZ.

So, in conclusion, NZ is like any other place in the world. Has good and bad points. All depends on what you're after. If you're career minded and want to earn a big salary and go shopping a lot, mayber give it a miss.
If you want a simpler, quieter easy going life in a beautiful country and are willing to make an effort to fit in (remember, we are outsiders), I still think NZ is a superb choice.

Oh and we are going to return within the next 2 years !!!

C ya there !!
Duncan