jueinnz

Yes I totally agree with you. Some of the statements were a bit bizare!!!
I think it is interesting that many of the people who it doesn't work out for, have a particular attitude and can only see the bad in the country and can nolonger remember why they left the origional country.
If people are not prepared to accept the differences and do a little bit of mind set changing, then it won't work out for them.
My way of thinking is that maybe his views will stop people who have the same kind of values from making a mistake and coming here when it obviously won't work out for them from the start. After all do we want people with bad attitude against the country here??? (NZ)

Dirk1971

I think if anyone watched 85K flushed down the toilet they wouldn't be going around saying : "This is a fantastic place to live, im so glad I made the move!"

I don't think people come to NZ with a bad attitude, on the contrary, they come with a lot of hope and expectations. It's when things don't turn out the way they envisaged that they get bitter.

For some people, not all, NZ is a very very hard place to be successful. Don't discount lady luck.

AnnieNell

Perhaps people come to NZ with too high expectations & hopes. No country exists which will fulfil our hopes & desires, this to a large extent comes from within (IMHO). A person's attitude to life will have some bearing on how they perceive any given situation.

No-one makes us emigrate it is our choice & if it doesn't work out, then that's life. Yeah, to lose money is tough BUT it is only money ( & I speak from experience), believe me, there are far worse things to lose.

Sometimes, if you've NOT got anything positive to say then it's better to say nothing at all. Constructive criticism is acceptable but I have seen no evidence of this yet.

Dirk1971

Yeah NZ certainly is overrated. No question about it. I would be really interested to know the % of migrants who stay past the five year, ten year and 20 year mark.

Maz

For that to be fair, you'd have to do the same for every country that UK citizens emigrate to. And then tally up the percentage against the population of the country in question.

Dirk1971

What's the population got to do with it? Just tell me how many people stayed and how many left. (i.e. after the honeymoon period of say a year or two).

I'd also like to know how many migrants once they get citizenship hop across to OZ...

Maz

Actually this reminds me of how the electoral votes went in the 2000 US Presidential election. States with tiny populations but huge land masses went Republican, and small states, like Illinois, went heavily Democrat, but the population is much larger in Illinois (due to Chicago) than in many other of the "red states" (ie. right-wing - Republican).

So yes, you do need a population and a percentage as you will end up with skewed statistics otherwise.

Also, you need to take into account how easy or difficult it is to get into the country, and the ease of returning to the UK. Can't just be one statistic.

Dirk1971

All I need to know is out of x thousand migrants who arrived in NZ how many were still in NZ after a certain amount of time.

Maz

Hardly representative of UK emigration though, is it?

Dirk1971

All I care about is NZ immigration. The number of people from the UK who went back after x amount of time. doubt many accurate figures are available. I know five people who have left.

Bo-Jangles

I don't see this as a negative post in any way whatsoever - it's simply a statement of fact in the way that Burt and many, many others have seen NZ for themselves. From my vantage point, Burt hits many nails on the head with his succint summation of what is an extremely common tale from expats in NZ and they can't all be wrong. He also has every right as the next man to visit this forum and say so.

Good for you mate and I hope everything works out for you back in the UK.

Gill and Rob

Don't mean to be too nosy, but £85,000 down? But thats almost $240,000
Can you explain how? and over what time frame?

Gill

Dirk1971

Classic. Don't mean to be nosy...but please tell me!

Bo-Jangles

It wouldn't take much to be down that much if you consider all the costs of a move here and back, shipping two ways, emigration fees, airfares, pet transfers, estate agents fees, and the loss on earnings whilst between jobs and counter in the lower rates of pay here. Then you get into the additional costs of establishing yourself here, which to some may not seem a big deal, but money slips through your hands like water in those first few months, replacing things you have given away and sold etc.

The true costs must be absolutely phenomenal if you added up every single penny and cent spent getting here and then doing it all over again to go back. Add a bit of insult to the injuries and take a hit on the exchange rate a couple of times over and yes you sure can lose a lot of money very quickly.

When everything is going swimmingly, we can all say it is not about the money and how we're doing this to improve our lives etc, but if you don't find your dream here and things turn sour, I can fully understand how the hard facts of costs versus 'life experience' must sting like hell.

Batty

I'm not a Kiwi and I don't understand it, never mind come up with it. Is it something from a TV show?

A person will tell 11 people of their bad experiences; they will tell 3 of their good ones I don't know whether it's the chicken and the egg thing but so many times someone comes on one of these forums complaining about NZ and they sound so rude and arrogant that I can fully understand why they didn't get on here. But which came first? Is the arrogance and rudeness a result of their experience in NZ or were they always like that? If people could only set out their stall in a reasonable and non-aggressive manner they might just get their (often valid) points through to those people who would benefit from them.

Oh, and I'm getting on brilliantly here