bookemjano

We did our 'family review' on being here the other night, making sure everyone was ok and if there was anything we needed to do. So we all did, separately, our lists of 5 good things and 5 bad things about being in New Zealand. ALL of us struggled to make the bad things list to 5 points, the common first two being missing family/friends and missing the familiarity of home. Other bad things were having to stick to a budget, poor telly and, of course, the price of Baileys. But all of us could have gone way past 5 good things on our list, but we had to stick to the limit and find the 5 most important things. Amongst our joint points were:

• Feeling safer (number one on every list)
• Friendlier people
• Weather
• Loads of things to do
• Meeting people from all over the world
• Having more time as a family
• (from Helen) Realising she really liked her brother and looking after each other (lump in throat time)
• The scenery, particularly the mountains
• The wildlife and the plants
• New friends, and knowing that some of them we'll know forever
• New Zealand music that's pretty good but wouldn't have had a changce of being played in the UK
• Less crime
• Employers who don't have to be told you have a life outside of work
• More sport to get involved in (obviously not on my list)
• The adventure of it all, and feeling that if we can do this we can do anything
• New bikes (wasn't on my list, still can't ride it) and being able to go for miles on them
• Loads of fruit to eat cheaply
• Quick medical appointments
• People being always ready and willing to help their neighbours

Not bad eh!

Boopy

A very interesting positive summary. I'm wishing I was over there. It's so dark, wet and miserable here, I bet that's someting you won't miss.

wilkesyl

so great to hear of a family success story particularly with all the bad vibes you hear. My husband has two job interviews in nz next week and we are all really exited about our move. We have already made our first move as we have lived in Germany for the past 18months, with the language barrier and living with the germans (sorry to offend) we think NZ will be fantastic, cant wait to come and start our new life!! Fingers crossed he gets a job and we can come asap!!!

Thanks for the positive story, was a joy to read.