petemel

UK prison officer seeks your advice.

Hi I am prison officer here in the UK and I was just wondering if you could give me your advice please.

We are thinking of moving to Wellington or the Hawks Bay area, is there anything you could tell me about theses places.

My partners reckons the weather is just like the UK, dull dreary and damp, is this the case.

I hear the price of food and property are very high and the wages low compared to the UK. Is this true.

If I am offered the job as a prison officer in NZ would I be able to afford a decent house with a low mortgage and if we take a deposit of $163k with us.

I have heard horror stories about NZ, Drink driving, locals not very friendly, the way NZ is run is very poor . Is that true.

Would there be plenty of jobs on offer for my wife who has worked in local government all her life in council tax/housing benefits.

Finally. Whats it like working in a NZ prison, is it as professional and disciplined as ours and what are the wages like.

Sorry for all the questions mate and I hope you dont mind me asking. Its a big move and we need to be sure we are doing the right thing. Hope you can advise/help.

Kind Regards and best wishes from the U.K

Petemel

BEVS

Hi there.
I have moved your post out of updates and into a thread of it's own on the main NZ forum.
Fooferfish should still see it with a title including 'Prison Officer'. It should also attract those actually on the North Island to comment on costs etc.

Robbie2010

http://www.corrections.govt.nz/

Starting salary while you attend training college is $44,936. Then about $47K.

If you do your levels (mate of mine completed his level 3's inside a year) it goes up around another $6k.

Shift system for me is 7days(0600-1400), 2 days off, 8days(1400-2200), 4 days off. then repeat.

I can't give you a comparison to UK prisons because I have never worked in a UK prison. However, the Guys that have tell me it is different.

I'm at Waikeria...Housing is reasonably priced around here but we are inland.

Debbie2NZ

Food is expensive here. A loaf of bread that cost £1.35 in UK costs £2.00 here. Petrol is cheaper, it's currently about £1 per litre. You would think that others things would be cheaper because of that, but they are not. Second hand cars are more expensive here. The folklore being that they hold their value on resale. However, that's hard when you're trying to buy one in the first place. I bought a 2001 Mazda Familia (similar to a 323) with 13,000 miles on the clock, for about £4,500. The majority of NZ cars are automatic as kiwis seem to struggle with the clutch pedal, much like Americans do.
Trademe is a very good site for looking up houses to buy. There's also cars for sale and other classified ads. You'll get an idea of the cost of things. The majority of houses in NZ are bungalows, have no double glazing or central heating. They have the American mailbox system for their post instead of letterboxes in the front door. A heat pump is a wall heater. The phrase 'rug up' just means put something warm on. Similar to how one's grandparents would keep warm in their homes back in the 1940's/1950's. Dehumidifiers are sold along with oil filled heaters and fan heaters as it's easier to heat a dry home. If you agree to buy an NZ house, the purchaser is obligated to put down a non refundable deposit of about 30% of the sale price and cannot pull out of the sale.
Countdown is a popular NZ supermarket, look them up on the internet to see the price of food. New World and Pak & Save are 2 more NZ supermarkets too. Pak & Save are reckoned to be the cheapest supermarket in NZ. However, compared to Tesco, Sainsburys etc they are still expensive.
Generally Kiwis are civil, friendly and polite. I'm more likely to get an 'excuse me' or 'sorry' and a smile in the supermarket, not like Britain. At the traffic lights, if you are turning left and the car opposite is turning right, the right turning car gets priority when the light goes green. A change to this law is being debated this year. The legal driving age is now 16 not 15. I've found drivers to be no better and no worse than where I came from in Britain. Auckland drivers are another story ! Undertaking using the left lane is legal in NZ.

petemel

Your a star thankyou very much..

petemel

Much appreciated thank you. You mentioned level 3 what is that is it equivelent to our NVQ as I have just completed my NVQ3 in custodial care here in the uk would it be transferable do you know?

petemel

Debbi**** You are a star thank you so much for all that advice/info. Can I just ask my OH loves it hot, so what is the weather really like, she thinks its cold & damp all year round. P

DC10

Welcome to the site, Petemel.

I would add only a couple of things to Debbie's excellent summary.

Others on here will argue the toss, but generally taxes tend to be a little lower in NZ, once you take NICs into account. On a salary of $50k/£25k you will pay an effective tax/NIC rate of about 24% in the UK but around 18% in NZ.

In NZ, 15% GST (VAT) is applied to virtually everything, and this goes some way towards explaining why basic foodstuffs are expensive in NZ. As ridiculous as it is, you even pay GST on rates (council tax equivalent). Having said that the rates tend to be quite a bit lower than UK council tax.

NZ has nothing like the same culture of employer-contribution pensions as the UK. If you come expecting anything like employer contribution of say 15% you will be very disappointed. They recently started a scheme called "Kiwisaver", which is considered a huge development by the locals but is actually nickels and dimes stuff compared to most developed countries. Even the nickels and dimes are being scaled back with public spending cuts.

NZ is a long, north-south country, so the climate varies considerably. It's a little bit like if Britain ended at Birmingham and went down to the South of France (but upside down, if that makes sense). So the top of the North Island has a climate a bit like the riviera (though wetter) and the bottom of the South Island has weather a bit like Southern England's. There are regional variations within this, for example Nelson, Napier and Tauranga are notably sunny. Also, in NZ the east coast is generally much drier than the west.

Good luck with your decisions.

Robbie2010

Level 3 in offender management... http://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&sou...6_Msp5asl3mNaA

I've no idea if you NVQ is transferable... e-mail Corrections and ask.

BEVS

I have to disagree about the South of England being like the bottom of the South Island. That is certainly not so. Invercargill is certainly nothing like Bournemouth for weather as an example. Dunedin doesn't compare nor NZ Christchurch. Bournemouth weather is far better IMVHO.

Nelson is a bit med. like though colder in winter unless direct in the sun, however that sun is merciless, so cover up. It's also far wetter than South of England where I lived. Rainy seasons and other torrential rains abound. Much is made of the sunshine days v cloudy days. Well. No lounging around in the sun here. Slip, slop ,slap and cover up. Hats and sunnies. Suncream everlasting and keep in the shade. It makes huge sense down here.
It's not comparable. Simply different.

DC10

Dunedin weather is fairly similar to London in terms of sunshine hours, rainfall, temperature. Dunedin is windier and generally milder (which means longer but perhaps less reliable summers, not quite as harsh in winter)

But these are semantics really

petemel

DC10.. Thank you for your reply. The more info we get the better. I think I am generally getting the jist of NZ, in the long run it has its swings/roundabout and generally the cost of living evens out over the long run. Just about on par with the U.K. Hope I am right...
We would be hoping to move to Napier/Hawks Bay so it looks like the weather will be nice there. Again thank you..

BEVS

True. Dunedin has snow on the ground & frosts though. I'd say that was harsher than London.

petemel

Thank you

petemel

Just a bit...