Re: Is it really that bad??
 

Well yes. That's what this type of thread does. Concentrate all the things that folk can find difficult for one reason or another, into one thread.

For what it's worth, I don't see the posts as 'negative' as such . The thread asks ' Is it all bad' , so it was bound to go down this type of route. One can't then moan if there are some less than jolly posts written .

It's the same with the 'it's all good' type threads . I feel these are not much cop either to a would-be migrant.

To me , it's all about balance. We are all giving just our own views and experiences at the end of the day which we are entitled to do. Opinions will stretch right across the spectrum . That's people for you. No two completely alike.

As for the business of 'moaning' & what others perceive to be 'moaning'. People will moan the world over. We live among Kiwis and multi-national ex-pats and believe me there is a fair smattering of 'moaners and groaners' among ALL the nationalities.

If the question ' is it all bad' is asked and people choose to then express their views and opinions along those lines , then it does no good to moan about the responses the question generates.

Emigration , no matter how much research, thought and effort is put into it, is still something of a leap of faith for all of us.

The bottom line is that this country is not perfect by a long chalk & just like your lives in the UK or wherever you are living or have lived before, you will learn to work around the tough bits and enjoy the good bits. If it comes to a point where tough days outweigh good days, then you look again at your lives and think what needs to be changed.

Re: Is it really that bad??
 

A fair true to life fact that we understand and like many others will be doing.
I do hope my comment didn't come across as i was moaning about peoples opinions, i understand people are very different Bev. ;)

Re: Is it really that bad??
 

[/quote]The bottom line is that this country is not perfect by a long chalk & just like your lives in the UK or wherever you are living or have lived before, you will learn to work around the tough bits and enjoy the good bits. If it comes to a point where tough days outweigh good days, then you look again at your lives and think what needs to be changed.[/QUOTE]

Ultimate politician Bevs here;) Being new to this it was a genuine attempt to get honest feed back. There seems to be a pattern particularly with some who intend to jump over the ditch at the earliest opportunity.

But hey, there's still feedback there!!

Re: Is it really that bad??
 

No , it didn't Wessa. It's just that these type of threads so often go down the pan & people still looking to come to NZ , like yourself, can be made to feel a bit dis-heartened by them because by their very nature they come across as heeaaavvvvvyyy.

Same with the 'all good' threads. People can be swept along with them and not realise that their own position may be far from the idyllic sounding lives others are leading.

My life is something in the middle Wessa. Perhaps thats a better type of thread. Not what someone thinks is 'bad' or 'good', what one feels they have gained or lost but a description of ones everyday life , without comparision to anywhere or anything else.

Re: Is it really that bad??
 

OK, is it all bad? Well, here's my experience...

I had citizenship from back in the 80's so it was a relatively easy form filling exercise to get my husband and kids over here to live. We left because we were tired of being affected by crime and felt we could give the kids more of a childhood than they would have got in the UK.

The first year was ok, everything was new and shiny. Then it all started to get a bit much. We missed friends and family. We missed the products that we could buy in the UK and became frustrated that we couldn't acquire/afford them here. Hubby was retraining to be a plumber having never had a trade in the UK and was earning only $12 an hour. Budgeting became a nightmare and we nearly lost our house. I did a lot of moaning on forum boards. :o

Then I picked myself up, stopped feeling sorry for myself and sorted out our finances. I got a new job, remortagaged the house and Aunty Helen decided to help me out by offering better childcare benefit rates and introducing Working for Families.

We are now in a position where I would say we are comfortable. We still have to watch the pennies, but for the first time ever, we have money in a savings account (not much, but there's some). This means that if the car needs fixing, we can afford to fix it. If we fancy a little treat, we can have one provided it's not too often. We are both enjoying our jobs and have started new hobbies.

NZ is different. But we like it and have learned how to live here. We're much happier here than the UK and TBH, it's only the shopping we miss now.

Re: Is it really that bad??
 

Umm - No. That's how I see it. That's exactly how I see it. That's how my husband sees it too.

Oh ! You seem to be doing quite fine for a newbie. ;) I'd say you've posted to forums before .

Now, why has that little gem popped up people :sneaky:

Re: Is it really that bad??
 

well, in my wife's field (allied to medical) there are plenty of practitioners (in many fields) that have arrived in NZ from overseas to find that things are being done along outdated lines and when someone suggsests that this has been tried before elsewhere and it was found to be better by changing something or other they are either advised not to rock the boat or shouted down by a "patriotic" person who says something along the lines that NZ is different and why would we want to do that?
(Often the same) patriotic person(s) then seem to spend their whole lives knocking what they experienced during their OE and can't understand these newer/more developed practices or methods. To me this seems to be a classic defensive attitude caused by one degree or another of a lack of self-confidence.
As far as good/bad manangement goes this could be summarised in the whole of the Capital and Coast fiasco - when the staff - mainly the doctors it seems were being treated so badly by the local management that they would not even talk to them. The Board then took the hit for the breakdown in this relationship and the Government are currently trying to sort the mess out. Having listened to some of the comments from the delegates at the doctors conference last year I was pretty shocked by how bad their relationship with their employers had become.
The classic "she'll be right" is the other example where shoddy practices or shortcuts are justified. I know several professional engineers that have something of a personal crusade to eliminate this - but they come accross all sorts of resistance to change up to managerial levels in the organisations where this sort of practice goes on.
Secondhad experiences of the Police from friends and colleagues who used to work there (and worked in the UK) suggests that in many ways they are still a few years behind in both the management and practice of law enforcement, one person likened working with the NZ Police to going back to the world of Gene Hunt and Sam Tyler.
My bad experience of management is that they do not have procedures, do many things "ad hoc" that you would expect to be more professionally done and tend to take the line of least resistance - suppsoe that could happen anywhere.........
The real bug-bear though is the Kiwi attitude in the background that what they have and what they are doing is better than anything else *as a matter of principle*. There is a resistance to change, to trying something else that has been done elsewhere and is known to have worked. Having said this many people would agree that some ideas implimented by Government for example, have been shown not to have worked overseas....
I'm afraid that the parochial "lets assume Kiwi is best" attitude shows through in many aspects of life and comes out on these forums quite a bit - particularly on or as a result of this type of thread.
I know many ex-Pats who (when out of earshot of their Kiwi colleagues and certainly not in front of their management) will run down the organisations here and they way things are run and organised. And they are not just Brits - in fact the most zealous critics are not British.
Why do we have such low levels of productivity? You cant simply blame it on "lazy islanders" (as I have heard) or a history of poor investment, some of it has to come down to how organisations are run. Maybe that is why there are so few large Kiwi-owned businesses, so many people are employed in small businesses or foreign businesses here.

Re: Is it really that bad??
 

Yes, I was over generalising here. I assumed that a shift from inner city strife to rural idyl would be by choice, rather than "being dropped in the middle of the countryside" and that people would prefer the more pleasant environment and better climate. Tom and Barbara could've lived large in South Island.

Re: Is it really that bad??
 

No, it isn't all *that* bad!

In fact, if you come with the right attitude you'll find plenty that's very, very good :)

IMHO there are two types pf emigrants- those that seek 'the same but better' and those that seek 'different'. The former are more likely to struggle with emigrating anywhere, imo, than the latter. I think we are the latter and so on the whole have found enjoyment in the differences, even the unexpected.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to emigrate for 'the same but better', but you need to be honest with yourself that that is what you want and then be sure you can afford that in New Zealand.

On the whole, living a modest life under a tin roof in sunny Central Hawkes Bay, I tend to feel I live in paradise :)

Re: Is it really that bad??
 

:thumbup: well said. In spite of that we all still have our little hobby horses......even if they are "whinging Pomms" :)

Re: Is it really that bad??
 

Bourborn, plenty of people travel hopefully to NZ with the right attitude only to loose it through factors over which they have little/no control.

I think learning to change your perceptions, and knowing the degree to which you realistically are able to choose the life you want is key to successful living, regardless of where you are. Comparing it to what has happened in the past doesn't take you forward into the future.

Re: Is it really that bad??
 

Remind me, do you have a particular area in mind?

Excellent post! :thumbup:

Dear god, someone pinch me, I'm agreeing with Nerine again! :eek: ;) :rofl:

Re: Is it really that bad??
 

Makes a change from going out of your way to insult me.

I've taken you off ignore now because I've heard you've learned how to behave yourself.

Re: Is it really that bad??
 

Likewise, I'm sure. :D

I made up my own mind on that. :D

And you're welcome for the karma. :D

Re: Is it really that bad??
 

........ Or not :rofl: