JaneAS

I thought it might be a nice idea (esp. to Newbies such as myself), to try and get to know the other users on this forum. I'll start:

Name: Jane
Location: Cheshire, UK
We're at the planning stage, and dithering badly... We made the decision quite recently to move to NZ, but now the research is underway we're having 2nd - and 3rd - thoughts (mainly about crime rates and cost of living). We have 6 cats that we would ship across with us, so it would be quite expensive (we couldn't leave them behind though... )
Hoping to go to the Manchester Expo at the weekend.

We've never been to NZ, although one of my ideas is to just go for a year and see how it works out, before selling our house. Going for a holiday isn't really an option, the same cost could go towards rent / car etc. What we're looking for is a safe place to bring up our young son (almost 6 yrs) and moggies, somewhere with a bit of space where we can grow our own produce and chill out.

Who else is around tonight?
Jane

Boopy

Hi jane,
I'm fairly new to the forum. We're hoping everything sorts itself out so we can move early January. I'm from Sunderland, the cooler bit of the country. I'm a nurse and have had 2 possible job offers. Had medicals, just waiting for police checks, then I can send off immigration stuff.

Boopy

lardyl

/lardy wonders if there is an echo here or he is in fact called Jane/
Name: Ian
Location: Little village in Warwickshire close to nasty (& soon to be bigger!!) airport
also:
and
Fed up with UK (especially our employers - NHS / private sector - who want to screw every drop out of us); doubt Brown "miracle" is sustainable; fancy living somewhere where there is plentiful space, rainfall, renewable energy, a decent community, similar enough culture/language, opportunities for us & kids and where we can explore.....
Worried about salaries, house prices, dampness, lack of central heating, resentment towards European migrants and culture shock....
But still going to move forward - will probably go if I can find a decent job that pays 1/2 to 2/3 of current salary......
Hope that makes sense and I'm not being chauvinistic, arrogant or condescending....

/grasps another can/ .....

Boopy

Lardy,

Do you know where in NZ you would like to live. Are you a Nurse.

Boopy

lardyl

Missus is a Speech Therapist (good job I'm typing and not slurring...hic) - we were talking about a move overseas, I was looking at places I could work and there was an advert in the RCSLT Bulletin...bingo
I'm in forensics and the only places to go seem to be Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington for the work I am interested in.....
My wife is seriously annoyed by agenda for change that means she'll be working longer hours, with fewer holidays for less pay....so why not do that in NZ?
Plus we have a couple of little boys and now seems like the best time to make a break if we really want to...

Venus

Hello everyone, I've just join this group. I'm from the Greater Manchester Area, and also thinking of moving to NZ. I've just been to a seminar done by Priority One, which was quite interesting but they were talking about Bay of Plenty and we are not interested on moving there. We are thinking of moving to Christchurch. My Husband is a Software Engineer and has more possibilities to find a job there (that's what we've been told) The man that was giving the seminar had all this graphs which showed the cost of living being cheaper than in the UK. After reading a few posts from here I'm just very confuse but I will keep researching. By the way Jane we are also going to the expo this weekend in Manchester.

Radio Ham

Hi.. Colin & Anne here, looking to move 2 kids and 2 cats to north of north island early 2006. We have 95 points and are job hunting! I am in IT / Finance and Anne is NVQ3 early child care / renal technician.

We are determined to get to NZ having scouted Auckland in July!

Colin

lardyl

were they comparing apples and pears I wonder?? - easy with statistics IMHO
suppose if you give up a crippling mortgage in SE UK and buy something cheaper in NZ then CoL would be lower, but as far as I can tell salary is much lower too....need to work out how to balance that....some statistics suggest that highest paid sectors in NZ include education and govt. dpts. - that does not bode well for anyone (again IMHO - feel free to shoot me down on that).
Using this tool for CoL estimate (found elsewhere on this forum):
http://www.emigratenz.org/cost-of-li...w-zealand.HTML
provides us with an idea and illustrates that I must get a job to make ends meet.
MrsL's profession/experience and my qualifications/doubtful language ability (as a "YamYam") give us ca. 145 points with no job offer so we should be OK oon the immigration front - just need to keep putting the lime down under the patio for a while longer.
However, with a likely salary of $50-65k for MrsL I need to work - even if we sell our house, liquidise the shares/savings and realise about £150k to take as equity for a home...so no job for me means no go....

Andrew Cross

Hi everyone I am Sue and my husband and four of our five kids have just got our PR Visas and are off to Christchurch in January.
My husband is one of the many Prison Officers about to uproot and flood NZ in the new year and I work for Virgin Atlantic at Heathrow and I'm hoping to get something similar over there. We are leaving our eldest son with my parents to finish his first year at college and join us in August next year.
At present we are sorting out the house and looking for something over there which is driving me crazy (not change there then!)
Been reading everyone Else's thoughts on NZ and one day I'm up and optimistic about the move and the next day I read something else and just hope I'm doing the right thing.....time will tell.... :scared:

melting pot

Yes alot of people are still under the impression NZ COL alot cheaper...certainly we were..it is difficult to work out,even using one of the calculators mentioned lower in this thread.
It is a difficult one to answer as if you are bringing alot of money out here then,mortgage etc may not be relevant to you.

As far as what we have worked out ( been here 6 months ) a UK salary x2.1= NZ Dollar salary is what you would need to be in the same financial position here, but as I said,if you would have no mortage here or happy to have less ( in terms of clothing/shopping/treats) then of course can be cheaper.

The supermarkets are online here too,so you could always to a shopping bill comparison to compare

anyway hope helps

urbanproject

Name: Jennifer (or Jen...much better )
Location: London UK (born and bred in Paris France)
Heading to NZ in 5 weeks time with my Kiwi partner of 3 yrs. Made the decision ultimately because my partner could not extend their stay in the UK, but had been talking about going there at some stage..just happened sooner than expected. We will be settling in Half Moon Bay, East Auckland (where my partner is from) at 1st, maybe staying there for a bit but ultimately staying in Auckland.
All the preparations are kinda daunting but I'm VERY excited to go there (more excited than partner ) because NZ is one of the places I have never been but always wanted to go to. Went to London Expo last weekend and it was great being surrounded by all those kiwis lol. Moving at the other side of the world will be a bit harsh at 1st but my family have been great with it and am getting tips from mom (who moved from the USA to France when she met my dad a while back)...moms know best

Jen

Herm

Name: Martin
Location: Tauranga/Bay of Plenty

Emigrated in 2001 from Berkshire but only recently discovered 'Britishexpats'. Fascinating reading.

NZ Climber

Hey Jen, my partner and I live in Bucklands beach and I get the ferry into Auckland every day from the Half Moon Bay marina. Oh, i'm Matt btw and my partner (Claire) and I have been here for just over two years.

Oh, and I post on here because I only found it recently and it was exactly the sort of thing that we would have used as research when we were making the decision to come here. Kinda figure that if I can help others out with advice we didn't get but wish we had, it might make the transition easier for people. And I do try to jump up and down on the rose coloured specs so be warned

Gill and Rob

Hello, we are Gill and Rob and have been in NZ since July 03 with our 2 youngest, now almost 11 and 12. We have a son in the UK at University who has visited several times and may move out here once he graduates.

Had never visited NZ until we arrived in July 03 !!

Happy to answer any questions about nursing issues.

Cheers
Gill

on_the_last

Name: Robert
Location: Southern England

I've been investigating NZ for all the good reasons of a better quality of life. Started with much optimism, then realism kicked-in* and in a real-heart-to-heart with Mrs on_the_last we decided the time isn't right for us (family commitments).

* I need a job offer to make 100+ points, I've been told my line of work is specialist so limited choice of employment (i.e. live in Auckland, but not sure I believe that), and I've been reading the NZ forum and the Moving-back-to-UK forum to get a balanced view.

That doesn't mean we've abandoned plans, we've just started to plan for a timeline that's longer than "a couple of months ahead".

R.