christmasoompa

That sounds like my kind of plan!

escapedtonz

If there's one thing you can count on from me it's complete honesty. We didn't spot the forums till much later on in our process so missed out on a lot of the potential advice, so only too happy to help others so they don't get stung.
You have to take the rose tinted glasses off when migrating anywhere. There's no doubt NZ is a hard move. It's so far away, the COL is high and the majority of salaries in relation to the UK equivalent are low, but with a little knowledge it easily works.

With regards to COL, your biggest cost will be rent. This is usually paid out weekly so looking on Buy online and sell with NZ's #1 auction & classifieds site | Trade Me and other sites at places to rent the prices will be per week rent in NZ$. To rent a place you'll need to pay out around 6 x the weekly rent up front (4 x for the bond, 1 x plus 15% GST as the letting fee and 1 x for the advance rent) on signing the rental agreement around a month or so before moving in. You'll then have to pay as soon as you move in to maintain the advance payment.
It will be more difficult to find a rental that allows a dog or a cat. They are out there but there are fewer of them. Unsure if a rental that allows pets will allow multiples of pets?

Wages are normally paid out fortnightly so it makes it much easier to budget and you always know the next pay day isn't far away. Majority of household bills can now be paid out fortnightly which makes it all the easier to plan affordability.

The town or city you live will be governed by where the job is and what you are comfortable with as a commute.
If you have children, the area/village/subdivision and maybe even the street you live on will be governed by the school you want your child or children to attend. The majority of schools are zoned and you must live in the zone to guarantee a place in the school.
What I'm saying is you have to get your priorities right initially to ensure everything falls in to place.

There's heaps of building going on in Tauranga so hubbies trade is definitely a good one to be in right now. There are many many building companies or builders. It's different here though as builders here are one of many sub-contractors that a building franchise uses to build properties. Like in our situation we bought a section of land and then researched which building franchise would be best suited for us and what we wanted to build. We asked for quotes from three different franchises (Platinum Homes, Signature Homes and GJ Gardeners) and picked the one we felt the best for us - Platinum.
You are basically paying them to build and project manage the whole process.
Majority of property here is either wood or concrete framed then clad in whatever material you like, be it brick, weatherboard or whatever. Very few brick and block built houses due to the earthquake risk. Our "builder" has done loads more than I expected. He put up all the wood framing, did all the roof trusses then after a roofing company did the roof he's done all the soffits, weatherboard cladding and will be doing all the jib etc inside. A builder here does way more than what a UK builder would do.

PM me anytime. Happy to answer whatever questions you have.

wakwak

Hi

I've PM'd you. I figured finding dog friendly might be harder, it's the same here but we have references and hope that as we dont need furnished people might be a bit more open.

I'm a little worried about timing from when we arrive to finding a place AND then waiting for our furniture!

Paul is what they call a project builder over there, he can build and project manage from scratch or renovate. Our self build would be a bit different I guess as he'd manage it himself!

I've heard Bethlehem area is good for schools, I'm thinking the first things might be school research then? The zone thing is similar to our catchment however we've been lucky with a couple off school options and because our children come from looked after care they get priority even if it's out of catchment!

Where did you stay when you first got there and didn't have a house or any furniture?

escapedtonz

Replied to your PM.
Yes there are many excellent schools here. To be honest I don't know of any bad ones. Yes researching schools will be a good idea. You are unlikely to land any out of zone place as you'd be at the bottom of the application list priority wise. How old are the kids.
Primary school is 5 years old to 11 years old I think then there are 2 intermediate years then it's secondary school till 18 years old. Depending where the kids are you may have to think about zoning for two different schools depending on the school years they are in. Some schools only do the primary years or primary and intermediate then some are only secondary. only a few do all the years - e.g. Bethlehem College but that is fee paying.

We first arrived in Wellington March 2012. We secured Resident Visas without a job offer but once we had the visas it didn't take long to get a job offer. My new company paid out $15k in relocation expenses and offered to put us up for a month in the CBD but we didn't fancy that for a 13 month old baby at the time so just took the money and got a bach (Kiwi holiday home) in Woburn, Lower Hutt. It was just a traditional Kiwi weatherboard villa but pretty nice in a lovely area. Booked it off a holiday home website. It was $725 a week, fully furnished with absolutely everything we needed and included all other costs like utilities, wifi, sky tv etc. We just paid a deposit and then paid the owner weekly. We were there 8 weeks right up until the date our container arrived then moved in to an un-furnished rental we'd secured a couple of week earlier after our container had cleared Customs.

We only arrived with a suitcase each, a travel cot and a car seat.

LittleGreyCat

Lincolnshire?

Are you sure that you aren't going to find NZ too fast paced, exciting and dangerous?

Good luck - nice part of the country you are going to.

wakwak

Haha
I did think it might overwhelm our senses a little after being in sleepy Lincs! Lol

Robbie2010

Looks like it'll be one in one out ... Lincolnshire is where I'm looking at going back to.
(was going to be Galway but not sure with Brexit)

wakwak

Haha we have a lovely house for sale......

Robbie2010

Go on then ... where is it/how much? You never know.

wakwak

350k cliff village

Robbie2010

Close, I'll be looking around Saxilby/Doddington/North Hykeham area and just a tad cheaper than yours.. But hey, who knows? If the exchange rate keeps going the way it is I may be able to afford it.

Kotare

Three dogs are going to be a problem - have you considered bringing a big caravan (shippng it to get here with you) and then sellng it on at a profit downstream :-)

wakwak

We know loads of people who've shipped dogs over with them, they can't all have taken a caravan!? I'm not leaving them behind
I've got a couple of ideas for references, will that help?

Kotare

It is not having a dog, it is having 3 large dogs! If you trawl booking.com many motels etc will accept pets by agreement - but I wouldn't take on 3 x labs unseen (and I love dogs).

wakwak

They aren't THAT large and labs are best
We've got a reference from a place we rent in the summer. We're bringing a VW camper but I don't fancy living in that for long lol!