Wanted Down Under - eeek
 

Watched an episode this morning ('working' from home!) and it made me so cross. Why do the makers of this programme take everyone to Auckland (or surrounds), show them ridiculous houses they cannot afford, shock them with prices of spinach and milk and then show them a video of their crying relatives? Well, of course that's the show but for crying out loud there is so much more to New Zealand than flipping Auckland. Plus, no-one ever makes the move!
This year's series should be called 'Not wanted down under' as there don't seem to be any jobs either. Does anyone know why we all still hanker for Oz and NZ? (when we are in UK!);)

Re: Wanted Down Under - eeek
 

What channel was this on? Was it a recent/new-ish episode? I'd really like to see it.

Re: Wanted Down Under - eeek
 

Ha, ha. That's TV for you.

If the couple were delighted with everything and lapped it up it'd make for a pretty boring spectacle. If you can call it that.

Re: Wanted Down Under - eeek
 

It's on BBC1 at 9.15 am UK time every week day. Series 8 I think.

Re: Wanted Down Under - eeek
 

It's on tv in the UK but quite a few of them can be watched on YouTube.

I think it hankers back to the days when you could sell your house in the UK and buy a big place by the beach here, which isn't the case in much of NZ now, of course. It used to be - my friend's parents sold a terraced house in Liverpool and bought a big house on full section, two minutes from the beach, just north of Auckland. Of course, this was in the 1970s! Some people still seem to believe this can be the case in NZ.

They should take some people whose jobs don't have to be big-city based, e.g. tradespeople, HCPs and show them some other bits of NZ they could settle in. But most of the episodes are in Oz and I'm not sure how big their budget is, the NZ episodes always seem to be in Auckland.

Re: Wanted Down Under - eeek
 

Particularly strange that they brought this family to Auckland, when he was hoping to be a snowboard instructor!

Re: Wanted Down Under - eeek
 

Really ! :lol:

I have to go find and watch the thing now.

I usually avoid such progs as the unreality does my head in.

Re: Wanted Down Under - eeek
 

Just after I was offered my job out here, there was one about Christchurch. I think the chap coming over was a carpenter, definitely in the trade industry

Where to buy, Sumner. I actually know which house it is they were looking at, as I pointed it out to my nan when she was here.

Their day out was at Akaroa on the Black Cat cruise. Remember that

Abeit it was before mother nature went mad but even when we first went to Sumner, we thought they must have been millionaires. I don't think they were actually that well off so it kind of surprised me that they were looking there.

Re: Wanted Down Under - eeek
 

Haha - I applied for that show because they paid for you to spend two weeks in NZ and they 'show you around' etc...

I did, however, quickly count my blessings when I realised the levy of showmanship versus reality... and I'm still moving to NZ, despite what the grumps may say! :D

Re: Wanted Down Under - eeek
 

QSsue from here did WDU and they showed her episode last week. I think it was. made me so made when the "employer" told her she would easily get work here which she didn't and the job she finally got took her to Australia for the first 3mths away from the family. she is now working longer hours than she did in the UK and trying to balance a family life. hard but she is giving it a good go. And Auckland was where they ended up

Re: Wanted Down Under - eeek
 

I watched the first 10-15 minutes of the one you talked about from Wednesday morning, i.e. the couple in Auckland. I will watch the rest of it tomorrow with my partner. I am shocked that they think those 3 properties were cheap, the cheapest being 520K GBP. I am looking at houses bigger or better than those back in the UK for around the 210-230K mark (4-5 bed detached houses). I would have picked their 4-bed detached house in Brighton over the 3 in that show.

Re: Wanted Down Under - eeek
 

Does anybody else think that they romance the earnings potential to the max as well, the 2nd one for Aus where the guy was a chippy they came up with a staggering wage (about 2 or 3 times more than they said 3 episodes earlier) but then you find out that was for a 6 day week of 12 hour days! So much for the work life balance....

Re: Wanted Down Under - eeek
 

I don't watch the Aus ones but the Auckland focus of the NZ ones annoys me too. They did do one from Wellington last week though. Everyone is told they can apply for jobs, it's very rare anyone is offered one outright. With the need to employ NZ natives over immigrants regulations it's no surprise that jobs aren't as easy to come by as the program makes out.

The salaries are badly presented. If I took a similar post to the one I have here I'd earn half my current salary. They are also like hens teeth and fought over by an increasing pool of unemployed professionals in my field so I'm currently doing some other training to try and have an alternative, portfolio style income stream if we move over there.

Re: Wanted Down Under - eeek
 

I think what annoyed me was the fact that they did actually have a good amount of money to spend in NZ, lucky them, but the show managed to only show them properties way above the price range!!! If the researchers had really done their homework they could have shown then some properties that they could have afforded. Two of the properties has tiny gardens and this couple had two children so it is obvious that a decent garden would be required. I think I would like a job with WDU as I bet I could find better houses!!!!

Re: Wanted Down Under - eeek
 

I've never seen them show a house that is less than perfectly presented either. As a lot of the people going over are trades then I can't imagine many of them wanting to pay full price for a place where someone else has done all the work, my ideal would be a renovate or detonate type place on a big block, haven't seen them show a single thing like that.
Hmm: Would the BBC like to sponsor me in a new show "Property Developing relocated Poms in NZ"? Could be compulsive viewing ;)