nickychris67

my OH and I are in the process of completing our EIO, but have never been to NZ and can't really afford the time (or money) to go out on a recce before we go. Where we move to will depend on where I can get a job and as I don't have one yet we don't know where we need to recce. Are we totally mad???

jandn

We moved to Canada having never been before , I think a lot depends on
what kind of person you are , how desperate you are to move to NZ?
Is there any family ? Its a long way to go but i do not think you are mad.
You only have one life so why not

jandn

You can also use the internet and forums like this give you a good
insight in to what to expect,what to do or see etc.

Rustie

I know people who have done but i guess i'd be asking Why do i want to do it and and why New Zealand?

What are you looking for and what makes you think NZ is where you'll get it?

I'm not trying to be pessimistic but emigrating half way round the world is an expensive and time-consuming thing to do, not to mention emotional.

Once you know what you're looking for you need to ask anyone and everyone (especially forums like this) for their honest experiences, even look for the negative, so at the least you are prepared!

garryhg

Hi we did the same,moved here 16 months ago having never been to NZ before...Hubby got a job offer in April and we were here end of July..never even discussed moving away before this job offer came in..

So we decided to go on our biggest adventure ever..

So far so goodNot saying its forever,for now is good enough for us....gl with your choices...Jacky

garryhg

I feel you dont have to be looking for anything,we had a good life in Scotland,and we lived in a lovely little village..
we never came here searching for the perfect life(which is just as well...lol)

But you only get 1 life,so grab every opportunity it throws at you and soak up the experience..

This whole experience has given us and our kids a completely different outlook on life.Sometimes in life you have to take chances,sometimes it works ,sometimes it doesn't...remember you are a long time dead..Jacky

Rustie

Which is fantastic for you...unfortunately not everyone is the same and some people have an 'idea' of what NZ is like, i was just asking why NZ and what they were looking for, not presuming what they are looking for!

Hopefully they'll make the right decision for them and it'll be what they want and need!

lardyl

Hi not totally mad per se, as quite a few people come here without having been on a recce and/or holiday (us included) - in fact I would say a good holiday experience, particularly a few years ago is not always the best basis for making a decision to move.

I suppose you need to ask yourself a few questions, including:

Why do I want to move?
Do I not like the UK/home? - running away from something is not always the answer and can make all sorts of problems worse.......
What will be better/worse for me and my family - the obvious ones are the place to start?
Am I afraid of missing out on an opportunity?
Do I relish new challenges?
How do I cope with change?
What is important to me in my finances, career, family life, aspirations for the future?
The answers to some of these will help you to assess how "mad" you are........

BEVS

We are all totally mad. We are all totally brave. We are all totally different from those that would never ever consider such a move, be it to NZ or to another UK county.

Where we settled depended on the job offer and pay for us too. Although we had been here before and did a reccie, neither experiences prepared us for actually living & working here. The NZ you get during a holiday or a reccie is not the one when you are plonked down as an foreign immigrant, earning NZ wages, learning NZ ways.

What has made you look to New Zealand as a country you could think to live in and what are you hoping for with a move to here? That may narrow down where you look for a job offer a little bit.

Black Sheep

'You only have one life' can be just as good a reason to say

nickychris67,

If you don't have enough money to do a recce, what will happen to you if you DON'T find a job here?? What kind of life are you after here? What field of work are you in, that could be the make or break of the risk. Seriously now, are you well set up enough to manage for potentially many many months without a job here? Are you up to that? If you're the very adventurous type who understands the risks and think it will be worth it even if worst case scenario you leave penniless, then it might just might work out OK. But please be sure you're aware that many who have come here without a job have never found a job


Please keep in mind by the way that you're asking for life-changing advice from complete strangers who you know absolutely nothing about. I certainly know nothing REALLY about a single poster on this forum (although I believe I met one guy 4 or 5 years ago who I thought must be a certain member of this forum, and if it was that member, his house was nothing like he had described in these forums - so I did wonder if anything else about his LIFE as he had described it on these forums was really 'true' or perhaps somewhat exaggerated!)

Tell you one thing, this is the hottest, sunniest, least windy Spring I've experienced in my 5 1/2 years here - climate change perhaps? I don't know, but I remember a couple of pretty cold nasty Springs here as well, with logburners going on Christmas day.. But anyone who arrived in Chch in the past month or two from UK could well be thinking to themselves "Wow! This was the right thing to do after all!".

cally49

We're all mad here lol some madder than others so you will fit in well......
Welcome to the assylum
Have a great weekend
Cally

nukiwi

I totally agree with lardyl.

IMO, No-one can prepare you for such a decision. We were told around 60% of those who emigrate to NZ have never been to the Country before. We did do a recce before we came out but whilst we had that return ticket in our pocket we were only on holiday. Its when you are alone in a foreign country, no family or friends around you, no experience of NZ living and as BEV says living on NZ wages. Thats when you seriously begin to question your decision.

Before we came out we did have an idea of the salary range OH could expect and we knew NZ wages were lower than the UK. He has years of experience in IT so he is on a very good salary by NZ standards and we manage ok. However, we would not have considered moving half way around the world without sufficient savings.

It is very easy to sit back and dream of what you'd like to do but it's not so easy to break out of that "comfort zone" and do all you can to make that dream come true. It takes hard work and determination to get there and you have to have what it takes to make it work and be happy. We had a real roller-coaster ride with all its ups and downs and bitter-sweet emotions. Not everyone makes it work but you will never know until you try.

We have only been here 2 months but we are very happy and have adapted well but we have found the cost of living a lot higher than we expected.

I wish you luck in whatever you decide but it has to be your decision.

nickychris67

thanks to everyone for responding, it is reassuring to know that we are not the only mad ones out there. You have certainly given us some more to think about..

Fooferfish

We had been through negitve equity in late 80's in uk, saved for holidays, svaed for this and saved for that always work, work and more work, but not really doing anything different, so after a saved up trip in the Carribean we looked at our lives and thought it was time to live, see and do something different with our lives, we had not even been this far down the globe , but picked NZ because of population and future survival for a country, more opportunities, kids staying kids longer, friendlier people, affordable housing, more space, freedom, so in May 05 we landed in Dunedin SI and have been here ever since, one thing that gave us a great and fortunite head start was have a good house sale in UK and using the money to be mortgage free here in NZ, that gave us even more opportunities and my wife has been able to retrain in what she wanted to do for the last 2 years and is about to hand her final paper in on Monday, so after we come back from a trip back to Poole, Dorset this Christmas we will be in a better postion to look forward to maybe moving house or even a section to build that wee double glazed house on, but being in nZ and working hard at it, is way better than struggling in UK.

It will and does take at least 2 years to feel realy at home and accepted , you still get the odd wobble from time to time , people in UK thought we were nuts, but when we see what they are still doing in UK nothing has changed for them, they are all moaning and groaning about uk, but choose to do nothing about it, we did and others will, NZ is very different from Uk and thank god for that, one thing thats evident from being down this far in the world is, unless you are very well off or in high payed jobs, dont think you'll be flying back to UK once a year or tripping over to OZ and Fiji etc, we have just payed $8.5k for 3 return flights back to Uk this year, small fortune for Kiwis, and not forgetting the extras, but if you want to change your lives and enrich them, i would go for it every time.

Life is not a rehersal and may not be a party every day, but whilst we are here we should dance.

Nige, Dunedin may 05

Gill and Rob

Excellent post Nige................ and so true.

Gill