Clappy

All the best for your trip!

I am a bit jealous that you get a holiday.

scrubbedexpat094

All the very best to you and your family Matt (you lucky bugger ). Have a great holiday on the way home.

Keep us updated on how it's all going. I'm rather jealous but we have a plan to head back in March 2018.

mickey_d

Good luck, hope all goes well

A4Ron

Best of luck with everything, always enjoy reading your posts please drop back in when you can

Wow, there's a lot of people leaving NZ!

MarineboyNZ

Best of luck to you and your family. Frightening not knowing where you will end up in the UK. My Kiwi partner of 17 years and I arrived from the UK to Dunedin December 15. It is a great place, beautiful beaches and landscapes and even the weather is good! But we too feel something is missing and its not Dunedin that is the problem. We did not know just how different things are here, despite visiting 10 times before finally emigrating here. We too are in the top quartile of earners but we feel poor. Prices here are obscene. What sort of country sells 2 litreS ice cream or 4 bottles of pepsi for the same price of one single pepper! We feel that everything (weather aside) is inferior and twice the price. So we are seriously considering going back – asfter 10 months. Too soon – perhaps. But in life if you make a mistake, correct it quickly and get back on track!
We just cant see ourselves living here beyond the short term.
Enjoy the rest of your time in NZ/Dunedin.

barnsleymat

There's definitely something missing as you say, all the things we are over charged for chips away at your disposable income and by the end of the month there's no room for the things in life that are the difference between a leading a life or just existing. Sadly we just exist, if we weren't ripped off so much, things like skiing trips, a social life, holidays to Australia, visits to the Pacific Islands, weekends in Wellington etc would be possible, but out of all these things I've done one skiing trip and nothing else due to the costs involved. We are in a remote part of a remote country and feeling skint all the time doesn't help, we just feel that life is passing us by. Since we arrived in Dunedin I've been desperate for a caravan, the South Island is caravan heaven but again for a half decent caravan it's $20k for something that would cost a couple of grand back home.

I'm not at all concerned that we have no idea where abouts in the UK we will end up, after living at the edge the world for so long the distances involved getting back to see family on a weekend don't bother us. My lovely mum has offered to move out of her home and let us move in for the short term, in that time I'm hoping to set my own aerial mapping company up and also hunt for printing jobs in areas we want to live, which ever works out the best we'll do.

We've already started planning the music festivals next year, we've got a few gigs lined up, we will be booking a few city breaks including NYC for our 10th anniversary and I'll be able to go watch my beloved Barnsley FC. It's time to start living again.

A4Ron

During my second stint back here I've really noticed the cost-of-living and prices of general goods, housing, etc. But I put that down to being more mature these days - I was in my late teens/early 20s and still in the 'honeymoon phase' during the first stint.

I've noticed a lot of people don't go overseas for holidays here. Some I've talked to have never left the South Island!

Is it a case of the wages being a bit lower than UK, as well as some goods being over-priced too? Or just over-priced goods?

I try and think of stuff here that costs less than UK and all I can come up with off the top of my head are: fuel, car insurance, road tax (awesome if you're a petrolhead), no TV licence, annual council tax rates(?) depending on your location obvs... anything else? I'm struggling

Justcol

Its easy to forget exactly where NZ is. It is NOT 22 miles from its nearest neighbour with another 3 or 4 counrtys
within a further few hours drive. The nearest place is around the same distance away of Morocco is from London

How many brits have traveled further afield than the costas or greek isles, all of which are closer to the uk than Sydney is to Auckland

garethwm

All the best for your return home. Exciting times!

BEVS

I remember how hard you worked to be able to live and work in NZ in the beginning, so I am absolutely sure that you will make every success of this new phase of your lives .

Very exciting times ahead for your family and I wish you all the best in the world. You thoroughly deserve it.

BTW. You get pics of the Northern Lights ever, you post them here so I can be envious all over again.

Kotare

Unfortunately the immigration rate is climbing :-)

moving2NZ2013

All the best x

A4Ron

Compared with NZ to Australia and Pacific Islands flights?...

outback sunset

Good luck Matt, I've read your posts since early on. We had similar experiences and in the end we left, made money elsewhere and will return for holidays and/or retirement. It depends on individual circumstances but we found the hours you need to work to buy many everyday items in NZ a hard gig compared to elsewhere. It's got better over the years, but still a way to go. Best of luck with your move.

Droidling

Came to the conclusion some time ago that if you could spend 6 months of the year in each UK/NZ it would be a near perfect lifestyle (but not have the long haul flights every 6 months !) and I bet some lucky cashed-up wotsits do. The trouble is your mind plays tricks with you as well (the grass is greener thing),but in your case Matt with a young family you need to be around your folks. All the best with it all.