Tomsk

I no longer visit the forum very often, so catching up with some of the recent threads on here has been interesting. There seems to be a number of people with a real chip on their shoulder about life in NZ, & who seem locked into a cycle of venting their frustrations on an Internet forum. I absolutely get that NZ has it's problems, it's not Utopia, it's not as clean & green as the tourist industry would have us believe, the NZ $ is currently ridiculously over-valued, &, (the biggest single issue for me personally) it's a long, long way from my family & old friends. So, yes, yes, yes, there are issues, there are problems, I agree & I am very aware that there are many other problems that I've not mentioned.
But 4 & a half years in I have a good life here, with good friends (many of whom are Kiwis....... I'm really not sure about the comments I've read about it being hard to make friends with Kiwis, not my experience at all in the main). The cost of living can be a downer, I've had to go back to full time work after years of part time work while my children were growing up, but that's ok, the little bit extra I can earn helps fund some of the occasional treats. My young adult children are both at uni here & enjoying life.
I can only talk about my experiences, & I neither want to come across as a happy clapper or dismissive of other opinions or experiences, but it is possible to emigrate to NZ & to be happy & settled here. I've done it & I have a fair few friends who have done it as well. It's just that most of the time I have far more interesting things going on in my life than sitting on a forum.
To you all, I wish you well, I hope that you can find happiness & contentment wherever you live, or that you are able to find a way to get to wherever you want to be in the world.
Think I might sign off with that one too, I'm a bit over this forum & it's whinging now too.

Pom_Chch

Thank you Tomsk for your input, I really enjoyed reading your post. I think you paint a fair picture of NZ - it has it's draw backs and is also a great place to be and many expats have settled there. Just the kind of balanced post I like to read. I also second your point about sitting on a forum too much (I need to get out more!!!) I take this point on board and I am going to sign off, I'm over this forum too.

I'll let the whingers take it from here. Over and out

chippy64

Like I said in another thread, the posters that are making the most negative posts are those that have recently joined and are now leaving. Some have been here several years but only now feel the need to join the forum. Why haven't they shared their feelings along the way? Who knows but it seems like they have had a hard time, made the decision to leave but instead of chalking it up to experience, realising NZ just isn't for them (for whatever reason) they have to make everything and everyone in NZ to blame.
NZ is not for everyone but there is no shame in trying and leaving. One line snide remarks are not helpful to would be expats and just leave a nasty taste in your mouth.

waikatoguy

Thanks. But stick around! My leaving may help make the forum a more pleasant place, in some small way. Hopefully someone will delete my profile soon and then everything will be sweet as!

waikatoguy

That's because New Zealand is a very small nation and if we/they don't stand up on the rooftops occasionally and shout 'look at me' to the rest of the world, NZ gets swamped and forgotten.
It's also because, there's nothing worse than someone telling you that your existence is shite, especially when it's from someone overseas and when you don't believe it is, so it's not bad therapy to post something nice and positive as a balance. Except, it doesn't tend to work on here, because someone will be along later in the thread telling you your existence is shite again.

waikatoguy

The other problem with BE (NZ section), I think, from my limited observation, is that it doesn't have the same amount of traffic as the other sections. So while BE Australia, BE Canada etc sections are taken up with mundane things to do with immigration, the NZ forum has more empty time on its hands and it's sort of more intimate, where people discuss more about issues to do with the country, and therefore it has a tendency to be more controversial. Also, while a negative thread quickly sinks on other forums, to be replaced by the mundane things again, it hangs around longer on the NZ forum (due to less traffic) and can gain more prominence.

simonsi

Hmmm but that goes down a self-fulfilling road don't you think?

NZ is more remote than almost any other place on the forums. People who emigrate here have to do so against bigger hurdles. Sweeping statements of all kinds are just inflammatory and by definition wrong (all Kiwis can't be hard to get to know etc)

But then I am protesting...witch trials anyone??

waikatoguy

And finally. I think it is easier for someone intent on causing mischief to do so on the NZ forum. While their posts get buried by the volume of other posts on the other forums, on the NZ forum they can stick out like a sore thumb and I think it is easier for those posts to gain traction.
Those are my random thoughts on this forum before I disappear ...

Catchafire

You can stay if you want! Just take some time out and enjoy the realworld, stuff that is said here can get a bit crazy! And you can waste a lot time getting sucked in!

All the best mate, I'd be really sorry to see you go.

MrsFychan

from what I have seen everyone has a right to their say and not be moderated to an inch of their lives on here. Some people just have better way of putting things and some come across as whingers with no substance. (note I say come across). People have the right to disagree and its how that comes across to who ever is reading at the time, what the reader is doing, feeling etc how they again respond. It's life, nothing is equal, some people have more tact and some just say it how they see it.
Many a response has been typed and deleted, I am sure, by everyone, some just hit the wrong button at times

theghostofdustybin

i was talking to the wife last night about you lot of ranting loonies. She doesn't 'do' forums and the like, mainly due to the fact she doesn't really care what other people make of her decisions and has no urge to vent her opinions on others.

Me, well i look at it like religion. Have your own ideas and feel free to tell me then, just don't ram them down my throat and don't be surprised if I don't agree with them.

Relax, you'd think it was the end of the world.

As much as I hate to say it can you just go back to asking 'will my TV work in NZ' (probably) and 'can you get pie' (oh yes)

love30stm

Aww don't go! I like your posts, but I know how you feel I've felt like deleting a number of times.

love30stm

I didn't go out my way to create positive posts??? I put one up about the hobbit and about NZ being voted the top tourist destination?? Which I read in a paper?? And I posted because I was fed up with bed negative posts and wanted something nice to read, but it went downhill by the usual posters on here.

I'm getting sick of this forum

Pollyana

All the forums go through phases of being more negative or positive - but isn't life like that? We all need the balance in our lives of seeing the extremes. Try the Aus forum at times, wear a tin hat and take a sniper for protection! Yet at other times its one big love-in

Its human nature, its life! And its a sign of a healthy forum that allows discussion - as long as it doesn't grt personal and nasty. Sue has a saying "Attack the subject, not the poster"


Anyone who wishes to leave is free to do so, just stop posting. However if you want your account deleted you need to pm Sue, only she can delete accounts and she won't do it unless you contact her.

love30stm

And finally I'm content with my life most of the time in NZ, I don't think it's paradise but I make the most of it! The constant whinging on here gets me down and I've been known to whinge but not about every blinkin thing!!

I find some kiwis friendly and some not, same as some British I've met!

My oh on the other hand don't do forums he can't understand why I bother.
And most of my friends in NZ have never been on this forum.

Over and out