sirplug

That's me! The only difference is I now live by the sea and get to go to the beach every evening with the kids......the sun shines more so weekends are spent out and about.....life is what you make it, as they say

shelloid

I lived in London in the UK and had a short commute - only 45 mins, so was back home by 6.15ish.
Weekends - if we wanted to go anywhere, it was a hassle. Even travelling an hour would only get us to the other side of London.

In NZ, I live a 10 - 20min commute from work (depends on public transport!). OH has a long long commute by NZ standards and it takes him ~30 mins in rush hour. I have found that people start work earlier here and hence finish earlier. I am normally home from work by 4.50pm. I work 2.5hrs more here than the UK, but it just means I have a half hour lunch not an hour (which I never used to take all of anyway)
Weekends - just last weekend we drove for an hour and went to a forest and camped in the middle of said forest without seeing another person the whole time.

For me the work/life balance is much better, but that's why we came and we're making the effort for it to be better.
We could just sit on our arses each weekend, but we chose to go out, and after London the places we can go to are (IMO) much nicer.

It really is what you make it.

lapsed kiwi

What are the attractions of NZ to you? If you're not into outdoor activities, you're probably heading for the wrong place

Bo-Jangles

It's different for all of us I guess depending on where you choose to live and work and I really don't think it's something you plan ahead that your particular work/life balance will be any better or worse unless you have the job before you arrive and can choose your location accordingly. If you work a 35 hour week in the UK as I did, you can fully expect this to translate to 40 hours here being normal, so immediately you are down by five hours per week.

Most of us I guess set about finding a home, then comes the job and more often than not we take the work wherever it comes and figure out the travel arrangements afterwards. People often stretch the truth when describing their commute into or around Auckland and you can only assume some people drive a rocketship when they say they can get from A to B in 30 minutes. Yes, they possibly do on a good day, with a tail-wind, the kids on school holidays, no broken down buses and the traffic lights all working in your favour.

I can do my journey in 20 minutes over the Christmas holidays. Every other day of the year, it can be anything from 45 minutes to an hour. This is the same or more than it took me to travel 15 miles into London, most days.

The other factor I consider additional work, because my day doesn't end at 5pm. Being in full-time employment and balancing this with being main housekeeper / cook / come bottlewasher, I find it much harder here and have far less spare time than I did in the UK. Two reasons for this are of our own doing and will be for all that aspire to the bigger house and garden. Hmmn, someone has to look after it, more windows to clean, more floors to vacuum, decks to be scrubbed, more weeds and more grass to cut. That's something we will definitely rethink when we come to move again.

For me having less income and relatively more expensive living costs to contend with, along with less access to reasonably healthy 'convenience' foods means I spend a greater part of my life shopping around and cooking from scratch. When I was in the UK I would do after work activities, go for drinks with friends, swimming, exercise classes and the like and then dash into ASDA and grab a 'takeaway' curry or something quick - we simply cannot do that kind of thing here; firstly because the options aren't there and secondly even if they were I can't blooming afford it.

All things considered I would estimate my work life balance to be in deficit by at least ten to twelve hours per week.

Bryars2011

but do you regret making the move ???

Bo-Jangles

Yes! Sometimes I do!

I was just thinking to myself about all those that commented about going to the beach after work - they must be blokes.

Bryars2011

Thankyou for your honesty.
This is a hard decision for us.I want a better life for my family, I dont mean financially so much but richer in other ways !!!! I hate the UK and what it has become. I suppose a lot of soul searching is needed.
To all others...please keep the comments coming .

Bo-Jangles

Nobody can define better though, can they? What's better for you, may not be better for me. I just think the best you can hope for is that it will be similar to your present situation because it takes a long time to re-establish yourself and your life, assuming you still have to work. We don't often get the chance to micro-manage situations and have to a certain extent play with the cards we are dealt. We might think we can choose to live a maximum of x far away from the office or otherwise and but reality usually puts obstacles and hoops in the pathway, perhaps we can't find or afford the house in that ideal location, lack of public transport, parking or whatever. One of the family might end up with a cushy commute and the other not, so you have to be prepared for some swings and roundabouts. I don't think you can assume or expect it to be better for all concerned in your family.

We have to contend with the added dilemmas of one happy bunny in the family and the other not so.

Genesis

I'm not really. I just enjoy being in a country that is so empty. Where there is somewhere I can live that is not full of crap, crime and horrid people. My/our life in NZ is relatively simple. We have been pretty much nowhere. Not even to the South Island in almost 5.5 years. I hate sport, really hate it so there's another nail in my contented coffin one imagines? Au contraire. I am content with my little slice of NZ inspite of the way I moan and whinge about the state of the country as a whole. I have far more peace here than I would have ever found had I stayed in the UK. You don't have to be outdoorsy or a sport lover to get on or be happy in NZ. Simply the desire to live somewhere off the global track.

Bryars2011

Now that sounds like my idea of heaven !!!!!
Peace,quiet and fresh air..... I'm with you on that !!

Genesis

And I am THAT momma, and that saying is very, very true. When crossed I am one mean bitch. Sorry, I mean kitchen bitch.

jmh

When I started working in Auckland in the 1980's I used to get stuck in traffic jams and often had a 1 hour commute to work. I now live in London, commute 10 minutes by car or 20 minutes by bike, am often home by 5pm and have access to a wide range of easily accessible cultural activities that I don't have to drive to. The thing is, to get that quality of life I learned that I had to make sacrifices. I refused to apply for better paying jobs that meant I would commute into the city. I live in a smaller house so I can live nearer to town and so not commute. These are the sorts of choices you have to make wherever you choose to live.

Chances are the a lot of other people want the same quality of life that you do, so demand will make those places that are near civilisation harder to afford without the demands of a higher salary. Also if you have kids and want them to go to a good local school, not the tiny little country school with one teacher, then you pay accordingly. You can make similar choices in the UK. Plenty of cheap remote places to live and raise your family, but would you want to live there? Probably not for most of us. I wouldn't live in small town NZ (no disrespect intended to those who do - I don't like being that far away from a shop! ) either.

I'm not saying that you won't get the quality of life you want in NZ, but I'm thinking maybe keep a safety net in case you find it's not all you thought in would be. My experience from reading around this forum is that a lot of people who leave the UK because they hate the country and the people in it, don't necessarily like the country they end up in either.

darrell1966

The main attraction of NZ is that it s not the UK.

The UK is too busy, dark, cold, crime ridden and downright unappealing.

I do not mind outdoor activities but what I really like is the outdoors. I lived in Spain for quite a few years and just got used to the big outdoors being part of your acreage. Drinks on the balcony at night, breakfast on the patio, that kind of thing. It simply is not possible to live that kind of life in the UK.

I am attracted by the scenery, every day when I was in Spain I drove to work with the Med directly on my right and home with the Med directly on my left, and every time I did I thanked my lucky stars. I never took it for granted because I knew that the alternative was a one hour grey drab drive through the depressing streets of Preston.

And if I am lucky enough to land a job in NZ, I will never take it's natural beauty for granted as I drive there every day

Other things that attract me are property prices, the alleged friendliness and, what I have translated to be, a lack of people just wanting to earn money instead of living.

My comment about being able to swim for 3 months may have been misunderstood. I simply meant that to be able to swim in the sea for an extra month (you can swim in the UK sea for two months of the year) of the year is not an inducement to settle into a new life half way round the world.

I live playing ON the sea and was I over there now, buying a house, then the one I have chosen has a private beach. Bliss.

Mrs Pointer

I don't expect to work any less when we get there - particularly not if the longer term plan is to set up our own business.

I just expect my out of work time to be better spend because of a) better weather and b) less traffic and people. We love the outdoors, but it rains 364 days a year in Glasgow (ok just feels like it)

If you don't like the 9 to 5, focus on the the 5 to 9!!!

darrell1966

This is part of my post up above, I do not LIVE playing on the sea, I LIKE playing on the sea.

Sorry to re-post but I cannot find an edit button