Ok so I am new to all this forum stuff so be gentle with me I just wanted to ask a couple of questions to those of you who have moved already.

Why did you move?
and Did you get out of it what you wanted?

My husband and I have 2 children 11 and 10 and want to know whether to move, we have rellies in both australia and NZ but we are stuck on going to NZ i think

So ......

Why....A desire not to live in the uk in anymore. I knew I'd be leaving many things I would never find again
but the general social and political situations simply grated to much on a day to level to be able to stay any longer.

Get what I wanted....The best thing is to read through all the threads on here, we are all different and
what makes one person happy will piss off the next. NZ ain't perfect but it has 95% of what I want from any place
I choose to live.
In my opinion OZ and NZ both have similar social problems, the main difference between them is it gets hotter and
wages are higher in OZ

Being able to settle and be happy here depends on your ability to accept and live with the differences

Why did you move? My husband worked long hours in London and we had a baby - we felt that he was missing out on seeing our daughter grow up. The deciding point for us was when he was sent away on business for over a week when she was 2 1/2 months old and she didn`t recognise him when he got back. We had previously been to NZ for a month two years previously and loved the country but have found that it`s very different touring in a camper van than living here. We looked at changing jobs in the UK or moving elsewhere in the world and decided that NZ was the best choice for our 'better family life'.

Did you get out of it what you wanted? This is very difficult to answer. We have been here for 6 months and I am still in the stage of homesickness (if I'm being completely honest, it doesn't feel like it's going anywhere either). My husband still works long hours but thankfully it doesn't happen as regularly as in the UK. Something we have here that we'd never had at home is that we can eat dinner together in the evenings and he's home in time for our daughter's bath and bed (only during the quieter working times) - we never lived in London back home and even if we did it would take longer than 10 minutes bus ride to get home whereas it's a bonus of where we're currently living. On the flip side, when he works long hours, they are very very long and it feels as though we moved away from family for no reason and makes me feel very isolated. I`ve made friends with a couple of people (Brits strangely!) but friends are hard to come by where we`re living - although I`ve not gone out of my way since I first arrived and found that a lof of people have tourettes! We have 2 year work visas and I'm writing down the times that he's coming home in the evenings to remind myself when our time is due to decide what to do. It's very easy to forget the weeks (or months in our case) when he's working all the hours under the sun when you have a good couple of weeks.

We were never unhappy in the UK and we had nice lives, we just knew that it could be better somehow. We simply moved for my husband to spend more time at home, as a family. He was unhappy working in the city and being worked to the bone although had a great salary for it. That was the most important thing to us - we didn`t move here to make millions or to have lots of friends.

In 6 - 12 months we need to decide what our next plan is. If we go home then do we go back to the same job (it`s been held open for him if he ever needs it) or do we relocate for a lower salary....we`ve been living on less than half his UK salary here and haven`t chewed our arms off yet because we can`t afford to eat. We have simply changed the way we live and budget more.....I do miss good clothes shops and good sausages & bacon though.

On a personal note I like reading people`s negative comments as much as their positive. I wish I looked at this forum in detail before moving over - at least then I`d have known what to expect in relation to housing in the winter and the cost of things! It may be worth browsing to get a bigger picture of people`s experiences?

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Hi and welcome to this wee NZ forum.

Because we found we could. We were thinking to make a change, or do something else for a while, anyway.
Yes and No.

What's making you feel you want to move. Is it for your children or that you hear all good things from your rellies?

If you move for the kids DONT settle in the big cities, they are terrible.
The people are not overly friendly and making friends is harder. Originally I settled in Cambridge,
a town of around 25000 people, I'm not there now but I miss the place

Why?
cause the opportunity came up and if we didn't we would regret it later - my folks passed up a job in Welly in the 70s and regretted it since, especially when they come to visit.
Also NZ is great for kids of 0 to about 15. Great for their soul, body and spirit!
Wanted to be able to have a better work-life balance and live near the sea again.

Did we get it?
Well the kids did but as we're not together any more then it's a bit academic. With them being 6 and 10 we'll see what happens in the end.
Moving to another country is stressful but can also allow you to relax enough to let go of some other things. In our cases some of what came out bit us and the rest is history. However people here can be so loving and supportive that even in the darkest times there is still hope and a way through.

Bitter sweet really......

don't worry Danni we're almost out of the woods.
mediation/hearing happens at the end of the week.
that should sort things out and leave us in a better place

Good - not a great situation to be in for you and your family! Fresh start and all that.....

Why: Having to live along side some of the vermin taking over society in the UK was getting too much, it seriously wound me up everyday what was happening, and living amongst Britains Underclass wasn't for me anymore. What made it worse was the thought of bringing a kid up in a such a place. There's hardly any decent jobs, the houses are unaffordable and life is pretty shit, the throw away and buy new way of life isn't for me.

Result: We spent a year in Auckland and are so happy to be out of the place, it's got a lot of the problems any major city has but without having the advantage of being a real happening place. We'd swapped one rat race for another, we moved down here to Dunedin 2 months ago and our NZ dream is finally taking shape. I've landed a dream job managing a very forward thinking printing company, my wife has secured a perfect job with a bright future, today we've bought a stunning house in a real nice part of town over looking the Pacific Ocean and the beaches, and it's 5 minutes drive away from town plus it's for a fraction of the price of UK and Auckland properties.

We love it here now, it's being a bloody tough 14 months but our futures are so much brighter. NZ ain't perfect, but it's a great place to live and enjoy life, stuff is expensive and I'm the first person to have a good gripe about it but if you come here and are prepared to work hard and maybe not have all the little luxuries you'll be used to in the UK you'll bloody love the place.

This put a smile on my face Pleased to see that things have fallen into place for you and the future is looking bright!

Nice one Mat. Glad it's working out for you and your wife. What line of work is your wife in ? Good luck in your new home. We've nearly finished watching the t.v. programmes you put on the data stick for us. Got a couple of, 'Take me Out' episodes left and one last Benidorm. Thanks, it's been great.

Cheers R&D, she's working as a Support & Advocacy Worker at a Adult Education place.

I've downloaded some more UKTV if you want the USB sticks restocking.

Great Matt, have PM'd you.

need to change your location now then