love30stm

Yep I agree with you on that one, its so far away from everything I feel Isolated at times, and at my age I should feel like retiring but nope not yet...lol

Rustie

Many thanks Irisheyes! Fingers crossed, eh!

When do you get here (you've probably said on here but i'm not on often! )??

Persephone

I met the future Mr Sue on holiday three years ago and discovered he was from NZ! I went from having no plans to ever live outside of the UK to making a decision pretty quickly that I ought to give it a go
I just realised that life is too short for regrets and I would rather take a risk and move here and it all goes wrong than spend the rest of my life wondering what if...My only real worry was living so far away from my parents but they are still only just in their 60s and healthy. They both told me that I should go and that I shouldn't not go because of them [maybe they just wanted rid of me??]
Anyway so far very happy

irish_eyes

Sounds like alot of my reasons too. Are u living in palmerston north? If so what do you make of that? Reason I ask is that in the back of my mind i'm thinkin maybe while we are at it - we could go to another part of nz. Not so sure tho but need to get a base before my son turns 5 so he can start school etc....

irish_eyes

My husband is a kiwi too and I also have my mother here in ireland to worry about but she is well able to fly and I may even teach her a thing or two on the pc..............

irish_eyes

we are booking flights this week but hope to go early july. How are things over there workwise - as in - will you pick something else up or is there going to be a dry patch in nz for a while do you think? my husband has a job to go to but I think they are freezing there head count for a while. Its a pain in the arse isn't it - I HATE RECESSION!!!! I'll be looking for part time so hopefully i'll pick something up too......

Jan n Neil

Sick to death of seeing lazy fekless chavs walking about doing F all getting more and more angry every time i read a paper, switch on the telly we have a good lifestyle/income in the UK but it just seems to go no where and with the amount of money the gov has borrowed the taxes over here are gonna be crippling over the next 20 years

Plus the wife got offered a job on mega bucks so will see you all in August

Genesis

We all looooooooooooooooooooooove life here in Palmy. We have Elise and 'Bella who are 6, Felix who's 8 and Kate and myself. Kate has her dream job in nursing and I am a very kept man. Hey my Dad was from Navan...where are your roots??

My only gripes are crap driving and poor after sales service (the latter 2 things are endemic apparently)..apart from that life is dandy. Always loads to do for all of us, we have tramping mins away, the beach only 30 mins and world class skiing just over 2 hours away. We have a great square, loads of brilliant coffee shops and endless restaurants. then there are the theatres, the 12 or so cinemas here and the seemingly unending courses and sports for both adults and kid to do. We have some awesome pubs too. So would I recommend living here? YES YES YES!! Some brilliant schools too, and ofcourse Massey Uni.

weejie

Our reasons are a lot of what has been posted before. My OH has wanted to go for a long time, just after marriage (15 years ago)and pre-kids but I was having none of it,wouldn't even consider it. I did not want to leave my family and friends and if truth be told I was a bit of a woose back then,but more confident and likely to stand up for myself now.I did not like the thought of change and to be honest it scared the hell out of me.

My best friend decided to go to NZ with her family and I was devastated. She left in November 2006 and going through the process with her and both her and my OH gently prodding my brain I started to consider it. I had 2 boys now and there was nothing for them here sad to say and the future looked worse(as has now been proven). I let my head take over rather than my heart and decided to give it a go.

I feel that this country,as much as I am proud to be Scottish, is done. I have great friends, brill neighbours and I like the place I live. BUT. The chavs and neds rule,the decent people get nothing and are at the back of the queue when it comes to getting free child care,places at nursery etc. If I was a single mum who had a drug habit and been abused by my partner my kids would get first in line but as a married woman who works and pays taxes my kids get nothing that we don't pay for. My family are outdoors folks but to do anything here it can cost a fortune. The beaches are littered with junk or glass or even dog mess and not safe for the kids to play on;the playparks are usually vandalised;schools have barbed wire on top of the fences to keep the vandals out. My God,primary school kids take knives and booze to school,WTF is going on? I don't want my boys growing up in that environment.

Now this is all MY opinion and I am entitled to it,some may disagree and that is ok. It may not be better in NZ but can it be any worse? I want to try,and I don't want to be sitting in Scotland in 5 years time wishing I had and wondering what if.So this is my answer to the question put by the OP.

Phyl x

danjones1

The people of the UK is my main reason...

Too many of them, too many scroungers having babies for tax benefits, too many chavs, growing lower class, etc etc

The UK is beautiful but this is being ruined.

Mgee

We've always planned to move abroad at least for a few years at some stage, but before now there were always things holding us back: studies, work, illness in family etc. etc. We also have worked for 12+ years in IT/telecom, hubby for the same employer, so a bit of change is welcome. We don't have kids so in that sense moving is also easier, and we are lucky to have suitable degrees and job experience for moving to NZ. We don't really have one particular reason for moving, but there are a lot of small things that have influenced our decision. I must confess that we first thought of moving to the UK -it would have been easier and at least OH could have transferred his job to the local office within the same company, and with me having already lived in the UK, it would have been easy to settle in. But there were some things that we were not really sure about the UK as it is nowadays, and most of them have been mentioned by other posters already.

For us also the lack of space and nature was a factor (the population density here is about the same as in NZ), and also the UK class society is a really alien concept for us egalitarian Northeners. But "luckily" the recession decided on our behalf, and so we put the plans on hold about a year ago and started to look for other options. We wanted an English-speaking country with a mostly Western lifestyle, relatively safe, and didn't want the new place be too cold or too hot and thus chose NZ. For us, NZ has a lot of the UK's positives for us but fewer of its negatives, and it also offers us some of the things (nature, occasional snow) that we would have missed if living in the UK. The distance is a bit of a two-edged sword: there are some people that I will miss so much, but to be honest there are also people that I'd like to be a bit further away from!

irish_eyes

Hi there, have you moved yet or do you know when your goin? Every time I read a post like this it just further reminds me that we are SOOOOOOOOOOOO doing the right thing. Thanks!

irish_eyes

Thanks for such an honest account phyl - I have to agree with alot of what you said. It is a sad thing to say about where you are from but lots of us feel the same way about the future especially when there are kids involved. Its my main motivation to be honest. Where i'm from i loved the area itself, good schools and beach and shops etc... but cause house prices have gone down the riff raff have started moving in and its not a great place so much anymore - Not that fond of how my neighbours all seem to know my business and how the irish in general seem to like playing lets keep up with the jones' its draining and i'm longing for a more simple life. I do understand tho why you would want to go and also why you had never considered it before. its a life changing experience and i'm sure its one you will really enjoy. when do you leave? We leave next month!! Yippee best of luck

irish_eyes

Best of luck to ya jan n neil!!! Agree with all you said!

irish_eyes

haha really your dad is from navan? We are only a hop skip and a jump from there - well not really -- about 30 mins but we live in co meath which is where navan is!! I'm a dublin girl, born and bred but moved out to co meath about 6 years ago! Sounds great where u guys are. ya just never know, we may do some homework.............. For now my hubby has a job in auckland so that were we are going for the minute. Only time will tell and i'm damn well going to enjoy the adventure!!!