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Why have you remained in NZ

Why have you remained in NZ

Old Jul 6th 2011, 12:15 pm
  #46  
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Default Re: Why have you remained in NZ

Originally Posted by Expat Kiwi
That's very interesting, I find Oz a lot cheaper than New Zealand. Admittedly I came over here when the NZ v. Australian exchange rate was at its best for years but I still find my dollar goes further here than it did in New Zealand. Petrol being a good example, I filled up yesterday for $1.30 a litre. Another is electricity - my quarterly summer bill (peak use at that time of year because of pool pump and air conditioning) was $576, much cheaper than the >$250 a month I was paying in NZ a few years ago.

BTW, My winter bills are circa $300 a quarter. Those prices also include levies for ambulance cover too.

Funny you should mention the 4 lane motorways around Brisbane. I was driving through those yesterday and loving that they actually HAVE four lane motorways over here! and I didn't get held up once. It makes it so much easier to get where you want as quickly as possible.
Funny, I too an a kiwi in Oz and I find it much more expensive.

Yes fuel is cheap, but you need a lot more weekly to actually get anywhere because everything is so far.

My power bill is more than my NZ bill. have to pay for water here, in NZ I didnt.

2nd hand cars are ridiculously over priced.

4 lane motorways?? I liv ein Sydney and they may as well only have 2 lanes as slow as the traffic moves...even though the main through fares have at least 6 lanes.

Also, NSW is a hard out nanny state. You cant do anything without risking a damn fine.

Dont get me wrong, I like it here (though hoping to move to Brisbane in the near future - theres no traffic there for starters! and rent etc is much much cheaper) and the wages are good. But I find cost of living quit ehigh. However, I do live in Sydney and Sydney is very expensive.

I loved NZ before I left and if I could earn good money, I would be back in a flash.

I wish I had remained in NZ sometimes. We lived at the beach. Literally in a tiny coastal community near Napier/Hastings right across the road from the back. Sat in the lounge and could watch the waves. The OH went fishing on his motorbike every day out by cape kidnappers. I used to pop over to the beach with the dogs. Our daughter could run down the road to a friends. It was great.

Now we gotta drive for 3 hours to get to a beach that isnt covered in tourists.

Last edited by bananalana; Jul 6th 2011 at 12:18 pm.
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Old Jul 6th 2011, 12:30 pm
  #47  
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Default Re: Why have you remained in NZ

Originally Posted by bananalana
Funny, I too an a kiwi in Oz and I find it much more expensive.

Yes fuel is cheap, but you need a lot more weekly to actually get anywhere because everything is so far.

My power bill is more than my NZ bill. have to pay for water here, in NZ I didnt.

2nd hand cars are ridiculously over priced.

4 lane motorways?? I liv ein Sydney and they may as well only have 2 lanes as slow as the traffic moves...even though the main through fares have at least 6 lanes.

Also, NSW is a hard out nanny state. You cant do anything without risking a damn fine.

Dont get me wrong, I like it here (though hoping to move to Brisbane in the near future - theres no traffic there for starters! and rent etc is much much cheaper) and the wages are good. But I find cost of living quit ehigh. However, I do live in Sydney and Sydney is very expensive.

I loved NZ before I left and if I could earn good money, I would be back in a flash.

I wish I had remained in NZ sometimes. We lived at the beach. Literally in a tiny coastal community near Napier/Hastings right across the road from the back. Sat in the lounge and could watch the waves. The OH went fishing on his motorbike every day out by cape kidnappers. I used to pop over to the beach with the dogs. Our daughter could run down the road to a friends. It was great.

Now we gotta drive for 3 hours to get to a beach that isnt covered in tourists.
Good post Bananlana, you won't get much encouragement here as most people think Oz is paradise, but you get my applause, Cheers good post!
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Old Jul 6th 2011, 9:48 pm
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Default Re: Why have you remained in NZ

Originally Posted by bananalana


Now we gotta drive for 3 hours to get to a beach that isnt covered in tourists.
Perhaps I shouldn't let the secret out, but there's this magnificent surf beach just south of Raglan called Ruapuke, here in the Waikato, that you can go to on a weekday in the middle of summer, and not see another living sole for miles.

Last edited by waikatoguy; Jul 6th 2011 at 9:57 pm.
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Old Jul 6th 2011, 11:37 pm
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Default Re: Why have you remained in NZ

Just to answer a couple of points:


Paradise is a subjective term – one man’s meat etc.

Second hand cars are indeed ridiculously overpriced in Oz, but then again new cars are cheaper – and both countries are way off the prices in the UK.

If a beach life is important to you, and this is just an idea you may want to consider, could you not move nearer to the beach – there are quite a few in Oz. Scraping and barrel come to mind.

Why don’t people get it? Every country has it’s faults, but that is not the problem with New Zealand. Australia does what it says on the tin – I did my research and guess what, no surprises. It is not utopia or paradise, just honesty, transparency, good living and being well rewarded for doing a good job with real prospects. The fundamental issue people have with NZ is that the hype and false claims simply don’t match the reality of living there. People can feel duped. If New Zealand came clean, these forums would not be filled with people who are so dissatisfied.
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Old Jul 6th 2011, 11:58 pm
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Default Re: Why have you remained in NZ

Bellingham, I think the number of positive people far outweigh the negative people on this site, from what I've read. It's just that we always remember the negatives, plus our own experience. In this thread alone there are 15 positive about NZ, 2 neutral and 4 negative, including yourself. Surely, some of the so-called hype you talk about comes from word of mouth.

Last edited by waikatoguy; Jul 7th 2011 at 12:00 am.
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Old Jul 7th 2011, 12:16 am
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Default Re: Why have you remained in NZ

The hype is not word of mouth - clean and green is the standard advertising for NZ. Google 'Agent Orange', then see if the reality is different, and this is just one small example. As I said, many people (not just on this forum) have a very negative view of NZ because of the 'dream' they were sold not matching the reality - there should not be any of those scenarios. NZ needs the immigrant workforce, it needs the dollars, but to dupe people to go there with false advertising is simply reprehensible. Half my family is Kiwi, and of those, most love the place, but a few are looking to jump ship. It is the same with the immigrants I know, a significant number have had a very bad experience in New Zealand. I left the UK for many reasons, and many problems, and if you would like to discuss the problems with Uk / Oz etc we could go on for hours - I have nothing to hide. If someone is dissatisfied with the UK, great, no problem, I would probably agree with the complaints. It is irksome though, when people express a dislike of NZ, for various reasons, and are left feeling that they are the ones who are wrong.
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Old Jul 7th 2011, 2:16 am
  #52  
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Default Re: Why have you remained in NZ

Originally Posted by billingham
Just to answer a couple of points:


Paradise is a subjective term – one man’s meat etc.

Second hand cars are indeed ridiculously overpriced in Oz, but then again new cars are cheaper – and both countries are way off the prices in the UK.

If a beach life is important to you, and this is just an idea you may want to consider, could you not move nearer to the beach – there are quite a few in Oz. Scraping and barrel come to mind.

Why don’t people get it? Every country has it’s faults, but that is not the problem with New Zealand. Australia does what it says on the tin – I did my research and guess what, no surprises. It is not utopia or paradise, just honesty, transparency, good living and being well rewarded for doing a good job with real prospects. The fundamental issue people have with NZ is that the hype and false claims simply don’t match the reality of living there. People can feel duped. If New Zealand came clean, these forums would not be filled with people who are so dissatisfied.
I guess I am lucky that we did limited research. My expectations about the country per se were practically zero. I had many personal expectations about what my new life might be all which were filled. The only things I expected and got were that it is still empty and very, very far from the UK. I did not come here expecting NZ Ltd to deliver anything to me. It was down to us as a couple to make things work. I had no thoughts about what image NZ had or was trying to portray. It just felt like a cool place to live, so different from the UK which is what I wanted.
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Old Jul 7th 2011, 2:37 am
  #53  
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Default Re: Why have you remained in NZ

Originally Posted by Genesis
I guess I am lucky that we did limited research. My expectations about the country per se were practically zero. I had many personal expectations about what my new life might be all which were filled. The only things I expected and got were that it is still empty and very, very far from the UK. I did not come here expecting NZ Ltd to deliver anything to me. It was down to us as a couple to make things work. I had no thoughts about what image NZ had or was trying to portray. It just felt like a cool place to live, so different from the UK which is what I wanted.
We were the same: moved here for my job with hardly any other knowledge whatsoever.

We have a saying: we live here now, so we are going to learn to live here. We have made mistakes: we may have paid too much for a house that needed work doing to it, we may have made employment mistakes, and we did have a lot to learn. Our lack of knowledge however meant that we too had no rosy tinted glasses about NZ because, in retrospect, our ignorance was a bit scary

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Old Jul 7th 2011, 4:34 am
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Default Re: Why have you remained in NZ

Originally Posted by Jan n Neil
We were the same: moved here for my job with hardly any other knowledge whatsoever.

We have a saying: we live here now, so we are going to learn to live here. We have made mistakes: we may have paid too much for a house that needed work doing to it, we may have made employment mistakes, and we did have a lot to learn. Our lack of knowledge however meant that we too had no rosy tinted glasses about NZ because, in retrospect, our ignorance was a bit scary

Jan
God! How dumb was I? Made a very BIG mistake when we bought our home six years ago. All the issues sorted now but it was a case of complete and total ignorance. As you probably know huger mistakes of a monetary nature were to follow. But life is give and take eh? Fortunately since we have been in NZ way more has come into the pot than left it in more ways than one. So all in all we are good (except for that crap exchange rate!!).
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Old Jul 7th 2011, 10:08 am
  #55  
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Default Re: Why have you remained in NZ

Originally Posted by billingham
Just to answer a couple of points:


Paradise is a subjective term – one man’s meat etc.

Second hand cars are indeed ridiculously overpriced in Oz, but then again new cars are cheaper – and both countries are way off the prices in the UK.

If a beach life is important to you, and this is just an idea you may want to consider, could you not move nearer to the beach – there are quite a few in Oz. Scraping and barrel come to mind.

Why don’t people get it? Every country has it’s faults, but that is not the problem with New Zealand. Australia does what it says on the tin – I did my research and guess what, no surprises. It is not utopia or paradise, just honesty, transparency, good living and being well rewarded for doing a good job with real prospects. The fundamental issue people have with NZ is that the hype and false claims simply don’t match the reality of living there. People can feel duped. If New Zealand came clean, these forums would not be filled with people who are so dissatisfied.
Absolutely new cars are cheaper in Oz. However, I have never in my life purchased a brand new car so was comparing with what I pay.

Absolutely Australia has a lot of beaches. Unfortunately the onesnear the city are hugely expensive to live near and the ones that arent expensive are too far out of the city to make the commute a minor nuisance. There are not many calls for technical writers in hick towns.

Beach life isnt "hugely" important to me at all, I was just making a comparison of our life in NZ and our life in Oz with regard to beaches.

I didnt expect Australia to be paradise either as some ppl seem to. I came here purely for the money and that is what keeps me here. I do like it here though .

Overall, we had much less money in NZ but we had a way better lifestyle.

I dont think NZ is full of hype. I think NZ is a beautiful country with beautiful people and a great lifestyle if you want it. But not everyone is going to like it and not everyone is going to be happy with moves.

I dont think Australia does so what it says on the tin. Particularly if you are coming from NZ (it may be diff coming from UK). If you come from NZ, you are lead to believe that you will get here and suddenly be raking in the money and living in a beautiful house etc etc, and that everyone lives outdoors at the beach and the lifestyle is fabulous.

Last edited by bananalana; Jul 7th 2011 at 10:10 am.
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Old Jul 7th 2011, 10:50 am
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Default Re: Why have you remained in NZ

Originally Posted by bananalana
If you come from NZ, you are lead to believe that you will get here and suddenly be raking in the money
Nurses do
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Old Jul 7th 2011, 10:59 am
  #57  
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Default Re: Why have you remained in NZ

One of my mates is a Psych Nurse who gets work in rural Aussie. The pay figures he talks about are just mind-blowing... the hospitals must be desperate
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Old Jul 7th 2011, 11:02 am
  #58  
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Default Re: Why have you remained in NZ

I was just looking at the Oz forum, so it's not the land of milk and honey apparently....maybe it's all hype....
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Old Jul 7th 2011, 11:17 am
  #59  
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Default Re: Why have you remained in NZ

You have to think they are extremely vulnerable to a Chinese slowdown and/or property market collapse.

When it comes to property the Aussies talk and think very much like Americans/Brits did circa 2006: house is a cash machine, housing is always a good investment, renting is always bad, property prices can never fall etc etc.
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Old Jul 7th 2011, 11:18 am
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Default Re: Why have you remained in NZ

Originally Posted by DC10
One of my mates is a Psych Nurse who gets work in rural Aussie. The pay figures he talks about are just mind-blowing... the hospitals must be desperate
One of the OH's colleagues is using 10 weeks annual leave to go to OZ on a short term contract worth about 35k NZ dollars
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