paddy234

This post is a year late but we have been so busy the last year and everything has went fast however so better later than never, also we needed to live here for a while before i could make this comparison. With this thread i thought i'd give my own experience of New Zealand, why i moved there, lived there and why i left so any of you guys in Ireland and the UK will be able to weigh up if it's for you.

I moved to Christchurch in 2013 as part of the rebuild. I was in my early 20's and single so i didn't have a care in the world and nothing to lose. The only reason i choose New Zealand was because i had a mate who came out 8 months prior and he talked it up, i had always considered Australia as it's so well known among expats and prior to the Earthquake i knew so little about New Zealand, when i was at school i always envisioned it as some small tropical Island off the coast of Australia no bigger than Ireland but not as developed as Australia. Obviously after doing some research into the country i leant alot about it's history, geography, climate, culture etc so moving there wasn't such a shock. Finally landing in Christchurch, getting instant employment was great as i didn't have a significant amount of money to last for weeks without work. Things really fell into place quickly and smoothly. I am a tradie so there was no shortage of jobs around and the money at the time wasn't bad. In fact we were getting paid more than the local population solely to try and compete with Australia in a bid to get workers from Ireland and the UK. This is even with me having zero experience in the particular trade i was employed in and starting from the bottom. Life was great and i met some of the closest friends through my company who were also expats. Almost all of them had come from Australia in which rather than going home after their visa's ended they decided to come to NZ, all of them preferred OZ especially in relation to the higher wages however as time moved on they come to much prefer their lives in New Zealand especially as they kind of grew out of the partying scene. I did alot of my growing up in New Zealand and some of the best nights of my life were spent in New Zealand with these close group of friends.

I was very content, i met a woman who is now my wife a year later and we dated for several years. I was soon able to pass the points test for residency so i received that i believe in 2015 securing my long term future in New Zealand. This happened within a few months so really quite fast. After me getting residency and having some money in my Kiwisaver we used both our savings and kiwisaver to go toward a 10% deposit to build our first home. we later sold that home and built what we regarded as our ''forever home''. We then got married in 2020 in Christchurch and later in 2020 we were blessed with the birth of our son. Honestly New Zealand was good to me, it provided me with a lifestyle i could never imagine back home, meeting the most amazing woman in the world who is also my best friend, a beautiful home and now a beautiful son and to be blessed with some of the best mates who i miss. Also the much better climate than Ireland and the UK allows one to enjoy the outdoor lifestyle much more. So why did i leave? Well as i said before wages here were good in 2013 but by 2020's standards i felt they were quite low especially as i grew more skilled in my trade and was starting to demand more. Wages had only risen by a small amount compared to the cost of living, we lost some guys in our company for this very reason. Having a young family, a mortgage and all the bills, we felt things getting tighter especially with my wife dropping back to work 3 days a week instead of 5 which meant our income dropped as she is a Nurse. This and the cost of living rising meant our ability to save was dwindling. Then Covid happened and there was great uncertainty and fear. This caused me to reflect on our lives in New Zealand, the rising cost of living, the state that the country will be in after Covid due to the restriction of the movement of goods and services throughout the world. New Zealand was already getting too expensive prior to Covid. Another big reason was the fact that my wife was working a Saturday as her rates are higher then so we could easily maintain her spending time more time with the little man the other 4 days, the problem is this meant our weekends together as a family were ruined as we really only had Sunday's to do anything together. So, I had a mate who moved from Christchurch to Perth a few years prior and i asked him about the job market there, house prices, cost of living etc. I was optimistic in 2020 that Covid wouldn't last long because we can't lock-down forever and there was already talk of a bubble being opened up between the two countries. I talked to my wife about Perth who initially wasn't pleased until i mentioned about the fact she would only have to work 2 days a week so she could spend more time with the little guy and we could try for another soon after. On this prospect alone she got very excited and so we made moves to sell our home and move to Perth during a pandemic. We just thought we would go with the flow, if it happens it happens, we were very lucky, our house sold fast and for much more than we asked the agent for. The plan was for me to move to Perth a month early to quarantine and then get set up for my wife and son's arrival.

After a stressful few weeks with border restrictions i flew to Perth in January 2021. The first thing i remember was how hot it was even at 11:00pm and how much greener it was than i imagined. After quarantine i got a rental sorted and setup things for my wife and son coming across. Again after a few stressful weeks with the border they made it across and we started to settle into our new lives here in Australia, now 6 months prior in coming to Perth i applied for my New Zealand Citizenship however there was huge delays due to Covid so as a back-up i applied for a WHV which took around 6 weeks to come through. My wife was a NZ citizen however not long after arrival she applied for OZ citizenship by descent. I knew the risks of leaving NZ before i got my citizenship and was told in March 2021 that they had knowledge i had left the country and i needed to return to receive it. I rejected this idea and withdrew my application, as soon as my wife got her OZ citizenship i applied for PR which i always intended to do anyway as PR is stronger than a special category visa. I'm not going to lie it was VERY stressful in setting up here, because i wasn't a NZ citizen or a PR yet then we couldn't buy a house with less than a 20% deposit and i didn't realize stamp duty comes out of your deposit. I initially believed it could be added to the mortgage. Anyway, thankfully you don't need to pay stamp duty if you are building and buy land under a certain amount so we have now went with the building route which is again stressful caused by poor supply of building materials driven by the constant lock-downs. Construction is due to start any week now and if it's finished in 12 months it will have been a 2 year process which is double what it usually is. Anyway even with this we have NEVER looked back. Our lifestyle here is a massive step up. My wife works 2 days during the week giving plenty of time with our son and soon with our new daughter who is due in 2 months. We get the full weekends together and Perth as a city offers us more than any city in New Zealand could. Sometimes i felt quite isolated in New Zealand as there never seemed to be any big events, not quite like here in Australia and Europe anyway. We are significantly better off given that i earn $15 an hour more than what i was getting in NZ and get attractive penalties for doing ANY overtime. In New Zealand a typical workday for a tradie is 7:00am-5:00pm with 4:30pm being the earliest. Here in Perth it's usually 6:30-3:00pm with us going to 3:30pm regularly which is much better and we just feel our family is able to flourish here. Housing here is the biggest difference. Even with house prices rising which have now levelled off you can easily get a nice 4 bedroom and 2 bathroom modern home for $500,000. It all just depends in the areas. Climate is significantly better aswell with the difference in the temperature and sunshine between Christchurch and Perth being similar to the difference between Belfast and Christchurch which makes going to work outside all that more pleasant and a never ending amount of days screaming for families to be outside. Last month i received PR in Australia after 9 months so this will be home for us for the rest of our lives God willing.

The purpose of this post after a year is to breakdown why i loved and left New Zealand and why Australia is now home. What it offers. In Australia wages are significantly higher and cost of living cheaper. Petrol currently here is $1:50, clothes is certainly cheaper as you get to see on the tag what it is in both NZD and AUD, in Australia a dollar goes further in some things yet you make more of it. This could mean the difference between living on a tight budget in NZ and being able to save for domestic and international holidays and enjoy weekends without worrying about money which is what we feel it's like in Australia. People talk about New Zealand being a haven for families however we feel that unless you have a significant amount of money to bring across and end up almost mortgage free your going to notice just how expensive it is. Even buying a house for $800,000 in a smaller city like Christchurch, it isn't worth it. If you spent that in Perth you could get a HUGE 4-6 bedroom modern family home with a pool on a large section. At some point something is going to have to change in New Zealand because the current incompetent government driven by Adhern is interested more about looking good than fixing more complex problems. Personally the way things are in the world now unless you have a large amount of money and are seeking are more quiet and isolated lifestyle then i'd say out of both countries, Australia to live, New Zealand to holiday. The people in New Zealand are incredible however and we found within our local parish there was a vibrant active community, this was no doubt hard to leave and we haven't found the same here however even after all this Perth is like Paradise for us, once we have the house ticked off hoping that construction companies don't keep folding then we will be fully settled. Our journey has been a hard and stressful one but one in which the reward was worth the risk in every way imaginable

Any questions feel free to ask

queenstown5

Loved reading your post today! We (Kiwi and Spaniard) have just (99%) decided to move to Perth from Queenstown for some warmer weather and more to do/opportunities/education for our children(9,11,13). We have been discussing and researching for two years and it's driving us crazy so have to do it! It's going to be a mission as also have a 1 year old crazy lab puppy! Husband is a well qualified painter(commercial and residential), sounds like he will find work easily? Any idea of wages for painters? What suburb would you recommend? Happy for you guys : )

Mishclark

Thanks for sharing Paddy, very pleased you are enjoying your new life and congratulations on bubs number 2!

Moon_River

Nice.

You've done well.

You arrived in Christchurch around about the same time we did. I remember reading your posts. I was surprised that you had up and left for Australia, however, you (with wife and family) are now there and settling. Good on ya mate !

We left NZ in 2016 to return to Britain. We are settled and happy here. No experience is ever wasted.........?

paddy234

Painters here on seek.com are being offered $35-$45 an hour. More if he's on casual. I spent a lot of time in Queenstown due to work, the nights out there are some of the best I've had, amazing place. I understand why you'd want to leave for the warmth. It does get very hot here though so it's definitely for sun and heat lovers. It lacks humidity though which is a plus and makes it more bearable. The move no doubt will be stressful but will be worth it if you know exactly what you guys are after. In terms of suburbs. It depends. Perth doesn't have many rough suburbs, what matters most is where your work will be. It can take 2 hours on the highway to get from the far south to the far north and most suburbs aren't very far from the coast.

If you wanted to play it safe any central suburb would be great but be warned there is a rental shortage here so just plan for that. If your Husband wanted he could apply for a job on Seek.com and have a job waiting for him when he arrives, the tradie shortage here is crazy. I've never seen anything like it. He will be snapped up pretty quickly.

Also i must add that tradies here benefit in one huge area. Tax time. Every financial year (July) a tradie can claim anywhere from $2000-$10,000 through expenses. That is because driving to and from site can be claimed as a work related expense which can be deducted at tax time. Other expenses than can be deducted are fuel receipts, tool receipts. Also a certain amount can be claimed without receipts such as your mobile phone bill toward work, even the cost of washing work gear throughout the year, no joke lol. I keep a log book for how many Km's i travel and my fuel and tool receipts. Here is an example
https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/income-and-deductions/deductions-you-can-claim/Transport-and-travel-expenses/car-expenses/?=redirected_car#Travelbetweenhomeandwork

paddy234

Thank you, hope you have been keeping well and enjoying life in Christchurch

paddy234

Thank you, glad to hear your keeping well back home. It's crazy how things can change so fast. How we can look back at the beginning of our jouney to where we are now with an entirely fresh perspective, theres no substitute for experience. Yes I agree without making a go of it we will never fully know where the grass is greenest, no reward is without risk.

Tom H

Glad to hear that everything is going well with you and congratulations on the youngster. Word of advice, don't have two unless you can tolerate arguements every 18 seconds . Nah just kidding, whilst they stress you out more often than not, they sure make you proud

Must admit with my job, my company would happily allow me to work anywhere in the world so we're considering Australia if the cost of living here continues to get out of control. Currently we're very fortunate we can sort of absorb the rises but not sure how long that will last. There's a lot of Pegasus style areas in Queensland that tick the boxes and not as pricey as here.

How do you find Perth? Is it as isolated as the rest of Australia bar WA make it out to be? Probably not where we'd settle if we did end up moving but definitely one to consider

paddy234

Thank you, i have to say i'm not looking forward to the adjustment of being up several times at night. Was only starting to get a good run of sleep lol. We were doing ok but we definitely felt we needed to budget tightly which i felt insane as we wanted to grow our family. Coming to Australia you will realize life is just that bit easier financially and one can start planning family holidays interstate and abroad every year.

As for Perth's isolation, there's no doubt compared to South Australia/Victoria and NSW/Queensland Perth is quite isolated however it all depends what you are comparing it with. For example i lived in Christchurch on an Island significantly larger than Ireland with half the population of Perth. Perth is more of a region, it will take you 2 hours on the highway to get from top to bottom and i'll be honest i've never once felt isolated. This is helped by the several popular destinations south such as Margaret River and other towns that allows one to escape to in the long weekends and they are some of the most stunning places i have ever been. I haven't been anywhere up north yet but usually these are long drives which can last several days. Due to the fact there is quite a large population you still feel connected to the world if that makes sense, this means you get access to some of the worlds best music artists and events on a regular basis. Living in the South Island which Christchurch feeling like a large town you truly felt isolated and at the edge of the world. Few big music acts came there and events were usually small and poorly handed. Some people love the isolation, i used to think this was due to their paranoid belief that Nuclear War was inevitable and NZ is the best place to be. Now i almost see such people as sensible the way the world is now lol. Anyway i never felt isolated here however no doubt if you are looking for vibrant places to travel to not far from the city then Queensland or NSW is your best bet. Perth truly is awesome however and we don't intend to move anywhere else

the troubadour

I'm wondering if you had any trouble finding a rental? I know it was 01, so things may have been easier than more recently, but pretty dire at the moment.
Perth is a bit marmite. Not for everybody with the isolation and somewhat conservative nature of the place. , but I agree probably a great place if a tradie.

old.sparkles

Are you asking Paddy about Perth? He moved over from NZ last year, not 01.

the troubadour

Well yes. Hardly relevant 01 , but now someone who is having great difficulty getting a suitable rental in Perth after almost a month. Would like to know how it was last year, for an incomer with no local references. Perhaps it's far worse a year later?

paddy234

We were quite lucky as we found somewhere very quickly. I think i just hit the market before it got significantly worse a few months later. I kind of just picked the first decent place i could find before my wife and son came across. It's definitely pretty hard out there now also driven by the shortage of building materials caused by the world-wide lock-downs. Who knows when it was this be remedied though most likely not this year. The building industry is starting to crumble with builders going bust and still many more to come as they can't deal with the rising costs of materials and so few tradies to get the job done

When you say conservative nature what do you mean? The labor party rules in WA however Mark McGowan's policies in relation to immigration and the economy for example would have little in common with left wing economics not surprisingly given how the economy of WA is sustained

the troubadour

Thanks for your reply. Glad to read you are settling into WA life. I had a feeling that may have been the case with regards to rentals. . Yes I've read about the difficulty in regards to the building industry. One can only fear longer term outcomes in that area as interest rates begin to rise and bite.
By conservative , I mean this state has traditionally expressed clearly what you outline, but some small points, experience has shown me it is very much also who you know . In a lot of areas everybody knows or knows of another. (can apply in rentals as well) One cannot afford to do much else but go along with existing practice and keep onside regardless if not exactly the most ideal. .But a tradie is probably, the best position to be in for now though,

Perro

Mate, that sums us up too, came over same time but North Island, great country but hellish expensive place to live.
Bring a million pounds you may be ok, for now, but times are changing.