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Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

Old Jan 18th 2006, 2:34 am
  #16  
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Default Re: Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

Thanks for the post SFB....I have enjoyed reading it. Karma to you!
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Old Jan 18th 2006, 4:54 am
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Default Re: Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

Great honesty from all, we too were being honest and perhaps that has been lost on some of the other replies. We have settled in the Eastern Bays - Kohimarama, yes it is expensive, we have had to increase on our mortgage from that in the UK, the primary schools are good though.We have moved with the same salary as in the UK but have less disposable income as a result of the increased mortgage. I don't know of any major city in the UK where you can get a decent house, good schools and be so close the the business district where I would have to work and not pay a premium. We too used to live near the cotswolds - Evesham and Shipton Oliffe in fact, and know the Hollow Bottom well - lovely pub and grub. Enjoy your pint and we'll enjoy our wine!

We also looked at Toronto when we wanted to leave and if 'more for your money' is a key factor in your decisions perhaps this could be an option.
All the best to all.
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Old Jan 19th 2006, 2:56 pm
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Default Re: Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

"A lot of the houses have a very temporary look to them. We did some price comparisons and decided that any idea of moving out to NZ and getting rid of the mortgage would be a pipe dream. House prices in NZ are getting close to those in the UK."

While I was suprised at how expensive NZ housing is, I have to say that if you find a three bedroom bungalow on 50 acres in England for £100,000, please let me know where it is.

T.
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Old Jan 19th 2006, 3:37 pm
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Default Re: Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

Originally Posted by tableland
"A lot of the houses have a very temporary look to them. We did some price comparisons and decided that any idea of moving out to NZ and getting rid of the mortgage would be a pipe dream. House prices in NZ are getting close to those in the UK."

While I was suprised at how expensive NZ housing is, I have to say that if you find a three bedroom bungalow on 50 acres in England for £100,000, please let me know where it is.

T.
Please Please Please tell me where I can get a 3 bedroom bungalow on 50 acres in New Zealand for £100,000 - that sounds perfect!
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Old Jan 19th 2006, 3:53 pm
  #20  
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Default Re: Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

Originally Posted by tableland
"A lot of the houses have a very temporary look to them. We did some price comparisons and decided that any idea of moving out to NZ and getting rid of the mortgage would be a pipe dream. House prices in NZ are getting close to those in the UK."

While I was suprised at how expensive NZ housing is, I have to say that if you find a three bedroom bungalow on 50 acres in England for £100,000, please let me know where it is.

T.
I think the OP was referring to a like-for-like comparison.

So whilst it was obviously possible for you to find a home on 50 acres for $250k NZD, it is not always the case.

By contrast, for us, it would cost the same in NZ for the same size of house in a similar location to the one we have in the UK (ie UK price x 2.4ish to give NZD price), namely a highly desirable commuter belt suburb of Akl in top school zones. I know this because we looked in December.

So it's not always as cheap as one would hope or believe.
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Old Jan 19th 2006, 4:13 pm
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Default Re: Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

"The only downside is the housing problem, just cannot see a way of moving back the other way so to speak....and we are at the starting a family in not too distant future stage....any suggestions on how we make such a hard decision would be gratefully received!!![/QUOTE]

Just a quick reply to Albion. Im assuming your talking about the cost of housing in the uk vs NZ? I wouldn't let the price of property in the UK put you off. The house prices are off the scale in London, but there are plenty of affordable areas outside London, wages are higher and interest rates very low so buying a house in the uk is very do-able despite what you may read.
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Old Jan 21st 2006, 9:10 pm
  #22  
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Default Re: Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

Originally Posted by tableland
"I have to say that if you find a three bedroom bungalow on 50 acres in England for £100,000, please let me know where it is.

T.
Please let me know if you find any in NZ. I'll have two thanks.
 
Old Jan 22nd 2006, 5:00 am
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Default Re: Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

Originally Posted by P18PPS
Not a bad idea

We used this site loads when we were going through the process of coming here permanently but since being here there seem to be so many negatives posted on the site that it seems makes the NZ look as bad as the UK is.

Those that only look to compare things to the Uk should stay in the UK as far as I am concerned. No country is a replication of the UK with better weather so why try to think of them this way - it bemuses me.

Anyone can talk about the cost of chicken breast, peppers and interest rates being high. At the end of the day you should check out every aspect before leaving your comfortable lives wherever you are. I doubt there are very many places left in the world where you can earn a good living, have a big house (without a mortgage) and be safe. NZ fulfills most of these if you are prepared to live in NZ not an annex of the UK like many think it is.

We won't be going back to the UK-I will now go back out to my deck to drink some nice wine looking at Rangitoto as the boats go by.
Also - lets not forget that with the interest rate being high....for 1 person complaining about the interest rates being high there is someone else that is over the moon that interest rates are high (savers). There's always a flipside.
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Old Jan 22nd 2006, 6:19 am
  #24  
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Smile Re: Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

I'd just like to say a BIG WELL DONE to Shortfatbloke for managing to get a realistic view of NZ from a "holiday".

It is very easy to be seduced by NZ when on a recce trip/holiday because -

- you normally would do this in the summer, so don't notice the winter weather issues including freezing cold houses, mouldy clothes, condensation running down the walls etc
- you are spending pounds so don't fully appreciate the issues faced by trying to live in NZ on NZ wages
- You're not at work in NZ so you don't experience issues that many Brits have working in NZ companies.
- the very situation of being on holiday in a foreign country means you feel positive.
- NZ is a very beautiful, tourist-orientated country. Unfortunately when you live there you can't eat the scenery and you're not a tourist.

So well done, Shortfatbloke, for being able to appreciate the realities of NZ from a tourist's perspective. Amazing!!!

Cheers

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Old Jan 22nd 2006, 6:35 am
  #25  
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Default Re: Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

Originally Posted by tableland
"A lot of the houses have a very temporary look to them. We did some price comparisons and decided that any idea of moving out to NZ and getting rid of the mortgage would be a pipe dream. House prices in NZ are getting close to those in the UK."

While I was suprised at how expensive NZ housing is, I have to say that if you find a three bedroom bungalow on 50 acres in England for £100,000, please let me know where it is.

T.
I too would like to know where these 'cheap as chips' NZ houses on 50 acres are
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Old Jan 22nd 2006, 6:36 am
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Default Re: Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

Originally Posted by shortfatbloke
Firstly, let me explain that the following post is my own opinion (humble or otherwise) and follows a three week trip to New Zealand between the 25th December 2005 and 13th January this year.

I am a project manager and my wife is a health professional. We live with our two young sons in Gloucestershire and are comfortably off (but by no means well off). We visited NZ with the express purpose of seeing what NZ had to offer us and the boys with a view to getting away from our stressful lives in this country and creating a new life for ourselves.

We landed on Christmas day and spent the first two days in Akl and then toured over North Island in a motorhome for three weeks – we visited the Coromandel, Rotorua, Taupo, Napier, Wellington, Whangerei, Doubtless Bay, Paihia, Russell and Orewa pretty much in that order. As I went round I made some notes, kept the receipts and tried to keep and open mind.

Auckland
Thought we had a hotel in the Chinese quarter of Akl but discovered later that the whole of central Akl is like that. Hotel in the CBD (The New President) was scruffy but had all the amenities that we needed (kitchen c/w microwave and washing machine and tumble dryer) and was well located, 100m from the Sky Tower. Had the worst ever Caesar salad in the café at the base of the Sky Tower. Had quite a nice meal in the rotating restaurant but was faced with a $190 bill (including 15% surcharge for bank holidays). Did the tourist thing and went on the bus through Ponsonby, Newmarket and Parnell and did some shopping in the Boxing Day sales.

Cars and Roads
Roads in NZ at their best are the equivalent to a UK single lane A road. NZers love their cars, there are so many examples of souped up cars on the road, from lovingly done up Ford Anglias and Cortinas, complete with chrome wheels, to full blown WRC touring car replicas. NZ has probably cornered the market in 2” exhaust pipes as every other car has one. Given the road conditions and the powerful cars it is a sad but unsurprising statistic that 19 people died on NZ’s roads during the holiday period.

Campsites
The most disappointing thing for a country that relies so heavily on tourism was the standards of the campsites that we visited. Most of the sites seemed to be located in he worst areas of town – Napier had to be the worst example with one site advertised as for motorhomes only being no more than a set up in a field, another being between the main road and the railway line and the last one (where we had booked into as it was next to the ‘beach’) was just full of NZ’s answer to trailer trash. Consequently, we had filled up, dumped and left within a couple of hours and spent New Year 2006 in a picnic area on the 40th degree of latitude.

Countryside
Beautiful, absolutely stunning mountains, hills, coast, the works. The fields and meadows were absolutely lush and green. Varies from rolling Devon hills to moon surface to alpine mountains in a very short space.

Towns
Interior – The majority of the towns we passed through were 1950’s bible-belt USA in style and architecture - not particularly attractive but probably very functional.

Coast – Lots of fairly small lots with little or no garden built on top of each other. No consideration to planning, style or architecture.

Saw a few nice towns, Taupo, Cambridge and Russell spring to mind. Russell is very much Key West meets Cowes type of place and is very pretty. Although I did not expect all of NZ to look like Russell, I did expect some of it to.

Housing
A lot of the houses have a very temporary look to them. We did some price comparisons and decided that any idea of moving out to NZ and getting rid of the mortgage would be a pipe dream. House prices in NZ are getting close to those in the UK.

Cost of Living
Fuel (diesel) is very cheap (99c per litre). Didn’t find any supermarkets to match up to the UK ones (Tesco’s, Sainsbury’s etc.) for quality and range but New World and Woolworths were the closest. Cost of groceries is comparable to UK – which was a real disappointment. Meat and veg are cheaper but toiletries etc are more expensive.

Whilst New Zealand is an indescribably beautiful country, we both felt that there was not enough to tempt us away from the UK. The lack of decent restaurants and culture left us feeling that there is no real depth to the country and the state of the towns and inhabited areas left us feeling that is a great shame that things are in the shape they're in.

It was disappointing to leave the country with a feeling that we had spent an awful lot of money on a wasted trip but we came away knowing that NZ is not for us.
Very good post SFB, I'm sorry that it didnt work out but hey what a great experience.
I'd just like to ask what did you expect of your visit to N Z. and what did you base your expectations on?
We were there almost a year ago and went with a completly open mind and covered the same kind of area that you did. We rented a house for the month period so that we would have to live and shop among the locals just to get a feel for how people react to you and to get a feel for the costs.
We took overnight cases with us when we went out, stopping as and when we wanted for as long as we wanted. So we didnt experiance the camp sites. Are you camping type people, maybe its just that campings not for you, if you dont enjoy your accomodation it could affect the whole attitude whilst your there. We made the same comments about Auckland, the roads, houses and costs. We have decided that N Z is for us, we can stay away from Auckland, were not city people give us the beach anytime. The roads are all A type but with only 4 + million people once out of the city you dont see that many cars. And as for the type of houses, thats N Z, its what the majority are like. We should be able to sell up in the U K move to N Z and not have a mortgage this will make a great difference to our way of life. We are willing to accept that N Z is different to the U K thats the main reason for the move and were willing to adapt to the N Z way to try to fit in.

Good luck with whatever decisions you make. At least you had a go.
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Old Jan 22nd 2006, 7:29 am
  #27  
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Default Re: Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

You did well to get a month off work Loxley to visit here, did you say you were a plumber?
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Old Jan 22nd 2006, 7:52 am
  #28  
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Default Re: Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

Yis, for my sins I am a plumber, I work for myself.
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Old Jan 22nd 2006, 8:55 am
  #29  
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Default Re: Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

Are you sure you want to come here and have to work for someone else, my brother in law is a plumber and can earn far more in the UK and he doesn't have to answer to anyone. Seems a lot of the plumbers I have come across in NZ are very dissatisfied with it all.
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Old Jan 22nd 2006, 9:19 am
  #30  
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Default Re: Why we won't be emigrating to New Zealand

My intention is not too work so much. I want a more relaxed life, money is not the big issue.
Once all the registration etc is complete and were all settled then I'd like to stop working as soon as I can. Or maybe reduce to working as I want to. It might take a few years but I feel I can do it easier in N Z than in the U K. It just feels right for us and you've gotta go with your feelings. I'd hate to be thinking in a few years time when its too late that I wish I'd tried.
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