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Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

Old Mar 29th 2016, 12:08 am
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Default Re: Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

Originally Posted by LittleGreyCat
Just a quick note on electricity - being down under the electrons tend to be upside down,
It's not April fools day until Friday !
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Old Mar 29th 2016, 12:24 am
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Default Re: Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

Originally Posted by Vitalstatistix
However doing the latter may invalidate your insurance or that of the homeowner in the event of a fire!
Thanks for the advice.

But if that's the case then wouldn't that also be true of when you go abroad on holiday & use your electricals there?
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Old Mar 29th 2016, 12:28 am
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Default Re: Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

Originally Posted by LittleGreyCat
Just a quick note on electricity - being down under the electrons tend to be upside down, but as it is Alternating Current nobody seems to mind.

The electricity is remarkably similar but the plugs are not.

The simplest thing is to take a load of extension leads (4 or 6 socket) and then buy a UK <-> NZ adapter for each extension lead. You can then plug all your UK appliances in without having to rewire every plug. This is what we do for PCs and phone chargers and stuff when visiting NZ.
Better is just put a NZ plug on a uk extension strip. This is vital for things like tablets, kindles, phone chargers that have a combined charger/plug. Everything else just chop off the UK plug and replace with nz plugs. If you find this technically challenging any kiwi male (or female) will do it for a six pack of beer.
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Old Mar 29th 2016, 12:35 am
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Default Re: Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

Originally Posted by Moogle87
& by the sounds of it we could probably get 1 or 2 runarounds in NZ for what we get for our cars here

On the housing front, I have been looking at houses on Trademe & I think that I would only consider buying a new build or newer house to be honest.
Have you considered working in a regional hot spot like Tauranga?


How strange it is people complain a lot about house prices and yet drive around in brand new cars the value of deposits?


You can buy a runner for under $5k and then every dollar saved goes towards a housing deposit.


Building also allows for lower deposit:
20% on land
100% on subsequent building cost - provided fixed price contract and with reputable builder.
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Old Mar 29th 2016, 1:27 am
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Default Re: Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

Originally Posted by Kotare
Better is just put a NZ plug on a uk extension strip. This is vital for things like tablets, kindles, phone chargers that have a combined charger/plug. Everything else just chop off the UK plug and replace with nz plugs. If you find this technically challenging any kiwi male (or female) will do it for a six pack of beer.
That is very good advice, thanks Kotare
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Old Mar 29th 2016, 1:37 am
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Default Re: Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

Originally Posted by Parnell
Have you considered working in a regional hot spot like Tauranga?


How strange it is people complain a lot about house prices and yet drive around in brand new cars the value of deposits?


You can buy a runner for under $5k and then every dollar saved goes towards a housing deposit.


Building also allows for lower deposit:
20% on land
100% on subsequent building cost - provided fixed price contract and with reputable builder.
Hi Parnell,

I'm not sure where Tauranga is, but I will look it up.

We would need to live somewhere where hubby could also get a job. That is why I have said we would want to live where the bigger cities are so far. I would have thought he would find it easier to get a job (though I may of course be wrong?)

I agree about the car thing. But am guilty of this myself.
Although I have only bought a more expensive car once we had bought our house & started earning more.

We should easily be able to afford to buy 2 little runarounds with what we get for our cars here if we were to make a move.

I think the problem here (& this is only my experience) is that cheap cars tend to be really unreliable & then really expensive to fix.

I'm not sure if that is the same or different to NZ?

As for building houses it isn't something I've ever thought about.
I always imagine that it would be far more expensive than buying a house that has already been built though.

When we bought our house we went on the Help to Buy scheme with the government & we had to buy a new build & it had to be from certain (ie the bigger ones) bigger builders who were in the scheme.

So looking into getting a private builder to build us a house just wasn't even something that entered into our heads.

Do you have any idea of what kind of house you would get in Tauranga for $250,000 if you asked a private builder to do it?

& are mortgages done in the same way?
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Old Mar 29th 2016, 1:38 am
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Default Re: Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

Originally Posted by Kotare
Better is just put a NZ plug on a uk extension strip. This is vital for things like tablets, kindles, phone chargers that have a combined charger/plug. Everything else just chop off the UK plug and replace with nz plugs. If you find this technically challenging any kiwi male (or female) will do it for a six pack of beer.
Oh & neither of us would have a clue, lol!
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Old Mar 29th 2016, 4:13 am
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Default Re: Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

Originally Posted by Moogle87
Thanks for the advice.

But if that's the case then wouldn't that also be true of when you go abroad on holiday & use your electricals there?
No.

Originally Posted by Parnell
Have you considered working in a regional hot spot like Tauranga?
Good area Parnell but the OP will need to go wherever she is likely to get a firm permanent job contract. Secondary school teachers are not in shortage at all. In fact there is rather a large glut of teachers all round, especially for new entrants with no NZ experience. The situation regarding perm work and therefore visa is tricky.


edit here.....

It might be an idea to start a new thread about the possibility of teaching in NZ . I realise you have placed faith in an agency over anything told to you on BE but everyone here in NZ will state firmly that many, many homegrown NZ teachers are struggling to find full time perm work, which is the type of job offer you would need. It is not just that, it is also about available funding I am a little concerned that you reason otherwise.
jmh makes a good point about subjects. Can you turn your teaching hand to math ?

Perhaps think to have a conversation with the NZ teaching council. about realistic prospects & registration.

Last edited by BEVS; Mar 29th 2016 at 4:33 am.
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Old Mar 29th 2016, 4:52 am
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Default Re: Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

Do you have any idea of what kind of house you would get in Tauranga for $250,000 if you asked a private builder to do it?
You can get an empty section (plot of land) for $250,000 looking on Trade me. Not much else for that sort of money. Welcome Bay Section For Sale, Ballintoy Park. | Trade Me Property
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Old Mar 29th 2016, 7:42 am
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Default Re: Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

My impression is that it's easier to self build in NZ beciase so many more people do it. It's still considered an ecentricity here in the UK. In either country you get more house for your money if you self build, especially if you're prepared to muck in and labout a bit yourself.

In the UK we're now considered too daft to be able to safely change a plug ourselves, a qualified electrician is supposed to do it. I take it from the comments above that the same isn't true in NZ? Quite a bit of the wiring in NZ houses that we stayed in had MrH raising his eyebrows with regard to safety and fire hazards. Anyone being allowed to wire anything up would explain a lot of what we saw.
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Old Mar 29th 2016, 8:00 am
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Default Re: Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

Originally Posted by Hazelnut
My impression is that it's easier to self build in NZ beciase so many more people do it. It's still considered an ecentricity here in the UK. In either country you get more house for your money if you self build, especially if you're prepared to muck in and labout a bit yourself.
Probably because of all the health&safety and planning regulations in the UK.

Only problem with self build is you have to have a place to stay whilst your house is being built so that increases your initial costs and if you're self-managing the project it might be difficult to do it and hold down a job at the same time. Both my sister (in Poland) & BIL (in NZ) have self built and now they have houses designed to their specs. It was quite stressful at the time but well worth it in the end.
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Old Mar 29th 2016, 8:17 am
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Default Re: Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

Originally Posted by KOH2
Probably because of all the health&safety and planning regulations in the UK.

Only problem with self build is you have to have a place to stay whilst your house is being built so that increases your initial costs and if you're self-managing the project it might be difficult to do it and hold down a job at the same time. Both my sister (in Poland) & BIL (in NZ) have self built and now they have houses designed to their specs. It was quite stressful at the time but well worth it in the end.
Motorhome on site?


Stress with fixed price contract?


Ability to refrain from changes in build helps a lot.
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Old Mar 29th 2016, 10:34 am
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Default Re: Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

I have been using the forum for some time, however felt compelled to post my first message on this thread!!!
I think BEVS has spoken wise words. Teaching jobs are extremely difficult to come by and that is for those who have NZ experience and are already legally entitled to work here. Our local secondary school received close to 200 applicants for a recent job - Maths and Science teacher- a long term reliever got this one. A PE and Health teaching position, short term contract had similar numbers of applicants. Two NZ graduates each got 50% contracts, straight from teacher training with NZ curriculum knowledge and cheaper to employ than those with more years experience. Budgets in schools are very tight. These examples in our local secondary are not uncommon across many schools.
Quite often Year 7 and 8 have a 'Homeroom' teacher who teachers almost every subject they study, rather than pure subject specialist teachers. Most teachers in my experience will teach a wider range of subjects in NZ and are formally qualified in these areas whilst in the UK teaching more subjects was often down to necessity within the school rather than individuals being 'qualified' to do so.

I would question the Recruitment Agencies for your own benefit- Why don't they think you will have any problems securing a teaching job? keep asking them. They may well tell you the answer you wish to hear but without any substance. So question them remembering the information provided by those on this board who have been through this, who are teachers and have been involved in recruitment in schools etc. who are all saying it isn't impossible, however very very hard to get a permanent teaching job in NZ. Talk to the NZ Teaching Council as BEVS suggested, look at school websites vacancies pages for information relating to their recruitment and Ed Gazette and don't get carried away with houses, cars, selling items, what to buy when you arrive, as establishing whether your deciding factor- a permanent job is realistic and possible is probably the most important thing to discover.
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Old Mar 29th 2016, 11:57 am
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Default Re: Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

I feel obliged to make the observation that your posts so far have largely about you; your career, what you want, what you are looking for, etc. Your husband seems willing to go along with this approach, but I think you should consider the psychological impact on him.

This is how you introduce your husband, and his career prospects in NZ:

"My husband is 27 & is currently a Pharmacy advisor (a dispenser basically). He is starting his training to become an Accuracy checking Technician soon, but this will take 2 years & we are looking to move in Jan 2018". In NZ, you say "However, my husband would really only be looking to get a minimum wage job. He has a lot of experience in retail, so maybe something in retail? ... We aren't expecting to move & for him to find a job in a pharmacy for example".

So, he will be giving up the training course and the rewards in the UK its completion may reap, in exchange for a minimum-wage retail job in NZ.

Next, you say your husband would prefer Australia, but you have decided on New Zealand:

"In terms of Australia, my hubby has said that he would prefer it there. However, I don't like really hot climates. I am super pale & just burn. So I'm not sure if I could live there purely because of the climate".

You really need to consider how things may turn out six-twelve months after arriving in NZ. Your job (if you find one) may not be as high-paying as you thought, the hours may be longer than you expect, the lifestyle may not be as good as you were expecting. Your husband will unlikely to be happy at doing a minimum-wage job, and may become resentful for having to give up his pharmacy career. And he may start to wish you had gone to Australia.
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Old Mar 29th 2016, 2:41 pm
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Default Re: Young couple (one a Teacher) considering moving to New Zealand - advice please

Originally Posted by BEVS
No.



Good area Parnell but the OP will need to go wherever she is likely to get a firm permanent job contract. Secondary school teachers are not in shortage at all. In fact there is rather a large glut of teachers all round, especially for new entrants with no NZ experience. The situation regarding perm work and therefore visa is tricky.


edit here.....

It might be an idea to start a new thread about the possibility of teaching in NZ . I realise you have placed faith in an agency over anything told to you on BE but everyone here in NZ will state firmly that many, many homegrown NZ teachers are struggling to find full time perm work, which is the type of job offer you would need. It is not just that, it is also about available funding I am a little concerned that you reason otherwise.
jmh makes a good point about subjects. Can you turn your teaching hand to math ?

Perhaps think to have a conversation with the NZ teaching council. about realistic prospects & registration.
Hi Bevs,

I promise you, I have listened to what everybody has told me about teaching in NZ & a shortage of jobs.
But it isn't like we will move anyway without me getting a job (we can't because of the visa) we would only move if I get a job.
If that doesn't happen then I've been lucky that I've been forewarned about it on here.
So I won't expect too much, from the agency.

Again, with regards to funding you are right, but I myself have said quite a few times that the funding issue is something that we are both aware of & as a result we are wondering if it's even possible because of this.

We really are only at a very beginning stage with all this.
We are just trying to see what the employment, housing etc situation is like in NZ.

I'll be honest, I kind of feel a little bit like people aren't listening to me when I'm saying that we would ever consider a move IF I was to secure a full time, perm post & that actually it really is just something that we are looking into at the moment as a possibility. It really isn't like we've even considered putting the house up for sale, booking plane tickets etc.

It was just a thought, that we may enjoy living in NZ, so I'm just tying to find out some facts before we even go any further with even looking into everything.
Because actually even the looking (properly) into the practicalities of it all will take a long time to do.

If it just isn't going to be realistic, as I've said before, this is fine with us. We will continue with planning our future in the UK & making the most of what we have here.
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