Boopy

It's 5 years today since we arrived in New Zealand to start our new life. It's not been all plain sailing but this is home now. I will get a blog put together & post it on the update link. I'm sure there were quite a few of us Brits from the forum who emmigrated to NZ in 2006!

cappuccino

Congratulations

Are you going to apply for citizenship now?

UKNZAUS

Happy anniversary. It's our 4th anniversary on the 25th

Boopy

I do want citizenship, but we're not in any hurry for it. It's an expense we can do without for now. We go back to UK in August for our daughters wedding I just hope they save some sunshine for us!

Boopy

Time really flys by Michelle. Are you happy in Auckland?

Boopy

Here goes with my little story:

We arrived in New Zealand for our new life on 23rd June 2006, we are myself, hubby & son, who was 19yrs old at the time. I'm a nurse so that was my entry into the country. We had decided that Wellington was the place for us & we are very pleased with that decision. We knew no one when we arrived & had never been here at all. We knew that we wanted to live north of the city, so started house hunting, with no idea of house prices / costs / ect.... We had planned to rent, but couldn't find anything anywhere near to suitable for us, so had to buy in a hurry. We looked at 5 houses on day 5 of our arrival to Wellington, on day 6 we put in an offer, day 7 it was accepted, day 8 we got mortgage approval..... scarey eh! The down side is that we bought in a high market, & I do think we paid more than we should have, so with the current market, the house is valued too low for us to sell.
Over the last 5 years I have found myself on to job number 8! Workplace attitudes are quite different here, with health & safety only just making an appearance.
The cost of living has crept up quickly, with groceries & bills becoming more costly, but I dare say it is probably the same the world over.
Hubby has been in the same job for 5 years, lucky bugger will now get an extra weeks holiday each year. Life was slow for our son at first, he had decided not to go back to studies & worked in coffee shops. Eventually he made a good circle of friends & is now at Uni. We had all settled in very quickly & NZ is home.
People are lovely here, once you get to know them. We have a wide circle of friends from many cultures, they are no different to us. They like to have a few drinks & as many laughs.
When we arrived, we didn't have a fortune from our house sale in UK, so we have a bigger mortgage here than we did in UK, due to the high interest rates. We shipped everything here, which I am pleased with.
My advice to anyone emmigrating to NZ, is to save up as much cash as possible, you really need to put down a big deposit when you buy property here or rent first.

UKNZAUS

It certainly does fly by! I've had a niece and nephew born since we've been here, and my best friend got married and had 2 little ones

We settled enough to stay here for now and have loads of friends, but we're leaving NZ in 2-3 years once our commitments with Uni and stuff are done.

How about you? It seems like a lifetime ago now when the 'old crew' were sipping whatever we could find in the bar

Woodlea

Yes there are - I'm a Sixer, Sept 29th 2006 to be precise - I'll have to start preparing my 5 year update - should be fun!

Congratulations on your anniversary!

Kags1694

Congrats, We have been here nearly 2.1/2 years, cant believe how quick time goes. We are going back the UK next month for a holiday, I am looking forward to it, but not looking forward to saying good bye to our family and friends again.

Boopy

It does indeed I wonder if there are many of us that still pop on the site. It would be nice to have a chat in the bar again

Boopy

Thank you, I'll look forward to your update