Was it all worth it?
 

Well, 10 years on and here I am. I like to think I have a balanced view of life here now from being one of those tarred with the 'happy clappy' moniker when I first arrived at the forum, these days I am more sage about my view of life on Aotearoa.

I have indeed had really good times and really terrible ones too in NZ, some of the worst times of my life have been in NZ. But it was not NZs fault. I made poor decisions (the worst giving up my career to become a home dad) and paid the price.

Admittedly some poor governance from government have affected many of us in NZ but its the same where ever you go our lives to a degree are affected by people in power.

If only for my children I will never regret coming here, they have had 10 years of a superlative life with things both tangible and intangible they would never have had in the UK.

I am not doing down GB..it is a great place but I think lots of people have had enough of the populous nature of the place. However one has to give up so much to come to NZ its no wonder that some people decide for their own good reasons not to come. Some come, hate it and return. Others love it and all the manifold things it has to offer...which are just too many to mention, even here in dull old Palmerston North.

Life is incredibly short. Life is to be lived. For anyone thinking about coming to NZ and has any doubts try to see through them and take the chance, the risk, the opportunity to come and try out life here at the bottom of the world.

Emigration can be incredibly rewarding and if it does not work out you can always return. A life without risk is a life wasted..... so I am told.

“A ship is always safe at the shore - but that is NOT what it is built for.”
― Albert Einstein

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
― Helen Keller, The Open Door

As Nike says. Just do it!. If you really want to.

Good luck to you all and Peace to everyone...and I mean everyone;)

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Sometimes making the return journey isn't quite so easy,
and can be more difficult than choosing to leave in the first place.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

No, I know what you mean. Don't want to make light of the decision for those emigrees who return home for what ever reason. I understand it is a very hard yard. People move on and you return from whence you left, time has moved on and the world is a very different place. Must be very confusing.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

People aren't ships though.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

I would say out of your post this sentence sums up life for us in NZ. There are problems and frustrations, but ultimately the other things on offer are too good to turn down. Things on offer and a life that we cannot replicate in the UK. This of course is variable, highly subjective and depends a lot on individual lifestyle.

Glad all has is going well for you! :thumbup:

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

While we all think how adventurous we are for being here, I feel NZ attracts a very specific type of person.
In my 7 years here I have met many many poms, and it strikes me that we are pretty much all the same.
NZ attracts a very monotone type of person, almost bland.
Don't misunderstand this, I love living here (last year I even married a native) and I appreciate every day
the beauty and openness of the place, but despite all this there is a shallowness to the place that friendly folk
and beautiful vistas cannot overcome.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Nice update, glad you've settled!
We were briefly in Palmy North today!

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

I don't feel I'm adventurous for moving to NZ. But I feel adventurous in general! Just in regards to hobbies, interests etc.

I don't particularly agree with NZ attracting a bland sort of person. Life is what you make it. You can be boring in NZ, boring in Oz, boring in the UK or any where for that matter. If you chose a particularly boring way of life then that's down to you as a person, not the country. I feel our life has become more exciting in some respects, but perhaps a little boring in other ways. Sure we could sit in every night in our dressing gowns and slippers watching My Kitchen Rules, but that's not a life I want, so I go out and seek something different. Perhaps it's the people you are meeting, but certainly not my experience of British expats that I have met.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

I didn't say boring, I said bland

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Oxford dictionary definition since we're being pedantic...

"Lacking strong features or characteristics and therefore uninteresting".
Synonyms inc. uninteresting, dull, BORING, tedious, dry, drab, dreary, unexciting...

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Jesus I dont want to argue with the Grammer nazis.
Although the fact you need to respond the way you have does kind of prove my point...get a life springs to mind !!

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

You get a lot of people moving to New Zealand, also Canada for a better lifestyle, but it's also people who might have been boring (bland:sarcasm:) in the UK. They could have just moved to another part of the UK (example Northern Ireland or Scotland) and would have probably had the same options, but New Zealand sounds more exciting.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Grammer? Do you mean grammar? Not really an argument over grammar, more definitions, and remember Godwin's Rule?

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

To bring this back on track to the original question asked by Genesis.
On the whole, in my opinion, yes it has been worth it. When in the UK I felt overwhelmed and tired by the constant degradation
of what I felt was the British way of life, I'm a simple man, I like to put my flag out on St George's day, I like morris men and
English pubs, I like cold days on a lakeland fell, I like village life and being around people who share a common heritage,
I like the regional differences, rivalries and dialects that can change by simply driving down a road for 20 minutes. I like class war,
I like people who are aware of global issues and don't just dismiss them as non of our concerns, I like people who take to the streets
and make a stand for a cause, I totally back social unrest if the cause is just, I appreciate architecture, culture, a 2000 year old
history that has raised many issues that are still relevant today. I like the aristocracy for their contributions to the heritage
of the country and I love the poor for the way they live their lives with such intensity.
With the constant watering down of Britishness and the unstoppable tide of political correctness my move to NZ has allowed me
to take stock and catch my breath. For me, life in the UK had become far too stressful. NZ is a little like a trip to a therapists office
where everything is calm and everyone appears happy, the problem is it has started to feel like a scene from the Stepford Wives.
Maybe that's a sign my time here is coming to an end, maybe it will pass, at this point in time I don't know, despite all its flaws
and some personal tribulations I have never regretted coming here, so to return to the question, has coming to NZ been worth it,
yes it has !!

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Yes this, I get this totally! All of it makes NZ seem very tame /dull / bland and boring in comparison.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Wow, you mean there are other things one can do on a cold, wet and windy Monday night?


To my recall there's only been two occasions where the country has been truly outraged and close to civil unrest; once when they changed the time of Coro to make way for Masterchef and most recently cos Campbell got the axe. I think that's a sign of how interesting most people's lives are. :rofl:

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Go for a night out on a Mon, Tue. Wed, Thurs or Sunday,
Every where is empty after 7.30 pm

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

That's a pretty big generalization. Without knowing a persons individual circumstances you can't really say whether they would have been better off in another part of the UK. I have absolutely no interest in living in Ireland or Scotland for many reasons (I don't want to turn this into an NZ vs another country debate) and certainly haven't moved to NZ just because it was the more exciting option. Sure there is an element of excitement, I would be lying if I said there wasn't. But for us and many other people the options aren't the same no matter how many times people beat the "oh you can do that in the UK" drum.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

That's rich, Justcol. I'm really only on here because I'm off sick from work so just thought I would pop in and stir things up a little :lol:

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

I agree Rob.

Thanks for the update Genesis.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Those who complain NZ is boring and bland and that people who move here are themselves boring and bland remind me a lot of the conversations I had with my Mum early in my time here. Mum lives under the very sweet preconception that my life is one long sunshine soaked holiday. I remember saying that though I get to do awesome things like see whales and seals, get to know another culture and explore this remote and beautiful part of the word that the vast majority of my time is spent just like hers.

I go to work, I pay my bills and my rent, I do my shopping, I cook, I clean my house, I have to get mundane things like dentist bills and broken bikes sorted out.

I'm not sure exactly what people who move here expecting anything otherwise actually want. Life is not and never was designed to be one long parade of fun, the vast majority of it is actually pretty mundane wherever you are in the First World.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

I agree. Why can't more people comprehend this.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

You shouldn't always take things personally:tounge_smile: I never mentioned Pom_Chch. I think New Zealand is a great country, but it's fact that you get many Brits moving for the lifestyle, but never bothered having that lifestyle in the UK. Some people say they now go fishing/kayaking and drive 2 hours to do that. In the UK they had it around the corner and never bothered.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

There seems to be some misunderstanding of my comments here.
If you read my comments I have said that I like living in and appreciate NZ
I have said many Brits I have met are a bit bland and that's about it.
I not sure where I said I expected fireworks every time I step out of my front door
but that seems to be the slant some have decided to take on my comments.
I don't remember once comparing nz to blighty, I have mentioned the things
I like, which of course, are never going to be found here, but then again I'm not sure where
I said I ever expected them to be.
Some aspects of life here are dull, just as they would be anywhere else.
If your reading more into it than that your filling in blanks that don't exist

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

A bit like the yellow press:lol:

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Yep, I agree. I can't really understand it. I'm guessing what they really get once they've emigrated is motivation to do this and other things too. Or more determination to do it, just to prove their life is better/more interesting/more fulfilling now.

Or maybe the water isn't as wet or a mile isn't as long in NZ as it is in Britain. I dunno, I don't really get it.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

I think this is my first post in the NZ forum, not even sure how I ended up here (well, there is that contract analysis for work I am avoiding ;) ).

My very quick story, lived in 5 countries but essentially Oz for 25yrs or so. Been in the UK for 5yrs, Mrs TB is an Oz citizen (originally from Sth Korea) and we have a 17mth daughter. We like living in the UK but will return to Oz, probably this year.

I've been lucky enough to live in 4 other countries and then return to Oz and then leave again. When the conversation is regarding moving back 'home' to the UK, it almost always revolves around how much the UK has changed (which is true). What gets lost in the fog though is that if you are a ping ponger, (or even if you are not and have objectivity) is the degree of change which has happened in the country you have moved to.

I know Oz has changed enormously to the country it was in the 80s when I moved there (90s for Mrs TB). Sydney is very different from then and throws up lots of challenges that used to be 'fun' and are now a royal PITA when we do move back.

Conversely, the Britain we moved to in 2010 has changed, it was always changing but IMO the pace of that change has kicked up a gear in the last 2yrs. Our time is nearly done here but we will return to Oz knowing full well it's not changed for the better.

Nothing stays the same, and if you don't ever move back to the UK or wherever, it's still no less true of the country to which you moved.

I hope everyone is happy with their decisions, we have been but maybe had 1yr too long in the UK. One other thing I learned,,, having kids makes this stuff very complicated:lol:

Oh and on the lifestyle thing, I wrote this a while back:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/austr.../#post11490002

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Spot on !!

NZ IS AWESOME
Claim exhausted Brit expats barely able to speak due to puffing and panting
after yet another day of extreme outdoor activities
Many are concerned they can barely find time to earn a living as they are
so busy doing activities they chose to ignore in the uk

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

I think you're right with the motivation and maybe they also just do it so they feel it was worth while. It wouldn't be exciting moving to the other side of the world and then you post pictures of yourself on FB sitting in front of the TV or cleaning:sarcasm: There are so many good reasons to move away. When you're young it's the experience and then it might be a better job with more money, family etc.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Genesis good post and balanced thank you...;)
Shame about some of the sad people degrading your post. :(

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Just an example: Not in Dublin myself, but would people have to move to Auckland for an outdoor life if they have this around the corner.



At the end of the day it's the same life: Work, traffic and expensive housing LOL

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

I've had this very same discussion on here before (I think it was with you Snap Shot) and frankly I cannot be bothered to type it out again or search through 100's of threads to find it. Like I said before - I can't be bothered to go into too much detail about outdoor activities in either country. A decent enough analogy I can think of is why would you go scuba diving in the Caribbean when you can do it in the UK? Because it's much better in the Caribbean and that's how I feel with a lot of the activities on offer in NZ. It's not like you can't do them in the UK, but they are so much better here IMVHO. Find me somewhere in the UK where I can hike something with similar views to the Tongariro Crossing or the Milford Track. That's what I'm all about - hiking for views and sorry to say but the UK just doesn't cut it for me.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

To pick up on one suggestion, why does coming here
make some folk more motivated to do things have
never thought of doing before ??

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

I remember someone saying that they enjoyed Canada, because you can sit out on the porch, drink wine and watch the world go by, but it's not possible in the UK. The reason was that nobody does it in the UK, so she wouldn't do it in the UK.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

That's beyond sad, in any country :(

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Mostly so they can write a blog or go on FB about it and bore everyone else 'back home' with endless tales of how much bigger/better/brighter/fulfilling and more awesome their lives are now. :lol:

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Again, it's got nothing to do with you and tell me how many times you actually go to Tongariro after work? If you're in Auckland, you won't be doing those things after a days work. No place is exactly the same, but the point is that you can still do things. It's great if it worked out for you and congratulations. Just talking about people who never did anything back home. Don't find the view bad here either.

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

:drinkingwine:

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

Good grief, I'm out.

Sorry Genesis! I won't de-rail your thread that started out really well any further. Especially not by wasting time discussing a topic with someone who isn't even living in NZ :yield:

Re: Was it all worth it?
 

No worries..its only a post after all and I think it is good that people have an exchange of views. Whatever becomes of it after I have had my hap'worth is down to the other forum users..thank you for your kind words Stormer.