cappuccino

Exciting times. Dont forget you can track your container on the high seas as it takes its world tour :-)

dannigirl

Yeah and track all the delays!!!

florabundi

Probably best not to check! Our container docks on the 18th and get delivered to our house on the 21st. Hopefully everything will arrive intact!

dannigirl

Hi folks,

Well I have finally arrived back in my homeland and so far all is good!

We flew out of the UK on 30th December, had a lovely low key Christmas in the UK before our departure. Goodbyes (or see you soon's) were very, very hard. Seeing grown men sobbing was hard, however, I think to be fair they will miss our little ones more than us.

Flights all goos, flew via Japan. Full flight on the first leg, but second leg was empty so we were all able to spread out. Air New Zealand were fab on the second leg and were tripping over themselves to help us out. Fantastic.

Arrived in Dunedin on 1st Jan. staying with my brother which is fine. Have started looking for a house, put in an offer today on one we love. Smaller than we thought we would buy but we are soon realising how much it takes to heat a massive house. House we are interested in is a heritage bungalow, beautiful huge kitchen, lovely character through out, fully insulated, European double glazing so it is all snug as a bug. Lovely street and area, great deck out back and plenty of yard for the kids to play in. Huge garage. Compromise is the living area is a bit smaller than we would like and rooms are a bit snug. We aren't in the area I thought I would like to live in but feel happy with the new area. Have done lots of searching and driving around and looking into recent sales. Not that much on the market but we think this house will be great to start off in and will be a great rental and/or easy to sell on in the future.

The great thing about Dunedin is that everywhere is only a relatively short drive so although we might not live by the beach it is literally not even a 10 minute drive away. What I love and have missed about Dunedin is that you are just driving down a random street and out pops an amazing view of the harbour or coast. Love it.

We have been busy sorting all our stuff out. Bank accounts done, car bought, IRD number for hubby, licences. It has all been really easy. Met with a mortgage broker, mortgage all pre-approved before we came but upped our budget a bit which was done in an afternoon. Biggest hassle has been transferring our £ to $. HSBC were a bit pedantic about the transfers, and moving money in bulk. All done now. Exchange rate is killing us, but we have just have to take it on the chin. We don't want to pay someone else's mortgage for a year. We also have schools to consider this year so would prefer to make decisions on schools based on our home rather than renting.

Weather has been up and down, some beaut days but some awful rain and wind too. I at last have tan! We have been doing some day trips but mostly house hunting and getting stuff done. Oldest daughter is mad about the beaches here. Parks are great, and ease of life wonderful.

Early days but no awful culture shock yet (am sure it will come). I am enjoying easing back into life but it feels nice coming back with a bit of life experience and confidence in who I am as a person. I love the familarity of everything. We seem to be getting to grips with the cost of things, no shock there as there is so much info on here about prices and high cost of living.

Wish us luck on the house, will keep updating but so far all good

jmh

Welcome home Dannigirl!!

Geoff-Deb

This is the most positive thread I,ve read and wish you and the family good luck and all the best with the new house etc..

Wife and Myself are thinking of a move NZ or AUS, I,ve been to Dunedin a few times (Brother has been there 34 yrs) some of the posts I,ve read I started to have negative thoughts but yours has put me back on a positive note. Were wanting to go for the little one (she is now 11 months) and reading your post its the child friendly bit what does hit home, and the beaches, please keep us informed of the weather.

thepinkone

Great update - the new homestead sounds good, our daughter has had a little moan about moving into smaller sized rooms but as you say it'll cost less to heat (and we have a rumpuss room; didn't have one of those back in the UK).

barnsleymat

Welcome back to sunny Dunedin.

Where's the new house?

dannigirl

Belleknowes - wasn't the first one we went for but weirdly on the same street!

Didn't think we'd be up on the hill but had a look at a house in St Clair and it had bad rising damp so kind of put us off as lots of houses out there have water issues. Reclaimed land, lower than sea level, not sure I want to be under water one day!

Loving this beautiful weather!

saltypop

Dannigirl, I have just read through your posts and must say they are the most useful I have read when doing my research on whether to move to NZ or not. You discuss the things we all want to know without getting bogged down in trivia. I wish you all the best with your new life and hope the house buying is going well. Keep posting from time to time as it's very useful and entertaining.

dannigirl

Well Geoff-Deb - the weather has been amazing. I was hoping for a bit of a rainy day today so we could slob out bur no such luck. I think we are having a pretty good run of weather. Not totally unheard but even as a Dunedinite I am a bit I hope it lasts! In London I used to go through half a bottle/maybe 3/4 of a bottle of sunscreen per summer. We have just about used one in 3 weeks here. Having said that we have proper outside space here.

It's a hard decision no matter where you are moving, but so far we are enjoying it!

dannigirl

Thanks Saltypop! House is now ours. We have purchased a three bed villa (roughcast over wood) circa 1911. Nice backyard, needs some work but we have a little glasshouse and an apple tree. We've never been keen gardeners but we're already planning what we want to grow.

We can't wait to get our stuff back! There are four of us (two adults, two kids) and we have been in the same room for the last month. Cannot wait for our own space back. Didn't ship a bed or much furniture for our bedroom (old stuff will go in third bedroom) so we got a job lot.

We will look into getting double glazing but need to weigh up the cost vs benefits especially in relation to resale. We will redo/add to the roof insulation and insulate under floors.

I must say probably because I am a kiwi (my standards are obviously not as refined) but I am having no problems finding good sausages! Our Farmers Market is awesome. We also have a German butcher who has opened a shop which has good sausages too.

Finding it quite weird going to most places and you are not in heaving crowds. At last the shopping here is not an excursion that must be planned ahead in advance or spend your life in dire traffic or face the crowds.

Sure, some things are more expensive but we have truly moved for the better quality of life. I remember my husband taking my daughter to a fun fair in London. He spent £20 in about 20 minutes. Admittedly we are in the honeymoon phase but we don't spend money on leisure activities here like we did in London. We went to our local city pool yesterday. $7.40 for two adults and two children (toddler time). Massive Olympic size pool (which we didn't use). Lazy river, toddler wave pool, spa pool for adults, little pool for babies, learners pool for small children, diving pool and hydroslide(need to pay for that). Plus family changing rooms, easy parking, it was busy bit not hideously busy. Was nice to see loads of teenagers there having a great time.

We will be on a tighter budget here (as in we'll have to be a bit more careful) but we'll have sky tv here (ha) more insurance cover, we cook from scratch anyway so no change there, less in petrol/commuting, good broadband and phone package. What I mean is that we are not missing out on anything we had in the UK. We were on one wage there too for last year (maternity leave) so no fancy holidays or luxuries - our kids eat and wear all our spare money!!! Budget will remain tight until I return to work (at home with kids at the moment) and even then my wage will not be eaten up by childcare.

We will have to use some of our savings to set ourselves up - buy lawnmower, outdoor furniture etc but hopefully we won't have too much further outlay.

We have sacrificed a lot in the past so we feel it's time to have a few treats and buy a few nice things for our house. Not mega expensive but just things we really like.

Right, have rambled enough. I really did have some doubts in my mind before we came, and I'd grown up here. Still very scary to change our whole life but so far it totally feels like the right decision.

Geoff-Deb

Thanks for the update, had a look with google maps and the area your settled in looks nice, a big contrast from London.

Was trying to explain what New Zealand was like to a mate, I just said its like Cumbria and Wales without the slate and better weather.

dannigirl

Time for another bit of an update.

Husband's job did not work out quite as planned. Luckily we had a flexible mortgage and so he was able to set up on his own which he had wanted to do for a while. Timing seemed right so we went for it. Was scary at first as we had lots of money going out of the account and none going in for some time, but he has done brilliantly and is making lots of placements and loves being his own boss. Only downside is that he works from home so misses meeting colleagues, but has recently joined the local chamber of commerce so hopes to meet some new people and make some local contacts. We are earning good money, don't have luxurious or expensive tastes so manage well. A second income will make us pretty comfortable financially.

I have just begun to apply for jobs so we'll see how that goes.

It has been great catching up with family and having them interact and spend time with our children.

We enjoy Dunedin but funnily enough I have been getting "non-home" homesick. We miss our family and friends dreadfully in the UK. One of my best friends is having a baby in September and it is hard to be away from that. Also we have a close family members wedding coming up in December - and that has triggered a lot of "homesickness".
There are times that it does not affect us but we seem to be in a bit of a slump at the moment where we are pining for our UK lives. Reverse culture shock probably but it is quite unsettling.

We did lots of research but we always knew that we had to try living here to satisfy or scratch that itch. I was desperately homesick for NZ and looking back probably could've counteracted that a bit better.

I truly love NZ but I am beginning to see see some of the things I couldn't before. To cap I left NZ at 26 to go to the UK on my OE. Ended up staying 11 years. In that time I visited NZ three times (the last time only a year ago) so really only 2x in 10 years. I missed the open spaces, lack of crowds, the natural beauty, to a lesser extent kiwi culture, feeling like I fitted in, food, traditions etc. I think I felt a shift a few months before we left (bloody typical) where I actually began to feel quite British in my approach towards things. Maybe it was because we were planning our move, who knows.

We were living in a two bed flat in London with two small kids in an okay but still quite rough area. I did not want my children to grow up there! No wonder we were stressed and exhausted, just living was difficult and stressful.

We spent some time in Cardiff (where our family are) before we left but it was a stop gap before we moved here.

So.....it's not so much of what we miss in the UK. We do miss loads, supermarkets, shopping!, family, I miss our family holidays to West Wales, tolerance and diversity of the UK. What we don't miss is the media negativity telling you how deep up the creek the UK is, sensational reporting of crime (daily mailesque type journalism which is rife).

I think what is getting to us the most is how small it is here and yes I will use that word - insular. I find some attitudes here intolerable, some people are very ignorant. Yes, you get that in the UK but there are some very dumb, ignorant people here I.e the lady in the post office talking about people with "slitty eyes".
I get a bit tired of "the Asian" comments. People seem to think they are out to take over Auckland, as if no other race or culture of people have made any money off property development! I had a job interview and it did not go down well when I described my work with black Caribbean families. "Black" is an offensive word here, I get that but it is the accepted term in the UK. I would hope someone would know this, I was asked by the tangata whenua representative if I had worked with white Caribbean families in London (in a bit of a sarcastic tone) I think I realised then that I might not get that job.

We love the beaches, playgrounds and things for kids to do here but we both feel like we need a bit more. It's all easy here but you do realise pretty quickly that without the extra population you don't quite get as many amenities and services as you do in the UK. There are fab beaches to visit here, but hardly any nice cafes to relax and unwind after (at the beach). We basically have to live in town because there are certain areas that have great views but no amenities I.e Brighton. No nice cafe, average shop/dairy, no pub, but great beaches!
It all just feels a bit meh (and it pains me to say that! It truly does!)

We went to Queenstown and it was beautiful scenically but I think I felt for the first time that it was just okay and that there were plenty of places in the world that are just as beautiful. Yes, sitting at the top of the gondola is spectacular but not something you do every day. Central Otago felt quite barren and a bit dead.

Maybe it is me having to get used to not having heaving crowds (even though Queenstown was heaving and claustrophobic) but it feels very empty here. I'm sure I am experiencing all sorts of reverse culture but I am not sure there is enough for us here. I finally get what Brits complain about. Insular, parochial, a lack of sophistication in some ways...so hard to describe without coming across as snobbish but it just feels small and a bit boring (I can't believe I am saying this) I have given up listening to most talk back because it is so rubbish.

I know we must give it time to settle and we are trying to do lots of things to settle. We have met some great new friends but it's not easy to break back into kiwi circles. I have had a couple of awkward, no-one talking to me experiences at a parenting centre. We are not too bothered about socialising too much as we have two small kids so by the time we fit in family and our kids there isn't too much time left but a bit of a choice would be good.
Do I want to settle, yes as life would be much easier here, but having been away do I want to settle for an easy life. I now understand how people can become so frustrated with life here. I also get why people love it here, just that maybe it's not for us in the long term.

Who knows but we both feel unsettled enough to be talking about going back to the UK. Better to do it quickly we feel, as then too much will have changed there. We don't want to become ping-pongs and not be able to settle anywhere!

who knows watch this space!

jmh

I remember when my mum was over staying with me in London and on the BBC news they called someone black and there was a sharp intake of breath. She tells me that Maori kids at her school will call someone black as an insult.

Depending on your job, you might meet more outward looking people once you start work again. I meet some really interesting people in my line of work, some of the expats from England, South Africa, India, China. Because of the immigration requirements many of them are really smart. Many are kiwi too though. Most of my clients are in good jobs, and many have travelled. It probably helps being in a city though.

Give it time, I'm sure you will settle in to it. There is nowhere quite like London, the good and the bad. You've gone from one extreme to the other.