British Expats - Mt 19 month review

Hello everybody,

Well, me and my husband have been here for 19 months now, after getting married and moving over here in August 2014. My husband was offered a job with a software solutions company in Wellington before we came and I got my admin job in November 2014. Here are my thoughts about our time so far:

Worklife

Things have gone very well for us since we got here. My husband has had 3 promotions with a significant salary increase and I have also been promoted with my job - so for the first time in our lives, we are very secure with our combined salaries. We both love the flexibility with working hours here which is so different to the UK where your manager constantly clock watches. Worklife is definitely a plus here in Wellington.

Homelife

The above means we are comfortable for money, which means grocery shopping is great, we don't have to count our pennies as we walk around New World and Pak n Save. The grocery's are significantly higher in price and sometimes we feel that there could be a bit more of a range of food, its quite boring and bland sometimes!

Houses are pretty bad. In the summer its boiling and then as you get into Autumn its freezing when you wake up, despite the fact we have a heat pump and DVS - we miss gas central heating! Its also gutting that rent is so high, its painful when we could be paying a mortgage at the same rate.

Social Life

I dont really understand why everybody says Kiwis are the most friendly people - I think this is totally incorrect and people here are just as self-centered as they are in the UK. Despite that, I have found friendships with some lovely people who I hope are in my life for a long time to come.

Having previously lived in UK and France, its difficult to not be able to shoot off for a weekend, everywhere in NZ tends to be quite samey wherever you go, of course its all beautiful but there doesn't ever seem to be much to do if your not into sports and outdoors. I miss our day trips to London or driving through the Alps to Italy like we used to be able to do.

Its been good to develop a relationship with my husbands family who moved out here in 2008 and my own family (Aunt) down in Christchurch who have been here for 40 years now.

Overall

Overall, the last 19 months have been pleasant, we have had 2 trips to Australia and a tiki tour of the south island (wow, what an island!). I myss my family very much and at the moment my dad has some health issues which is worrying. I worry about having children here and my parents not having the opportunity to properly see them grow up.

Its now time do decide if we stay here for the foreseeable or we make a move back to europe - very hard decision!