Two Year Update
 

Well, it’s been more than two years since my husband moved to New Zealand.

Backstory: I’m a Kiwi, met my husband in the UK when I was on a two year visa … we then decided we’d make NZ our permanent home.

I have to say it’s been pretty painless, but we’ve had almost every advantage. My husband was leaving behind a city he wasn't fond of where he was pretty much alone (family and closest friends had moved away) to my hometown, where almost all of my family and friends still live. He was feeling like he was going nowhere in the UK civil service – his job for the government in NZ pays twice as much, with less responsibility and far more opportunities. We’re young – he had just turned 25 when he moved – so we don’t have a huge amount of life experience to compare things to which makes us flexible.

He keeps in touch with his UK friends in much the same way – online gaming – and probably talks to his parents more now than when they lived down the road. His parents have visited, with another trip in the works for 2019, and we took some UK friends on a three week trip around the country a year ago. We’re headed back to the UK later this year for a wedding so really looking forward to that.

We hit a few bumps in the road along the way – losing about $10000 of our house deposit due to Brexit and having to spend ten months long distance while I stabilised our financial situation in NZ. It took five months for my husband to find a job – he would have applied for around 25 jobs without getting an interview. He then got three interviews in two weeks followed by three job offers. So that was a nice turn around. After living off my paltry $30000 income it felt a lot like winning the lotto.

We’ve had some wins too – we managed to buy a house before house prices went crazy in our area. We have two really cute cats. We got married. My business has taken off. I think money actually has a lot to do with the ease of our transition – who said money doesn’t buy happiness! We are so much better off financially here. It was a tough first year but now we’re both doing well and can even afford the occasional cucumber!

Re: Two Year Update
 

That's great. Interesting about the job application. I've heard similar stories. It seems to peak and them drop in terms of being successful in the job front.

Everything is just so much more expensive so having money definitely does help!

Glad you at both doing well at the two year mark. We just finished our first year, so probably technically still at honeymoon stage? :)