barnsleymat

...... so I thought I'd update you as I'm sure there's a few of you interested in what I've been up to.

It seems like so much longer than 6 or 7 months since we left Dunedin, so much has happened in such a short space of time. When we first got back we lived between our parent houses until we got settled and our stuff arrived, because we didn't have proper employment (I'll go into this in a bit) we couldn't get a rental and it's going to be a while until we can get a mortgage. After much searching and plenty of visits to the estate agents we got a rental for a year because we offered to pay 6 month's rent up front. Funnily enough I'm living just over the road from some family of mine which is great, it's a modern town house and it's warm as hell. Winter was a breeze, just cranked the heating up and the long cold winter months in our freezing cold Dunedin house were a distant memory.

Our little boy is 18 months old tomorrow, he's absolutely loving being around his family and they all adore him. He was one of the main reasons of us returning and how he has flourished around his family makes all those hard months before moving worth while.

My wife got the first job she applied for and after waiting an eternity for NZ and UK police checks to come back she's finally working in the same field she was working in when in NZ. Now, this is where it gets interesting, I've mentioned before on here about my work situation. But if you missed it I'll do a recap, when we were renovating our house in Dunedin we had some tiling quotes from local tradesmen and they were astronomical so I decided to do the tiling myself, I did the bathroom and kitchen. Just before leaving NZ the buyer of our house had a valuer around to look at the house, funnily enough he was called Mike Barnsley, we had a great chat and I gave him the Barnsley families first ever Barnsley FC shirt to spread a bit of love. He commented on the tiling in the house saying it was fantastic and asked me who had done it, after finding out it was me he said I should become a tiler as there was massive shortages in NZ and Australia. I quite quickly discovered it was the same in the UK, so on my return to the UK I booked myself on a course and that was what I was going to do. I did the course and started doing jobs straight away. Just after Christmas a local printing company got in touch and subsequently offered me the role of Production Manager, the job ticked all the boxes. It took me a week to make my mind up and guess what? I turned the job down, now we've moved countries and been here and there I never want to take the sensible option again, sensible options are for those people that say stuff like 'i wish we'd have moved abroad when we had the chance' , you know the sort. So 4 months after launching my company properly I can tell you it's the best thing I've ever done, I'm never going back to working for a company again, I have one golden rule, I don't with or for arseholes. I've walked off two jobs so far for this very reason, if I wanted to work under such conditions I'd get a normal job. I'm not sure I can advertise my website or company name on here, but I wanted to give it a unique name so I gave it an NZ connection. We used to live close to 'Tomahawk' beach and we do 'Tiling'. If you do crack the clues and find my website you'll notice I've based my logo on a very famous NZ logo. So I've moved from just doing small domestic tiling jobs to taking on full fits of bathrooms, wetrooms, utility rooms etc and I have a couple of lads that I take on the bigger jobs with me, I get to meet some amazing people and I end up in some fabulous house, I'm currently in Last Of The Summers Wine country working on a 300 year old house perched at the top of an incredible valley. It's insane the amount of money there is to be made, you get the impression whilst away from the UK that everyone is broke and no one is spending, it's bollocks, there so much money sloshing about and so much well paid work out there. An average week sees me earning as many pounds as I used to earn NZ dollars.

We are constantly been asked about why we moved back, it's an unanswerable question as there were so many reason, I suppose the main ones were family, cost of living, boredom and the feeling of missing out on so much. The other week we were chatting again the other week about if we did miss anything about NZ and apart from the odd little thing we couldn't come up with anything. We certainly have a lot more family time here, we don't both have to work full time, we get more time off and we finally have enough money spare to go out and do things.

All the time we lived in NZ we would add to the list of 'if we ever moved home we would....' list. We have started to make a dent into this list, first off was Glastonbury, we secured tickets before leaving NZ and we go next week. Next up is I've applied to run the London marathon next year, next up is that we've just bought a beautiful caravan (there one on trade me same spec for NZ$33k!!!! Ouch), we want to have as many foreign holidays as possible so we will be going to the canary islands in October and Berlin just before Xmas and finally I get to have my old seat back next season at my beloved Barnsley FC.

So to sum our move home up it's been a success up to now, everything we expected has pretty much been spot on. I do think in time we'll be off on our travels again but I don't think it'll be NZ, I fancy Australia.

Thanks people

PS. Everything I ever said about the cost of living has been proved right, especially cucumbers.

southerner

Thanks for the update Matt. Nice website and glad to hear everything has turned out great.
I think I saw in the paper the other day a leopard seal had hauled up on your old local beach.

BEVS

'Course it has & it was only ever a bit of fun.

Well done you. So pleased this new phase is turning out just great.

BTW. You can put a link to your website into your BE signature.

A4Ron

Great read, Matt i must admit, reading that has made me a tad homesick! Glad everything has worked out well for you & family

Please keep us updated with more posts - maybe a 9-month?

Best regards

ChrisRobinson

We too have been back for 6 months but our 12 years in NZ was a nightmare, <snip>

Coming back to UK has been great, we rent a beautiful house, 5 beds, 3 bathrooms, 5 acres for the horses, stables AGA in the kitchen, proper insulation and heating for less money than our little 'slum' comparatively in Stanmore Bay, Auckland, that whole house would have fitted in our living room here!

We were scared of the cost of petrol but we bought a £5000 car that does 60 miles to the gallon with no fuss and that problem is none existent and yes a cucumber costs 30p! Proper cheese and Pork Pies, WOW!

I'm disabled and the benefit system here is complicated but they seem to be pleased to help us. Overall it has been far better than we could have imagined!

Things actually happen here, the news i worth watching, an injury to a rugby player has never been mentioned in six months, there is life to enjoy rather than endure but that reflects the awful events that occurred to us in NZ!

mrken30

It sounds like a wonderful end to your life's journey to find a career you love, has no boss and makes money. If you had never gone to NZ, I doubt if you would have found that skill and made it your career. Congratulations.

Don't you miss the beetroot on your burgers?

pippalonghorn

I’m over the moon that it’s all worked out for you. Here’s to many more happy memories.

MrsFychan

Its great to hear that things have worked out for Barnsley, how you going Pippa? maybe do an update if you haven't already

jayandbill

And now I'm feeling even more discontented listening to your story. I keep torturing myself looking at photos of the UK on FB. There's so much to see at 'home'. It's good to hear you've made a success of returning home.
By the way, you should see the price of Cauliflowers - $12 this week.

scrubbedexpat094

Goodness, that's a hugely expensive cauliflower, I was astounded at the $9.99 price tag in New World, Whangaparaoa.
Given that I've put on weight recently through to ill health, I went to the supermarket yesterday determined to buy lots of veg regardless of cost. I just couldn't do it when faced with the reality.