David and Jane Bennett are in their late-twenties. They emigrated from Sunbury-on-Thames in London to Auckland just over a year ago. What do they think of it so far?
ENZ. Why did you take the big step of emigrating to New Zealand from England?
David. We had visited New Zealand on holiday before so it wasn't as if we were emigrating with blindfolds on. We're both very keen on sport, and the climate and outdoor culture here are both far better than back home. There was also an element of wanderlust I suppose - we'd both lived all of our life in England and just wanted to live somewhere a bit different. We wanted it to be warm and English speaking. Canada was too cold and we didn't fancy emigrating to Australia because Jane seemed to think she'd end up with scorpions in her shoes in the morning.
Jane. I wasn't the only one who didn't fancy getting bitten and not just on my feet. I've read stories about, is it funnel-web spiders? They hide under the toilet seat and bite you in very tender places. I don't fancy that one little bit. And once we'd decided on New Zealand, we reckoned we'd never get a better chance. House prices in London had gone through the roof and the exchange rate was also very good. We were able to buy a nice house here in Auckland without a mortgage using the profits from selling the house in London we'd mortgaged ourselves up to our eyeballs to buy a few years ago.
ENZ. What sort of sports do you take part in?
Jane. We both play tennis quite competitively and we've joined a club here where plenty of members play just as competitively as we do. Unlike in England, the climate here makes playing outdoors possible all year round. The sun's really strong in summer though so you've got to be careful with sunscreen.
David. We're thinking about buying a small yacht. We hadn't tried yachting before we came out here but one of the guys at the tennis club has taken us out on his boat a couple of times and it's been great fun - they've got the weather for it here and, because of the offshore islands, the waters around Auckland are fairly calm, which is good for me because I was sick the last time I took a ferry across the English Channel!
Jane. We also like hill-walking and there's some fantastic bush-country within two or three hours of Auckland that we've spent one or two weekends exploring.
ENZ. Could you compare Auckland with London please for people who may be considering emigrating to New Zealand?
David. I think there's a lot less litter - but it's by no means perfect. Traffic can be pretty busy but it's nothing like as bad as London. We drive up to the beach at Orewa sometimes - it's a really nice small town about half an hour north of here on the motorway. You can get there in summer at ten o'clock in the morning and the beach is more-or-less deserted. Anyone who's tried to get out of London to the coast on a bank-holiday-weekend will appreciate the beauty of that*.
Jane. It's sunnier and warmer. Every day in summer is warm and when the sun comes out in winter it's also pleasantly warm - and it's much, much sunnier here in winter than London. I used to hate those long dark, winter nights but you just don't get them here. I'm not a great gardener but the house we bought has a couple of orange trees in the garden. We've been gradually harvesting them and eating them. We couldn't do that in London - unless we had a heated greenhouse. It can be a bit too sticky for work in summer though. Great for holidays, provided you've got an air-conditioned car, but a bit warm for working in.
David. The grass grows quickly because of the moist, humid climate. Most of our neighbours seem to pay franchised grass cutters to cut their grass for them but it's not something I've got into. You'll see me out there in the evenings, with my sun hat on, pushing the mower.
Jane. I've not seen the figures but I don't think there's as much crime here as in London - but there certainly is crime - and we're always careful. I wouldn't go into the central city at night because there seem to have been a few extremely violent bashings there - that's what New Zealanders call someone getting beaten-up. I'm sure some people have been beaten to death by thugs in the city centre. The attacks seem to have taken place when the city is quieter - maybe three in morning or something like that. We had a burglar alarm in London but we don't have one here. We're thinking about getting one though because burglary does seem to be problem in Auckland - maybe more so than elsewhere in the country - but again that might just be my perception.
David. If we're talking about crime, my impression is that there are a lot less hard drug problems here than in London. I'm hardly the world's greatest expert in the subject but you hear very little here about things like heroin or cocaine which always seem to be making the news back home. I think marijuana-use is fairly commonplace here and seems to be a problem with some teenagers.
Jane. Most houses here still come with half-decent gardens. And there are more parks and open spaces. The streets are safe for children and there's always a beach within a short drive. I think it's a far better place to bring up children than London. I've also found the people we've met here much friendlier and open than I think would be the case for anyone trying to settle in London.
ENZ. Do you have any regrets about emigrating to New Zealand or leaving London?
Jane. I think London has a far better range of shops.
David. I miss the football - although you can still see some here if you get Sky TV. I miss the atmosphere of a Saturday.
Jane. They don't have Galaxy chocolate here. New Zealand Cadbury's chocolate doesn't come within a mile of Galaxy.
David. And different flavours of crisps. Worcester sauce, pickled onion, tomato sauce - haven't heard of them here. And they call them chips for some strange reason. They have fish and chips like in the UK - but they also call their crisps 'chips' too. An assistant at a supermarket got a bit indignant the other week when I asked him where the crisps were. "They're called chips!" he told me. He knew what I meant though.
Jane. If you thought it was hard getting men to talk about anything but sport in England wait till you come here - except it's rugby instead of football. They sit together with their cans of beer and talk about nothing else all night. Some of them need to get a life.
David. House prices have continued rocketing in London since we emigrated. If we'd stayed there for another year we'd have had even more money to bring here. On the other hand though, house prices have been climbing fast here too and the NZ dollar has been strengthening as well so we might actually have lost a bit there if we'd waited.
Jane. We shouldn't have brought our car here. A New Zealander we knew in London told us that cars were much more expensive in New Zealand than England. It was something we never really checked up on while we were on holiday here and so like idiots we believed him. We paid to ship our car here - including steam cleaning. We should have realised that this guy had been out of the country for 10 years and his information was just as out of date. Once we'd arrived, we quickly realised that cars here were far cheaper but by then it was too late!
ENZ. Do you think you'll ever do a reverse migration, from New Zealand back to London?
Jane. No.
David. I miss the football but not badly enough to go back. The opportunities for an outdoor life here are world's apart from London and I can't see us going back. I was about to say that when I'm too old for any sport I might go back but no - I'd rather be old in winter here than freezing in London.
ENZ. Do you think you'll leave Auckland for another location in New Zealand?
David. We both work in Auckland and it might not be so easy for us to get work elsewhere. If you talk about the Greater Auckland area - including South Auckland, West Auckland and North Shore we'd certainly head north rather than south or west. I've already mentioned Orewa - we really like going there at weekends. It's just at the beginning of the Whangaparoa peninsula and it's nice up there, much more town-like. And the houses are cheaper than Auckland. We'd like to move up there but we're put off by the prospect of queuing to get over the harbour-bridge into Auckland city in the morning rush hour. Every day the queue at the bridge stretches back a few miles and I really hate sitting in traffic so although I'd like to move up to Orewa, I don't think we will. If I could get a job up there or on the North Shore though, we'd be off like a shot.
When we first came here, we had to hire a car for about a week until our own was sorted out. I got talking with one of the guys at the car-hire company near the Airport. (The airport is in South Auckland.) He was telling me how he starts work at five in the morning and comes down all the way from Warkworth (a town to the north of Orewa) in 45 minutes because the roads are completely empty. He's lucky. Warkworth's another really nice looking place and you could get a nice house with an acre or two of land there for less than our house in Auckland.
Jane. I'm quite happy here for the moment and although I think Auckland's much better than London for bringing up a family, if we have children, I think I'd like to move out to a smaller town that's still handy for the city. I like the city's facilities but I think a smaller town would be better for kids - especially if we could buy a lifestyle block within walking distance of a quiet beach with room for a horse.
ENZ. David and Jane, thank you very much.
