[willsken]

On a scale of 1 to 10 how do you rate the move for you and/or your family.

I would like to leave family/friends being left behind out of this one as I think on the whole it's a given that we miss them. What I'm interested in is the positive/negative of everyday life you have here in NZ.

I, so far rate mine as a 9.

Why? Because both my boys are very happy and busy. They love their schools and both seem to have full and active days and evenings. I feel far more relaxed and rarely feel crowded or rushed. OH is also settled and happy. (But can’t wait to get Sky!!)

This thread is not for comparing where we came from just for how we feel our lives are now. :)

[marcia]

I rate mine as a 7 at the moment.

I do love it here - but there are a few things that need to fall into place before it will go higher, like getting a house for example!!!!:( Also widening my circle of friends and people I can invite round for a cuppa, or pop to their house for a cuppa (Diny must be sick of me already!!)

However today it was lovely picking the older two up from school, instead of being 'nobby no mates', two other mums i know from play centre actually stopped to chat for a couple of minutes - now that gave me a really good feeling - a sense of starting to belong - and the other day on the way home from play centre I was able to toot and wave at someone i knew!! :raebanana

It will start coming together especially now everything is running again, in fact we don't have a free morning at all, playcentre 3 times a week, jumping jellybeans at the library one morning, and mainly music at the local community centre the other day!!

So its a rising 7 for me!

[veronica]

difficult one to assess as we came out on a business visa under different circumstances to a lot of you but taking family considerations out of it, would think about an 8.5 to a 9.

What we are doing is very different to the UK but we are enjoying it,even with the roller coaster of worry new businesses tend to generate, but we definately aren't suffering from boredom.

[Moorf]

Nothing's perfect, but it's close with a 9 from me for all the reasons I've bleated on about over the last 3 yrs on here !! :laugh

[Trigirl]

so far an 8 rising 9 for me (8.5?).

i'm sat in our new house surrounded by boxes that really need unpacking. also work is getting to be better now but has caused me a fair bit of heartache over the past few weeks. plus i worry a bit about mum and dad.

but life in general is FAB

[gil]

"Rate Your Move" sounds like a quiz show!
9.5, 'cos if I gave it 10, there'd be nowhere left to go....:D
Gil

[wiki]

Just to provide a little balance *grin* my move TO the UK was a 9 overall if I look back over the 10 years.

The only thing that stops it being higher was that my Mum died from cancer after I'd been in England for four years and it was stressful and heart-breaking not being closer to hand for longer. (Mum had cancer twice, but the second time it was inoperable so work gave me extended leave of abscence and I flew home to be with her for her last seven weeks - I don't know how I would have coped if I hadn't had that opportunity)

now I'm just hoping the move BACK to NZ produces a similar figure for both of us...

[Diny]

Well no suprises that my score will be lower eh folks. I give it a 5 - because that's half way to 10 and as you all know my move here has been a sideways move.

However, it's a very happy, satisfactory 5.

Diny

[Trigirl]

:)

just spent the last half hour thinking - i wonder how long it will take for diny to arrive with a 5 (and some "balance" - but wiki got there first!)

[Carol]

After 11 years ......... 9.


But it has been a VERY long slow process to get to that.

[wanderingoregonian]

I'd say an 8 for me. I love it here... but I also think the part of the states I grew up in is lovely. There were lots of changes that have nothing to do with NZ. Country to Urban; two incomes to one; school based job to more office job; having a future move looming year after year --> being in a place with no future moves planed; etc.

We're nearly priced out of the housing market everywhere we've lived - but didn't feel it so much because we were always 'just about to move to NZ' so didn't see the point in investigating buying a house. Not worrying about health insurance is huge for me.

[willsken]

Well no suprises that my score will be lower eh folks. I give it a 5 - because that's half way to 10 and as you all know my move here has been a sideways move.

However, it's a very happy, satisfactory 5.

Diny

Surprised the UK is only a 5 :laugh (Sorry couldn't resist!)

[pieeater]

I'm still up and down with it all.I feel like I'm on a knife edge really even after over five years here.I think to be honest if it wasn't for the fact that we don't want to upset the continuity of the childrens education we would have left by now.My son did his NCEA level one's this year and we said if his results were poor we were off.He did well.Then he got the head boy job,so we'll be stopping a while longer me thinks.It's mostly a work/pay issue with me though I must admit.I still can't rationalise the earning half as much as I could in the U.K. or Aussie/more hours/less holidays thing,but having said that,yesterday I left work at 3.30 drove 5 mins to the beach had a lovely swim to cool down and chilled out there for half an hour,drove home,calling in for a slab of course and things felt pretty good by the time I got home.So to sum up I peak at about 9 and sometimes drop to about 2 so I'm probably a 5.:)

[spudulike]

This is quite a tricky one to answer.... I find the finances here to be an unbearable stress - income is far too low and it's so hard to earn a decent living wage so for the last year I have had recurrent mouth ulcers and other general symptoms of stress and worry. Life is never going to feel great when you are constantly worried. So in my lowest moments I would say a 2.

However, I love the scenery here and I love the fact that I've challenged myself to live somewhere else, the children have so much to do day to day - we're out constantly! I am surprised at how few people I've got to know though - I am chatty, friendly etc but only seem to have made a couple of friends, and they are both English!! I don't find the Kiwi's to be as friendly 'as advertised' but that's not to say they're unfriendly either - just very superficial conversation and no promise of anything more. So I think a general feeling of isolation is hard to cope with.

I think once we made the decision to go home and I knew the stress was temporary I've relaxed and enjoyed it more so on a good day I would say a 7. So maybe overall a 4 or 5? I can't say higher than that as we are still not settled, don't have our own house and have not put down roots. I'm looking forward to going home in some respects and building for our future, making friends and knowing we will be staying in one place for a while. Fortunately, I will have good memories of my time here too.

Sorry for the long winded reply!

[K&CS]

After a year, I'd say a 9. I've been surprised that I haven't actually been disappointed by anything. We live in a beautiful place, have met loads of people and are financially better off, so I'd say, all in all, it's been a pretty good year! This is obviously not taking into account missing family and friends and my old home town!

[Avalon]

Overall a 9 I think.

With the proviso that sometimes (especially at the moment) I get rather frustrated with the slowness of things and that takes me to about a 7.

Then I hit the beach and it goes to 10 :D Its hard to be disgruntled with life at the beach.

[jubjub]

Hmm, hard question. I guess I would give in at 8, nothing is perfect so a 10 is not going to happen!

I would say on balance our lives here are more relaxed, and we do seem to get out and about more, particularly me cos of bubs and all his activities.

We are financially a bit worse off cos of the loss of my salary, and the extra expense of a child, but hubbys wages now are around what he was getting in the UK when we left (nearly two years ago).

I have not found anything significant here to be worse than the UK, most things are on a par, some are better. Only once in a blue moon do we sit and think, ooooh wish I could have ... (something that we cant get here, but could in UK.)

[wilson182]

Great thread.......

I would probably say 8 - 8.5, OH working conditions in his last job were pretty shocking, but he has changed now so *fingers crossed* for the better. Our overall standard of living is far better now.

[nippa&pippa]

I been thinking all day on this one...i give 6 for now as just moved 4 months ago, so early days....
Also i am in rental house make harder to settling in and want do something to house but can't, not allow put anything on walls etc. With a luck, our house finally got offer and in progress of exchange *finger crossed* very soon will help us to start find a house before a baby arrive in september as don't want to move into new home with newborn baby and two young children on tow in the winter!! Most important to me is my both children is very happy, especially my son love his kindy so much. My husband is undecide on how he feel about on his job. He love his job but it is low paid after well-paid job in UK, but mostly important he doesn't feel stress any more. He can't have both!

[marcia]

Its hard to be disgruntled with life at the beach.

Unless you really hate the sand with a passion!!!!:laugh I just hate it when its windy and blowing into your teeth! That horrible gritty feeling ughhhhh!

PS - Just noticed this is my 1000th post - must get out more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:exit

[sarahw]

Well I'd say a 9 for day-to-day stuff, but as far as realising our dreams its most certainly been a 10. We got married here, if we hadn't have come here we wouldn't know that we couldn't have kids & we wouldn't have been able to adopt a newborn baby so quickly... all our dreams & then some have been realised here which makes me feel so attached to this place.

Lifestyle-wise its great & we're really enjoying living here - we get out there & do stuff on the weekends instead of sitting in front of the TV or spending the weekend at the shops as we did in UK - we now kayak, fish, windsurf, go for long beach walks, picnicks, out on friend's boats, swimming in the river (list goes on...). I don't have to work (although I'm sure as little'n grows up I'll do it to get out & about & extra cash never goes amiss) and would have had to work in the UK. Hubby gets home at 5.30 every night instead of 7pm & gets time with our daughter & on Fridays is back by 4pm latest which is a wonderful start to the weekend...

So big thumbs up really.

[Lupin]

So far (6 weeks in), I'd give the experience of living in NZ an 8.5.

Only downer is money (leaving out distance from family) but that was a struggle for us in the UK and will be anywhere in the world.