[The Sids]

Hello all,

Can't beleive this is happening and we've not even started yet! My husband and I are seriously contemplating making the move to NZ. We have 2 young sons (14months and 3yrs) and are getting continuously despondant and frustated with life in the midlands. We have never been to NZ, but have heard nothing but good reports. My parents have just come back from a 5 week NZ trip and say that it's a fantastic place to live. I know that you can't base a desicion like this on someone elses holiday, but statisticly NZ has so much more to offer us than the UK. We're very outdoorsy and love camping,walking, mororbikes, cycling, skiing etc,etc. All I really want is what's best for our boys, I couldn't bare for them to end up with nothing but an MP3, a mobile phone, drinking cans of carling on the local park!!

I've started the EOI form, I think we should be OK as Leon is a motor mechanic and I think scores about 140. I finally plucked up the courage today to tell my mum of our plans, she was suprisingly cool about it (we're very close), I can't imagine life without my family on my doorstep.
Well I'm sure I'll soon be asking you all sort of crazy questions.

Good Luck with life wherever you are!!!

From Paula, Leon, Jed and Bobby

[Jenny & Mark]

Welcome to the adventure, Paula et al.

Mark.

[andrewandjane]

welcome,

we were in the same boat just 4 months ago...we fly out with permanent residency on thursday haveing never been, but like you have heard nothing but good stuff about the place.

good luck with it all.

ta
andrew

[Belmont Babes]

We live in Herefordshire about an hour from you. We have 2 boys 8 and 10. We also have the same worries as you re: uk. Good luck to you and go for it!:yes We are stressed trying to get together all the forms for NZQA which you may want to think about doing. My Husband is an Electrician and with new ruling, even though his quals are listed they still need to be assessed. Post any questions they really are a fab bunch. ;)With reference to never visiting NZ - we haven't either and hope to if enough funds in the pot after house sale. If not we may go blind...lots of people do and fare very well.

[Cardy]

Hi There we did it without ever visiting i only came here after we had permanent residency granted ,to look for a job.We to were worried about the kids in the uk but here there thriving and they get out and socialise a lot more . We do miss family and friends but i,m sure you will get lots of them wanting to visit.
Good luck
Cardy:yes

[zardell]

Hi and WELCOME to the forum.

When you're doing your research, please put a lot of effort into researching salaries.

I'm married to a Diesel Mechanic (HGV's/Plant etc) so I know !!

Diesel mechanics get paid more that car mechanics and the wages can be dire.

NZ is a beautiful country and a wonderful place to bring up kids (ours are grown up and back in the UK with families of their own), but pretty scenery doesn't pay the bills does it.

I'm not trying to put you off - far from it, all I am saying is that when you have done your financial research, research it again.

Feel free to PM me if you want...................

Julie

xx

[The Sids]

Thanks for the advise, I'll look into it.
I was aware that salaries were low but I was under the impression that the cost of living was also a lot lower than the UK ie house prices etc.

Thanks again

Paula

[leachio]

Hi Paula,

We were in the same decision making dilema that u find urselves in only a few short mths ago, Oct!! Now we fly in less than 2 wks :roll We have tried to make ourselves as aware as poss about the good and the bad and this forum sure is the place to be. The way we see it is that as a young family with 2 small kids, 3yrs & 11mths, we dont have any money left at the end of the month here so may as well have no money left there! However, leaving family is proving utterly distressing, I said goodbye to my teenage daughter on sat it was a killer :wah That said we are ones for tryin something than regretting not trying it. If all goes wrong we can return so we lost the house but hey we have only had it for 3yrs. Nothing to loose eh!!!!!

Amanda x

[The Sids]

I can't beleive things can happen that quickly - just a few months!!!!

I understood it could take anything up to 2 years to get sorted.

Thanks for the encouragement

Paula

[leachio]

Well Dan had a job offer and a start date, also the most imp thing was that we did sell our house quickly so maybe it is our fate as so far everything gone well!!

Any Q's just ask :)

Amanda

[colindp]

Paula,
without trying to put you off at all I would urge you to very look closely at the financial side of things, I to realised that I was losing over £6k in coming to NZ but the promise of a cheaper cost of living would offset that to some degree. For us that promise has not materialised, I do not find NZ to be that cheap at all. FYI I am a Civil Engineer. But you need to follow your own dream and do what you want to do....Good luck :nice1

[Sam B]

When people ask me why I moved to NZ, and lots do, I just say "I heard it was nice" because that's about right really! We hadn't been either. And it is nice - it won't disappoint. But don't underestimate the stress of settling into a new place on the other side of the world without your family and friends. I'm still adjusting. The cost of living is not that much lower, it doesn't balance out with the low wages. I rely on an income from the UK to supplement my salary.

[ElizabethD]

I read this forum for months and months before leaving--but found it after I had applied. I read so many wonderful things that I was sure New Zealand was going to be the place where I'd find my bliss. Five months after leaving home...traveling the entire length and breadth of both islands and settling in Wellington I find myself counting the days to go back home.

I think for many immigrants, New Zealand is truly a wonderful place....it depends what you're leaving. I come from a gorgeous island in the Pacific Northwest of the US. I left because I can't stand the policies of my government...I'm tired of consumerism....etc etc--you've heard it all before.


I can't make it in New Zealand. I am an educated skilled migrant who came with enough money to live with my family of four for a year. Never in my wildest dreams could I have known how expensive it is to live here and how pathetic the salaries are. I was willing to take a cut because I, too thought it would be ofset by the "lower cost of living" What a joke. I have not found a single item that costs less in NZ. The facts point quite to the contrary. Every day my mouth drops open when I hear what something is going to cost.

If you PM me, i can give you a breakdown of my expenses. (we live very simply) We absolutley cannot make it here and I absolutley don't think it is worth struggling for.

Like it has been said in other posts--I had to do this or I would have never been settled. Maybe you are the same. Look before you leap however. I've lost a lot of sleep, experienced terrific frustration and lots a boatload of money but I am wiser.

[zardell]

I read so many wonderful things that I was sure New Zealand was going to be the place where I'd find my bliss.

I can't make it in New Zealand. I am an educated skilled migrant who came with enough money to live with my family of four for a year. Never in my wildest dreams could I have known how expensive it is to live here and how pathetic the salaries are. I was willing to take a cut because I, too thought it would be ofset by the "lower cost of living" What a joke. I have not found a single item that costs less in NZ. The facts point quite to the contrary. Every day my mouth drops open when I hear what something is going to cost.



Like so many have said before, all the research in the world doesn't compare with actually living in NZ and 'walking the walk'.

Take care Elizabeth and good luck for your future.

Julie

xx

[psh12001]

Hiya, we have been here for almost four years now , in christchurch, formerly from lancashire and like you we were sick of the crime etc etc .
We all love it here now with our 6 kids,( 2 kiwis) and wild horses wouldnt get us back now! Its not all plain sailing and you have to tread carefully with some decisions you make, but life here in general is at a differnt pace to there with far more positives and a few negatives. You only get one chance of life and hey ...you can always go back if its not for you!

good luck and hope you give it a try.. we never looked back!

Paul, Lisa and tribe!

[Hesh]

hi Paula,

You shouldn't worry.. This forum is like a dashboard where everybody shares his / her experience.. I recently joined the forum but this is like a knowledge base with real life experiences..

we are in the same boat. I have filed my papers for PR (EOI - 135 pts. ) all the best for your PR application...

Regards,
Hesh

[Deb&Andy]

Hi Paula

We are currently in Nottingham. I grew up in Leicester (Glenfield). In fact I've just come back from visiting my Mum who still lives in Glenfield. See my post on the NZ Immigration visa bit about how long it took us to get the visas. We went over to NZ for a 3 week holiday last October to see if we were making the right choice to move. Believe me, it was a wonderful 3 weeks. I know a holiday can only give you a 'rose tinted' view but NZ is a fantastic place. The lack of traffic and litter ands how friendly the people were especially blew us away. We have 2 daughters, 11 & 13 and we think they will have a better chance and life in NZ than they will have in the UK. While we were there we visited a family who my wife knew who had moved to Hamilton from Mansfield 3 years ago. She had just got back from a visit to see her family in the UK. She was getting homesick and her husband said "go home .. see the family... if you are still not happy, we'll pack up and go home. She said she'd been back in Mansfield a day and couldn't wait to get back to NZ. She said about the grey overcast feeling (both the weather and the people) the traffic jams and the litter and general 'dirty feel' of the place.

Go for it. We're arriving in NZ on 12th May. We had a leaving party for family and friends last night and that was pretty upsetting. It will get worse over the next couple of weeks but we are convinced we're making the right choice.

Keep us posted on your progress and hopefully, we may meet up in NZ soon.

All the very best.

Andy

[nippa&pippa]

Just read your post, sorry for delay!
Welcome to forum, fellower leicestershire!!!:clap Good to hear from other people from leicestershire (was from ashby de la zouch, but got very close tie to leicester). Like you, I moved out because of crime and rat race, had enough of driving nearly 2 hour for just 21miles to work etc and concern about our children's future. I got two young children, 14months and 3years and they love it so much, epecially my son love his kindergarten which is 'much better than preschool(in UK)' accord to him.
Feel free to PM me or any of us for questions

[jaycee]

The lower cost of housing and less traffic - please don't take either of those as a given. If you end up with a job in one of the cities, there isn't much to choose between here and the UK imho - expensive houses or a long commute and, yes, traffic jams (and I don't mean three cars stopped at the lights ;) ).

I think much depends on where you live and work in NZ, and that in turn is affected by how much choice you will have in that, in terms of job opportunities in your field. The only way to tell is to try it. Good luck.

[kanatakiwi]

Elizabeth raises some interesting points. One is that I think people from North America find the prices here more shocking than would a person from the UK. In my experience, petrol, eating out, groceries etc, are much more expensive in the UK, than they are in North America, so it can be a bigger shock for North Americans who come here. In most decent restaurants in North America you can eat a meal for what it costs to be an entree here. That said I think its been well covered that most UK folks coming here, expect to take a drop in salary, and pay more for cost of living. The benefits, lovely scenery, clean, outdoors lifestyle, safe for kids, etc are especially true if you are coming from a city and choosing a smaller city to live in.
But as Elixabeth points out she left a beautiful island in the northwest, (not sure here Elizabeth but I am guessing one of the gulf islands or around Seattle?) where there already existed all those attributes. If you leave a small community or rural setting and end up in Wellington or Auckland, you may well think its NOT any safer or cleaner or whatever.
I would definitely advise you to come out for a few weeks holiday and check out the area where you would like to live, dont just hit all the scenic places which are stunningly beautiful, have a look at the downside as well, and decide if its for you.
I absolutely love sitting at my computer and gazing out over parkland and harbour. But there are very frustrating and depressing aspects to this country too and when I go to buy a gallon of paint and find out its $80 I can hardly believe it. As mentioned, most kiwis get a salary in the $30,000 to $40,000 range and I honestly dont know how they make ends meet.

Come and have a look before you lock yourself into any decisions.
and Good luck.

[Bruckner]

Just wanted to say welcome to the forum!

Emily

[Lisa&Andy]

Hi
Just wanted to say welcome to the forum :)

[benandclare]

Think i read somewhere that 24000 brits moved to NZ last year :yes cant remember seeing any article about droves of them coming back cos they cant hack it so go for it , we do but pass this way but once:)