wobbler
14th March 2007, 10:46 AM
Having just come back from a reccy in NZ, taking the wife and the two small ones (3 and 5) for 2 weeks I thought I would post some thoughts I wrote during the trip, on the forum, as much to help myself as to add to the weight of understanding. These are my own opinions and were written late each day and should be treated as such, so be gentle! Its a bit rambling as I guess I am still suffering a bit of jet lag.
Arrive Auckland about midnight. Stayed over night at BKSpioneer. Got a family room for the 4 of us - had to wait 40 minutes for pickup!
Walked to Britz office, about 5 minutes from Bkspioneer, to pick up a 4 person campervan. Campervan a bit old but functions fine, like any small truck it has
a poor turning circle, gutless engine, is a big box on wheels, 2 in front and 2 in the back, it was actually great fun! NZ has a mad right give way from
right rule which I forget a couple of times much to the local anoyance. Drove down the southern motorway on a Friday afternoon - like a light sunday morning!
Never saw any road rage or the like probably because there were n't enough cars to create any rage!
Drove straight to Mt Manganui - stayed at Top 10 Papamoa, unspoilt beach and campsite. Supposed to be a busy weekend but only 1/2 full. No van near us in a sheltered spot under a tree, near the children's park and giant inflatable pillow, Kids love it. In the UK half these types of kids entertainment would be banned under health and safetly rules. For sure NZ is more relaxed (thankfully) about this kind of stuff. Dug up pippies from the beach. You can actually see the stars here!
Went shopping at Woolworths - not the same as the UK, good quality supermarket probably equivalent to Waitrose but better as there was virtually no one in the place. As a veggie I appreciated the good fresh quality of the veggies, although other veggie food was pretty poor! I thought the costs were pretty close to UK cost.
Drove to Hastings/Napier via Rotorua. I thought Rotorua and its volcanic activity was a bit over rated. Once you have seen one lot of mud pools, boiling water, hot ghysers, steaming vents you have seen them all! It was a hot day and we never really go for tourist tour thingy.
The road between Taupo and Napier was amazing, fill your tank before you start there was no open petrol station when I drove along it. We loved Napier mind you it was a hot day and the small ones did get rebellious so we spent a few hours in the pool on the parade.
Hastings to Wellington (Kapiti Coast)- longish drive but lots of rural countryside homes. Pretty but very remote. Saw lots of horses, cows, sheep, deer and the odd alpaca.
Got the train into Wellington, on-time, clean and effient. Early part of the track was great travelling along the sea edge. Caught the cable car up to the
Botanic Garden's, Great view of CBD and the houses on the hillsides. I liked the parliment builds etc but from a short visit it is difficult to draw too many
conclusions.
Did have some Kiwis offer to help us but to be absolutely honest I did not find the Kiwis any more friendly than anywhere else. In fact there was a curious
cultural thing that was slightly less friendly that most other places ie I would ask a question and would get a straight answer, no problem with that but
there was no offered expansion or development of the answer - I would have to ask another question to get more.
Wellington - Wanganui - Taupo. Really enjoyed Taupo, lots to do and see highlight was catching prawn's at the prawn farm warmed by the geothermal
powerstation next door. The resturant cooked them up for us. The friendliest place in NZ by far.
Taupo to Coromandel - great beaches, easy going places, kids having a great time catching butterflies and fishing, collecting shells and driftwood. We found
Kiwi kids relaxed, easy going and confident - my two seemed loud and over excited in comparison. I assume this is a product of smaller schools, more relaxed parents, quality schools and less competion.
Coromandel - Auckland. Auckland as expected like any other big city. Enjoyed the ferry boat ride to Devonport and Kelly Tarlton's. Lots of opportunity to see check out the NZ housing stock.
In general I thought the housing looked pretty poor, lots of subdivided 1/4 acre plots. Modern characterless bungalows - but of course this is a huge
generalisation. I struggled with valuations but I assume like any where you pay more you get more but in general i though they looked less desireable than the similar mid range houses in the UK. Suprising lots did not seem to have any gardens.
So finally would I recommend a reccie for others and the big one, is NZ for us!
1. Is it worth doing a reccie if you are thinking of moving to NZ.
Well to get the family there and back involves a effort, taking the kids out of school, using 3 weeks of annual leave in Feb, cost of 4 return tickets. Heathrow, Singapore (2 night stop over), Auckland with Singapore air. Stayed over in singapore at end of Chinese New Year. Lots to see but really hot and
humid. Should have just stayed by the pool as any sightseeing quickly exhausts the family. Singapore air were great attentive and treated the kids well. The individual inflight screens had the little ones mesmerised and we got to use a load of spare seats, and the little ones were awsome despite all the queuing, waiting, flying, waiting and more waiting. Long flight back no stop over!
With 2 kids in tow it is difficult to do to much on a daily basis to research the country. We ended up basically having a holiday and getting our PR stamped.
We hired a campervan and travelled the NI - so this added more to the costs.
I thought that the trip would confirm what we already know - but i guess it made them more real. What I mean is that we already knew NZ was a long way from anywhere - but being there confirmed how remote both physically and culturally it is. eg the media is pretty parochial. We knew NZ had a small population but the impact was the roads, beaches, campsites were empty, less competition for space, supermarket shopping could actually be a pleasure (well almost), you can do things like find an empty table at a cafe! We knew that NZ was unpolluted but has not expected just how clean the sea/air/sky was or how clear the night sky would be.
Given I have taken the family there and back I can consider the likelyhood of doing this kind of trip regularly. Most people seem to say to their loved ones
oh I'll come back regularly but in reality I just can't see the family doing that kind of trip more than one every 3-4 years. Especially given the cost - basically I have come to believe that going out to NZ is a one way ticket. So rather than have a reccie save your money and promise your self a trip home in the first year.
2. Is NZ for us?
Tricky I have n't yet come to a final conclusion yet. The pros are pretty well discussed on this forum and others - a low population means less competition
for services ie better schools, smaller class sizes more relaxed kids, more relax parents? Less demands on the environment meaning NZ is a very beautifull and unspoilt place. Lots of opportunity to enjoy the outdoors. It felt less stressfull place.
The cons are more interesting I think - Cost of livng is high like the UK, Salaries are 1/3 the UK. NZ isolation and population probably means professionally its is behind most of the world so it might be a step down? Would the kids have to leave the country to progress their own careers? Once in NZ I can't see many visits back to the UK so it would be basically saying goodbye to our families (unless they visited)? Are Kiwi's that friendly - not sure I found it more friendly than the UK? And this excludes the normal stress of moving to new place. Given all of this we are currently leaning to staying in the UK. It appears the number of days annual leave is less and there is less flexability around working hours - longer working hours too? But like anything our position in the UK is really the decider - since we applied our conditions have improved so I guess it will need some kind of push from the UK to make us move.
Arrive Auckland about midnight. Stayed over night at BKSpioneer. Got a family room for the 4 of us - had to wait 40 minutes for pickup!
Walked to Britz office, about 5 minutes from Bkspioneer, to pick up a 4 person campervan. Campervan a bit old but functions fine, like any small truck it has
a poor turning circle, gutless engine, is a big box on wheels, 2 in front and 2 in the back, it was actually great fun! NZ has a mad right give way from
right rule which I forget a couple of times much to the local anoyance. Drove down the southern motorway on a Friday afternoon - like a light sunday morning!
Never saw any road rage or the like probably because there were n't enough cars to create any rage!
Drove straight to Mt Manganui - stayed at Top 10 Papamoa, unspoilt beach and campsite. Supposed to be a busy weekend but only 1/2 full. No van near us in a sheltered spot under a tree, near the children's park and giant inflatable pillow, Kids love it. In the UK half these types of kids entertainment would be banned under health and safetly rules. For sure NZ is more relaxed (thankfully) about this kind of stuff. Dug up pippies from the beach. You can actually see the stars here!
Went shopping at Woolworths - not the same as the UK, good quality supermarket probably equivalent to Waitrose but better as there was virtually no one in the place. As a veggie I appreciated the good fresh quality of the veggies, although other veggie food was pretty poor! I thought the costs were pretty close to UK cost.
Drove to Hastings/Napier via Rotorua. I thought Rotorua and its volcanic activity was a bit over rated. Once you have seen one lot of mud pools, boiling water, hot ghysers, steaming vents you have seen them all! It was a hot day and we never really go for tourist tour thingy.
The road between Taupo and Napier was amazing, fill your tank before you start there was no open petrol station when I drove along it. We loved Napier mind you it was a hot day and the small ones did get rebellious so we spent a few hours in the pool on the parade.
Hastings to Wellington (Kapiti Coast)- longish drive but lots of rural countryside homes. Pretty but very remote. Saw lots of horses, cows, sheep, deer and the odd alpaca.
Got the train into Wellington, on-time, clean and effient. Early part of the track was great travelling along the sea edge. Caught the cable car up to the
Botanic Garden's, Great view of CBD and the houses on the hillsides. I liked the parliment builds etc but from a short visit it is difficult to draw too many
conclusions.
Did have some Kiwis offer to help us but to be absolutely honest I did not find the Kiwis any more friendly than anywhere else. In fact there was a curious
cultural thing that was slightly less friendly that most other places ie I would ask a question and would get a straight answer, no problem with that but
there was no offered expansion or development of the answer - I would have to ask another question to get more.
Wellington - Wanganui - Taupo. Really enjoyed Taupo, lots to do and see highlight was catching prawn's at the prawn farm warmed by the geothermal
powerstation next door. The resturant cooked them up for us. The friendliest place in NZ by far.
Taupo to Coromandel - great beaches, easy going places, kids having a great time catching butterflies and fishing, collecting shells and driftwood. We found
Kiwi kids relaxed, easy going and confident - my two seemed loud and over excited in comparison. I assume this is a product of smaller schools, more relaxed parents, quality schools and less competion.
Coromandel - Auckland. Auckland as expected like any other big city. Enjoyed the ferry boat ride to Devonport and Kelly Tarlton's. Lots of opportunity to see check out the NZ housing stock.
In general I thought the housing looked pretty poor, lots of subdivided 1/4 acre plots. Modern characterless bungalows - but of course this is a huge
generalisation. I struggled with valuations but I assume like any where you pay more you get more but in general i though they looked less desireable than the similar mid range houses in the UK. Suprising lots did not seem to have any gardens.
So finally would I recommend a reccie for others and the big one, is NZ for us!
1. Is it worth doing a reccie if you are thinking of moving to NZ.
Well to get the family there and back involves a effort, taking the kids out of school, using 3 weeks of annual leave in Feb, cost of 4 return tickets. Heathrow, Singapore (2 night stop over), Auckland with Singapore air. Stayed over in singapore at end of Chinese New Year. Lots to see but really hot and
humid. Should have just stayed by the pool as any sightseeing quickly exhausts the family. Singapore air were great attentive and treated the kids well. The individual inflight screens had the little ones mesmerised and we got to use a load of spare seats, and the little ones were awsome despite all the queuing, waiting, flying, waiting and more waiting. Long flight back no stop over!
With 2 kids in tow it is difficult to do to much on a daily basis to research the country. We ended up basically having a holiday and getting our PR stamped.
We hired a campervan and travelled the NI - so this added more to the costs.
I thought that the trip would confirm what we already know - but i guess it made them more real. What I mean is that we already knew NZ was a long way from anywhere - but being there confirmed how remote both physically and culturally it is. eg the media is pretty parochial. We knew NZ had a small population but the impact was the roads, beaches, campsites were empty, less competition for space, supermarket shopping could actually be a pleasure (well almost), you can do things like find an empty table at a cafe! We knew that NZ was unpolluted but has not expected just how clean the sea/air/sky was or how clear the night sky would be.
Given I have taken the family there and back I can consider the likelyhood of doing this kind of trip regularly. Most people seem to say to their loved ones
oh I'll come back regularly but in reality I just can't see the family doing that kind of trip more than one every 3-4 years. Especially given the cost - basically I have come to believe that going out to NZ is a one way ticket. So rather than have a reccie save your money and promise your self a trip home in the first year.
2. Is NZ for us?
Tricky I have n't yet come to a final conclusion yet. The pros are pretty well discussed on this forum and others - a low population means less competition
for services ie better schools, smaller class sizes more relaxed kids, more relax parents? Less demands on the environment meaning NZ is a very beautifull and unspoilt place. Lots of opportunity to enjoy the outdoors. It felt less stressfull place.
The cons are more interesting I think - Cost of livng is high like the UK, Salaries are 1/3 the UK. NZ isolation and population probably means professionally its is behind most of the world so it might be a step down? Would the kids have to leave the country to progress their own careers? Once in NZ I can't see many visits back to the UK so it would be basically saying goodbye to our families (unless they visited)? Are Kiwi's that friendly - not sure I found it more friendly than the UK? And this excludes the normal stress of moving to new place. Given all of this we are currently leaning to staying in the UK. It appears the number of days annual leave is less and there is less flexability around working hours - longer working hours too? But like anything our position in the UK is really the decider - since we applied our conditions have improved so I guess it will need some kind of push from the UK to make us move.