kimandgareth
23rd March 2007, 08:18 AM
Hi all
Well, we got back from our reccie trip on Tuesday and now I’m over the jet lag (just!!) I wanted to write a little report on how we got on. Also to say thank you to everyone who gave us such good advice before we went – it helped us no end. Special thanks to Mandy (Trigirl) who welcomed us to Welly and put up with all our questions and waffling on about the trip!! In summary, we loved NZ and the trip only confirmed that we definitely want to emigrate. The trip was so much fun as well as being a great experience and it sure did teach us a lot. Everything I write about how we found it is of course all our personal experience which will differ from others, so I fully accept that it’s not possible to see and understand everything in 3 weeks but overall we did have a really positive time.
The flights there were fine and seemed to pass quicker than the one back that’s for sure!! We flew with BA which was purely because we could book our specific seats (an essential as Gareth is 6ft 3inch and struggles with flights). We arrived in Christchurch on a Saturday afternoon and went to pick up the hire car first. We rented through ACE rentals, who were very reasonably priced but I have to say didn’t do a particularly brilliant job of their customer service. We got there and although they had our booking, they didn’t have any details so they tried to give us the wrong car and also hadn’t got it recorded anywhere that we were dropping it off in Welly. The car was hilarious, although we were genuinely worried it might not make the trip!! We were told that its not unusual for a rental to have 143k on the clock, but we did wonder if the gaping hole in the bumper and the squeaking going around corners was also typical!! Anyway the car got us through the 3,000 km’s that we did so in the end we were happy. We then went to the motor lodge which was clean and well presented. I was also so pleased to find (throughout the trip) that motor lodges etc all provide washing/ironing facilities. It did make me smile that New Zealand hosts realise that we’re not about to burn the place down because they give us an iron :laugh We were pretty tired but went out and about walking around Chch and found the row of lovely restaurants down Oxford/Cambridge Streets next to the river. It was a beautiful sunny evening so we ate outside and then headed back to the lodge to sleep. The jet lag woke us up at 4am so we started the day early and went to the gondola for a great view of the town and area. We spent some time up there and then took a drive right down to Akaroa which was lovely.
After a day in Chch we drove across to Lake Tekapo, which is our favourite place on the whole trip. The lake is gorgeous and the surrounding countryside equally so. We stayed in a lovely B&B and enjoyed some scrumptious breakfasts. We spent a day driving to Mount Cook and were so blessed when we got some clear skies on the peak. We were not quite so blessed with some incredible winds through the valley – at one point I couldn’t even get the car door open!! We also went up to the observatory near the lake which gave some great views but is one heck of a scary drive up there!! It was a perfect couple of days and we really relaxed into the trip. We realised that we’d put a little too much pressure on ourselves to say in the first 24 hours, right, now we’re here, we know its for us, which is totally unrealistic. For us, the enthusiasm got ahead of us and we worked out that we had to relax a little more and just not focus too much on needing to decide there and then if it was the right decision. So, at Lake Tekapo we really chilled out and relaxed a lot more. After the Lake we headed to Queenstown, which was quite a contrast from the peaceful lake. It’s a real one off town and although we liked the variety of the streets and all the different people who we ‘people watched’ it was a little too much of a ‘town’ for us so we spent a lot of our time there journeying outside of the area. You can tell we’re country folk at heart!! One of the days we went on a coach-cruise-coach to Milford Sound, which was good fun. The coach driver was great as he did commentary throughout and told us lots of interesting facts – sounds daft but we hadn’t researched much of the country’s history before we went over (more concerned with general modern day living I guess) so it was great to hear some of it. We spent a day in Arrowtown which was lovely and panned for gold and paddled in the rivers. We also had our first encounter with Kea’s, which most people will know are slightly bold parrot-like birds. We stopped at the Homer Tunnel for a photo opportunity from the coach and saw two Kea’s having great fun eating the top of someones campervan!! :laugh
After Queenstown we begun a bit of a whistle-stop tour, visiting Lake Wanaka (gorgeous, but more built up than Tekapo), Franz Josef (we saw the Fox glacier in the end and didn’t have time to see the other), Punakaiki (the Pancake Rocks were incredible, although we had a storm over night and managed to drown half the hotel room!!), Nelson (a lovely harbour town with a beautiful long beach) and finally Wellington. The ferry across went really well considering there were storms about and it was really nice to see Wellington come into view.
Our thoughts on Wellington itself were mixed. As a lot of people know, we had gone on our trip assuming that we would base ourselves in Wellington when we made the move for good so we were extra excited to see the city. Going back to when I mentioned before about our enthusiasm adding a little too much pressure, we were a little disappointed in the end. Wellington itself is a beautiful capital and the nicest big city either of us have experienced, but we found it was too much of a city for us. We’d had visions of being able to live outside and commute in, which we could still do, but seeing it and being able to actually properly see how it would be made us realise that its too urban for us, even if we’re just working there. We did drive up both the highways 1 and 2 and look at the suburbs with the hope of finding somewhere we fell for but it just didn’t happen. The place we liked the most was Paraparaunu, where we thought we could live nearby and then it would be our shopping etc centre, but the commute to Wellington would still be a bit of a hike and we didn’t think we’d quite get the real rural feel we were after. Having said that, Te Papa, the museum was wonderful and we loved wondering around the Bird Sanctuary and visiting Mount Victoria look-out and we would definitely go back to spend more time exploring the city in the coming years.
To be honest, we got quite downhearted at this stage we our plans seemed like they weren’t going to work – which goes to show how worthwhile it is to do a reccie before making the move for good. We spoke a lot about it and knew that our hearts were in the South Island. In the end we have decided to go to Christchurch for work and live just outside. We loved the place and although it’s a town, it has a green and country feel to it that we really liked. We have reviewed some of the property options and we can get an acre with a decent sized house well within our budgets. Although there are less jobs for us in Chch than in Wellington, there are quite a few we can still go for so we’re quietly confident that we’ll be OK getting work. In the end, we have to go with what we truly feel in our hearts will give us the life-style and environment we want and if it means less wages but with the open space and country feel we’re after then that’s fine with us. We should be able to make the move next year once we have got enough capital together and it’s so nice to be able to know in our minds now what we’ll be working towards.
We learnt so much on the trip and we can’t recommend enough that anyone considering emigrating go over first to check it out. Although we knew we wanted a rural place, we hadn’t realised until we were actually there how strong this feeling was and we never would have if we hadn’t gone to see for ourselves. In general we felt safe and everyone we spoke to was really nice and polite. We tried to experience as much of normal ‘life’ as we could and watched the news every day and went to the supermarkets, ate in local restaurants and café’s (avoided Starbucks!!) and read the papers. This was invaluable as it gave us a feel for how things are to live (as much as we could in 3 weeks anyway). Overall I was impressed by the quality of the food in the supermarkets, especially the fruit and veg – to see everything scrubbed and displayed so nicely was great. There was nothing we looked for that we couldn’t find an alternative for and some of the things were actually a lot better. We did a mixture of self catering and restaurants and I did find that there was a lack of vegetarian options when we were eating out – one a few occasions I had a starter or a couple of side dishes. Driving was fine, although we had a couple of near misses with the right turn rule. In the end we got the hang of it, but we still had to be careful. In general we didn’t think the NZ drivers were bad at all, as some people had mentioned to us and the roads were good in most places, although it was really odd with all the highways being one land instead of the normal four we are used to the UK motorways.
So, in summary, we loved NZ and its so clear why so many people want to live there. Sure, like anywhere we know it has its problems but in our humble opinions it is a far better place than the UK, for us at least and we know it will give us the quality of life that we both want so much. The thought of our little acre of land and our journey into Chch to work each day will be more motivation than we could ever ask for to make the move for good and we’ll be looking forward each and every day to getting there :yes
Well, we got back from our reccie trip on Tuesday and now I’m over the jet lag (just!!) I wanted to write a little report on how we got on. Also to say thank you to everyone who gave us such good advice before we went – it helped us no end. Special thanks to Mandy (Trigirl) who welcomed us to Welly and put up with all our questions and waffling on about the trip!! In summary, we loved NZ and the trip only confirmed that we definitely want to emigrate. The trip was so much fun as well as being a great experience and it sure did teach us a lot. Everything I write about how we found it is of course all our personal experience which will differ from others, so I fully accept that it’s not possible to see and understand everything in 3 weeks but overall we did have a really positive time.
The flights there were fine and seemed to pass quicker than the one back that’s for sure!! We flew with BA which was purely because we could book our specific seats (an essential as Gareth is 6ft 3inch and struggles with flights). We arrived in Christchurch on a Saturday afternoon and went to pick up the hire car first. We rented through ACE rentals, who were very reasonably priced but I have to say didn’t do a particularly brilliant job of their customer service. We got there and although they had our booking, they didn’t have any details so they tried to give us the wrong car and also hadn’t got it recorded anywhere that we were dropping it off in Welly. The car was hilarious, although we were genuinely worried it might not make the trip!! We were told that its not unusual for a rental to have 143k on the clock, but we did wonder if the gaping hole in the bumper and the squeaking going around corners was also typical!! Anyway the car got us through the 3,000 km’s that we did so in the end we were happy. We then went to the motor lodge which was clean and well presented. I was also so pleased to find (throughout the trip) that motor lodges etc all provide washing/ironing facilities. It did make me smile that New Zealand hosts realise that we’re not about to burn the place down because they give us an iron :laugh We were pretty tired but went out and about walking around Chch and found the row of lovely restaurants down Oxford/Cambridge Streets next to the river. It was a beautiful sunny evening so we ate outside and then headed back to the lodge to sleep. The jet lag woke us up at 4am so we started the day early and went to the gondola for a great view of the town and area. We spent some time up there and then took a drive right down to Akaroa which was lovely.
After a day in Chch we drove across to Lake Tekapo, which is our favourite place on the whole trip. The lake is gorgeous and the surrounding countryside equally so. We stayed in a lovely B&B and enjoyed some scrumptious breakfasts. We spent a day driving to Mount Cook and were so blessed when we got some clear skies on the peak. We were not quite so blessed with some incredible winds through the valley – at one point I couldn’t even get the car door open!! We also went up to the observatory near the lake which gave some great views but is one heck of a scary drive up there!! It was a perfect couple of days and we really relaxed into the trip. We realised that we’d put a little too much pressure on ourselves to say in the first 24 hours, right, now we’re here, we know its for us, which is totally unrealistic. For us, the enthusiasm got ahead of us and we worked out that we had to relax a little more and just not focus too much on needing to decide there and then if it was the right decision. So, at Lake Tekapo we really chilled out and relaxed a lot more. After the Lake we headed to Queenstown, which was quite a contrast from the peaceful lake. It’s a real one off town and although we liked the variety of the streets and all the different people who we ‘people watched’ it was a little too much of a ‘town’ for us so we spent a lot of our time there journeying outside of the area. You can tell we’re country folk at heart!! One of the days we went on a coach-cruise-coach to Milford Sound, which was good fun. The coach driver was great as he did commentary throughout and told us lots of interesting facts – sounds daft but we hadn’t researched much of the country’s history before we went over (more concerned with general modern day living I guess) so it was great to hear some of it. We spent a day in Arrowtown which was lovely and panned for gold and paddled in the rivers. We also had our first encounter with Kea’s, which most people will know are slightly bold parrot-like birds. We stopped at the Homer Tunnel for a photo opportunity from the coach and saw two Kea’s having great fun eating the top of someones campervan!! :laugh
After Queenstown we begun a bit of a whistle-stop tour, visiting Lake Wanaka (gorgeous, but more built up than Tekapo), Franz Josef (we saw the Fox glacier in the end and didn’t have time to see the other), Punakaiki (the Pancake Rocks were incredible, although we had a storm over night and managed to drown half the hotel room!!), Nelson (a lovely harbour town with a beautiful long beach) and finally Wellington. The ferry across went really well considering there were storms about and it was really nice to see Wellington come into view.
Our thoughts on Wellington itself were mixed. As a lot of people know, we had gone on our trip assuming that we would base ourselves in Wellington when we made the move for good so we were extra excited to see the city. Going back to when I mentioned before about our enthusiasm adding a little too much pressure, we were a little disappointed in the end. Wellington itself is a beautiful capital and the nicest big city either of us have experienced, but we found it was too much of a city for us. We’d had visions of being able to live outside and commute in, which we could still do, but seeing it and being able to actually properly see how it would be made us realise that its too urban for us, even if we’re just working there. We did drive up both the highways 1 and 2 and look at the suburbs with the hope of finding somewhere we fell for but it just didn’t happen. The place we liked the most was Paraparaunu, where we thought we could live nearby and then it would be our shopping etc centre, but the commute to Wellington would still be a bit of a hike and we didn’t think we’d quite get the real rural feel we were after. Having said that, Te Papa, the museum was wonderful and we loved wondering around the Bird Sanctuary and visiting Mount Victoria look-out and we would definitely go back to spend more time exploring the city in the coming years.
To be honest, we got quite downhearted at this stage we our plans seemed like they weren’t going to work – which goes to show how worthwhile it is to do a reccie before making the move for good. We spoke a lot about it and knew that our hearts were in the South Island. In the end we have decided to go to Christchurch for work and live just outside. We loved the place and although it’s a town, it has a green and country feel to it that we really liked. We have reviewed some of the property options and we can get an acre with a decent sized house well within our budgets. Although there are less jobs for us in Chch than in Wellington, there are quite a few we can still go for so we’re quietly confident that we’ll be OK getting work. In the end, we have to go with what we truly feel in our hearts will give us the life-style and environment we want and if it means less wages but with the open space and country feel we’re after then that’s fine with us. We should be able to make the move next year once we have got enough capital together and it’s so nice to be able to know in our minds now what we’ll be working towards.
We learnt so much on the trip and we can’t recommend enough that anyone considering emigrating go over first to check it out. Although we knew we wanted a rural place, we hadn’t realised until we were actually there how strong this feeling was and we never would have if we hadn’t gone to see for ourselves. In general we felt safe and everyone we spoke to was really nice and polite. We tried to experience as much of normal ‘life’ as we could and watched the news every day and went to the supermarkets, ate in local restaurants and café’s (avoided Starbucks!!) and read the papers. This was invaluable as it gave us a feel for how things are to live (as much as we could in 3 weeks anyway). Overall I was impressed by the quality of the food in the supermarkets, especially the fruit and veg – to see everything scrubbed and displayed so nicely was great. There was nothing we looked for that we couldn’t find an alternative for and some of the things were actually a lot better. We did a mixture of self catering and restaurants and I did find that there was a lack of vegetarian options when we were eating out – one a few occasions I had a starter or a couple of side dishes. Driving was fine, although we had a couple of near misses with the right turn rule. In the end we got the hang of it, but we still had to be careful. In general we didn’t think the NZ drivers were bad at all, as some people had mentioned to us and the roads were good in most places, although it was really odd with all the highways being one land instead of the normal four we are used to the UK motorways.
So, in summary, we loved NZ and its so clear why so many people want to live there. Sure, like anywhere we know it has its problems but in our humble opinions it is a far better place than the UK, for us at least and we know it will give us the quality of life that we both want so much. The thought of our little acre of land and our journey into Chch to work each day will be more motivation than we could ever ask for to make the move for good and we’ll be looking forward each and every day to getting there :yes