[Lisa&Andy]

Hi
We are not in NZ yet......but I would be really interested to find out what the main reasons for returning to the UK are. Just wondered and don't mind if there are negative reasons, how long were you in NZ? , was it missing family? financial? everything?

[Joanne100]

Im still in NZ and have no intention of leaving, but ive met a few people that have gone back to Blighty and the main reason is missing family/homesickness.
I also think (no offence to anyone) that if people have a back up plan, ie " we r giving it a year then go back if things dont work out" then ur more likely to give up and go back wen ur having a down time.
Everyone has down days (even me!) but u just have to think of the reasons for coming over in the first place and work though it and stick with ur dream.
Jx

[zardell]

I also think (no offence to anyone) that if people have a back up plan, ie " we r giving it a year then go back if things dont work out" then ur more likely to give up and go back wen ur having a down time.Jx



Spot on Joanne.

When we first arrived, I was so down that should we still have had our home in the UK it would have been a big 'pull' backwards. Going back to the UK would have been a bit like waving a magic wand and all things familiar would have been back in my life.

And I can guarantee that once back in the UK I would have wanted to turn tail back to NZ !!!

Onwards and upwards..............

Julie

xx

[pitkennedy]

Hi Joanne,

What is it like in Christchurch?? We are hoping to move there in a couple of years, or as long as it takes to get everything sorted. Did you visit prior to moving there?? I have two teenage kids, one at 18teen and one at 15teen, what would the life be like for them?? Hope you don't mind me asking lots of questions.
Do You like it there?
Helen

[Joanne100]

Hi Helen,

We just love it! best decision we ever made, no we didnt come over for holiday. Friends and family thought we were crazy for not checking it out first, but our decision didnt come lightly we first started to think about NZ in 1999, it took us 6 years to finally make the plunge, i kept changing my mind , I drove my OH mad!!.
I spent hours online reading everything i could i was determined to make the right decision, Hubby got a job in Christchurch, and the rest is history.
My children r younger than yours 13 10 & 8 but they all settled really well, and love wot chch has to offer, 10 mins from the beach, an hour from the mountains, its a beautiful place, everyone is so friendly and always willing to help.
I know people with older teenagers and although the move was hard for them leaving their mates their moaning about wanting to go back soon passed and they have settled and are happy.
My advice is to read everything the good the bad and the ugly! be prepared. There r things i dont like silly stuff that really dont matter life is so much better here its not worth the effort letting them bother me.

good luck and keep in touch, dont hesitate if i can be of any help to you.
Jx

[willowshouse]

I also think (no offence to anyone) that if people have a back up plan, ie " we r giving it a year then go back if things dont work out" then ur more likely to give up and go back wen ur having a down time.
Everyone has down days (even me!) but u just have to think of the reasons for coming over in the first place and work though it and stick with ur dream.
Jx

Good point .. not that I think having a back-up plan is a bad thing. For example, our back-up plan is simply that if we needed to go back to UK we could. My OH asked me the other day (when I was feeling fed up) do you want to go back? I said no way, although I was a bit down and homesick and would have killed for a walk around Asda, Tescos or Ikea (yes it was a desperate day!), because I knew I would feel like that from time to time it was easier to deal with ..

Anyway, in short I think making the move is a bit like marriage .. you have to work at it, it isn't perfect and the more you put in, the more you get out!!

Dawn

PS .. My impression is that finances make a HUGE difference in whether you make it over here

[zardell]

I was a bit down and homesick and would have killed for a walk around Asda, Tescos or Ikea (yes it was a desperate day!),
PS .. My impression is that finances make a HUGE difference in whether you make it over here




Blooming heck, there are some good points being raised this morning !!!!

Just to be able to walk around Asda AND have money in your pocket to spend on whatever you want without having to run across the road to see if it's cheaper in Tesco's..........aaaaaaaaaaaah memories.

Must be something in the water...............:laugh

Julie

xx

[Joanne100]

Dawn I totally agree it does make a big difference, i do beleive u need some savings some back up to make it work here, maybe something people should check out fully before making the plunge.

[Debbie]

8 mths in and still here but it's had it's share of hard times. If we had kept the UK home I would have gone back at xmas because I found it so hard not being with my family. Moving here has brought me as close as I ever want to come to being emotionally unwell. Things turned arround when my parents said they would visit. At that point I realised the problem was missing my family, not NZ.
Before I would have a great day or see a fab beach and get all tearfull because I couldn't share that with my family. Now I'm just realy excited about the prospect of showing them all these things.
NZ has changed me and not all for the good. In many ways I am so much more relaxed here, we have lots of good quality family time, great enviroment and oppertunities. But now I worry about things that would never cross my mind in the UK. Now we don't have debt, I worry about money, I worry what would happen if one of us was ever seriously ill or worse. How we would cope if we had a family disaster. No Im not morbid or negative. Until I moved here I didn't realise that i had a kind of hidden security blanket that came from knowing the enviroment, how systems worked, having people on the end of a phone.... I don't have that here, Yet.
Debbie

[stu70]

No Im not morbid or negative. Until I moved here I didn't realise that i had a kind of hidden security blanket that came from knowing the enviroment, how systems worked, having people on the end of a phone.... I don't have that here, Yet.
Debbie
That is so true. I feel like that when I am stationed in the USA for work and that is only a stone's throw from us (so to speak). Your feelings are so universal that many of us can relate. Unfortunately the answers aren't always easy to find. One thing might help though;living in the moment..

Our anxieties are a product of our own thinking. It is not easy being on the other side of the world with no support system in place as we have known all our lives. The comfort might come from knowing you are not alone in this and that it will only get better with time. Good Luck

[mclarity]

I gave my answer to this question in the opening entry of the thread "Why we decided to (sadly) leave NZ" to be found further down in this forum.

Hope this helps.
Regards.

[Lisa&Andy]

thank you for all of the replies - I was just wondering :p :

[sarahw]

Bit of a mixture really - some people I know that have gone back have been monetary issues - some where they just can't earn enough to survive & others who have been unrealistic & have tried to re-create their UK consumer lifestyle in NZ where the culture & attitude (and more importantly income!) is different - certainly in NZ people in general don't drive new BMW's, Mercs, VW's etc. & wear designer clothes or have the latest gadgets in the volume that they did in UK (we know some people in UK who have baulked at our lifestyle here - I mean how would we cope without designer clothes & new German cars??? Quite nicely actually!) - noone cares about what job you do or what you earn or what car you drive! One person I know tried to re-create their UK lifestyle but didn't sell their UK home & refused to and was surprised that coming over with no money they couldn't get enough together for a deposit on a house immediately!? strange the kind of expectations people have since they'd never have been able to do this in UK either!


I have known noone go back for family/friends although a friend is contemplating it now their NZ-born son is 10 (that's only to Aus though so not so much of a huge move for them). And 2 people go back to realise career/life dreams - they couldn't have done what they are now doing from NZ - one is working in Africa as an aid worker & there were no opportunities for her to go from NZ, but there were from UK from an aid agency there - another has a specialist job she'd got as far as she could in NZ so went back to the US.

One friend that went back to UK said to me that they realised when they got back that a 3 week holiday would have been sufficient rather than moving back and have regretted the move & one person I know is coming back because they found out that they were seeing their old life through rose tinted glasses & it wasn't until they got back into their old life that they realised they had wasted a whole heap of time wishing they were back in UK whilst in NZ but they didn't appreciate how good the lifestyle was until they left...

I think researching coming over & being realistic, and being prepared to make a shift in the way you live your life is really useful. If you can come over on a reccy trip (if you've not already) then this is a great help in working out how your life would be. But you don't know until you try it I guess!

[barryp]

Most of the people at work who have returned have done so because of family issues - serious ones, such as incapacitation of a parent or sibling.

Makes perfect sense to me. I'm very happy with career prospects and leisure activities here, but if one of my (elderly) parents has a stroke or the like, I'd have to re-assess that. No amount of research helps, IMO.

[willowshouse]

No amount of research helps, IMO.

If you mean generally as opposed to 'when it comes to an ill parent' then I'd have to respectfully disagree. I think that some of the people who go back, expecially those who bounce back and forth could have benefitted from thorough research and more importantly maybe they could have thought the whole process through and been realistic about how they could expect to feel, moving to another country where you don't have family, friends or even just familiar things to help you settle. I know that won't be the case for everyone who returns, maybe not even half of them .. but certainly some of them.

Dawn

[barryp]

No, I meant specifically in the case of an ill parent or other crisis. We spent a lot of time and energy doing research before moving and I consider that effort essential... and time well-spent. I'd never discourage homework!

But. No sooner do I open my virtual mouth... minutes ago I discovered that one of my most amazing colleagues is heading back to the UK for good, this weekend (!!!) His mum had a paralytic stroke a few days ago and Chris felt that event over-rode everything else in his life that's good here. I will miss him personally and the organisation will suffer a great deal without him.

[Lupin]

The two families that I have known well enough that they have confided their honest reasons for returning to UK with me (one from Oz, one from NZ) have both wanted to return because, in a nut shell, their new home countries were not the UK :laugh

Sometimes it takes being half way round the world to realize everything you really want from life is actually in your home town. Both these families should have just done a big adventure holiday imo, but there we go.

[nippa&pippa]

Blooming heck, there are some good points being raised this morning !!!!

Just to be able to walk around Asda AND have money in your pocket to spend on whatever you want without having to run across the road to see if it's cheaper in Tesco's..........aaaaaaaaaaaah memories.

Must be something in the water...............:laugh

Julie

xx

Me, miss Tesco's children clothes!! They are so cheap but in good quality. Baby clothes are easy to get in pack of three or seven, here, argh. I have been trying to find plain long sleeves to wear under t'shirt cheap, no luck unless anyone know where i can find it????

[incredible hulse]

We're currently in the process of assessing whether we will stay in NZ past our 2 years or go back to the UK or even Oz. We did plenty of research before coming and are not missing family; although we are missing friends and struggling to meet friends over here. Whilst we enjoy NZ it hasn't lived upto what we were looking for yet and there are several reasons for this. First one for me is work. I am based in IT and am finding that the work is very much behind what I was doing in the UK on a technical level, and I am finding the working conditions very hard going. This is down to the general inept management I've seen over here and just the general beauracratic and slow working practices. I personally enjoy being busy and would rather work hard for 35 hours a week than do 40 hours and feel I haven't achieved anything. Money is also an issue in that I am concerned that whilst we have enough to live day to day we do not have any disposable income to save for our future and that of our children. I do not have a problem with adapting to income (been doing that for years) but if I'm not enjoying life as much as I was previously able to because of a sharp drop in earnings I start to question the benefits. I also don't buy into this change in mentality arguement as I never bought designer gear or cars to keep up with people or felt under any pressure to; if I did it would be because I enjoyed it. Same with things like holidaying - I have heard many people say they have discovered camping and tramping when in NZ as they can't afford to travel overseas - why not do that when you were in the UK ? I personally enjoy discovering new places and having overseas trips; at present I am content as there is lots I haven't seen in NZ but after a few more years will I be as content ?
Other things we weighing up are kids schooling (we're not particularly impressed by facilities in comparison to UK schools so far), things for kids to do in the future, the health care system, etc. We're also looking into whether we would get more enjoyement in another part of NZ (as we're not massively impressed with Welly) so that may be another option, although the cost of moving here is putting us off that slightly.
Don't get me wrong there are lots of positives about this scenicly beautiful country but these are just a few examples of what maybe the reasons we decide to move on

[Moorf]

Same with things like holidaying - I have heard many people say they have discovered camping and tramping when in NZ as they can't afford to travel overseas - why not do that when you were in the UK ? I personally enjoy discovering new places and having overseas trips; at present I am content as there is lots I haven't seen in NZ but after a few more years will I be as content ?Good point, and I don't really have an answer, only to say that, for us, we have more time to do those things here and find the environment is more pleasant. We weren't in to camping in the UK, or walking much for that matter, but that's probably because we could afford to do other things - mostly finding nice pubs and then forgetting all about the planned walks :D, or going away to Europe for the weekend or just working damned hard to keep the business afloat.

Now that we're here we can't afford to pop over to Oz or Cook Islands (or North Island for that matter) when we feel like it, and we need to budget when it comes to weekend and holiday time, so we've turned to less expensive activities - such as walking, cycling and camping. :)

I will agree that, once we've seen NZ (which will take a while!) I will probably be gagging to travel further afield and we both love to travel, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.....

[Sam B]

I agree with many of the points raised, but tramping and camping in the UK does not compare with tramping and camping here. Although there are beautiful walks in the UK, the best ones were packed full of people, and nothing like the 8 day tramps through absolute wilderness that you can do here. Also there are places to camp here away from anyone and the weather is generally better. That is why we are chosing to do this here when we didn't really do this as much in the UK.

[incredible hulse]

I agree there's some stunning sites and places to see, and possibly more so than the UK; I don't know. I remember doing some great hikes in the Brecon Beacons and Scotland as a young fella that would pretty hard to beat. Either way if NZ ticks the boxes for you in that regard, good news.

[thepiesleys]

Reasons for me to not want to make NZ a permanent thing:

1. My Family
2. My wifes family
3. My friends
4. My kids happiness
5. Beer
6. The Hawne Tavern
7. The Waggon and Horses
8. Nottingham Forest Footbal Club
8. Old Halesonians RFC
9. My Job
10. Better financial security
11. More money
12. Better travel oppourtunities
13. England
14. Warmer houses
15. Less rain (I live in Auckland)
16. Football Focus
17. Busier lifestyle
18. Better work prospects for my kids
19. Curry
20. The Black Country
21. Better education for my kids
22. Trainers
23. Better public transport
24. Match of the day
25. TV

Thanks

dan

[Scotty69]

Hi willowshouse you will be glad to know when your feeling the need to have a stroll in ikea you will be able to soon as one is opening up in Auckland 2008, around about the time we plan to be their so im not all that fussed about selling quite abit of our stuff as ikea is cheap and chearful. Natasha

[thepiesleys]

^^^^ Thers an ikea thread on here you may want to search for - has some uselful information on it.

[colindp]

The main reason we returned to the UK was due to the poor salary and what I found to be a fairly high cost of living. One other reason was our 20 yr old daughter who stayed behind in the UK. Now we are back and I can honestly say I have no regrets at all, sure I miss the empty roads and great scenery but like many others on this site have said that does not pay the bills. Now I am earning a decent salary where I don't have to worry too much about what I put in the shopping trolley, I live in a lovely traditional English village with just one shop, a church and a great thatched roof pub....what could be better!!! :cheers

[zardell]

I live in a lovely traditional English village with just one shop, a church and a great thatched roof pub....what could be better!!! :cheers


Eerrrrmm.........can't think of owt!!!

So glad to hear that everything is turning out well for you all.

Julie

xx

[auskiwi]

Listing seems like the easiest way to describe our reasons for leaving NZ too...

1. Family
2. Friends
3. Having the funds to afford me staying home with the kids (instead of working fulltime)
4. Vast increase in earning capacity in the U.S (for college, retirement, travel)
5. Warm, well built houses
6. Access to the rest of the world
7. Greater variety and choice / quality in the supermarkets
8. Weather (I will miss the rainforest but not the rain!)

[colindp]

Thanks Zardell,
At the moment the only thing missing is the summer weather...I was hoping for a repeat of last year....:(

[zardell]

Thanks Zardell,
At the moment the only thing missing is the summer weather...I was hoping for a repeat of last year....:(



You want it all !!!

Blooming greedy - that's your trouble matey !!........:laugh :laugh :laugh

Julie

xx

[colindp]

I know...but that's me......just can't help it!! :laugh :laugh

[immortal167]

I'm a kiwi, but my partner came out from the UK five years ago. We are currently organising ourselves to move to the UK in the next few months. These are the reasons why:

1. Family. My partner's mother has a chronic illness and cannot travel. We have spent about $10k a year, and all our leave, travelling back to the UK to visit them. Travelling within NZ is expensive, and getting out of the southern hemisphere for a holiday takes a lot of money and time.
2. After having a fantastic job opportunity to come out here for, he found that there is no other jobs in the same field because NZ just doesn't have the technology sector that the UK does.
3. Rising house prices means that although we are currently lucky enough to not have a large mortgage, if we wanted to buy a bigger house we would be paying out a significant proportion of our income to pay it. Salaries here haven't risen at the same rate so effectively we are no better off than we would be in the UK (especially when you consider the much lower interest rate in the UK).
4. The great things about NZ are also the bad things about NZ. For example while it is lovely that there are few people, there are less options for everything. As dog owners we also notice that while there are wide open spaces here, they are either privately owned or national parks so you can't access them!
5. The future. If global warming and peak oil is a reality then the price of air travel could skyrocket. Food miles could also mean that NZ's economy could take a massive downturn. Ironically we currently send off all our best produce and therefore pay alot for what is on sale here!

Wow, aren't we a cheery bunch! ;)

Oh the plus side for moving to the UK, we are looking forward to being able to go to concerts, geek conventions, proper pubs, places of history and places with decent shopping!!!

As a kiwi I'm looking forward to being able to easily travel to more countries and experience a world that doesn't focus entirely on rugby, the america's cup, or any other damned sport! Oh, and being able to turn on the radio without fear of listening to more Crowded House appeals!

Living in a warm house with central heating will also be a novelty. Insulation and double glazing are not luxury items, but seem to be here. Having an internet connection faster than carrier pigeon speed is also difficult to get in NZ, and mobile phone pricing plans are hideously more expensive than the UK. The small market place that is NZ means that we are forced to pay far more for things due to a lack of healthy competition.

[holland]

So what makes people want to up sticks to start with,when they no life it seems is just as hard 12,000, miles away.Only asking because i question myself daily and often struggle to find a positive answer,is it the fear of being in the I WISH I HAD DONE IT CLUB,in there 50's?

[Familyofmonkeys]

So what makes people want to up sticks to start with,when they no life it seems is just as hard 12,000, miles away.Only asking because i question myself daily and often struggle to find a positive answer,is it the fear of being in the I WISH I HAD DONE IT CLUB,in there 50's?

Maybe just to see a bt of the world....adventure.

[Lupin]

So what makes people want to up sticks to start with,when they no life it seems is just as hard 12,000, miles away.Only asking because i question myself daily and often struggle to find a positive answer,is it the fear of being in the I WISH I HAD DONE IT CLUB,in there 50's?

Um, some of us acheived 'the dream' here. Apart from missing family my life and my children's lives here are immeasurably better. I envy myself what we've acheived from this move.

[Belmont Babes]

Hi Lupin
That's good to hear. I too question my motives each day. Can I ask what you moved from and why you think NZ is better for you?