New Zealand - anyone met an expat kiwi who didn't want to return?

migratory birds

16th August 2007, 01:07 AM

In past two days have spoken with 2 people - one an expat Kiwi doc practicing in the US, married to an American and the other a Candadian midwife married to an expat Kiwi.

Both had a very dreamy quality to their voices when I told them I was emigrating to NZ. The doc misses it very much - the peaceful way of life - and is willing to take a significant pay cut to return. The midwife and her Kiwi OH plan to return in a year.

Has anyone ever met a Kiwi expat who was more than happy to never return to NZ? What was their attitude about NZ?

Nathan

16th August 2007, 01:24 AM

Yes, three in completely different circumstances and none want to return.... and don't have to. In all cases, they have opportunities in US or Canada that they would not have in NZ. That is not to say they don't have fond memories of NZ.

Caroline and Dave

16th August 2007, 02:44 AM

We are friendly with 2 Kiwis in the UK.
The first one would love to return to NZ but she has been here over 30 years and has 6 Children plus grandchildren and although she would dearly love to return home she will not leave all her kids here which is understandable.
The 2nd one Is a friend of Carolines Daughter who says she never wants to return to NZ as it is too boring for her. She lives in London and is enjoying all the nightlife and having a good time. She may change her mind as she gets older.

Regards

Dave and Caroline

Oregonkiwi

16th August 2007, 06:43 AM

Has anyone ever met a Kiwi expat who was more than happy to never return to NZ?

No, but I know one "Kiwi expat" forum member who really really wanted to come back and then changed her mind when she was here:
http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=11476

Tia Maria

16th August 2007, 08:53 AM

Caroline & Dave wrote:

The 2nd one Is a friend of Carolines Daughter who says she never wants to return to NZ as it is too boring for her. She lives in London and is enjoying all the nightlife and having a good time. She may change her mind as she gets older.

The couple I met in London, who didn't want to return, said the same thing, that NZ was boring. A bit like going back to live in your small hometown after having lived in the city. One had kids, one didn't.

They also liked to go to Europe on holiday and resented spending the money on going all the way back to NZ just to visit the rellies.

Cheers

Tia

StevieD

16th August 2007, 09:58 AM

Aussie Pom

16th August 2007, 11:20 AM

There are an awful lot of Kiwis in Australia who feel they are economically better off by being there. More job opportunities, better climate, and also it is easy for them to visit home, so that might account for a lack of home sickness.
There is a joke over here about the Kiwi national anthem being "I still call Australia home".
A lot of professionals feel they have more opportunities in Oz. Most of our Kiwi friends are surprised that we are choosing to go to NZ. But as someone said earlier in the thread, we all have our own reasons.
Gina

ruthyroo

16th August 2007, 11:33 AM

She may change her mind as she gets older.

That's the key for a lot of people. I doubt if anyone can predict how they will feel 5, 10, 15 years down the line or after major life events. Main reasons for staying away seem to be - career advancement opportunities are not available in NZ, higher salary / earning power outside NZ, wider choices of lifestyle and higher material standard of living elsewhere, NZ is boring and too isolated, better weather in OZ! etc etc. All perfectly valid reasons. But when children come along, or parents get older and need cared for, or whatever... priorities change all the time and what seems boring and restricted to a young kiwi heading off on their OE can later be perceived as stable, friendly and - well - home.

Never say never!

incredible hulse

16th August 2007, 12:01 PM

I met a kiwi in Dubai whilst I was on holiday a week before moving here. He was amazed I was planning on moving here and he said quite forceably that he thought I was crazy as it was a rip-off place with poor working conditions, crap weather and generally not a lot going for it ! I put him down as being a bit of a bitter sod but having been here a while I can emphasis a little to be honest regarding the work and cost of living side of things.
I think in general people always have a reason for moving and this can translate to a grass is always greener mentality sometimes; how this permutates sometimes those is different. We're heading back to the UK for a holiday in a couple of weeks after being here for over 18 month, and it will be interesting to see how we compare the UK to NZ as we are at the stage of querying the move to NZ and possibly looking at the UK through rose tinted specs.

Jo Jo

16th August 2007, 12:20 PM

All the ex-pat Kiwis I know have been telling me (rather enthusiastically, and usually accompanied by knowing looks and winks at my Kiwi partner) that Kiwis go home to breed...

urban78

16th August 2007, 04:27 PM

Not met any, but we all have our own reasons for anything.

I can see where people say that NZ is "boring" if you into the night life etc.

Probably the reason why so many Kiwi's/Oz go on the Big OE.

But nightlife is nightlife, and the older you get, the less you want to know about it...

Stevie pretty much summed it up right there :nice1 My Kiwi partner went to the UK on their OE because NZ was too boring for their liking :laugh

Two and a half years later, after getting back to Auckland, they told me there was nothing better than being at home :) We had a few kiwi friends in London, one couple have returned to NZ a few months after we did (they had been living in UK for just over 10 years, with their 2 kids) and the other friend is in the process of returning home, with their British partner. Both are in mid to late 30's.

I guess after a few years abroad, kiwis feel the urge to get back home, especially if they have a family.

Jen

Gerardv

17th August 2007, 01:29 AM

Found some stats on http://www.stats.govt.nz/. One quote: "There was a net outflow of 26,200 New Zealand citizens in the year ended March 2007. Non-New Zealand citizens recorded a net inflow of 38,300 in the same period".

That's an amazing number of natives leaving NZ considering the overall population size. (and an amazing amount of new New Zealanders coming in :-))

stejude

17th August 2007, 04:48 AM

I'm going 'home' after 25 years away!! I have no hopes or desires other than its time!! Cant say I'll stay, its a big world, and like a lot of kiwis I really do like Oz!! Gee thats hard to say especially with the Rugby world cup just around the corner!!

uk_munros

17th August 2007, 06:30 AM

I'm a kiwi. Left NZ in 1994, been back to stay acouple of times but am moving 'home' next week. Cant wait, not expecting the NZ I left behind to still be there, but as a family we reckon it is a better place to be

uk_munros

17th August 2007, 06:33 AM

uk_munros

17th August 2007, 06:34 AM

stejude

17th August 2007, 09:19 AM

If thats the case how do they manage? I've never really liked London.

Tia Maria

17th August 2007, 10:21 AM

stejude wrote:

I'm going 'home' after 25 years away!! I have no hopes or desires other than its time!! Cant say I'll stay, its a big world, and like a lot of kiwis I really do like Oz!! Gee thats hard to say especially with the Rugby world cup just around the corner!!

Out of interest do Kiwis head for any particular areas of Oz?

There are areas of London where a lot of Kiwis gravitate to, I wondered if any particular areas of Oz had the same appeal?

Cheers

Tia

Nick88

17th August 2007, 02:36 PM

There are alot in the main metro areas like Sydney. Qld is a real favourite with retirees. I have heard that many of the shearing teams and traveling combine harvester drivers are also kiwis. So kiwis get everywhere.

stejude

18th August 2007, 07:16 AM

If we go to Oz it will be QLD. Hotter, dryer and my Dad lives there. Aside from that There is plenty of work in Tree Surgery and the pay is better.

Super_BQ

22nd August 2007, 08:17 PM

A close friend of mine in Vancouver has been dating an Auckland girl for some years. She left NZ well over 10+ years and has had the odd visit back to NZ.

Many times i've asked her if she had any interest in moving back to NZ. Her reply was the same each time expressing that things were much slower in NZ. Above all, her biggest complaint was NZ's lack of cultural diversity and ethnic transparancy. Though NZ today does have a wide range of ethnic people, I think she's referring to not just the people that live there but also, how gov't fairly represents itself with a mix culture from police, judges, and from municipal to national wide gov't levels. I did mention to her that people from asian, east indian, etc backgrounds have no interest in becoming police officers or gov't ministers in NZ Parliament. She didn't buy it and said there are plenty of asians debating at the Parliament in Ottawa (Canada).

Though for most migrants, an economic advantage wasn't convincing to her either as I touted that she would be financiall better in NZ (6+ years ago when NZ had lower income tax than in Canada, no capital gains tax, etc.). But since Labour gov't has been in power, these advantages have vanished.

Even more interesting, my father (a born Kiwi) knew some NZ friends that migrated to Canada as school teachers around the same time my father left NZ. They themselves today have no interest in moving back to NZ after reaching their retirement age. Their reasons? I can only assume that things appear to be greener for them back in Canada.

BQ

stejude

23rd August 2007, 09:42 AM

got to say that Im swayed to OZ. I love NZ, but its not what I wanted, its sort of changed and Im not sure its for the better, but it depends what you are looking for. I remeber when we left in the mid 80s, to go to the uk, my Dad went to OZ, when I last saw him he said that NZ was on its knees and OZ was the place to be. Looking bak at history etc I can understand his decision and acept it. And so many kiwis are moving to Oz there must be a reason????

Pookeko

29th August 2007, 11:53 PM

Yes I am an expat who doesn't want to go home. But guess what I'm doing? Yes, going home! :roll

This is my situation: I'm married to a NZer & we live in Warwickshire. We have one son who is nearly 15. We love where we live now (Warks) and we earn a good deal more than we could probably hope to in NZ.

Last year, when we were still living in the West Mids, we decided to send our son back to Wellington (NZ) to high school - so as to start high school at the same time as everyone else. We've been in UK since 2001, and we had just kind of drifted along taking each year as it came. To cut a long story short, we realised during the course of last year that we had made a big mistake and that we really did like it in the UK - enough to properly commit to at least another 5 years over here. But by then our son had made good friends and was extremely well settled and happy at his new school (far more than he was at his school in the West Mids). Although we moved from the West Mids to Warks in the meantime, when he came back on holiday to our new set-up he was completely uninterested in returning to UK to live. So we have decided that if Mohammed won't move to the mountain....! :D

I don't want to go back to NZ for any other reason than that we can be a family again as we've missed him really badly. It's not that I dislike NZ, not at all, I have all gushy happy fondness towards it! :) But there are just lots of things that I was very happy to leave behind, and more importantly a lot of things that I found through living in the UK which are not available to me in NZ. Plus all the benefit of loving NZ from a safe distance haha...
That said, you can tell we think being NZers is important to us, otherwise we wouldn't have sent our son back there.

I agree with the other expats who have said that it's a boring place - not just from the point of view of nightlife - but I can understand everyone's reasons for wanting to emigrate there because it is beautiful. But as others have pointed out, you can't eat beautiful!

Anyway, I am soooo looking forward to being back with my son! But on the downside I have these other worries: where will we live? how will we get by? etc haha.... (it's not all that bad, I'm just feeling uncertain as life seems predictably good over here on every other front)

We are saying that it is a move back to NZ until our son finishes school. We plan to move back to the UK then. Maybe he will want to move back to UK with us at that time? Or maybe we will all want to move to Australia like everyone else haha :D

Ana&Steve

16th February 2008, 12:40 PM

I know this is an old thread, I'm just late to the game!

I met a Kiwi said he didn't want to go home. He is a juggler and performer at Renaissance Faires in California. I have actually known him for several years but the main part of his act consists of walking on stilts wearing a kilt and a heavy Scottish accent, so I never pegged him for a Kiwi until about a year and a half ago, when he overheard me talking about NZ.
He kept me up all night talking about the places I had seen and telling me funny stories about the places with a wistful look in his eyes. When I asked him whether he wanted to go home he said "Oh no, I'd die of boredom!" I can't say I 100% believed him after all that nostalgia and sleep deprivation, though.

Ana

Gemini

16th February 2008, 03:41 PM

My Kiwi didn't really want to come back to NZ, he loved his life in London for 22+ years. Ageing parents and some other personal issues made it practical to come home. We're adjusting but I don't know if it's forever.

mish&al

17th February 2008, 04:41 PM

craig1234564

18th February 2008, 12:31 AM

My husband is a Christchurcher, he has wanted to go back since I married him 12 years ago! (today is our anniversary btw)..

I have been 5 times now, up to the fourth never, but the last time in dec, I had a different view on things.

I was ill last year, and now I wouldn't mind something different. Life's too short to procrastinate!

Hi, good luck if you do decide to move ! why did yuo want to stay and what were his arguments for going to Christchurch?

Also people have been saying that NZ is boring on this thread, but is Christchurch boring? I imagine it cant be as there are 350000 people there , the night life cant be that bad there?? I know that the UK is best in the world for nightlife but a city that size must be decent enough. !?

migratory birds

18th February 2008, 03:13 AM

Re Ana's conversation with the juggler/street performer...

A few weeks ago, we saw a fabulous human "circus" performance, CirqueWorks (many previously with Cirque d'Soliel - sp??). AMAZING performance! But I reflected during the show, that for as many problems as the US has, we have incredible access to the arts (which means greater access for performers to ply their trades in venues across the country)

mish&al

18th February 2008, 12:57 PM

why did yuo want to stay and what were his arguments for going to Christchurch?

Ah, he never argues about anything, he's so laid back he could fall over!

He has always wanted to go, but would never put pressure on me, the ball was/is in my hands. NIce to be the one to make that decision!!:p

I was unsure about wages/cost of living.

But there were a few things lately that made me think I need a change.

I certainly don't think Christchurch is boring, maybe slower paced than Sydney, but at the moment, this is what we need!:cheers