Kunjay
26th October 2007, 03:11 PM
DearAll,
We emigrated last year about 13-14 months ago and used the website extensively through this time (and made a few posts too). I felt I ought to reflect on our time here and help someone else hopefully in the same way we were.
Emigration process – We took about 6 months for the emigration process to be completed. This including umming and ahhing in the 1-2 weeks prior when I thought, “Hmmm, I’ll definitely start tomorrow”. Retrospectively, I would say that the process is fairly easy. You fill in forms, supply the relevant supporting information, send it and wait for a reply. I think the key here is to work logically and plan for a 6 month process (if you are applying for permanent residence). Double check you have the forms before you send it. Our only real hiccup with the forms was the police report which we nearly didn’t get in time. We awaited the allotted 40 days before calling the police and saying “Where are the forms?” when they replied, “Oh we’ve taken your money and hmmm, lost your forms and oh yes, didn’t think to let you know”. We could have missed our flights due to this delay. Nevertheless a little quick footwork helped. So get your reports ahead of time.
The shipping company – We went with Dorree Bonner in the end. Their UK end was excellent but the NZ side wanted us to pay $300 for MAF charges. Armed with the information from the website, my wife went directly to the shipping yards, paid for the $70 fees herself and organized for the MAF guy to look through the boxes once they had arrived in our flat (bungalow). He was only really interested in the bikes and hose pipes which my brother had cleaned with Jeyes (good as it stinks and lets them know you’ve had a go at cleaning it). The whole cost for MAF was $70
Transferring money – We watched the exchange rate for a little while and then transferred our savings using HiFX into an account set up for us by ASB. They have a branch in the UK that you can visit and get everything set up. Don’t use bank rate transfers as they cost too much.
The trip to the flight – LEAVE IN PLENTY OF TIME. I know this is a one way flight but I didn’t book insurance. Mostly as I had forgotten too. In the end I thought, “What’s the point?” It turned out, though we had left with plenty of time, there was a 4 hour complete stop on the M25 due to an oil spill. We nearly missed our flights but thankfully Heathrow’s computers were down and people had to be booked in manually. You should have seen the looks of evil that we got when despite there being 70 people to check in, we swanned to the front of the queue.. business class you know! My final memory of the UK though is a lovely one. Every one got out of their cars on the M25 and was talking, the weather was fabulous and despite the 4 hour trip the moods were really good as people talked amongst each other. We even managed to make a makeshift loo for the girls!
The flight – We flew business class with Eva. Very cheap and the business class was cheaper than some cattle class flights. It was a one way, long trip, so we splashed.. a little. The flight was excellent, the service fabulous. We stopped over in Taipei for 12 hours which allowed us a nap in a nice hotel and a trip to Taipei. Also a shower in the middle of the trip was wonderful! Clean clothes!
Prior to leaving the UK, my wife researched garages in Auckland with which we could buy a car to drive to Hawkes Bay. GVI (Genuine Vehicle Imports) picked us up from the airport, drove us to the garage and sold us a reasonably priced car which has done us proud in the last year. Apparently a good portion of their business is done through immigrants. Japanese cars are predominant, they are fine provided you do a little research prior. Though we initially opted for a Mazda Familia to keep the cost down, I couldn’t actually fit it one when we got there. We opted for a Subarua Legacy Grandwagon, which helped as it was an estate (station wagon) for $7500.
One of our best investments on traveling was buying GPS. It made the trip through New Zealand really easy and the maps are available in the UK for New Zealand, and yes your GPS will work in a different hemisphere. I like the Garmin Nuvi as you can use it as a handheld pedestrian map too. Useful when wandering the cities.
Living in New Zealand. We were lucky as it turned out to be exactly what we expected but the internet is a wonderful thing and the area we live in had two internet cameras transmitted images in real time. The people are lovely and our life is definitely better. We are expecting our first child too.
The secret of the successful move…. Research, I think. The few horror stories I have heard (from speaking to a few), in my humble opinion tended to be from those people who were in lower income families who came expecting a massive difference in their wealth or who expected to bring England with them and weren’t prepared to adapt. (I hope this isn’t incendiary). Broadly speaking I suspect one’s lifestyle level will be similar to that in the UK. I spoke to a few people who got a huge mortgage, big cars and then couldn’t fund it. You won’t get amazing houses for nothing, cars can be pricey but overall if you are realistic you’ll probably be fine… this discludes the horror stories I haven’t heard where people did everything correctly and still ended up in the poo.
Why do I like my life here? The better weather, the nicer people, the easy chats in shops, teenagers in low paid weekend jobs who are actually nice and keen to help despite the wages, getting the petrol pumped for you, having dinner with people impromptu without pulling out filofaxes and United Nations conferences, the lovely environment, the interesting drives, the fact that it seems to have all the best features of all the other countries rolled into one, good eating and wineries, no poncy wine drinking attitudes, chilled out attitudes, no traffic jams (in my area), coffee. I've been canoing on the Wongnui river for 3 days, hunting, fishing, Zorbing, jet boating and on long walks, all from someone who really wasn't into it before leaving the UK. I started running a year ago after a lifetime of slouching. My wife and I told ourselves for years, "When we go to NZ, we will..".. finally, this is "when".
What do I dislike. Nothing that I can say that truly actually bothers me
This is an overview with a year clouding my mind of some details, not meant to be definitive but hopefully helpful!
We emigrated last year about 13-14 months ago and used the website extensively through this time (and made a few posts too). I felt I ought to reflect on our time here and help someone else hopefully in the same way we were.
Emigration process – We took about 6 months for the emigration process to be completed. This including umming and ahhing in the 1-2 weeks prior when I thought, “Hmmm, I’ll definitely start tomorrow”. Retrospectively, I would say that the process is fairly easy. You fill in forms, supply the relevant supporting information, send it and wait for a reply. I think the key here is to work logically and plan for a 6 month process (if you are applying for permanent residence). Double check you have the forms before you send it. Our only real hiccup with the forms was the police report which we nearly didn’t get in time. We awaited the allotted 40 days before calling the police and saying “Where are the forms?” when they replied, “Oh we’ve taken your money and hmmm, lost your forms and oh yes, didn’t think to let you know”. We could have missed our flights due to this delay. Nevertheless a little quick footwork helped. So get your reports ahead of time.
The shipping company – We went with Dorree Bonner in the end. Their UK end was excellent but the NZ side wanted us to pay $300 for MAF charges. Armed with the information from the website, my wife went directly to the shipping yards, paid for the $70 fees herself and organized for the MAF guy to look through the boxes once they had arrived in our flat (bungalow). He was only really interested in the bikes and hose pipes which my brother had cleaned with Jeyes (good as it stinks and lets them know you’ve had a go at cleaning it). The whole cost for MAF was $70
Transferring money – We watched the exchange rate for a little while and then transferred our savings using HiFX into an account set up for us by ASB. They have a branch in the UK that you can visit and get everything set up. Don’t use bank rate transfers as they cost too much.
The trip to the flight – LEAVE IN PLENTY OF TIME. I know this is a one way flight but I didn’t book insurance. Mostly as I had forgotten too. In the end I thought, “What’s the point?” It turned out, though we had left with plenty of time, there was a 4 hour complete stop on the M25 due to an oil spill. We nearly missed our flights but thankfully Heathrow’s computers were down and people had to be booked in manually. You should have seen the looks of evil that we got when despite there being 70 people to check in, we swanned to the front of the queue.. business class you know! My final memory of the UK though is a lovely one. Every one got out of their cars on the M25 and was talking, the weather was fabulous and despite the 4 hour trip the moods were really good as people talked amongst each other. We even managed to make a makeshift loo for the girls!
The flight – We flew business class with Eva. Very cheap and the business class was cheaper than some cattle class flights. It was a one way, long trip, so we splashed.. a little. The flight was excellent, the service fabulous. We stopped over in Taipei for 12 hours which allowed us a nap in a nice hotel and a trip to Taipei. Also a shower in the middle of the trip was wonderful! Clean clothes!
Prior to leaving the UK, my wife researched garages in Auckland with which we could buy a car to drive to Hawkes Bay. GVI (Genuine Vehicle Imports) picked us up from the airport, drove us to the garage and sold us a reasonably priced car which has done us proud in the last year. Apparently a good portion of their business is done through immigrants. Japanese cars are predominant, they are fine provided you do a little research prior. Though we initially opted for a Mazda Familia to keep the cost down, I couldn’t actually fit it one when we got there. We opted for a Subarua Legacy Grandwagon, which helped as it was an estate (station wagon) for $7500.
One of our best investments on traveling was buying GPS. It made the trip through New Zealand really easy and the maps are available in the UK for New Zealand, and yes your GPS will work in a different hemisphere. I like the Garmin Nuvi as you can use it as a handheld pedestrian map too. Useful when wandering the cities.
Living in New Zealand. We were lucky as it turned out to be exactly what we expected but the internet is a wonderful thing and the area we live in had two internet cameras transmitted images in real time. The people are lovely and our life is definitely better. We are expecting our first child too.
The secret of the successful move…. Research, I think. The few horror stories I have heard (from speaking to a few), in my humble opinion tended to be from those people who were in lower income families who came expecting a massive difference in their wealth or who expected to bring England with them and weren’t prepared to adapt. (I hope this isn’t incendiary). Broadly speaking I suspect one’s lifestyle level will be similar to that in the UK. I spoke to a few people who got a huge mortgage, big cars and then couldn’t fund it. You won’t get amazing houses for nothing, cars can be pricey but overall if you are realistic you’ll probably be fine… this discludes the horror stories I haven’t heard where people did everything correctly and still ended up in the poo.
Why do I like my life here? The better weather, the nicer people, the easy chats in shops, teenagers in low paid weekend jobs who are actually nice and keen to help despite the wages, getting the petrol pumped for you, having dinner with people impromptu without pulling out filofaxes and United Nations conferences, the lovely environment, the interesting drives, the fact that it seems to have all the best features of all the other countries rolled into one, good eating and wineries, no poncy wine drinking attitudes, chilled out attitudes, no traffic jams (in my area), coffee. I've been canoing on the Wongnui river for 3 days, hunting, fishing, Zorbing, jet boating and on long walks, all from someone who really wasn't into it before leaving the UK. I started running a year ago after a lifetime of slouching. My wife and I told ourselves for years, "When we go to NZ, we will..".. finally, this is "when".
What do I dislike. Nothing that I can say that truly actually bothers me
This is an overview with a year clouding my mind of some details, not meant to be definitive but hopefully helpful!