mikewalkerfrom
22nd May 2008, 09:24 PM
Hi All!
I thought I'd drop a message as I've slipped out of sight for a couple of months. Sorry its a bit of a long one, feel free to fall asleep :roll
We’ve been in Chch for almost 5 weeks now and our feet are just touching the ground. When we landed we moved straight into a fully furnished holiday home for 3 weeks (great move as we have a 1 and a 3 year old).
In the first 2 weeks we managed to get our bank accounts set up, bought a car, I got a job (in my second week now and all’s going well), we found a new(ish) townhouse to rent for 6 months that’s warm and has double glazing etc, and we got our 3 year old into a good preschool which he started this week. Busy busy busy.
The weekends have been great fun exploring. And the fun is cheap. 10 minutes to the beach. Parks everywhere, Hagley park is great for running, feeding the ducks etc.
Some initial observations (in no particular order)
1. The food is MUCH better in NZ, you can actually taste vegetables. Nearly all the veges in the supermarket are local too (i.e. grown in NZ) – you have to go out of your way to find veges from overseas.
2. The cost of living is quite high (although we’re working on that as our cupboards slowly fill up with all the things we left behind – your first couple of months are always going to be more expensive). Our food budget is $250 a week, and we’re currently on about $320 - $340. We found a butcher where we can get all our weeks meat for $25 – That’s 4 chicken breasts, 500gm of casserole steak, 6 sausages and 2x300gm packs of mince. Finding cheap veges is next…
3. Nappies are REALLY expensive in NZ. It’s criminal!
4. You still have to deal with Indian call centers…. ggggrrrrrrr
5. The customer service is outstanding. Banks, telecom, even the car dealer I bought our car off was brilliant (the test drive was an hour long showing us all the southern suburbs)
6. NZ drivers take a bit of getting used to. Muppets with loud exhausts and the give way rule sucks…
7. Children and baby facilities are much better than the UK . The parks are bigger and more fun – having said that you do see kids over here with broken arms etc a hell of a lot more than the UK ….
8. Time with my kids. I no longer spend 1.5 > 2 hours in a car a day. I get another 45 minutes with my kids in the morning, and another 30 minutes in the evening. Priceless.
9. We’re about 10 minutes to the beach and New Brighton Pier which we love. The longest beach, hardly any people on it, with a great café. My son loves drawing in the sand with sticks and chasing the waves in and out. He can run and run and run which makes me so proud. There’s so much space.
10. Allied Pickfords removals were brilliant. One broken glass desert bowl. And the container was early which meant we had to really get a move on finding somewhere to live. Top marks. And they met the lowest quote with no argument (£3014 by memory)
11. $400 MAF bill. I thought it was steep until I saw how many boxes they’d opened. I stopped counting at 30. I think they opened around 40 boxes. I’d budgeted for $450 so I wasn’t overly concerned. We have lots of outdoors stuff.
12. The weather is pretty good. 4 days rain in the last month.
13. Hells pizza with kumera chips is the best Friday night meal going (IMO). Take a look at https://www.hell.co.nz/index.jsp?city=Christchurch&p=false
14. Coffee in NZ is brilliant
15. Overseas calls are cheap. Telecom NZ does an overseas calling package for $45 a month for 6000 minutes. That’s about 3 x 1 hour calls per day, per month. You may be able to get it cheaper using calling cards, but it wont be by much…
16. The TV is suprisingly good.... we have 5 main channels in Chch (plus a few odd ball ones... There a christian surfing channel (as in hang 10 dude not web surfing)... VERY odd)
17. And last... things are much more relaxed.
So everything’s going well so far. I think we’ve been really lucky, and have worked hard for the rest. Not too many home-sickness boughts as yet, but its early days. Now it’s just about getting into a happy routine and getting through the winter. I cant wait to take my kids to the snow for a days play.
We’ll start looking for a house in 6 months time if the circumstances look good, but we’re under no pressure. The NZ dollar is starting to slip, NZ house prices are starting to slowly dip, and a couple of banks have even dropped their mortgage rates!
I‘d like to thank everyone on this forum who posted ideas, experiences and shortcuts. You guys have made our move so much easier. We knew pretty much what to expect right from the start, so our expectations have “been managed”
Thanks to Stuart and Pip for the house warming plant and fudge which we’re still eating!
Mike
I thought I'd drop a message as I've slipped out of sight for a couple of months. Sorry its a bit of a long one, feel free to fall asleep :roll
We’ve been in Chch for almost 5 weeks now and our feet are just touching the ground. When we landed we moved straight into a fully furnished holiday home for 3 weeks (great move as we have a 1 and a 3 year old).
In the first 2 weeks we managed to get our bank accounts set up, bought a car, I got a job (in my second week now and all’s going well), we found a new(ish) townhouse to rent for 6 months that’s warm and has double glazing etc, and we got our 3 year old into a good preschool which he started this week. Busy busy busy.
The weekends have been great fun exploring. And the fun is cheap. 10 minutes to the beach. Parks everywhere, Hagley park is great for running, feeding the ducks etc.
Some initial observations (in no particular order)
1. The food is MUCH better in NZ, you can actually taste vegetables. Nearly all the veges in the supermarket are local too (i.e. grown in NZ) – you have to go out of your way to find veges from overseas.
2. The cost of living is quite high (although we’re working on that as our cupboards slowly fill up with all the things we left behind – your first couple of months are always going to be more expensive). Our food budget is $250 a week, and we’re currently on about $320 - $340. We found a butcher where we can get all our weeks meat for $25 – That’s 4 chicken breasts, 500gm of casserole steak, 6 sausages and 2x300gm packs of mince. Finding cheap veges is next…
3. Nappies are REALLY expensive in NZ. It’s criminal!
4. You still have to deal with Indian call centers…. ggggrrrrrrr
5. The customer service is outstanding. Banks, telecom, even the car dealer I bought our car off was brilliant (the test drive was an hour long showing us all the southern suburbs)
6. NZ drivers take a bit of getting used to. Muppets with loud exhausts and the give way rule sucks…
7. Children and baby facilities are much better than the UK . The parks are bigger and more fun – having said that you do see kids over here with broken arms etc a hell of a lot more than the UK ….
8. Time with my kids. I no longer spend 1.5 > 2 hours in a car a day. I get another 45 minutes with my kids in the morning, and another 30 minutes in the evening. Priceless.
9. We’re about 10 minutes to the beach and New Brighton Pier which we love. The longest beach, hardly any people on it, with a great café. My son loves drawing in the sand with sticks and chasing the waves in and out. He can run and run and run which makes me so proud. There’s so much space.
10. Allied Pickfords removals were brilliant. One broken glass desert bowl. And the container was early which meant we had to really get a move on finding somewhere to live. Top marks. And they met the lowest quote with no argument (£3014 by memory)
11. $400 MAF bill. I thought it was steep until I saw how many boxes they’d opened. I stopped counting at 30. I think they opened around 40 boxes. I’d budgeted for $450 so I wasn’t overly concerned. We have lots of outdoors stuff.
12. The weather is pretty good. 4 days rain in the last month.
13. Hells pizza with kumera chips is the best Friday night meal going (IMO). Take a look at https://www.hell.co.nz/index.jsp?city=Christchurch&p=false
14. Coffee in NZ is brilliant
15. Overseas calls are cheap. Telecom NZ does an overseas calling package for $45 a month for 6000 minutes. That’s about 3 x 1 hour calls per day, per month. You may be able to get it cheaper using calling cards, but it wont be by much…
16. The TV is suprisingly good.... we have 5 main channels in Chch (plus a few odd ball ones... There a christian surfing channel (as in hang 10 dude not web surfing)... VERY odd)
17. And last... things are much more relaxed.
So everything’s going well so far. I think we’ve been really lucky, and have worked hard for the rest. Not too many home-sickness boughts as yet, but its early days. Now it’s just about getting into a happy routine and getting through the winter. I cant wait to take my kids to the snow for a days play.
We’ll start looking for a house in 6 months time if the circumstances look good, but we’re under no pressure. The NZ dollar is starting to slip, NZ house prices are starting to slowly dip, and a couple of banks have even dropped their mortgage rates!
I‘d like to thank everyone on this forum who posted ideas, experiences and shortcuts. You guys have made our move so much easier. We knew pretty much what to expect right from the start, so our expectations have “been managed”
Thanks to Stuart and Pip for the house warming plant and fudge which we’re still eating!
Mike