wiki
17th June 2008, 12:14 AM
.... so does putting this in the Leaving NZ forum give a pretty good indication of our feelings so far?
We'll be moving back to the UK around the time of our one-year anniversary here in NZ.
For those new to the forum, our background: Me, kiwi born and bred who went to UK age 22. Ten years later, me and brummie OH decide to try life in NZ. OH had never been to NZ, but wanted to get out of the UK. I loved our life in UK, but felt I needed to come back for family reasons (dad is 75).
So we packed up and came to my home town (Invercargill - no point moving all the way to NZ and be stuck too far away from my dad and family to see them very often)
It's been a time of much ups and downs. I've truly loved being close to my family again, and they all love OH and she thinks they're great too.
Seeing me in my "natural environment" has been useful for both of us - a lot of my idiosyncrocies now make a lot of sense to OH now that she's seen them reflected in so many of our friends and workmates down here (my inherent laziness and love of netball)
But to be honest, there is too much about the UK we miss and we've come to the realisation we should have waited another 10 years or so before coming out.
We don't have kids, nor do we plan to, but if we did then staying in NZ would be a no-brainer. We both agree we could offer a much better upbringing in NZ.
However, as a childless, some-what selfish couple, we've realised that the things we really miss about the UK can't easily be replicated here.
1) travel. I desperately miss planning our european holidays. Grabbing last-minute cheap flights to strange cities and then booking tiny pensions and going out and exploring. Seeing so much culture and history without it breaking the bank and taking 10hours+ in flying time.
2) did I mention OH is a trained archaeologist? I did warn her that NZ history is quite short compared to the Greek and Roman civilisations of her studies - but even I have to say I miss our trips to the Yorkshire abbeys and yomps along Hadrian's Wall.
3) work. I swear I must be the only person on this forum who arrived in NZ and got a longer working day, more stress and less appreciation. My commute is about the same (10 mins drive) but instead of a nice 7.5 hours in the UK, I'm regularly doing 9-10 hour days and not enjoying the work. I work with some absolute brats - and spend far too much time in conflict resolution that in actually making improvements. The day-to-day operation takes up too much time to work on the big projects I want to get my teeth stuck in to.
I made a big mistake in taking a challenging job when I came here... I could have take something that paid a little less and wasn't so demanding. That would have been the smart move as it would have given me more time to show OH around and get her acclimatised. She resents the fact I'm no longer home at 2.30pm and we miss spending so much time together.
4) The costs. We live quite comfortably on what we earn, but could save a lot more in the UK than we do here. Even the maths of spending $3k each to fly to the UK for a holiday compared to £700 each to fly back to NZ on holiday adds up. In the UK I can still afford to see my family every year - but here we'd only be able to get back to see OHs family every 4-5 years!
5) Family. I love seeing them all again, but with work being so consuming, I don't see them as often as I'd like. Plus, my brother now lives across the street from my Dad so I don't have to worry that no one is looking after him. I'm one of 5 kids, and up to two years ago, three of us lived overseas and one in Auckland - now we're all in Otago or Southland so I don't feel a pressing familial duty that I used to feel. I'd still fly home in a heartbeat if dad needed me, but it's easier to do that from the UK than it is for OH to get from here back to her folks.
And talking of family - OH's first nephew was born a couple of weeks ago in the UK and she's desperate to see him. She's from a small family (only one brother) and being away from them has made her see how much she values them.
Those are the big 5... but our decision has also been sped up by a couple of calamities: OH got bitten by a white tail spider and then we had the coal range explosion and really annoying treatment from our rather useless landlords.
Now I know such things can also happen in the UK - the UK isn't perfect, but NZ just isn't giving us what we want right now, and apart from changing my job, we can't satisfy our history or travel needs from here. We miss the rock concerts, the fast internet, the range of food in Tesco, the tv shows, the radio (I'm listening to Chris Moyles right now!) Eurovision and F1 on at a normal time of day....
We haven't ruled out an eventual return to NZ when we're older: we're both early 30s now, and it may well be that we look at a return in our late 40s or so. We're hoping that if NZ let OH get PR once, they'll do it again.
So that's about it: NZ is wonderful, but not for us right now.
We don't regret the experience as it's been hugely beneficial to us and our relationship. It's helped to clarify what we want out of life and where our priorities lie.
At this stage we're aiming for flights in late Sept, and heading back to Yorkshire, as it looks very likely I can go back to my old job.
But we have a lot to sort out before then. If anyone has leachios' email addy, please pm me if you don't think they'd mind, as I'd love to pick their brains re shipping companies and costs. Then we can have an ex-ENZ meet-up with them in York :cheers
A big thanks to all the wonderful folk on here who have been so welcoming and helpful to us: esp Kat and Moorf and everyone we met in Chch - my one big regret is that we didn't make it up to Hamilton to drag the Waikato Enz crew out for a drink or three.
We'll be moving back to the UK around the time of our one-year anniversary here in NZ.
For those new to the forum, our background: Me, kiwi born and bred who went to UK age 22. Ten years later, me and brummie OH decide to try life in NZ. OH had never been to NZ, but wanted to get out of the UK. I loved our life in UK, but felt I needed to come back for family reasons (dad is 75).
So we packed up and came to my home town (Invercargill - no point moving all the way to NZ and be stuck too far away from my dad and family to see them very often)
It's been a time of much ups and downs. I've truly loved being close to my family again, and they all love OH and she thinks they're great too.
Seeing me in my "natural environment" has been useful for both of us - a lot of my idiosyncrocies now make a lot of sense to OH now that she's seen them reflected in so many of our friends and workmates down here (my inherent laziness and love of netball)
But to be honest, there is too much about the UK we miss and we've come to the realisation we should have waited another 10 years or so before coming out.
We don't have kids, nor do we plan to, but if we did then staying in NZ would be a no-brainer. We both agree we could offer a much better upbringing in NZ.
However, as a childless, some-what selfish couple, we've realised that the things we really miss about the UK can't easily be replicated here.
1) travel. I desperately miss planning our european holidays. Grabbing last-minute cheap flights to strange cities and then booking tiny pensions and going out and exploring. Seeing so much culture and history without it breaking the bank and taking 10hours+ in flying time.
2) did I mention OH is a trained archaeologist? I did warn her that NZ history is quite short compared to the Greek and Roman civilisations of her studies - but even I have to say I miss our trips to the Yorkshire abbeys and yomps along Hadrian's Wall.
3) work. I swear I must be the only person on this forum who arrived in NZ and got a longer working day, more stress and less appreciation. My commute is about the same (10 mins drive) but instead of a nice 7.5 hours in the UK, I'm regularly doing 9-10 hour days and not enjoying the work. I work with some absolute brats - and spend far too much time in conflict resolution that in actually making improvements. The day-to-day operation takes up too much time to work on the big projects I want to get my teeth stuck in to.
I made a big mistake in taking a challenging job when I came here... I could have take something that paid a little less and wasn't so demanding. That would have been the smart move as it would have given me more time to show OH around and get her acclimatised. She resents the fact I'm no longer home at 2.30pm and we miss spending so much time together.
4) The costs. We live quite comfortably on what we earn, but could save a lot more in the UK than we do here. Even the maths of spending $3k each to fly to the UK for a holiday compared to £700 each to fly back to NZ on holiday adds up. In the UK I can still afford to see my family every year - but here we'd only be able to get back to see OHs family every 4-5 years!
5) Family. I love seeing them all again, but with work being so consuming, I don't see them as often as I'd like. Plus, my brother now lives across the street from my Dad so I don't have to worry that no one is looking after him. I'm one of 5 kids, and up to two years ago, three of us lived overseas and one in Auckland - now we're all in Otago or Southland so I don't feel a pressing familial duty that I used to feel. I'd still fly home in a heartbeat if dad needed me, but it's easier to do that from the UK than it is for OH to get from here back to her folks.
And talking of family - OH's first nephew was born a couple of weeks ago in the UK and she's desperate to see him. She's from a small family (only one brother) and being away from them has made her see how much she values them.
Those are the big 5... but our decision has also been sped up by a couple of calamities: OH got bitten by a white tail spider and then we had the coal range explosion and really annoying treatment from our rather useless landlords.
Now I know such things can also happen in the UK - the UK isn't perfect, but NZ just isn't giving us what we want right now, and apart from changing my job, we can't satisfy our history or travel needs from here. We miss the rock concerts, the fast internet, the range of food in Tesco, the tv shows, the radio (I'm listening to Chris Moyles right now!) Eurovision and F1 on at a normal time of day....
We haven't ruled out an eventual return to NZ when we're older: we're both early 30s now, and it may well be that we look at a return in our late 40s or so. We're hoping that if NZ let OH get PR once, they'll do it again.
So that's about it: NZ is wonderful, but not for us right now.
We don't regret the experience as it's been hugely beneficial to us and our relationship. It's helped to clarify what we want out of life and where our priorities lie.
At this stage we're aiming for flights in late Sept, and heading back to Yorkshire, as it looks very likely I can go back to my old job.
But we have a lot to sort out before then. If anyone has leachios' email addy, please pm me if you don't think they'd mind, as I'd love to pick their brains re shipping companies and costs. Then we can have an ex-ENZ meet-up with them in York :cheers
A big thanks to all the wonderful folk on here who have been so welcoming and helpful to us: esp Kat and Moorf and everyone we met in Chch - my one big regret is that we didn't make it up to Hamilton to drag the Waikato Enz crew out for a drink or three.