[Carey]

We love it!

[JoJo76]

That's good to hear. What do you love about it most?

[shakyle2906]

Great news!

Sharon
x

[JandM]

:nice1:clap

[jackie m]

Short & sweet straight to the point :clap

look foward to your 6 month post :D

jackie

[Tia Maria]

That is great!

Cheers

Tia

[victoria24]

I like your style! go on tho, give us the good news...

[Carey]

Oh all right then, if I must!!!

We love :

- the schools, both primary and middle. Both offer a far more rounded education, far more sport and outdoor activities, kids have to take more responsibility for their own learning, they are offered more independence so behaviour in class is better as kids aren't trying to prove themselves, health and safety is just sensible, academically slightly below standards we had in UK but doesn't matter at all at the moment as other things far out weigh this ( and eldest moves to high School after xmas where focus is more academic we hear).

- kids are definitely kids for longer

- kids are much fitter, stronger, more agile, less cautious, happy to take risks and learn by their mistakes

- our house; we bought within 3 weeks as we found the perfect location, kids can cycle to school and town; we have a pool which is absolutely wonderful and never would have had in UK; large garden and self contained flat which we are letting out to SamB and family, which is brilliant for their company ( and trampoline!), and of course the income helps while OH not working. Happen to have lovely neighbours too.

- the positiveness of people, the can-do attitude; it really is here and is infectious. Kiwis are friendly, helpful, generous. For my Oh this is the most important thing and he's not very sociable!!

- the feeling that there is space, loads of it.

- the scenery

- the bird song which is magical

- the weather. Yes it can be grey, wet and cold but it changes rapidly and most of the time it is brighter, the light is clear and fresh, and when the sun shines it is stunning.

- the smell or rather fragrance of flowers in the towns

- the deserted beaches

- the lack of litter

- the interesting plants, both native and flowering in my garden. All round town are beautiful flowering trees and shrubs. The bush is just magical, incredibly special and up-lifting, green, green and green.

- the lack of choice which makes shopping quick and easy

- knowing that we are here in New Zealand, feeling safe away from the rest of the world

- feeling there will be more opportunities for our kids, they can be big fish in a little sea, rather than vice versa, if they choose to be

- knowing we can explore Oz at some point in the future

- the rainbows which are huge, sometimes double, can be triple

- the contrast between scenery which can change so quickly; one minute you can be on a wide open beach, then you can climb up into the bush

- TradeMe ; we have bought loads of stuff, easily and reasonably

Is that enough?! We feel very settled, (our 10 yr old announced that last weekend which for her is amazing after the outbursts we've had about leaving UK), we look forward to our future here and having great times with our kids, who definitely have a better life here. All sounds a bit trite but it's true!

And its all been very straight forward actually and not as stressful as we feared. We're not suffering any homesickness at all (feel slightly guilty as family at home are missing us), don't feel any culture shock at all but have been in NZ twice before, once 20 yrs ago for two 6 month stints and 6 weeks in 2006 and do have several friends here, as think that may make a difference.

The only slight negative is my job but I'm working on changing but with rejection letters telling me the school had 60 applicants for one job, it may take a while.

Feel free to ask about anything more specifically about our new lives here in Cambridge..........

Just off for another swim............

[Sam B]

Yay! Happy for you. We like your swimming pool too.

[Sovenok]

Hello, your 3 words turned into more than 600 finally :D
Thank you for a colourful description, this is the country I dreamt.
Is the unemployment rate so high: 60 applicants per place?

[NikT]

:nice1It's all good then?:laugh

Sweet!

Nick & Caron. :cheers

[thewoodies]

thanks for the lovely posts -:bluebanana:bluebanana:bluebanana:bluebanana

[victoria24]

great post! you want to be careful you don't become president of the good news society :-)

[andrewp]

Awesome post.
:cheers

[Familyofmonkeys]

Glad that things have worked out so well for you :)

[M-Squared]

Super news, many congrats! :nice1

[Tomsk]

Great post...thank you :)

I've been here 5 months....and we love it too. No regrets :nice1.

Out of interest and in response to the comment about the academic standards stuff, I don't really know very much, but my son took his GCSEs in the UK before we came out (and fortunately he achieved good grades). When we arrived and he started high school here they decided to leave him in Year 11 and let him complete year 11 so that he could have time to settle and become established before he moved into year 12. Anyway, he's found the work here suprisingly challenging, thought he'd coast because he'd got his GCSEs but no such luck...the boy actually had to work. His school asked him to sit a few NCEAs rather than waste his time, and he came home yesterday shell shocked after the biology paper, harder than his GCSE he reckoned. OK different coursework, and the total lack of revision might have been factors there, but he spent all yesterday afternoon / evening revising for today's English exam. So, I'm getting the impression that NZ education might have a different focus, might be more about turning out well rounded young people....but at this level it doesn't look any less demanding than a UK education.