[Juniper]

i'm curious if people have researched or even briefly considered countries other than new zealand. we made our choice in about 5 minutes, after discarding switzerland, sweden, and a few others i can't remember. the main factors were social reputation, climate/environment, and english.

were there any close contenders for you, or was it pretty much "new zealand or bust?"

[jan]

It was either NZ for us or nothing.

I don't think I could have re-located to anywhere else. My first instinct, even though we have never been, was lets go for it. It just feels right. When people ask 'Why there?' I can't really explain, its only been research since my oh job offer that I have learned sooooooo much about the place.

IT JUST FEELS RIGHT!!

Might be a massive gamble to go off this, but hey we can always come back.

Jan xx :nice1

[Anita & Marco]

For us it was our first choice about 9 years ago after having travelled through New Zealand. We were not in a position to stay in NZ at that moment, although we loved it from this start. In the mean time we considered other countries and nearly started a new life there, until we understood that we could be able to obtain a NZ visa. The countries we have really considered are in this order: Spain (Andalucia), Surinam, Argentina, Australia. Not really a very logic chain of countries, but they all appeal to us in their own way and on the other hand their were to much cons in comparison to NZ.

Regards,
Anita

[Juniper]

wow i had to look up surinam...you learn something everyday :P

i lived in spain for 4 months, it something i'm very glad i did, but it doesn't really feel home-ish. great to visit though! i lived in granada, which is certainly very charming in parts. i'm also a sevilla fan :-)

[Jon]

I considered Canada, but didn't know if I could put up with THAT much snow. Maybe Vancouver as a stopover?

Cheers
Jon

[Moorf]

We considered South Africa, Canada, Barbados (cos we have friends there already) and NZ.

South Africa was out of the window when just about everyone we knew said they would never visit :roll: too many images of machete wielding locals methinks, Barbados was just toooo small - we've spent alot of time there and pretty much seen it all and there's only so much time you can spend on the beach :laugh - Canada.. well, too near USA for us.. so NZ it was and BOY we chose right!

:cheers

[Glenda]

Just Australia for us.

We knew we wanted to move and have a change in our lives and we looked around the UK at first. We briefly considered France. Italy and South Africa - but this was very brief. We eventually decided on either Australia or New Zealand - to our surprise Australia was better than expected, but NZ pushed the right buttons.
:smile

[jocalla]

We considered France first but ruled it out quite quickly,then Oz. Started to look into NZ, reading books, internet, and speaking to friends and found it really appealled more to us than oz at this time in our lives. Suprised me really after being brought up in oz, and nz was never a some where I was too interested in. Sooooo glad I opened my mind now. :nice1

Joanne :cheers

[Miffy]

We considered Canada, but ended up discounting it becuase in order to live near the rockys we wouldhave to live and work in Calgery, which is too big a city for me.
And it gets waaaaaaaaaaay to cold, as much as I love snow there is a limit.

[xanctus]

I was considering...Canada, Australia, Singapore, and the Netherlands. :mrgreen:

[Anita & Marco]

Funny to read that you considered The Netherlands??!!!
What's the reason you looked into that possibility and what was the reason you skipped it?
I'm from there, so that's why I'm such a Nosey Parker

Regards,
Anita

[xanctus]

Anita,
Ik heb een Tante bij Dordrecht en I heb veel familie nog in Nederland.
(I hope write it down correctly, if not please pm me hehehehe :P )
So yes, that is one of the reason why I am looking to move there...hehehehe
beside Ik ben die fan van de Nederlandsche Elftal onder Meneer van Basten. HUP HOLLANDSCHE HUP!!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

[Anita & Marco]

Hi Xanctus,

Jouw Nederlands is PRIMA!!!! Erg leuk!!!
But now you are only looking into New Zealand? Do you have your visa yet?
Anita

[xanctus]

Anita,
We have not received our visa yet, but we are already in the stage of "approved in principal applicants". Now, we are waiting for the case officer to send back all our documents

[Anita & Marco]

That's great news!!!
See you in NZ (hopefully!)

[Juniper]

the netherlands would be pretty cool, based on my 3 days there :P i guess english wouldn't be too much of a problem given everyone's fluency there, but it is pretty daunting to have one more barrier to really fitting in.

[xanctus]

That's great news!!!
See you in NZ (hopefully!)

Anita,
naturlijk eh...als we gaa naar ChCh, Ik will je op bellen. (dear I really not sure with my dutch right there) hahahahaha sorry.

[kiwidollie]

We never considered anywhere but New Zealand.

We were pretty keen before we visited for 3 weeks last year. After that there was no way I could consider NOT living there (if you know what I mean).

Can't wait!!! :yes

[ruthyroo]

NZ isn't likely to be our final resting place so we haven't stopped considering other countries including... Australia, Pacific Islands and France or Switzerland - in that order. Probably by the time we have lived in all of these we might be ready to stay in one place for a while - or maybe not! Having done the upheaval of moving halfway round the world once, the thought of doing it several more times doesn't daunt me. People keep asking when we are going to settle down... my response is always why stop when we are enjoying it so much - the good and the bad? There's an awful lot of world out there to see. I guess if kids come along that might cramp our style rather...! NZ was a good starting point for us as we could both get jobs / permits / residency easily due to OH being a teacher.

[nessie]

Hi all

We have always loved the idea of NZ but looked at France (slight difference in distance I know!!) first because we have spent a lot of time over there. We decided against it because of the language. We all speak enough to get by but OH would have to learn technical jargon for his job as QS so we decided 'what the hell..' NZ it is.

This foum is great for information BTW.

Regards

[andersonclan]

Just new zealand for us. Jan I totally know where you're coming from - it just feels the right thing to do

Margaret