[Bubbles]

To all involved, already in NZ or going through the various stages of getting there.

I was just wondering how many of us fully intend staying and making New Zealand a permanent home or as some do after a few years feel and know they will have to move on to somewhere else ( all part of the Life/living cycle ).

Your thoughts please folks

John

[GeorgeM]

Being FORCED to go back to UK for a holiday at Christmas :wah

Wouldn't worry if I never went back 'home' again.

NZ is forever for us.

[Bubbles]

Well its a start, thanks george

:nice1

[clarabell]

We fully intend to stay there for ever and ever :mrgreen:
I wish I was there now :wah

[Milliemoo]

Never say never :mrgreen:

I hope we will settle and will not consider moving for at least 3 years, but you just never know do you? I doubt we'd go back to the UK, but I wouldn't rule out another move in the future.

I'd like to think we'll stay in NZ for a long long time though :clap

Milliemoo :nice1

[stevieboy]

Plan to be there at least three years.

After that no firm plans, but would like to try Oz maybe too

[baboonworld]

permanently i hope!

a lot of kiwis move over to oz though - so maybe quite a few brits may do the same if they find nz too tame

[wayne]

Having made the move more than once I feel that for ever doesent really mean much , I am looking at 3-5 years in NZ and then take it from there.
But once the move is over and you think that was'nt too bad the next move isn t as daunting ,
Its been said before and it will be said again in this forum
"never say never" :nice1

[Moorf]

Who knows... plan to stay for at least 5 yrs or so, after that we may stay or we may move on... que sera sera ;)

[kiwidebs]

Well, for me it's heading home after 9 long years away. For Mark, he's thinking it's a permanant move, or at least till the kids are done with school (as they're only 3 and 2 right now, that's a pretty long time!). But, we have said that old 'never say never' thing - and this is not an 'irreversible decision'. I guess it depends on how things pan out once we get there, but at the moment we're picturing permanant!!

Debs

[Diny]

I'm definately with the 'never say never' guys.

Who knows what lies around the corner. Us Norries have never been ones for staying in one place. In 16 years of marriage we've lived in 3 different countries, our house in NZ will be our 12th address !!!!!!

We plan to have a 'family meeting' every year to see how things are going, however, for the first couple of years at least we realise that we'll still be in a teething period and in no frame of mind to make any decisions one way or another (unless of course all 4 of us either hate it or love it - then there won't really be any difficult decisions to make).

Our boys are 8 and 9 and really won't benefit from many more moves until after their schooling - so I guess that takes care of the next few years anyway.

Personally I would like to end my days 'back home'. That doesn't necessarily mean I want to come back here with my zimmer frame and die in Staffordshire, but it DOES mean I want my ashes scattered over our family farm ......... but I guess that's getting abit morbid :uhoh

Nothing is set in stone - never has been - never will be - that's just the way we like it.

One thing to think about though. My Kiwi hubby is probably slightly more unsure about moving back to NZ than I am. He says that he left there once before ........ he may want to leave again. He's never had a pair of rose tinted specs on his face in his life and his opinions (as far as I'm concerned) are a great leveller.

It'll be interesting to read peoples responses to this question in a couple of years time.

Diny

[captainxmas]

As permanent as it gets, but you never know where the river of life will flow.

:exit

[xanctus]

As for now, it would be a permanent destination. However, if things not the same thing as I would expected...I don't know. :D

[K&CS]

Like most others, are hoping it to be permanent but you never know what will happen!

[Bubbles]

Thanks for all your replies.

Everything said so far follows our thoughts, basically, would like it to be permanent but we're not locking the proverbial back gate.

Keep them coming :nice1

John

[Hannah-NL]

As far as I'm concerned, permanent.
But of course you can never say never, I've learned that much by now :nice1

[marcia]

I think after what most people go through, (have gained that much knowledge from this forum - it's a tough time!) I think most people would want to stick around for a while. I know when we do take the step - (we've decided to wait for form filling now till we've been in Jan.) I will consider it a permanent move. Unless we hate it of course and just have to come back. I think up rooting your family to move to the other side of the world can't be taken lightly and i would think you need a good few years to really settle in and give it chance to work!

We will see!

[jo b]

Well our family is in 2 camps here.

I am the 'never say never' anything can happen and you have to go with the flow sort of thing but hubby is like 'nope we are never coming back to England'.

I have spoken to him about this and I think he is coming around to my ay of thinking that you need to go in with you eyes open and remove any blinkers.

Jo

[Carol]

We intended to come for 3 years love it or loathe it....
Cant say I loved it for a long time - but I do now.
I doubt moving back to the UK would be an option for us but as you say - never say never!
Dont really fancy Oz.........too many snakes and spiders for my liking!
I think we will be forever in a departure lounge somehow....

[jo b]

Carol

are you not in bed yet???

Jo

[Carol]

Been........slept....up again.....3:34am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got up to wrap Scott's birthday presents ready for tomorrow...


How can I have a sixteen year old child???

Actually...there's a thought.........16 yars ago right now my waters were breaking in my bed!
yuk!

[jo b]

And I bet it feel like yesterday eh.

Is he excited at turning 16?

Jo

A bit off topic I know.

Jo

[Carol]

Not really Jo....he wants to go out to dinner with US!!!!!!!

:clap :clap :clap :clap
Yay - I still have a 16 year old who likes us!

[jo b]

Not really Jo....he wants to go out to dinner with US!!!!!!!

:clap :clap :clap :clap
Yay - I still have a 16 year old who likes us!

Pat on the back that is an acheivement of pnuemonic proportions.

My best mates daughter rings them at around 12am at Weekends and says "what pub are you in I'm on my way down."

Great innit.

Wish him happy birthday from us guys in Wigan

Jo

[GeorgeM]

How can I have a sixteen year old child???

Reading this I thought - "What will I feel like when we get to this stage?" then shocked myself by realising that we get there in just 6 weeks time.

Where did those years go, eh?

[Timbo]

Sarah & I hope to make it a one way trip, maybe taking in a few other places briefly e-route.
I think it would be quite hard financially to return to the UK, for us anyway. On the other hand, we started life together with nowt back in 86, so we could do it all again.

[captainxmas]

Timbo

Don't forget that nowt used to go a bit farther back then mate.

:laugh

[Timbo]

I can still make it go quite a long way even now Rich. ;)

[jubjub]

We kind of decided it would get a minimum of one year, and have left a few pennies in the UK "just in case". (Enough to cover shipping costs and flights).

Only been here a few weeks and its far too early to say, but we will stay here as long as we are happy doing so. Who knows if that will be 5 yrs or 50! Life changes all the time.

Its all good so far, so we shall see.......

[ruthyroo]

We are another don't know... but we are in the process of swapping our 3yr WP for PR so i guess we must want to stay longer - especially in if we are willing to pay the blooming endless costs of applying for PR! I think for us it will be life changes rather than staying in NZ that will be the decider - we want to have kids in the next few years, and that will be easier if we are in one place for a while... after a few years though... who knows? Oz perhaps, then France is the vague plan.

[Wannaway]

A slight twist on this.

We have been having the fanciful debate of what we would do if we won the NZ Lotto ($11m this weekend!). Would we stay or go? What would you do?

We have young kids so we would probably stay for at least 3 years, possibly for as long as the kids are at school (10+ years!). I have this idea of retiring early, selling up, buying a motorhome and touring the Aus outback/South island of NZ for a couple of years. I guess that means we will probably stay on this side of the world for a while yet but, again, never say never.

[Diny]

If I won the lottery it would be simple. I'd continue to live in NZ but I would also buy a nice house back here in the UK.

Then I's just fly home - first class of course - whenever the mood took me. I reckon it would be the best of both worlds .... living in NZ but able to come home for a fix of family when needed/wanted.

It's nice to start the day with a dream.

Diny

[Carol]

me too Diny.....



although...I think I'd fly 'em all out.

Including my darling bruv's dragon of a mother in law who is the fly in the ointment - so to speak.... :uhoh

[markkellaway]

Hmmm, the lottery, I'd have to buy a ticket first!!

As we are moving to NZ for other than financial reasons a lottery win would just make the move easier, and as Carol said, fly the family out. Having said that I think we'll have to pay for their tickets to visit anyway!!! :wah

Mark. :P

[Simon & Emily]

As many people have said, we plan for the move to be one-way trip, but you just don't know what will happen in the future. One of my sisters has this week flown out to Australia to move in with a man she met on holiday last month (although she has known him for a few years as a friend of a friend - she's not a brasen hussy, honest :eek ), so my father will now have two of his brood to visit 'down under' ( assuming everything works out as planned). Along with many others, we want to give our children the best we can, and we just don't see it happening in this country. So, I would have thought it would have to be pretty serious for us to return. After all, home is where you make it. You can be miserable anywhere in the world if you try hard enough.

Emily

[GeorgeM]

When we were getting our application together we used to ask ourselves the lottery question - would we continue with our plans to move to NZ if suddenly we were millionaires?

It was useful if the chance of promotion (for OH) or a lucrative contract (for me) was in the offing and helped us to focus on the real reason we were coming to NZ - for the lifestyle and a better, safer place to bring up the kids.

[selchie]

We hope to stay, though who can tell how things will work out. Haven't moved to NZ yet, but loved it when we visited. We'd stay especially if we won the lottery. Along with the draw to NZ is the push away from the US. We're getting hinky feelings about the neocon atmosphere and Homeland SS. Who knows when the purge of intellectuals and dissidents will be complete? On the happy side, NZ and its people are wonderful, and the pace is so much more relaxed. The small population is a plus.

[Going2NZ]

No question in my mind or my heart - the plan is to grow old there and not have any regrets on "what ifs"...My husband feels the same.

A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.
~John Barrymore

Susan

[jonSE]

Ask me in two years. Not even prepared to give a first impression until I get through this winter and have then "endured" a summer after 12 months without one. Even if I decided to go home tommorow I wouldn't go until NZ'z summer is over. At the moment it feels like living North of the Arctic circle - leave home in the dark, return home in the dark.

Jon

[Kim39]

I know at least we'll be there for the duration of the work permit( 2years ), what comes after that is anybody's guess. I would like to think that the lifestyle that NZ has, is going to be the deciding factor for us. At this moment, i would like to say that we will never come back( apart from visits ), but as others have said "never say never".......quick thoughthttp://www.nearlygood.com/smilies/Doh2.gif (http://www.nearlygood.com) nah, never :laugh


Kim