[Bruckner]

We recently went through a bought of cold feet but have gotten over it. Well, almost. Sitting here looking at the ITA package which almost ready to go (just waiting on info from Greg’s job) and suddenly starting to realize how much closer we getting.

Some days it seems so far away from everything and sure to mean a dent in the finances. Then other days it seems like the best places to raise the babies and the start of a whole new life with endless opportunities, something you can put a price tag on.

Why did you go and how is it working out?

Emily

[Alex]

Now that's quite a question, something that would form a substantial PhD thesis!

The reasons we have for leaving the UK are many and varied, but can broadly be summed up by:

1. Wanting to live somewhere that is clean, less polluted and safe for the children.
2. A more rural and slower pace of life.
3. UK systems / policy / infrastructure are simply not good enough or just plain stupid - NHS, roads, rail, foreign policy, housing costs, taxation system.
4. "Hey, why not give it try, 'cos this isn't working."
5. A job is a job, the location you work in is more important.

etc

Generally we are frustrated living in the UK, and only time will tell if NZ addresses none / some / most / all of these frustrations. Nothing lost by trying, right, and everything to gain?! ;)

[willsken]

I agree holeheartedly! :yes I can't wait to get out of this country. How did it all start going so wrong? :no

I want to take my children somewhere safe and clean to grow up.

I am head of ICT in a large comp and I know I will have to take a big step backward, job and salary wise, but I just don't care any more. I am fed up with being fed up with everything I hear and see in the UK.

[Anji]

Hi, we did it for the same reasons as most have on these and other forums,mainly because life is too short.And we are totally fed up with the U.K.You can either be a we did it or a we nearly did that . how many people do you meet who say we nearly emigrated years ago but we didnt because of such and such a thing.
At one point our ITA was thrown in the wastebin in the kitchen!! luckily i saved it a couple of hours later when i had calmed down.For us the waiting between the ITA being sent away and getting PR was the worst bit of the process.Now we are stressing about the house being up for sale and having no viewings.
We decided to have a holiday to gran canaria as a reward for the stress we have been under for the last 12 months.Then when we come back its stress time all over again whilst we concentrate on getting to Nelson for January.

[ShakerMike]

Just about to do it....and getting the jitters now about cost of living, buying a house/car etc etc.

The reasons we are doing it are as follows

1. I earn well but we have sod all to show for it - I'd rather be in that position somewhere nicer than the UK
2. Paying a fortune to educate a bright (no child genius tho) child just to get him a decent education
3. Second child is only five years younger so we are destined to double the fees shortly (Total costs would be more than my mortgage!)
4. A general belief that British society is in decline
5. The prospect of a slower, nicer life
6. The chance to live in space, with nice people - a safe place for the kids
7. An improved leisure life (It must be nicer than the industrial North West)
8. I'm 35 and I've never really taken a chance on anything. I'd hate to die thinking "what if?"

[katandbob]

[QUOTE=ShakerMike]The reasons we are doing it are as follows

6. The chance to live in space, with nice people - a safe place for the kids
QUOTE]

:laugh reading your No 6 made me chuckle - I was picturing you floating above NZ in a nice 'Space' Ship! :laugh

seriously - mine are as most of the posts above (although we couldnt afford to go private for any of our kids) and the eldest two left comprehensive with OK grades but would have got MUCH better if they had had the chance to be taught something instead of "Free Lessons" or disruptive kids setting fire to the science labs during lessons!!!!!!

The Hospitals - well you pray that you don't get ill as if your sent in your more likely to come out with something worse than you went in!

And I'm sick of living next door to oil refinerys, gas stations and coal imports on the docks! The oil refinerys look like gotham city at night!

[jo b]

Hey shaker mike

notice you are from Bury. tehre are a few from the north who meet up regularly.

wacth out for the date of a next one.

Jo

[ShakerMike]

6. The chance to live in space, with nice people - a safe place for the kids


You can never set your sights too high katandbob!!

[matt]

hi, just read your letter on the forum page,we too are from bury brandleshome area .Would you like to meet up with myself and the wife.Just starting the process of applying,going to christchurch if we can get in.would like some or any advise(this is to shaker mike)

[Diny]

Threads like this always draw my attention. They make very interesting reading.

We all have our own reasons for making the move, there's alot of common factors and then we all have our own personal reasons and wishes.

Now this next bit is where I need to put my flak jacket on. NZ is indeed a beautiful country but it certainly isn't the land of milk and honey. Choose any of your reasons for leaving the UK and you'll find that the same kind of thing goes on here (on a lesser scale maybe) but s**t happens over here too.

The last hing I want to do is rain on anybodies parade - I'm here and I'm enjoying it and the last thing I want is to 'diss' the place. However I feel that sometimes the excitement of getting here and starting a new life can sometimes knock things a little out of perspective. My advice to all new immigrants ...... be prepared for the bad aswell as a the good because it sure does exist. After sitting watching the news over here you'll understand that. The grass is often the same shade of green on this side of the fence !!

With all that said and done - I'm sure you'll all enjoy it.

As for wanting to get away from power stations and refineries that resemble Gotham City ...... don't move to anywhere near Bunnythorpe !!!!

Good luck all.

Diny

[Avalon]

I was going to say much the same thing as Diny. Not really a surprise as both of us seem to have lived in pretty fantastic areas of the UK. Im really sure that changes the pov somewhat.

Some of our reasons are the same though.

We didnt like the direction the UK was taking.
We also wanted to cut Alans work hours. However - though this was a BIG driving factor - we had already made a large dent in the effect work was having on our lives by just refusing to play the game. If we had stayed - we would have made further changes in that direction - its not something we had to come to NZ for.

Our bigest reason was that my parents are due to become pensioners, and for them the future in the UK looked bleak. It looked a lot more rosy here, and while now that we are here, its not going to be "milk and honey" but its still going to be better. They will still be poor as church mice - but they will have a pool! ;) We felt we also would have a better chance to get ahead financially. So far its working - but again we would have started to do things differently in the UK anyway. Its just harder there with the tax burden.

We also have improved our view slightly. This area is very like Herefordshire where i grew up, but even comparing those areas - there is more space here. There are less houses, less people and more open fields (and even if they do build - it will be "lifestyle blocks" not an estae of 50 houses with streetlights to ruin the night sky. Obviouly its not the same in the cities or suburbs. Many of the suburbs round welly are just as crowded as in the UK.

And lastly - Why Not? Because its there - and we could!

We spoke to many people who had the same plans 10-20 years ago and didnt make the move. They regret it now. We didnt want to be saying the same thing to another young whipper snapper in 20 years ;) . Even if we end up going back - we know we tried.

[PaulandHelen]

These kind of threads do make interesting reading and i think what stands out to me is the fact that people don't want to get old and regret not doing something. At the end of the day as soon as you realise your not here very long and if you can change things for the better, then do it, i for one would rather go to my grave regretting things i have done rather than the things i haven't.
Its almost one of those things that comes with age, the people, like me, who refuse to admit they are grown ups suddenly begin to realise that actually its time to make adult decisions, you know the kind that grown ups make!
Forgive me, i know what i mean even though i'm babbling like a rock ape.
night all
P+H

[Jo and Andy]

The reasons stated buy others are really the same as my own.
Plus, even if it doesn't work out for us as we planned, if we stay long enough our daughter will have more choice in where she can go.

I love the UK, and whilst I want to go to NZ and am looking forward to it, I will miss home, a short delay would not bother me, although I want to go and get on with it. I am expecting as Diny said that the grass may well be the same colour over there, but perhaps just a little more of it and a bit fresher.

Got to give it a go, don't want to regret not trying. My sistere said would I really come back if I didn't like it, This surprised me and I had to say Yes, it would not be a failure, I would have a life experience that some others didn't have, but now I would not let my pride ruin my life. Saying that I hope it works out.

Rhiannon is showing signs of worry, she said she wished she was just going on holiday of would know how long it was for. I have told her to think of it as going for 2 years but if it's great we will stay. I think forever is a bit of a long time for an 8 year old to understand.

[jbharvey]

We've not made the move yet. I know most of you are English/Euro.

Here is why we're leaving the US:

1 - Politics. The United States of America is broken in many ways. Social security is out of control. Spending is out of control. Large companies really control the country's politicians. Environment laws are being pulled back. Crime is rising. There are more and more poor people and no one cares.

We're in a war we shouldn't be in and we're always poking our noses where they don't belong. When I think of the US govnerment and what the world thinks, I'm embarassed to be an American.

2 - Bush. Similar to #1 but he's such a dumbass. It just goes to show that you can do whatever you want and the Republican/conservatives will support you.

3 - Climate. We're in Texas now where it's 90-100 degrees Farenheit from May to october/nov. VERY HUMID. Sure, we could move but everywhere that there is nice climate it's either expensive or a place we don't want to be. NZ has cool, cold and warm. Haven't seen any references to it being hot and steamy.

4 - Terrain. Where else can you move that has so many diverse terrains/forests/beaches. NZ has it all baby. I grew up in Alaska and I love to ski, but I also love the tropical weather (spent some time in Guam).

5 - Opportunity. I think in NZ my wife and I can be someone. With the lower population, I think we can be more individual rather than just another 1 of the millions of Americans. I am an expert in my field and I think I could really add value to IT projects over in NZ.

6 - Culture. NZ has lots of culture, particularly in Wellington from what we've read. My wife is an artist and I'd like to get more involved.

7 - We're moving to Wellington and we really love the small town life. Funny eh, Wellington being small town but we've both lived in Houston, Dallas, San Fran and NYC. All HUGE sprawling cities.

8 - NZ is great for people who care about the environment. It's also a bit on the liberal side (from what I understand) and I think it's perfect.


Anyway, that's all I can think of.

[leosus]

Here Here, JB Harvey, took the words right out of my mouth. Glad to see more like minded Americans going over!!

Susan

[Nicola]

Our reasons for making the move are primarily to find a better climate to live in and to get away from a 2hr commute to work each way.

Both of which we have done, the weather in Hawks Bay is brill so far, a bit chilly at night, but warm and lovely during the day.

Instead of driving through the Edinburgh traffic to work each day, he now cycles 30mins into Hastings from Havelock North.

One of the other things we were hoping for was better schools and a place where kids can be kids. In the Berwick area that we came from they attempt to mature to quickly, with the resultant stupidity. Where as here they are allowed to be kids a lot longer giving them time to mature more, before they attempt the adult stuff. There are still as many teenage menaces around here, but they are older than the 11 - 13 batch we left behind. Not sure if this paragraph makes sense.

I still after 4 weeks find it hard to belive we are here, there is so much that is fimiliar and not at all foreign. At the moment we are loving it and hope it stays that way. I felt more homesick in the transition 4 weeks before we left the UK, and after we had moved out of our own home. Now we are here it feels like we should always have been here.

Sorry for rambling.

[Hannah]

I've been browsing this site over a year now, not a frequent poster - more of a sit back and enjoy listening on others conversations. I've learnt a lot from this forum - not just about NZ, emigration, why some people move there and why some people come back, but also about myself. I've had to challenge a lot of my own stereotypical views and take a fresh look at my own motivations, beliefs and assumptions.

I don't hate the UK, in fact I love Wellingborough (where I live). I love my job - I've been there 3 years and still don't feel I'm working!! I hate the politics and the top level corruption and the racism and discrimination...but I know virtually every county in the world has it's own version of this. And I appreciate that we in the UK, as with those in NZ, have it easy compared to some. We moan about lack of freedom of speech, loss of rights, lack of safety etc. But we live in a country where we have the freedom to practice (or not) our own religion without persecution, we are not likely to be imprisoned for our political beliefs (although some of us may now be shipped back to their "own country" for saying the wrong thing on a soapbox in central London...) and I have to say I walk out of my house each day and feel safe. We talk about the so called War on Terror, but most of us are fortunate to have never been in what i'd call a real war. Lets not forget how lucky we are, and how the decision to emigrate to another safe country is a gift which some in the world can only dream of.

So, why do I want to leave? I visited New Zealand 2 years ago and still feel like I left something behind which I need to go back and find. Can't explain it - and don't try to rationalise it. Just booked a flight for 1st Nov. and think it will all become clearer in the end. I'm pretty open minded about it. Not sold house, taken a career break from work and have just sorted out a secondary school for my son for when/if we return. Just looking forward to doing something different and learning a bit more about myself and the world I inhabit in the process. Oh, and my other half loves lamb.....