[willsken]

One question I would like to ask all those who are already living in NZ. IF you could be back in the life you had in the UK now, without it being of any cost to you (financial, emotional etc....or even pretend you haven't yet emigrated) BUT you have the gift of the knowledge that you have now would you go and live in NZ.

Also if yes, what would you do differently?

[markkellaway]

Hi,

I wouldn't do a thing differently. Every morning as I drive to work (clouds permitting!!) I see snow capped mountains, why would I want to leave that?

Mark. :)

[StevieD]

Benefit of hindsight is a wonderful thing, how much would we change in our lives if we had the chance? But a good question nonetheless.
Mark, I would appreciate the chance to see blue sky let alone snow capped mountains :) One constant sheet of grey here in the north west of England lately.......

Steve

[herseymusic]

Well, I can't say anything regarding the UK, but I've just had the opportunity to return to the US for 10 months after living in NZ for over 3 years. And to tell the truth, I'm VERY excited to get back to the south pacific next month.

It's many things: the kindness of kiwis, the lay of the land, a socially progressive atmosphere (in most areas), less of a throwaway lifestyle, feeling closer to nature.

And you know, everyone has their own lives. I thought I would spend tons of time with family and friends back here in the US, but as it turned out, after some great initial visits, life just settled into a work>sleep pattern that seems to be less consuming in New Zealand. I think the ability to escape from the city for a weekend and head to the mountains or beach or rainforest is irreplacable in my life.

So emigrated and then returned, I wouldn't change a thing!

[mechidna]

Well, I don't know about everyone else, but I'm better off financially here than I probably ever would be in the US. I have to only drive for about an hour to be at the beach, as opposed to several days of travel in the US. I can have my daughter to school and still be at work in about 10-15 minutes and I have a lovely drive along the way. I can breathe the air and not feel sick. My daughter can walk home from school and not be shot or beaten.

It's the little things in life that add up that were getting to me. I have started a brand new life here and I honestly believe that I made the right decision for both of us. It's a little different from a lot of you though, in the fact that I am a single mother and life will never be smooth sailing until my daughter is through puberty....but it was a good decision and I wouldn't change it for the world. I really don't even have the desire to visit the US.

Michele

[Diny]

Michelle - what a wonderful post. This emigrating lark is one big risk eh. Most of us do it as a couple or part of a family, hence having plenty of support - you've done it as a single mum - good on you. I think you are an inspiration to alot of people. I spend weeks and weeks on end as a one parent family (hubby works in Egypt) so I know how the lack of support and company can sometimes get to you. On the whole though it's pretty easy going. I hope everything continues to go well for you.

Diny

[mechidna]

Michelle - what a wonderful post. This emigrating lark is one big risk eh. Most of us do it as a couple or part of a family, hence having plenty of support - you've done it as a single mum - good on you. I think you are an inspiration to alot of people. I spend weeks and weeks on end as a one parent family (hubby works in Egypt) so I know how the lack of support and company can sometimes get to you. On the whole though it's pretty easy going. I hope everything continues to go well for you.

Diny

Thanks Diny! It was a very big risk. Even with all the research in the world, you are still never fully prepared when you get here. I still nearly fall over when I see some of the prices (whiteware, lawn mowers), but it is never as important as a safe, wonderful nights sleep.

The single parent thing is actually quite nice once you get used to it. Of course, I was an "evil, uncaring mother" when we moved. She seems to have adjust though and has started calling me mum and lots of things are now "sweet as".

Thanks for the inspiration, you made my day!

Michele

[Miffy]

Would I change anything?

YES!

I would have made the move years ago.

[Avalon]

At the moment , and if it was just about myself and my husband, I would probably answer yes - we would still do it. But then I probably wouldnt have bought a house here or sold my Uk house.

Its not just about us though. The rest of my Family arrive for 6 months at the weekend, and a lot of this is for them, so I really would have to see how we all deal with it. In some ways , this is the bit that makes it easy for me. If they werent trying to emigrate too, I would never have made it this far.

The only thing I would do differently is actually LISTEN to what people were telling me about NZ when I visited here. All the things I arrogantly dismissed as "Oh well, It cant be as bad as in the UK" . It may have made the transition that bit easier. ( I didnt even find emigration forums like this till after Id been here a month or two but Id also add that in as a hindsight thing for me!).

Overall though - I would make the move again. NZ does have a lot to offer that the UK doesnt, and the bits that the UK offers that NZ doesnt dont really interest me that much anyway when it comes down to it.

[Smiler]

Michelle


Great post :nice1

A week in and no we wouldn't change a thing. To pull back the curtains and see the view, to take G to work and be there in 15 mins, nice friendly people, clean streets (I could go on) masses of good things already. I wish I had met Gary and done this years ago. But we are doing it now and that's what counts. We didn't sit back and say what if. We said why not.

I would never have had the courage to do this as single mum, so good on you. Scott and I spent 6 years alone together and the opportunities were not there. It was a struggle to make ends meet, physically and mentally. Meeting Gary changed my life, my outlook on it and has given me the courage to say 'Ok lets do it'

In the Uk, we lived in the countryside, I got up and looked out to bunnies and deer in the garden, when I was early enough. I thought I was lucky then, but now I'm a daily 'millionaire' with the wonderful things I can see and do.

Get me broadband and life will be complete:laugh :laugh :laugh

Deborah

[Sunshine20]

Would we do it again.....
Sorry but I am in the 'no' camp. NZ is a pleasant country but it's pluses in my eyes do not outweigh the negatives. Biggest misconception we had about NZ was the weather. Thought climate was hotter and drier - had visions of Medditeranean spring / summers.

[Diny]

It's too early for me to decide whether - given my time again - would I emigrate to NZ again. It certainly is a pleasant place, no arguing that point.

However, I can honestly say, hand on heart, that our actual quality of life hasn't improved at all. Saying that - it's not got worse either. A good way of describing it would be 'same dance - different disco'.

I'm very much 'middle of the road', I like and dislike many things about both countries. I'm totally indifferent to many things in both countries too. But - if I really had to come down on the side of stay or go ...... err ...... with a gun at my head......

I reckon I'd go back home. Too early to think along those lines. I'm loving my time here but I'm very aware that there's a big world out there. My road doesn't necessarily come to an end here in NZ ...... more of a T-junction.

Diny

[GeorgeM]

No question for me - I would certainly do the same again.

The negatives here often also exist even more intensely in the UK - gangs, yobbish hoons, governments, speed cameras etc.

But even after 3+ years I find so much to lift my heart just by looking around me - driving to and from work with views either of snow covered mountains or the Port Hills and the Pacific Ocean instead of hammering 80 miles each way up the M27/M3/M25/M4 every day has improved my quality of life immeasurably.

[Carol]

One question I would like to ask all those who are already living in NZ. IF you could be back in the life you had in the UK now, without it being of any cost to you (financial, emotional etc....or even pretend you haven't yet emigrated) BUT you have the gift of the knowledge that you have now would you go and live in NZ.

?


Got to be honest here........not in a million years.

Not even for the experience.


But then...it is a bad "homesick" week......:no.......I think it always starts badly when I start my Christmas shopping for the UK:roll

[susanlin]

I wish I had emigrated when my children were younger - it was very difficult in the early days - my son was 15 and daughter 11. They are very settled and happy here now but a year ago - completely different story!
I have suffered the most intense homesickness and this time last year I was seriously considering going back to UK - there is not doubt in my mind that I would have done if my children had been younger (young primary school age) but I couldn't just couldn't put them though the huge upheaval again - new schools, friends etc
I am SO glad I stuck with it. I love NZ - emigrating is the best thing we have done.
I do still miss UK very much for lots of reasons - my family and friends (the top of the list) but M & S, Sainsburys, Radio 2, cheap books, Next, Boots - yes very superficial stuff!

One thing I would definately have done with hindsight - by hook or crook got my family to emigrate with me!

[Do B Brief]

Wow - Where do I begin?

Good/bad? Personally after 10 weeks? Back home.

If you are lucky enough to have made a decent wedge on your house sale and you can afford for someone to look after the kids whilst either you both work or one does and the other doesn't then you're made.

If you are relying on one wage and did not have enough dough to make your lifestyle better then give me UK anyday :exit

You have to pay for EVERYTHING. You pay the same taxes as back in the UK but you get nothing back :no
OK. NZ infrastructure does not have the income of that of the UK but unless you can afford to live here comfortably then watch out.

The people are nice but is it because they are after your money? It really is a lifestyle of penny pinching. You MUST shop around for everything as you will find it cheaper in a shop next door - unless of course you can afford not to :confused:

But we had our first bad experience when the better half had a pen friend over from Auckland and she just kept on correcting us during her visit. Telling us that trainers are sneekers, we don't use front loaders much here - well excuse me! I am in my castle and I am the king. It is my little bit of England and what I do is up to me.

Yes. It is a bad homesick week! :wah

We are awaiting our ITA to arrive soon - I may just save my dosh.

Whinging POM? Maybe, but what does it mean? P!$$ed Off Migrant

[DLW]

Hi,

Great idea for a thread. Yes I would do things differently. I wouldn't be so optimistic and look at all the bad as well as the good. I would work out finances much more precisely. I wouldn't have sold my house in the UK, but rented for a year / two years,

Donna.

[Soon2baKiwi]

A friend who tried it here but is now back in the UK says I must be the happiest emigrant ever :raebanana I am too, happy that is. We've been here 3.5 months now and I'm just delighted with everything. The money doesn't bother me 'cos we have enough to get by and that's all we need. I'm glad it's not hot and dry all the year round 'cos that was one of my worries when we talked about coming here first - I'd miss the winter cold. So yes, I'd still have come.

Hubby, on the other hand??? He's a Kiwi and he's gone through some severe bouts of homesickness for Ireland. Well, for his friends rather. I was sitting telling him on Saturday night "they say you've got to give it a couple of years" :confused: Can you believe it? Yesterday he was fine again and delighted to be here but as anyone who's had homesickness knows, it just hits you when you least expect it. For him, getting another job would probably go a long way towards him feeling better - there's no 'craic' where he is and he misses it. I think the one thing I've learned from this though is that nothing can be taken for granted.

[Wannaway]

Well, we are back on the forum. Finally found our password after the system changed.
I will let hubby know the password so he can make his own posting but for me yes we would still have done it - as it was always something we were going to do - but we will still probably head back to the UK.

We had both visited NZ before for extended periods and always thought we would like to try to live here. Unfortunately I do not think the quality of life here is better for us. We must be the only people on this forum that actually had a nice life in the UK, we had a nice house in a nice area with plenty of wide open spaces, good schools, loads of good friends etc. Now don't get me wrong, I am not talking posh here - we had a nice normal semi, state schools etc. Once my littlie was 18 months old we left for NZ where hubby had got a job offer. Our eldest had just started school so timing could have been a bit better.

The NZ firm gave us flight tickets and resettlement package which made the whole move so much easier and we arrived full of enthusiasm.

Hubby says he has never worked so hard - staff shortages are really bad as the 'brain drain' continues. He has staff from the UK over on secondment who will be heading home to UK because they cannot afford to get on the housing market here, and are fed up with working harder only to feel poorer than they did in UK. Now before you all jump up and down shouting about cheaper places to live we want at least as good a work/life balance here as we had in the UK - my husband wants to get to spend time with the kids before they go to bed. If we don't have that then what is the point of staying here. This all means that we have to live up to 45 mins from work. We also believe very much in 'green' issues and Auckland ( and in general NZ) is not a great place for that. There is a poor public transport network and as my husband wishes to use public transport to go to work we are limited to the bus and the ridiculous train service. Currently he gets the bus into work.
So, we find ourselves renting in Point Chevalier. The area is fine, the house is the first one we saw that was fit for human habitation ( believe me we saw some that they had a cheek to try and rent out - if you are here and have looked around you will know what I mean) and it is more than big enough for us.

We have not bought a house as we cannot find any that are in our price range, in the sorts of areas we would want to live that we feel we could live in. The housing market is so over priced and overreached at the moment that I cannot put all our savings into a house that I am certain will not be worth the same amount in a year or twos time. The longer we stay here the more I am amazed and aghast at the way peolpe seem to be racking up debts to sustain their lifestyle - and we are not talking anything flash here, we don't mix in those kinds of circles. Inflation is set to rise and interest rates have to go up and all our experience is flashing neon signs shouting "Don't buy".

I have a budget to live by and we manage it - just. We are not materialistic or extravagant but the slightest extra expense can throw our budget out the window. I thank my lucky stars that my kids are healthy and don't need a doctor but when they do it will cost me $2 per visit. That is fine but now my eldest has just turned 6 he has to pay something like $25 to see the doctor. Now that does not seem a lot when you are earning UK salaries but here that is a lot more. If you earn the same amount in NZ$ as you did in UK sterling ie 80,000 dollars and 80,000 pounds then you would think that's OK as the cost of living is lower. But on a straight comparison my food shopping costs me $200-250 and in the UK GBP150, telephone $100 per month ( incl free local calls,broadband and 1-2 short int'l calls per month) ($300 per qtr) as opposed to UK GBP200 PER QTR incl internet, electricity follows the same pattern,as does pretty much everything. I think NZ does a very good job of sucking as much money out of you as possible at every turn.

One of our friends from the UK did the tax calculation the other day and found that he paid $550 more tax per month here than he did in the UK system - no wonder everyone I know feels poor. I don't know who said it but you do become a pennypincher here - you have to be.

And before you tell us to move out of Auckland we can't. Hubby has to work where his clients are and that is here - and here only! If we could work elsewhere we would have gone elsewhere. Living in Auckland was the compromise we made to our plan of living here. We will extend our lease but I would be very surprised if we are still here in a year's time.

Now my extended rant is over (congratulations if you made it this far!)- I would just like to add that the standard of driving here is shocking. We have been the victim of road rage, nearly run off the road, tailgated by trucks, lorries aswell as cars, caught up in a hoon race between 2 cars. Now we have travelled a lot but we have never encountered so much, reckless and downright dangerous driving in all our lives as we have in the past year here!

I could go on - but I won't.
Nicky

[Diny]

Nicky

Excellant post !!!! You've found at least one other member of the forum who came from a very nice part of England. We had the nice house in the small country village, really good school for the boys, no hooners, VERY little crime, VERY friendly people etc etc.

Although I don't personally relate to all of your comments - alot of them ring familiar bells.

I'm very happy here, I think it's a lovely place, but there's no way NZ offers me a better lifestyle than the one I left. Different yes - better no.

We're here for now but I would be suprised if we grow old here.

Hope all turns out for you.

Diny

[GeorgeM]

We also lived in a very nice part of the UK with all the virtues outlined above, but we still feel that on balance coming to NZ has been very positive for us.

To get and maintain that lifestyle in a pleasant environment in the UK I missed much of my two children's early years - I was either working away on-site in any one of 15 different countries or commuting up to London from 100 miles away. Certainly my current 7:30am exit from home (often with the girls in the car to drop off at school) and a 5:45pm arrival back (even more often with at least one child in tow) implies a far less 'nose to the grindstone' experience than I ever managed to have in Britain. But personal circumstances, pre- and post-emigration will differ very widely.

I would be surprised if many people earn the same number of dollars as they would have done pounds in the UK - I think we'd feel the pinch if I had dropped from GBP80K to NZD80K! My OH, a secondary school teacher, earns approximately twice as many dollars as she would have done pounds in Britain, and I estimate that I am earning approximately double the number of dollars also. Whilst this means that we're slightly behind in global terms, even with a strong dollar which exhanges at 2.53 to the pound, it doesn't leave us noticeably worse off whilst operating within the NZ economy. Things that are relatively expensive here (books, some foods, electricity) are more than made up for by those things that are much cheaper (houses, petrol, cars, entertainment, eating out, holiday accomodation).

I think that it's fairly easy to stand still in standard of living terms on coming to NZ and that the large benefit accrues in quality of life (if you're into an old-fashioned, more homely, less commercial lifestyle). I would say that it's possible to look from afar and think that things are much much cheaper leading you to expect a higher standard of living as well, but people need to be very aware that they will be purchasing their NZ standard of living with NZ dollars earned in NZ, not in GB pounds or US dollars earned elsewhere.

[wilson182]

wouldnt change a thing

[richard]

....

I would be surprised if many people earn the same number of dollars as they would have done pounds in the UK - I think we'd feel the pinch if I had dropped from GBP80K to NZD80K!



Unfortunately I am one of these people. My UK contract finished in June and after my first ever period of unemployment I now have a permanent job with the local Council. Having taken a $90-100k pay cut I am now earning the same in dollars as I did in pounds as a permanent employee in the UK.

If I convert my kiwi salary back in to pounds, I last earned this little back in 1991. On the plus side we don't have a mortgage. If we had one I don't think we could afford to stay here.

[GeorgeM]

Having taken a $90-100k pay cut I am now earning the same in dollars as I did in pounds as a permanent employee in the UK.
Ouch! Is that doing the same job as you were doing in the UK?

[Carol]

I remember seeing my first wage slip here after a couple of weeks of teaching.
I honestly thought they had made a mistake - and paid me for one week instead of two.
I rang up to "put the mistake right" to be told - "actually that's your correct salary"


I nearly passed out!
:wah :wah :wah

[Tulip]

Hi,

I have been in NZ just over two years and absolutely love it. OH is booking a 'holiday' back to the UK for us next summer and I just don't want to go!!

I am probably one of the very fortunate few who actually earns more over here than I did in the UK, so that helps of course. Plus having no mortgage helps a lot too. But when we came over house prices were going up quickly but were not quite as high as they are now and the exchange rate was FAR better (2.76).

I feel really sorry for new migrants who find that they have huge difficulties selling up in the UK, and end up with less than they'd hoped, AND then find the exchange rate is rubbish and houses far dearer over here than they'd thought.

I think that migrants a couple of years ago and longer certainly had it easier.

But if you can manage financially over here the benefits are fabulous, IMO.

The south island is great for quiet, traffic-free life with great amenities - our little town even has an Olympic sized swimming pool! We love it here and will never return. We have only had kindness shown to us over here and the UK is a dim and distant nasty memory for me (sorry!).

Tulip

[StevieD]

Fabulous thread. Good reading again. But one suggestion. Could we indicate on our location space at the top of our posts where we came from and are living now? Would make it easier to visualise it if you had e.g. Surbiton Surrey - Auck.
Just a thought! :cheers

[jo b]

I do still miss UK very much for lots of reasons - my family and friends (the top of the list) but M & S, Sainsburys, Radio 2, cheap books, Next, Boots - yes very superficial stuff!

One thing I would definately have done with hindsight - by hook or crook got my family to emigrate with me!


Susan

did you know I discovered a chemist/pharmacy in Christchurch which had a rather decent selection of Boots goods.yes boots, all tehir No 7 and Boots 17 stuff.

Jo

[Diny]

There's a chemist around here too that sells Boots No.7 and Botanics products. i nearly passed out when I discovered it !!!!

Know what you mean about M&S though.

Diny

[Smiler]

I found Boots and Botanics stuff in the chemist in Miramar. I had to double take.

I was only looking for a hot water bottle though. :o

D

[Wannaway]

Me again- sorry. Just read through my post and realised I'd forgotten a couple of really important things. We have no capacity to save at all and also have no pension provision. Two things that worry us quite considerably taking a longer term view.

And whilst I am here, the earning same in NZ$ as GBP was just to show that comparatively the cost of living here is higher than I think most people imagine. Hubby earns between 1 1/2 and 2 times his UK salary in NZ$ (eg 80,000 to $125,000) but gets no benefits package as you would in the UK ( the tax system in NZ is very regressive) , we have a lot of savings and hoped we could afford to buy a house outright but to get the sort of house we would want with a garden ( and this is the main problem with the housing) we would be saddled with a big mortgage here.

Overall our quality of life is no better as Hubby has to work harder and longer hours with far less holiday time off and our standard of living is worse than in the UK. We are not interested in earning pots of money - we just want to be able to live comfortably without watching every penny and spend more time together as a family and NZ ( Auckland anyway) just doesn't do that for us.

One thing we have found from our friends here is that most couples at our time of life with young kids are in a situation where both have to work ( some holding down 2 jobs) and have to juggle childcare betweenthemselves and nannies just to make ends meet. We both love NZ, have seen it all etc and can see that there are things to recommend itself but I don't think it's the right place for us to live longer term.
Nicky

[GeorgeM]

On the tax angle - a couple of weeks ago a magazine (I think it was the Economist) did overall taxation burden as one of its analyses.

NZ and the UK were almost the same in overall tax take, with NZ being slightly better in this regard than the UK, but not by so much that it makes much difference.

Depending on how much you earn you may be worse off in NZ in terms of income tax, but then there is no NI to pay (which is really just a special type of income tax). GST is 12.5% against 17.5% VAT, but embraces more things in NZ than in the UK. Petrol tax is less in NZ. There is no CGT in NZ, and when you buy a house the government doesn't get a lump sum off you for doing nothing.

It's so hard to compare one place to another through personal experience as it misses so many aspects of each system that are hidden, but this article which took all the angles into consideration could hardly put a fag packet between the UK and NZ. Australia, by the way, is more heavily taxed overall than either.

[richard]

Ouch! Is that doing the same job as you were doing in the UK?

Pretty much, although in the UK I was doing UNIX and SAP support. Here it is SAP and a few other bits and pieces. The hours are longer too as I only worked 37.5 not the 40 hours that I have to here. Then of course there is no company car, no final salary pension and only 20 days holiday instead of 32. Luckily we came here for the lifestyle!

Having kept an eye on the job adverts for the 8 months I was contracting it was actually the first job I saw in ChCh that matched my C.V. so I felt obliged to apply for it. I was really surprised to discover that there were 17 other applicants for the role. I applied at the end of April and didn't get an interview until August. By then my contract had finished so I was under a lot of pressure to get it.

I get the impression that the 3 or 4 other companies in ChCh that run SAP actually outsource their support so I may have got the only job that is likely to appear.

There are a few SAP and UNIX jobs advertised in Wellington and Auckland but since my wife is from the South Island we decided in January to try and stay in ChCh regardless so bought a house. The SAP roles were generally consulting jobs too so would involve many days on the road and nights in hotels. I prefer working for a corporation so in that respect the gamble paid off.

[T-R3xx]

Holy-moly! If I only had to work 37.5 hrs/week, I wouldn't NEED a vacation - not that ever get them anyway. (The worst thing about being self-employed, is that my boss is slave-driver.) I think, in the US, if you have an IT career, most work more than 40 hrs/wk. Especially if you do 'support' work. You had a pretty nice job in the UK, Richard! I'd take it.

Question: is it considered unusual in NZ or the UK for both parents to work?

[Carol]

Holy-moly! If I only had to work 37.5 hrs/week, I wouldn't NEED a vacation - not that ever get them anyway.

Question: is it considered unusual in NZ or the UK for both parents to work?


I would to add up my weekly hours........ I just have to get on with it.:wah


To be honest I dont think we could survive (with three kids) without both our salaries.
From a teacher's perspective - it is much more common that kids' parents both work - although I would say more mums seem to work part-time than full-time.

C

[ellen]

I'm still getting ready to leave for NZ (a little over two months to go and boy is it flying away)...hubby has been in NZ since May. He's gone from an attitude of "We will retire here" to "Maybe two or three years." Some of it, of course, is loneliness, but I think he is startled at the economics of the situation. We are quite prepared to live simply as it fits in with much of our philosophy. But, where we are going, there doesn't seem to be too many choices between substandard housing and housing that is going for $400,000. The middle ground may have been purchased a few years ago by ordinary folk and they are sitting tight on the housing stock, grateful to have found a place before the prices zoomed up. We thought, at the least we could rent a simple apartment, but the area is dominated by holiday home rentals.

So we keep trimming the list of what we will move there (his employer is paying most of the move) down to necessary stuff we will be comfortable abandoning if we decide to return to the States. And yes, we are keeping plan B open, not selling our house, but instead having it cared for by good people who are having an economic struggle here in the States.

I still admire him for trying this...he is 61...for having another big adventure before the bodies give out. He has taken up glider piloting (he was a commercial pilot in one of his many jobs); our youngest, who is 15, is quite dubious about this, but there is something in all this that we hope to show him. The world is huge, opportunities are out there, it may not be perfect, but get from it what you can. And keep yourself open, all the way through life. To my, NZ sounds like a great place to turn 55, even if for the first time, I will have a fall birthday, instead of a spring one.

Ellen

[Wannaway]

Mr Wannaway here, thought I would add my two cents worth to this absorbing thread.

We will be going back to the UK, probably some time next year because we can't see ourselves settling here long term. I feel a bit deflated that it hasn't worked out, but I keep reminding myself that we had to do this, so we can't have any regrets.

Yes there are a number of frustrations of living in NZ, a fair number of them Auckland centric but the country has plenty to offer for people from all walks of life, as some of the more positive and reaffirming threads here have articulated really well.

What will I miss about NZ? Mairangi Bay and Browns Bay, the West Coast beaches like Piha and Bethells. Working on the 23rd floor of an office right on the quay side looking over a sparkling Waitemata harbour (on a sunny day!) and out over to Devonport, Rangitoto etc. Mt Maunganui on the Bay of Plenty, a truly lovely holiday spot, families with young kids should definitely get there if they can. Bakers Delight, mmmmm Bakers Delight! What else? The kids here do seem generally more civil and better behaved.

Sorry have to balance this out with my main gripes. The inability for us to be able to save any money and have no pension provision at all I find really scary (and I'm paid some way over the "national average" - how do people manage?). The driving, oh my god the driving (this is very much an Auckland thing). Not just bad, but downright dangerous. I do not want to be here when my sons turn 15 so they can be let loose on the roads here with all those crazies. The tax system - I work in tax and the tax system here is positively third world compared to Europe and the US - if a child, yes a child, a ten year old, earns more than $156 a year they have to file a tax return!! What!? Finally, the old style Labour government. I was a new labour man in the UK (and yes, Blair has let us down rather badly and disappointingly) but Labour here seems to ape the bad old socialist days of 1970's UK, if you can remember that - Harold Wilson, union power, strikes, state dependency etc.

BUT, BUT, having said that I can still remember the thrill of planning and applying for residency and coming out here. So look into your hearts and if you want to do it, you should, because when we do go back to the UK I shall be proud to say that we gave it a go and would heartily recommend NZ - even if it is just for a long holiday!

[richard]

... I think, in the US, if you have an IT career, most work more than 40 hrs/wk. Especially if you do 'support' work. You had a pretty nice job in the UK, Richard! I'd take it...



I generally worked more than 40 hours a week in the UK too but I was just making the point that I HAVE to work 2.5 hours extra in NZ and for far less money.

Looking at it in a more positive light the job in NZ in very much an 08.30 - 17:00 job (if I take half an hour for lunch). We are also encouraged to take two 15 minute tea breaks away from our desk each day. We have a tea room to go and sit in and chat or read the paper. There is a bar with snooker tables on the top floor of the building so on Friday everyone pops up for an hour or so after work for a pint or two. A lunch time trip to a local bar on Friday is also the norm. The people I work with now are a lot more friendly generally and are under far less pressure from their roles.

I was far more technically challenged and had more to do in the UK so it would be nice to be able to pick the best aspects from each role, money being one of them!

[pleccy2000]

Fabulous thread. Good reading again. But one suggestion. Could we indicate on our location space at the top of our posts where we came from and are living now? Would make it easier to visualise it if you had e.g. Surbiton Surrey - Auck.
Just a thought! :cheers

Stevie - how odd, I am from Surbiton, Surrey....

[Smiler]

Mystic Stevie at work again :exit