clg
22nd August 2006, 11:35 AM
I can’t wait to get out of this place
is what I was thinking just over a year ago right before we moved!
It has been a year since we arrived in Wellington from Los Angeles so I thought I would post a general update. For us this has been a good to excellent move. It has been a big adjustment at times but in some ways it seems like the process for getting over here and all of the time I spent wondering what it would be like was more difficult than actually settling in.
This is a little random, as I have jotted down things that jump into my head.
There is always lots of second guessing that you go through with a big change like this and I have done my share. I have had a few periods where I really questioned moving to the other hemisphere. The first was mostly around not liking my job. The second was around Christmas and I had massive feelings of guilt for moving so far from family (I think the fact they were visiting here at the time made it worse). The last, and most recent, was in June when we had bad weather here, I had a cold, the train seemed to be having a lot of problems, and work was stressful. The one thing I have learned is that it is quite easy to blame something bad that happens on the move. The reality is, I used to hate my old job at times, it used to be too hot to sleep sometimes, I used to get sick, I used to get stuck in traffic for hours, etc. Bad things happen here just as bad things used to happen in LA.
On to the good. I love Wellington. It feels like a fairly large city to me but when I am home (< 15 minutes on train) I feel like I live in a more rural setting. At lunch most days I walk around the waterfront and on weekends and before work I go walking up to the top of Mt Kaukau which is literally in my backyard. Beautiful walk and great exercise. I also mountain bike and we go on various beach/walking/scenic trips. If you like the outdoors it is very hard to beat this place. If you want to spend most of your time in the city, shopping, going to the theatre and the like this is probably not the place for you. All of those things are here, but not with the variety you will get in a really large city.
As has been said before, this is an awesome place for kids.
On hoons, I have heard others complain about them and I sort of see them around but not really by our house. This was much worse for us in the US, not really a problem here. We used to have a lot of Harley’s by our house which I despised. Now we mostly hear birds and of course cicadas once summer comes!
We have two sources for corn tortillas now. We can get Kraft Mac n Cheese (New World and Moore Wilsons). Food quality here can be excellent, it really depends where you go. NZ avocados in season are A+++. Food can be expensive but we have more or less adjusted. We average about 300-400 a week on food, including me buying lunch 5 days a week and going out/takeaways on occasion. That includes beer and wine. We do a lot of cooking from scratch but we buy high quality and eat very well. I have plugged them before here but Moore Wilsons is great, high quality at really good prices.
As to the weather. I come from Los Angeles where they just had some record high temperatures. I really don’t miss the heat. It does rain here more than it ever does in LA and it is colder. It can get very windy here at times but it is not windy all of the time, the wind was more noticeable at first but I don’t notice it as much now unless we have a really strong southerly, that has happened 3 or 4 times since we got here. I have found we tend to plan things more on the fly here since you never know what the weather will be like. On a fine day you can’t beat Wellington. The thing that worried me most about weather is that there would be long periods with no blue sky. I lived in the far north of California for a year and it seemed like we saw no blue sky for about 6 months. It is not like that at all. Weather can be terrible for a while (longest spell maybe two weeks part of our coldest June in 40 years) but then it can be really nice, in winter! I can live with that. Think variety and you will start to understand weather here. I really like all of the green and LA always felt dirty with a layer of dust and grime that was there 8 months of the year when there was no rain.
We did not have many close friends in LA, seems like every time we met someone we liked they would end up moving out of the state or country. Or, as was often the case they lived on the other side of LA so you never want to do anything because the driving was too much so they may as well live in another country. I do miss family but the reality is that we did not see them all that much and it is easy enough to talk on the phone. We will probably visit the US every other year (and go somewhere else in between) and we are fortunate in that people will come here and visit us. Our social circle is growing here and we socialise far more here than we did in LA. I got out with people at work a few times a month, I never did that in LA.
All in all I would say our day to day lives are definitely better here than in LA. Our splurge options were better in LA, we had the money and ability to go on more trips, really expensive restaurants, etc. But I have found we needed a lot of those things to cope for the fact that our day to day life was more stressful and really not all that pleasant. I don’t miss LA at all, I would not mind visiting but I don’t want to live there again.
So, this has been good for us we are really enjoying life here and really looking forward to BBQ season! I don’t know if we will stay here forever but I can’t really think of anywhere else I want to live right now. Except that at some point I want to try and work out a one year position in Fiji or someplace like that!
To all of those planning, there is a lot of good information here read it and try and imagine how things apply to your own situation, it really helps. The biggest problems I see people running into here are homesickness and money so just keep that in mind. Being homesick is normal, it does get better though but it can take a while. If you are coming over with a good chunk of cash and/or you have good earning potential it is easier but be prepared for a standard of living cut. How big of one is the key question. For us, we gave up some luxuries that are fairly easy to live without so it was not that hard for us but we know others that have to stress over having the cash to visit a Dr, that would not be pleasant. Be prepared to take a step back career wise but it will be temporary. Employers will take you more seriously after you have been here for a year or so.
Thanks for everyone who has given advice here and good luck to those looking to make the jump!
Chris
is what I was thinking just over a year ago right before we moved!
It has been a year since we arrived in Wellington from Los Angeles so I thought I would post a general update. For us this has been a good to excellent move. It has been a big adjustment at times but in some ways it seems like the process for getting over here and all of the time I spent wondering what it would be like was more difficult than actually settling in.
This is a little random, as I have jotted down things that jump into my head.
There is always lots of second guessing that you go through with a big change like this and I have done my share. I have had a few periods where I really questioned moving to the other hemisphere. The first was mostly around not liking my job. The second was around Christmas and I had massive feelings of guilt for moving so far from family (I think the fact they were visiting here at the time made it worse). The last, and most recent, was in June when we had bad weather here, I had a cold, the train seemed to be having a lot of problems, and work was stressful. The one thing I have learned is that it is quite easy to blame something bad that happens on the move. The reality is, I used to hate my old job at times, it used to be too hot to sleep sometimes, I used to get sick, I used to get stuck in traffic for hours, etc. Bad things happen here just as bad things used to happen in LA.
On to the good. I love Wellington. It feels like a fairly large city to me but when I am home (< 15 minutes on train) I feel like I live in a more rural setting. At lunch most days I walk around the waterfront and on weekends and before work I go walking up to the top of Mt Kaukau which is literally in my backyard. Beautiful walk and great exercise. I also mountain bike and we go on various beach/walking/scenic trips. If you like the outdoors it is very hard to beat this place. If you want to spend most of your time in the city, shopping, going to the theatre and the like this is probably not the place for you. All of those things are here, but not with the variety you will get in a really large city.
As has been said before, this is an awesome place for kids.
On hoons, I have heard others complain about them and I sort of see them around but not really by our house. This was much worse for us in the US, not really a problem here. We used to have a lot of Harley’s by our house which I despised. Now we mostly hear birds and of course cicadas once summer comes!
We have two sources for corn tortillas now. We can get Kraft Mac n Cheese (New World and Moore Wilsons). Food quality here can be excellent, it really depends where you go. NZ avocados in season are A+++. Food can be expensive but we have more or less adjusted. We average about 300-400 a week on food, including me buying lunch 5 days a week and going out/takeaways on occasion. That includes beer and wine. We do a lot of cooking from scratch but we buy high quality and eat very well. I have plugged them before here but Moore Wilsons is great, high quality at really good prices.
As to the weather. I come from Los Angeles where they just had some record high temperatures. I really don’t miss the heat. It does rain here more than it ever does in LA and it is colder. It can get very windy here at times but it is not windy all of the time, the wind was more noticeable at first but I don’t notice it as much now unless we have a really strong southerly, that has happened 3 or 4 times since we got here. I have found we tend to plan things more on the fly here since you never know what the weather will be like. On a fine day you can’t beat Wellington. The thing that worried me most about weather is that there would be long periods with no blue sky. I lived in the far north of California for a year and it seemed like we saw no blue sky for about 6 months. It is not like that at all. Weather can be terrible for a while (longest spell maybe two weeks part of our coldest June in 40 years) but then it can be really nice, in winter! I can live with that. Think variety and you will start to understand weather here. I really like all of the green and LA always felt dirty with a layer of dust and grime that was there 8 months of the year when there was no rain.
We did not have many close friends in LA, seems like every time we met someone we liked they would end up moving out of the state or country. Or, as was often the case they lived on the other side of LA so you never want to do anything because the driving was too much so they may as well live in another country. I do miss family but the reality is that we did not see them all that much and it is easy enough to talk on the phone. We will probably visit the US every other year (and go somewhere else in between) and we are fortunate in that people will come here and visit us. Our social circle is growing here and we socialise far more here than we did in LA. I got out with people at work a few times a month, I never did that in LA.
All in all I would say our day to day lives are definitely better here than in LA. Our splurge options were better in LA, we had the money and ability to go on more trips, really expensive restaurants, etc. But I have found we needed a lot of those things to cope for the fact that our day to day life was more stressful and really not all that pleasant. I don’t miss LA at all, I would not mind visiting but I don’t want to live there again.
So, this has been good for us we are really enjoying life here and really looking forward to BBQ season! I don’t know if we will stay here forever but I can’t really think of anywhere else I want to live right now. Except that at some point I want to try and work out a one year position in Fiji or someplace like that!
To all of those planning, there is a lot of good information here read it and try and imagine how things apply to your own situation, it really helps. The biggest problems I see people running into here are homesickness and money so just keep that in mind. Being homesick is normal, it does get better though but it can take a while. If you are coming over with a good chunk of cash and/or you have good earning potential it is easier but be prepared for a standard of living cut. How big of one is the key question. For us, we gave up some luxuries that are fairly easy to live without so it was not that hard for us but we know others that have to stress over having the cash to visit a Dr, that would not be pleasant. Be prepared to take a step back career wise but it will be temporary. Employers will take you more seriously after you have been here for a year or so.
Thanks for everyone who has given advice here and good luck to those looking to make the jump!
Chris