[John Z]

Just stamped my foot. Did you notice on the other side of the globe?

Hi all!

I've been reading a lot (as most of you did here?) lately and I'm very happy to have found this forum. My family and I are planning to emigrate to NZ from the Netherlands within the next year. The diversity of our motivs would probably be too large to put down in an introduction. But, in short, they're very positive and very negative. The last ones to get away from the Netherlands and the first ones to get to NZ :) I prefer not to talk about the negative aspects, they're in no way constructive, but the more happy to talk about any aspect of NZ.

The way I see life is a chain of chances, and even bad luck gives a chance to deal with it, in a constructive way. As an architectural and industrial designer, with great interest in photography (as an art) I'd love to make NZ an even more beautifull country, and as a father and husband I'd love to make NZ a real home-country.

Is that enough for a starter?

Cheers for now, John.



.................................................. ........................Ouch! Who was that?

[Anita & Marco]

Hi John,
Felt the shock just and thought, let's check the internet.

Welcome on board! From another Dutchie living in Wellington since half a year or so. Sorry to hear that you have such negative feelings about The Netherlands. I still think it is a great country, although at this moment I rather live in NZ than in The Netherlands, but that has nothing to do with negative things back there. And I understand that you do not want to talk about it, but you have to be aware of these when you move somewhere else.

Great plan to come to NZ - why did you choose NZ?

I think you can make a great living here with your profession. And the art of photography is also on a high level around here. You will have fun!!

Cheers,
Anita

[willsken]

Hi John

Welcome to the forum :cheers

[Moorf]

Welcome Aboard :nice1

[zardell]

Hi John.

Never felt a thing, but WELCOME to the forum anyway. :)

Julie

xx

[Kim39]

Sorry couldn't feel the vibration, but the wife did mention something, maybe that was me doing things to her:D but anyway welcome:nice1

Kim

[Diny]

Nahh - been a long time since I felt the earth move.

Anyway - welcome to the forum.

Diny

[Nienke]

Welcome to the forum John!

[Smiler]

Hi John

Welcome to the forum.:cheers:cheers

Felt the earth move twice today was that you? ;)

[Pimmar]

Welcome John & family

lots of info can be found here on this great forum;
and good luck with your future-plans :cheers

[John Z]

Thanks a lot for the warm welcome!

(only a quick reaction during a late lunch:)

I feel great thinking I can make things move on the other side of the globe!
(Stamp, stamp)

Already saw some Dutchies passing by ( #"Pass the Dutchie..."#) and even from Wellington! From what we know right now we'll probably land somewhere in between Wellington and Waikanae, and with all the remarks concerning winds and gales in mind the Waikanae region is becoming favourite.

I'll get back later :cheers

John.

[marcia]

Just wanted to add my welcome too - we have loads of friends over in Holland - kev used to race at St Maartin quite a lot, and has been over to Texel too. We had a sad time a couple of weekends ago saying goodbye to many of them at the Stock car world Final in Coventry - we won't see many of them now again!! :wah

Anyway you'll find loads of great information on here!!

[John Z]

Hi John,
Felt the shock just and thought, let's check the internet.

Welcome on board! From another Dutchie living in Wellington since half a year or so. Sorry to hear that you have such negative feelings about The Netherlands. I still think it is a great country, although at this moment I rather live in NZ than in The Netherlands, but that has nothing to do with negative things back there. And I understand that you do not want to talk about it, but you have to be aware of these when you move somewhere else.

Great plan to come to NZ - why did you choose NZ?

I think you can make a great living here with your profession. And the art of photography is also on a high level around here. You will have fun!!

Cheers,
Anita


Hi Anita (sounds like a Dutchie alright!),

Thank you for the welcome. So you're already an experienced Kiwi? How does that feel to you?

When we've sold our houses (and at least 1 of the 2 cars) we're of to NZ. Well, almost, there will be "some" burocratic adventures on our way (as you most probably will know ;) from your own journey), but that seems like something "we all" have to go through.

The reasons why we have chosen NZ: I'm an independant designer, so it doesn't really matter where I work (I can design anywhere), but for my wife , she had job offers from Australia where we had a preference for Tasmania. When that was sorted out she also got good job offers from NZ. The qualities that count for us are that it is not as densily populated as the Netherlands, so there is room to really inhale (and exhale). About 10 years ago I lived in the USA and from that time I realised where the Netherlands were heading. In NZ I think there is still room to do your own healthy thing (whatever that may mean). As a designer I love the hilly landscapes, I love the challenge of designing houses that compliment the nature and vice versa.

Maybe you know "Falling Water", by Frank Lloyd Wright. Although I love Frank Lloyd Wright I feel bad about the invasion this house is to that particular spot. Sometimes it is better to leave a spot untouched. For that reason I've developed a buildingsystem that makes it easier to build of the ground, with respect to nature, design and the users/owners of the house. NZ seems perfect for that.

What also is different in NZ is the school-system. It is decided that (by law) academically gifted children should get proper education. From what I know now it doesn't always work, but at least the basic-intention is there, and special one-day schools, and special councelors to assist teachers/schools.
In the Netherlands this is horrifying (from our experience and what we know from other parents as well). (OK, that was 1 negative aspect :o )

The stories I've been reading about MAF and all sorts of regulations (or the lack of it) made me worry a bit, but it seems I already get used to it.

I'd love to hear what you weren't prepared for, the unexpected, good or bad.

What about the stories concerning Welly "Winds".... (I've lived in Groningen a couple of years and there was a constant blow from the Southwest...)

Cheers, John.

[John Z]

Just wanted to add my welcome too - we have loads of friends over in Holland - kev used to race at St Maartin quite a lot, and has been over to Texel too. We had a sad time a couple of weekends ago saying goodbye to many of them at the Stock car world Final in Coventry - we won't see many of them now again!! :wah

Anyway you'll find loads of great information on here!!

Hi Marcia,

As a real man I love cars :laugh , although my favourites are a bit different than Stock cars. I love Le Mans racing, GT-class, rally-racing, but all of that seems a bit different per country.

I wouldn't be surprised if NZ turns out to be a country where Stock-car racing feels "natural", maybe the same for rally-racing?

Although I'm a Porsche addict it feels "wrong" to drive a Porsche with the steering wheel on the "right" side, then there's an advantage to Stock-cars, they don't have that problem?! :)

Cheers, John. (Finally of to get some work done)

[Anita & Marco]

Hello John,
Here is the Dutchie again.
I do not regard myself as an experienced Kiwi - I am not a Kiwi and will probably never become one either, since the Dutch government doesn't allow dual citizenship. And losing your Dutch passport is not a big problem, but it means that you cannot travel/live/work freely in all of the EU anymore.

Great that you mention Tasmania - it reminded me quite a bit of NZ when we travelled there. But I prefer NZ to live. Tasmania would be far too remote.

Unfortunately, I do not have a clue what "Falling Water" is - maybe you can post pictures of it? And the school system is also something I am not really interested in, since we do not have kids.

What is your plan for your move - what kind of visa are you going to apply for? Investment stream, or skilled migrant?
And any idea about the area you would like to live?
When you want to design houses in the way you tell about it, you probably be better a bit away from the three big cities?

But indeed remember - bureaucracy and rules are also all over NZ. I was really surprised about the amount of rules.

Cheers,
Anita
Wellington

[miep]

Hi,


Welkom from another Dutchie!

We've been here 5 years now and have no regrets.
I must say I do love Falling Water including the way it sits in the land. We have built over here, not quite finished yet! :o And we won't be doing it again anytime soon, but all the same I'd would be interested to know more about your building system.
Have you ever been here? We have built in Holland as well and you will find everything is quite different here, not just the (lack of) style of the houses, but building regulations are very different, in part due to the earthquake risk.

Good luck fighting bureaucracy,

[StevieD]

Welkom John & co.

Good luck in your venture :)

Steve

[Bruckner]

Welcome to the forum John!

Emily

[John Z]

Hello John,
Here is the Dutchie again.
I do not regard myself as an experienced Kiwi - I am not a Kiwi and will probably never become one either, since the Dutch government doesn't allow dual citizenship. And losing your Dutch passport is not a big problem, but it means that you cannot travel/live/work freely in all of the EU anymore.

Great that you mention Tasmania - it reminded me quite a bit of NZ when we travelled there. But I prefer NZ to live. Tasmania would be far too remote.

Unfortunately, I do not have a clue what "Falling Water" is - maybe you can post pictures of it? And the school system is also something I am not really interested in, since we do not have kids.

What is your plan for your move - what kind of visa are you going to apply for? Investment stream, or skilled migrant?
And any idea about the area you would like to live?
When you want to design houses in the way you tell about it, you probably be better a bit away from the three big cities?

But indeed remember - bureaucracy and rules are also all over NZ. I was really surprised about the amount of rules.

Cheers,
Anita
Wellington


Hi Anita,

Google "falling water" and you'll find all sorts pictures. Tasmania is too remote? In what way would you think NZ is less remote than Tasmania?

The area we're thinking the most of is in between Wellington and Waikanae Beach, but there's also the Hawkes Bay area (and somewhere from a distant location I still can here Tasmania knocking...) So, this means there still are different options. In the end it's the mix of ingredients that will take us to a decision.

The way I design is "contemporary". Although I see many houses being labelled contemporary only because they've been build recently? I hardly see any real "contemporary" houses, mostly in suburban Auckland?

How do you experience the "climate change" (Netherlands vs. NZ)?

Cheers, John.

[John Z]

:cheers

Thanks of course for some more warm welcomes!

John.

[John Z]

Hi,


Welkom from another Dutchie!

We've been here 5 years now and have no regrets.
I must say I do love Falling Water including the way it sits in the land. We have built over here, not quite finished yet! :o And we won't be doing it again anytime soon, but all the same I'd would be interested to know more about your building system.
Have you ever been here? We have built in Holland as well and you will find everything is quite different here, not just the (lack of) style of the houses, but building regulations are very different, in part due to the earthquake risk.

Good luck fighting bureaucracy,

Hi Miep,

Great you're building yourselves! Part of my building system is it is earthquake resistant. That's one thing I already had in mind when developing it. I'm sorry I can't tell you in detail now because I'm trying to get the idea legally protected (patent) first. One thing I'd like to take into consideration is "think light". Lightweight is the trend, the future. Because bricks are hardly being used in NZ already a lot of houses tend to be lightweight, not planned as such, but just because of the "earthquake regulations".

Have you seen some Ian Athfield designs? He seems to be loved AND hated for it :nice1 I like that, I like people who make a difference (as long as is stays "healthy").

Concerning burocrazy: I'm hoping NZ has enough space to escape from it, but of course you never can escape from it completely :(

Since I haven't been to NZ yet I'm "learning" a lot from the experiences being exposed in this forum. They don't seem to be very uniform to me, at least not as many "hurray's" as I expected...

I'm glad you know "Falling Water". What kind of design is your new house?

Cheers, John.

[miep]

Hi,


We almost used Athfield as our architect, he was our second choice. :nice1 He's done some really cool stuff, but the concept he did for us was nice but not exciting enough.
You're right about new build automatically being classed as contempory here, it's a common misconception and one that caused a few misunderstandings with some real estate agents that were showing us around. It took me a while to cotton on that what I meant with the word modern was quite different that what they were thinking. To them modern just meant new.:D

Although I like your "Light" concept, we've gone for heavy. We are on a hill that is classed as a very high wind zone and light just doesn't do it here. So we went for concrete and lots of steel instead and embedded the house into the hill rather than above it.
We've tried to use natural (Not neutrals, no beige in sight:laugh ) colours and material for the cladding in an effort to let the house blend with the landscape as much as possible although it's still quite hard to miss.:o And yes it is definately contempory, but not completely "out there".

Let me know when you can unveil more about your plans.

[John Z]

Hi Miep,

Sounds your house could be an attribution to New Zealand :nice1 Though I haven't seen it yet! One thing I like especialle about Athfield is the variation in "styles"; from his office both contemporary and "magical traditional (mainly from the seventies/eighties?)" designs have sprung. (Design "in Style", not in "a Style": Frank Lloyd Wright.)

From your description I was thinking of a house in Pukerua Bay, on top of the (seaside) cliff. It's for sale BBO $800.000,=. On the real estate sites it appears very remote, but from Google Earth it is not anymore... :wah

Great invention, this Google Earth BTW. We look up every house we think may be interesting and this puts the house in perspective (although the pictures from above "flatten" the landscape.)

Maybe we'll someday see a picture of your house in Interspace?

Cheers for now, John.

(Finally the summer has ended today, on the 4th of October...)

[miep]

Hi,


I think you mean ID #132291 ? If so, yes it is very similar in many ways; Style, location (even though we are in Eastbourne) concrete floors and it looks just as wind blown as ours. Gardening is not easy!
Last time I looked on Google Earth it was quite an old photo, only showing the bottom floor as it was being built. If I can figure out how to send you a link I'll pm you.:nice1

[mossum]

Hi john ,

We were reminicing about Holland today - we went to Riccarton market - craft/ food stalls etc & there was an olie bolle stall mmmmmmm smelled fab - but we bravely resisted - They reminded us of wonderful holidays spent in the netherlands & the great friends we made there .

Oh & hi BTW

vic

[John Z]

It won't be too long for the "oliebollen" season Vic! :nice1

Cheers, John.

[John Z]

Miep,

that's the one, but in it's text they refer to dining "al fresco" when the "southerlies" are blowing in Eastbourne.... ;)

Cheers, John.

[Moorf]

Ohhh that's a great reason to go to the Riccarton market :nice1 memories of our trips across to Venlo and Roermond when we lived in Germany! And Friks...!!

[John Z]

Ok, we've been there now (1 month) , seen it, tasted it (a lot of Indian restaurants) and have accepted a great job offer in the Hamilton region.

Our son asked why we wouldn't just stay, he loves NZ too!

Funny thing (but not really unexpected) was that everyone we spoke to, telling about our emigration plans, said their place was the best in NZ!

Though I hate (to watch) soccer (it looks just stupid to me) I love to see the All Blacks! And than the haka! Can't wait to join in! It's already great doing these faces with my son (8).

Thank you all for arranging these quiet beaches for us!

Let's see how thing go from here, sell our house, do the paperwork (we have help from an agency), find the best place to live (schools etc.).

How long would you expect will it take untill we could definitely move to NZ?

Cheers, John.

[Trigirl]

if you have a job offer it can be very quick. are you paying for the agency? (if so dont bother its pretty easy to DIY)

so - you need to put in an EOI. with a job offer you should get selected on the next round (say two weeks) - then a couple of weeks for them to get an ITA to you, a week or so to return it and a couple of weeks to get an answer. my guess is the house sale will take longer!

book the medicals as soon as possible - it can take a while to get an appointment. send off for your police checks too - they can take up to 40days.

and good luck!!!!

[John Z]

Thanks Trigirl,

I see you're from Britain which probably would mean there is a different set of licences etc. involved? Since we are from the Netherlands there are different rules, as for my wife, she is a medical specialist, she has a western-european training, but has to prove every small aspect of her knowledge and experience where as anyone coming from the Common Wealth can proceed far, far more easy.

Since there is a great need for medical specialists (in my wifes field of expertise) we (she) had 3 joboffers and we know we are very welcome, both from a medical point of view as in the way we have been treated (I'm welcome too it seems ( I hope), they say there is also a great need of designers and as a bonus I'm a price-winning designer too :laugh ).

But knowing both sides, not being from Britain AND being wanted as a medical specialist, would that change your explanation?

Thanks, John.

[Trigirl]

britain and the netherlands go through the same application process for residency. it may be slower in the netherlands (i have no idea) but it is the same process (by the way if you put your location in your profile people can see where you are from and you may get better advice from the many people who've made the move from the netherlands?).

i don't know what work registration your wife may require - and that could well be different from the uk to other countries. i know for example from my own experience that as a chartered accountant from the UK i can qualify as an accountant in NZ very easily - but accountants from other countries can find it a lot harder as the NZ accountancy institute doesn't have agreements in place with them. however an agent wouldn't make it any easier for them - it just is harder to qualify from those countries!

[John Z]

(by the way if you put your location in your profile people can see where you are from and you may get better advice from the many people who've made the move from the netherlands?).


I'll do that first (after this sentence), thanks!