[Greenday]

My wife and I have been here nearly three months now, living up here in Whangarei, so I thought I would share with you our experinces so far.

To sum it all up, and save anyone with out much time to read the rest, moving here has been the best thing we could have done. We were expecting a lot from New Zealand, and we have got even more than we thought! We absolutly love it here, it's so beautiful, and we both agree that we dont't care if we never got to the UK again. Our life styles have changes so much for the better. Here are a few details on how we see things.

Cost Of Living
Whangarei is cheaper than a lot of the NI. We feel that even though we are earning less than in the UK (about $63k a year between us) we are far better off. We dont pay council tax or car insurance which is a big saving. Our house is so nice (double electric garage, heated towl racks en-suite amazing view, modern) and we pay less than our tiny 2 bed town house in the UK in rent. Take away food like fish and chips chineese and pizas are very very cheap. Supermarket food is generaly about the same to a little bit cheaper than the UK if you convert it to pounds. Pertol is about 48 pence per litre at the momment, which is also a big saving. We are definetly better off financially.

Weather
It has been much better than i expected. Since early november it has not gone below 20 degrees durring the day, since Christmas it has been over 30 nearly every day (except today is a cooler 25). The sea up here in the North is warm, it was ok in November, but now is really pleasant. Its not always sunny, but its always warm, the sun is very strong. If the weather forecast says cloudy and some showers in england, you know it will be a bad day, but here it will probably be a nice day, with maybe a quick shower that you hardly notice. Although it has rained loads all day and night a couple of times. It's quite often cloudy or part cloudy though.

People
People are generaly really nice, but I dont think as nice as i expected. When we came on holiday we were amazed at how nice peole were, but after meeting so many people, we see that although people are generally nicer and more frindly than england, its not always that much more. However, i did meet a guy last week whilst putting air in my tires at the garage, and we got talking and he invited the wife and I to his house there and then for a brew and some supper.

Drivers
Terrible, what is wrong with their brains!?

Food
Not many countries have worse food than england, but NZ is one of them. Its the only thing i miss from the UK - decent Chineese and Thai food. Fish and chips are cheap and really nice however.

Whangarei / Northland
Wasnt our first choice, but thats were the job was. But now we are here, it would have been our first choice. It has everything we could want, and the Paradise Coast on our door step with a subtropical climate. We spent the weekend in Auckland suburbs, and we are really glad we didnt end up there, it's far more similar to englad in Auckland.

Well thats about it, apart from saying second hand goods are really expensive, so if you are taking a container, might be best to bring everything you can, and we absolutly love it here, and have not been home sick at all.

You can check out our New Zealand blog & photos, and leave comments if you want:

http://www.philandclare.blogspot.com

Any one have any questions or need any advice, we'd be more than happy to help you.

[stu70]

Wow. Thanks for the great post. No kidding, you are in heaven. Saw the pics on your blog. Boy, are they great or what! Life is all about how you perceive it isn't it? Good luck with everything.

[marcia]

Great to read your update and see the pics - love to nosy at other peoples stuff!!! :laugh

[suebeenz]

Food
Not many countries have worse food than england, but NZ is one of them. Its the only thing i miss from the UK - decent Chineese and Thai food. Fish and chips are cheap and really nice however.


Oooh Zing!! It's sad day when a homecooked meal by suebee is almost certainly going to be better than what's available at restaurant. :laugh

In general I'd have to agree, but thankfully I have found at least one good place to get a 'curry'. (or have my expectations just gone down, hmm...)

[Trigirl]

great post greenday - so much i agree with there

Food
Not many countries have worse food than england, but NZ is one of them
this though i totally disagree with! the food we've eaten in restaurants and cafes has been (almost) uniformly much better than the uk - as well as being so much cheaper!

lunchtime cafes do fab salads and quiches that are so cheap (no more crappy boots sarnies or paying a fortune for pret). restaurants do great seafood and meat. we've eaten in a huge variety of places since we got here and only a couple of times been disappointed. although we don't eat takeaway so maybe thats the difference?

[Ana&Steve]

Always great to read an update! Glad you are happy with the choices you've made :cheers
Ana

[bpk]

Food
Not many countries have worse food than england, but NZ is one of them. Its the only thing i miss from the UK - decent Chineese and Thai food. Fish and chips are cheap and really nice however.


I totaly agree with you. Sorry for that but kiwi food is the worst I have ever eaten.

Drivers
Terrible, what is wrong with their brains!?


Finally I got somebody sharing me the same feeling about kiwi driving. They just very careless and horrible. If they drive in EU the same way they drive here, they all might be sentenced!!
I am suffering alot from thier driving

[KerryS]

Food
Not many countries have worse food than england, but NZ is one of them. Its the only thing i miss from the UK - decent Chineese and Thai food. Fish and chips are cheap and really nice however.




Good that you're enjoying life in NZ - but I have to say that I disagree with your point above about food.
The food here is stunning - fresh and seasonal. Great meat and fish. I love going food shopping and having the choice of loads of amzing produce. But then, I cook from scratch and I don't shop in supermarkets if at all possible. I love going to the market at weekends and stocking up with fruit and veg at bargain prices - in London the markets were more expensive than the supermarket!
Eating out is a joy! I can't say I've had a really bad meal yet - and I've been here almost 4 years now. There are some great Thai and Chinese places, maybe just not in Whangarei...

[jailhouse]

Phil, you certainly are living the life. Really envious!!!!

More pics please, i am in the process of trying to get over there.

Are you renting or buying?

All the best for your new life.

jh

[Moorf]

Great update!

But, I do have to agree with Trigirl and KerryS - we really enjoy the food here! We're always finding great new places to eat and the supermarkets have a huge range!

I use a couple of organic farm stores now too, something I didn't do in the UK as it was usually stupidly priced, and make almost everything from scratch.

[sizzlingbadger]

Great to hear you're loving NZ, certainly sounds like you're living your dream :raebanana

Have to disagree also on the comment about food. We love eating out as you're nearly always guaranteed some fantastic food. The winerys are one the best places to eat, some pretty fantastic food with great wine :D The fruit and veg is far better than the UK and tastes a whole lot better to.

[Tia Maria]

Greednday wrote:

Whangarei / Northland
Wasnt our first choice, but thats were the job was. But now we are here, it would have been our first choice.

I love this comment as I think its one of the hidden benefits of emigrating, discovering things you like/love that you never knew you wanted in the first place!

Cheers

Tia

PS No comment about the food, but the Tia Maria sure is expensive!

[Singel]

Drivers
Terrible, what is wrong with their brains!?


This is the only thing that let us down in New Zealand :(

We like the food here especially the meat and the seafood :nice1

Great post and thanks for sharing :clap

[Helsandfamily]

Very interesting post - thanks and great pics too :nice1

Thanks

Hels

[Sam B]

Food in Cambridge is great - we don't eat take aways, but the cafes are consistently much better than in Cornwall and coffee is fantastic. Everything really fresh and healthy. We keep waiting to have a bad meal - but no, it's all yummy.

[thepiesleys]

Food IS poor in NZ - fact. aying that if you are prepared to use the vegge shops and butchers then you will in for a treat. Contradicting mysef i know, but as ingrained urbanites we are used to super market shopping and the majority of fare in there is cak. Watties ketchup anyone?

I speak as a family man so supermarkets are a must as is a certain amount of convience food. The salt content is through the roof as is the suger and many foods. I for the first time have a butcher and a grocer now and i love it. I have never eaten so much quality, cheap meat.

Drivers - I can only guess that they are so hacked off with amount of lights (in Auckland) that they refuse to conceed an inch anywere else. As for tailgating. Arghhhhhhh.

Great post though and I think i need to check Whangeri out - it was our first choice but work took us to Auckland.

Dan

[veronica]

good posting there, Have to agree with the drivers thing. how a nation of relatively friendly people while on foot turns into such aggressive people when behind the wheel is beyond me.

Partially agree about the take away food but with the chinese and curries we now have Thai ones most of the time, and most of the local restaurants will do it as hot or otherwise as you like, also with the chinese its partially because its geared to what the kiwis expect and want, not what the english are used to. But on the other hand we have a really good local pizza place, Big Pizza that I think is far better than any pizza I have had in the UK.
agree about the sugar and salt content that the kiwis expect in food. An explanation was given by an older kiwi we know, "we didn't have any form of food rationing after the war like in the uk where sugar and things were in short supply and taken out of some of the foods, so the 'kiwi' taste buds still expect things to taste sweet."

We buy hardly any processed food here, its nearly all fruit veg and meat. I have taken to doing quite a bit of baking as well but not bread, we tend to spend quite a bit on bread as the cheaper stuff is naff.

[Trigirl]

i agree that the processed food looks pretty rubbish - but we dont eat it. we didn't eat it in the uk either. i don't find convenience foods a must - and on the odd occasion i've bought a can of soup or something its been inedibly salty so we dont even have that any more - the freezer now has tubs of homemade soup in it (as well as portions of chilli, bolognaise sauce etc for when i can't be bothered). the fresh food is fantastic - and not just at the butchers and veg markets either - veg in new world and in pak and save here in welly are very very nice indeed - just a bit more expensive than the market. sometimes if i do a weeks shopping in the supermarket i spend a whole $18 on veg (instead of about $12 in the market)

i also agree on the bread thing - we also buy the more expensive bread here. the freyas mixed grain is lovely :)

[StevieD]

This is interesting. Great thread Greenday by the way, and the blog is inspiriing LOL

I also like what Trigirl is saying about the veggies - point of interest, when you say you spend $12 on veg for the week, what are we looking at here produce wise? That sounds incredibly cheap. And if we can get good quality produce for this price then we should be o.k!! As the wife and kids are veggies (I only eat meat when I go to other people's houses or restaurants LOL) it is important for us to get good produce, and we do tend to cook most things ourselves. Our biggest concern is our daughter Louisa who is such a fussy eater, it will either make or break her this move as far as food is concerned.

Anyway enough from me - good thread this.

Steve

[Trigirl]

this is a quote from my first post after going to the te papa market

I stocked us up for the week - kumara, red onions, mushrooms, carrots, celery, asparagus, courgettes, coriander. all good quality stuff and all for the princely sum of $12.20its was basically one week of veg for 2 people who eat a home cooked meal 6 nights a week and eat vegetarian meals roughly once or twice a week.

when i first went to porirua market i splurged a bit and got (from looking back at my blog)

a bag of about 10 potatoes, a bag of about 8 onions, a big celery, a huge bunch of coriander, a bag of about 10 bulbs of garlic, 4 peppers (called capsicums here) a head of broccoli and a punnet of strawberries set me back $18

[*Paul]

I agree, Whangarei was a great choice. It's a very pretty town.

The drivers in Hawkes Bay not only often have this bizarre Kiwi obsession with inadvertent tailgating, but frequently you will see people driving just under the speed limit, halfway over the white line on the left side. They are intending to be polite, allowing you space to pass. The problem is that some drivers approaching this situation feel obligated to accept the invitation and take much less care with the overtaking maneuver.

The only explanation I can offer is that the lower traffic density, less miles driven, and a bit of a hoon culture have not allowed much of the population to develop the skills and maturity that we overseas drivers are accustomed to. Ever see someone doing a U-turn in the middle of a busy main highway? Or pulling out in the path of a large approaching truck? Or the slow car in front of you suddenly speed up as you approach the passing lane you've been patiently waiting for?

[Andy B]

Hi Phil and Claire, What a superb post, you have answered so many of our questions, we are thinking about moving to Whangarei from Nottingham this year and you have really got us excited about the whole thing about moving to a country so far far away.... I'm sure that we will be having some questions for you on the run up to our move. SURELY there has to be a decent curry house in Whangarei??????
Thanks Andy, Michelle, Shannon and Daniel.