moving from UK to NZ?

[shambaby]

It's something we have often toyed with, and talked about in a kind of whimsical 'wouldn't it be nice' sort of way, but have dismissed because of family concerns - I have a big family and am close to them, in that we see each other often, although there's not really anyone in my family I would discuss problems etc with - that's what hubby's for! He only really has his parents, they are in their 80s, hip mum has early stage Alzheimers and we would feel terrible leaving them alone. They don't even like each other. Plus Hayden adores his grandparents and they would all miss each other terribly.

On the other hand, the thought of bringing up my children in the UK is becoming less and less appealing all the time. The economy's a mess, the countryside has all but vanished due to over population, the benefit system makes a mockery of itself, immigration is crazy and out of control, and it's virtually impossible to get on the property ladder as a young first time buyer. But is it really any better there?

We have friends who moved to NZ, initially just going over for a year with their jobs as a newly married couple. They have now been there about 6 years, have got citizenship, bought a house, had 2 children and got a cat! So they are well and truly settled and have no plans to come back, despite missing their families.

My big worry is that neither of us have ever been to NZ and we couldn't afford a trip there to see if we like it, we would just have to take the plunge and move.

Has anyone any experience of making the move? Good or bad? Is the grass actually any greener, or do you just swap one set of problems for another?

Thanks for any input on this x

 

[lilyd]

I have friends that moved there but came home after 3 years. They missed their families, but one of their LO's had behavioural problems (due to ADHD) & felt his needs could be better catered for in the UK.

That is why they came home, although I think they probably would have done so anyway. They enjoyed their time there and in some ways missed it, but it never appeared to feel quite like home to them.

 

[C_baby]

I know that immigration to NZ works on a points basis based on skills etc-

This gives you an idea of what the criteria they're looking for

Here is a table of points available

There's an indicator here that gives and idea about gaining residency.

It is a lovely country but It's not all sunshine and rainbows my aunt who emigrated to NZ recently had to completely rebuild her house after it was destroyed by an earthquake.

 

[smokey]

My best friend is from NZ.
She was born there but her dad is english (parents divorced early and he moved back here) so she spent alot of youth living there for a year or two then moving over here for a few years then back and forth.
She finaly moved back there for good about 8 years ago and took her english boyfriend with her who she then married while over there.
I remember he had to have a skill to be excepted as a citezen over there at the time, lukely he was a skilled carpenter and builder so got excepted pretty easy although work has been a bit random and bits and peices when he was told it would be alot of work over there for him.
She is training to be a nurse/midwife and they have a little boy there now and own a house but I think they rent elsewhere (other side of the country) and trying to sell the house to buy where they live at the moment.
They found it easy because 99% of her family still live there but her husband found it hard being away from his family so much.
They get back here about every 3 years.
Shes always banging on about how much better it is over there but her main moan is you cant get a decent indian takeaway where she is

 

[shambaby]

We wouldn't have any worries being accepted, I'm sure, as we are both in professions they want. Just not sure the improvement in lifestyle is worth the wrench of moving away from all our family. The only people we know there are the friends I mentioned. Hubby's not well at the minute (currently snoring very loudly on the sofa!) so will get his thoughts when he's feeling a bit better. Thanks for the responses, any more opinions would be appreciated x

 

[Larkspur]

I live in New Zealand (Kiwi by birth) and I love it! I have travelled a lot and think Auckland stacks up well as a place to live. I can answer any questions you have!

 

[sue_88]

In my honest opinion I think you need to completely discount the idea of moving out there until you are in a position to visit the country first.

Moving with absolutely no idea what it's like for you and your family really wouldn't be a very smart decision.

I suggest seriously discussing the idea with your immediate and wider family, saving the funds to visit, returning home THEN make your final choice.

 

[Larkspur]

No offence Sue, but people have been taking the 'risk' of moving to a country they've never been to before for centuries, and they certainly didn't have access to the wealth of information they have now. We're talking about New Zealand here, not the Congo.

 

[shambaby]

Hmm, the Congo, perhaps an interesting alternative! Lol!

Larkspur, I like that you leap to your country's defence like that - definitely a positive. If someone asked me if they should move here from NZ I would say no way!

Hmm, questions...

I read somewhere that driving in NZ is really scary and dangerous, do you think that's true?

How common are things like earthquakes and 'extreme weather'?

How ethnically diverse is it? Is there tension between different groups (thinking particularly of the Muslim issue we have here - may be over reacting but starting to feel like a civil war could break out any moment!)? My guess is not so much as there are more controls on immigration so you can't just move there to take advantage of the benefits system!

Any down sides you can think of to living there?

Will probably think of more later, but Zoe has nodded off after feeding so going to try to get a bit more sleep!

 

[dgirllamius]

The state the UK is in the one of the reasons i left for Germany. I would at least visit nz first before you make the decision of just moving there, you could really hate it.

I think the main reason why people return is family, could you cope being so far away?

 

[shambaby]

I agree we should visit first - I have often watched tv programmes about people moving to places they had never been and thought how stupid that was, but we would just never be able to do it. We don't have the spare income to save for it even. We would need to sell our house to be able to go.

Honestly family is the only thing really holding us back. I just don't know. Even if we moved to somewhere closer it wouldn't really make a difference - neither set of parents would visit us as they will not fly. I think I'd be ok, but I would feel bad taking the children away. And leaving hubby's parents with no one. For myself, yes I would miss them, but I think not unbearably so. Does that make me sound really awful?

 

[sue_88]

No offence Sue, but people have been taking the 'risk' of moving to a country they've never been to before for centuries, and they certainly didn't have access to the wealth of information they have now. We're talking about New Zealand here, not the Congo.

Definitely no offended taken just saying that's my opinion I know for sure I wouldn't do it and I've even visited Oz, NZ before but I'd still require another visit.

Some things to consider OP....

After selling your house, factoring legal fees.....how much money is that?

Cost of moving....you're looking at about £3000 (container) just to ship your stuff, you then need flights and temporary accommodation at the other side?

After cost of moving and temporary accommodation, now how much money is there left to buy a house? What are your expectations of a property?

Have you factored in the difference in cost of living from UK to NZ? Food / Childcare / Fuel etc

Are your salaries likely to increase or decrease with the move?

The most important thing will of course be the money....if you're only going out there with the value of your house you'd really need to budget for the move.

Consider then if you hated it, you may have wiped out £15,000/£20,000 from the move there and back, how much would that affect your property choice in the UK?

I wouldn't do it personally without visiting but if that's your only way, the questions above should be answered.

 

[Eleanor ace]

If I ere in your position (and this is just what I'd do) I'd hold of for a couple of years. Firstly to see how your MIL is- FIL may struggle to cope with her on his own (it can be extremely hard caring for someone with Alzheimers) and your DH might struggle being away from his parents and unable to help. Secondly so that you can (hopefully) save enough to take a visit to NZ. I'm sure some people make the leap to move somewhere else and it works out great, hopefully that's what would happen to you but it could also work out badly. DH and I went to Malta and I came out with an allergy to this plant which seemed to be everywhere, my eyes swelled up and I felt pretty wretched! It would be awful if you moved and something similar happened to you or you found you didn't click with the way of life, the people, the school system, anything!
Either way I hope if you do move it works out great for you, what an adventure

 

[shambaby]

Sue, those are all very good questions and we would need to do some serious maths and research if we were to decide to do it. But to me, the money isn't the most important thing, our family's happiness is. And by that I mean primarily the 4 of us. We own our house outright and realise we would probably have to move to a smaller house and / or get a mortgage. Not sure about hubby's salary but mine would be about the same, I think.

So hard weighing everything up. If we were only thinking of ourselves I think we would go for it, but we both think of others perhaps a bit too much sometimes and let what other people want influence our decisions.

 

[Larkspur]

I'm on my phone at the moment and will write a more comprehensive reply to your questions when I'm on my computer, but just one question; what makes you think moving to NZ will make you happy? I agree that going with misperceptions can be dangerous, so I'm interested to know what you think NZ is like!

 

[lilyd]

How does your husband feel about leaving his parents?

 

[Larkspur]

Okay, I've found myself with a little time, so I'll take a first crack at your questions!

I read somewhere that driving in NZ is really scary and dangerous, do you think that's true?

I guess the person who said that has never driven in Bangkok! No, I wouldn't call driving in NZ especially more scary or dangerous than most other places in the world. Auckland drivers can be a bit inconsiderate and rude, and Wellington has a ridiculous number of pointless one-way streets, but I don't think you're particularly taking your life in your hands by getting on our roads.

How common are things like earthquakes and 'extreme weather'?

Not that common. Christchurch, as you've probably heard, had a massive earthquake three years ago. But that was a 1/500 year kind of event. The city doesn't have a record of big earthquakes, although the southern and eastern parts of New Zealand do lie along a major faultline, so earthquakes are certainly not unheard of. One of New Zealand's nicknames is 'The Shaky Isles'! They're mostly non-serious tremors though. The last seriously big one before Christchurch was Edgecumbe in 1987 (no deaths, but a lot of damage to a small North Island town) and before that Hawke's Bay in 1931, which was the country's biggest-ever natural disaster. The northern parts of NZ are not on the faultline though. I've lived in Auckland all my life (getting on for four decades, eek) and have never felt an earthquake.

Extreme weather, well, we do have our share of localised floods and droughts, but these would rarely result in any loss of life. I don't think NZ is more prone to extreme weather events than most countries. We have a maritime climate that means that while the weather is very changeable, it's also fairly temperate. Above the middle of the North Island, it's too warm for snow, even in mid-winter.

How ethnically diverse is it? Is there tension between different groups (thinking particularly of the Muslim issue we have here - may be over reacting but starting to feel like a civil war could break out any moment!)? My guess is not so much as there are more controls on immigration so you can't just move there to take advantage of the benefits system!

New Zealand actually is very ethnically diverse, but we don't have serious racial tensions compared to a lot of places.

This could turn into a bit of an essay, but basically New Zealand's two official ethnicities are Maori and NZ European. In 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, establishing a basis for negotiation of land rights etc between the native Maori population and the European colonisers. New Zealand is one of few colonised countries to have such a formalised agreement. It stands as a foundation document to this day. People argue over what it means today all the time, but largely it is accepted that the Maori people do have ancestral rights over the land and resources, so the government has to negotiate and compensate for those rights. Arguments and protests occur every year, but on the whole it's a lot of drum-beating and shouting, and pompous letters to the editor. Nobody I have ever met is scared that they will be attacked by a Maori rights activist.

We also have a lot of immigrants from the Pacific Islands and Asia. Again, there are isolated pockets of racism against these groups (Christchurch, for some reason, seems to harbour some anti-Asian sentiment), but your average Kiwi is quite welcoming of immigrants, and they in turn are keen to integrate.

I believe New Zealand is also the most atheist country in the world. Religion is not a big thing here. Traditionally, the political mood of the country is quite left/socially liberal. We have legalised prostitution, gay marriage, a comprehensive welfare and public health system, a high percentage of women in parliament and business, was the first country to have a transsexual Member of Parliament, a comprehensive indigenous rights treaty, quite strong environmental controls including an anti-nuclear policy, etc. Again, there is a puritan, conservative section of the population that moans about all this and decries the "decay of moral values" but they are mostly old and will hopefully die soon.

Any down sides you can think of to living there?

I'm not sure, but the cost of living MAY be higher than you'd expect. Moaning about the cost of living is a national pastime, but I am not sure that it's actually that bad compared to a lot of places. If you give me a list of approximate prices of rent/groceries/power etc where you live, I can probably give you local comparisons.

If you're used to London living, you might find New Zealand quite tame in terms of entertainments. Also, if shopping is a hobby, you will be terribly disappointed. WE DO NOT EVEN HAVE ZARA HERE!!!

Good insulation in housing is a bit of a problem to be aware of. Like I said, we have a temperate climate (I went through the whole of last winter wearing nothing heavier than a light jacket or cardigan over a long-sleeved top) but we can have cold snaps when we get an Arctic southerly, and a lot of older houses that are lovely when the temperature is above 10 degrees become very bitter when it drops below.

I will try to think of more things to moan about, but realistically, if I had many, I would have moved to another country a long time ago! I will say that I have a lot of friends who live in London (moved there for job opportunities/the excitement/etc) and as much as they love it, almost all of them intend to move back to New Zealand to raise their families.

 

[Moomette]

We migrated to Auckland a bit over two years ago as after ten years in London DH wanted to return to NZ and I was willing to give it a go too. I've still got quite mixed feelings about it and though in a lot of ways I'm quite settled, I still miss UK and Europe quite regularly, so can fully appreciate what a difficult decision it is.

We're quite lucky in that we've got hubby's siblings and their families here (though to be honest, we don't see them all that often, apart from one SIL, whome I see for coffee every 1-2 weeks depending on her shifts), and my sister also moved here at the start of last year (she's married to a Kiwi as well). We've also been fortunate with my mum visiting us twice so far with another visit planned when this baby's due, and a couple of my best friends coming over for a couple of weeks last summer. Saying that, it can still feel pretty isolated being so far away from friends and family (and that's having moved countries before) and with flight prices sky-high, it's hard to go back on holidays. I've also struggled to make friends as with not working and meeting people that way the opportunities can be somewhat limited (as I guess they would be in most places) though I'm still working on it.

A lot of people say they're moving here for the lifestyle, and obviously it's nice to be close to awesome beaches etc., but depending on your work, getting to make the most of them can be limited as at least for us the working week is longer (40h v 35/37.5h) than in the UK and less holiday/sick leave (you generally only get 4 weeks holiday and 5 days sick leave a year), so with that added to a slightly longer commute I personally feel I see hubby less than I did in the UK. Obviously this all depends on your personal circumstances though and what you're used to beforehand.

You should also prepare yourself to the housing being quite expensive and in my experience not that great quality unless you've got a pretty healthy budget. Like Larkspur mentioned, the climate here (especially up north) is quite moderate, but it can be a bit of a shock to the system not having central heating, having poor insulation and usually only single-glazing, when the night temperatures will still regularly get to single/minus figures in the winter months. I for one wasn't impressed about it often being colder indoors than out, and we've spent a fair bit on improving insulation, adding a ventilation system (to fight condensation) and double-glazing is next on the list. A lot of houses here also have problems with mould due to the humidity, so it's something to check for and take measures against at least if moving to Auckland.

Sorry if some of this sounds negative, but I just think it's sometimes easy to get caught up in an idea without considering some of the not so ideal sides to it, and though I have met lots of people that have happily moved here and never looked back, there are also those who desperately want to go back.

Another thing I would say if you do make the move is to set yourself a time limit to stick it out for incase you don't like it straight away, so you give yourselves a fair chance at settling. I would also have a conversation with your OH about what you would do if after your time limit one of you wanted to stay and the other return home as that's not unusual to happen and is something to consider beforehand.

If you want to PM me about anything else or ask any questions, I'm happy to help if I can.

 

[littletobyj]

I think you have had some great feedback so far. I totally sympathise with how you feel about this country, I don't think you are alone. There are many countries that are a little bit more accessible that could perhaps offer an alternative, I have family in Canada-transatlantic travel isn't too bad and I think if I didn't live in this country Canada would be my next choice. Other than that, which part of the UK are you from? There are still parts of country that can offer a better work/life balance, a move might not be as drastic???

 

[Abz1982]

My SIL lives out there. Emigrated from Scotland. And they never visited before they went. They left because they had 4 kids + 1 on the way and they were fed up of the UK.

They love it. She is a scout leader and the local gymnastics coach and their oldest now competes for the country internationally in trampolining. The kids love it and they have fitted in well and I think they have found a large ex-pat group as well.

My OH wants to move out there, and I am 50/50 on it. Mainly as my parents would not be able to travel out to see us, and neither of us have the requirements to meet the skills categories etc so that means that one of us would have to get a degree etc, and then doing that would mean we couldn't afford to go!