HEY,

I wrote here before but no answer... is NZ really that bed?

My  

You should have a look through the forum, there are HEAPS of peoples experiences in NZ.... Both good and Bad.

Good Luck

Micheál  

NZ is not THAT bad. After living there for nearly two years and having many negative experiences and many problems adjusting and after escaping by the skin of my teethg, I can actually look back and say it was a lovely place to live in many respects. NZ is a beautiful country and NZders are quite proud of their nation. They get pissed off if you insult their land and culture. I got pissed of because, as an American permanent resident, I felt a distinct anti-American sentiment towards my family which translated into prejudice and discrimmination. I did not know how to handle that, so I got upset. We visited NZ recently on our way to migration to OZ. After my negative experiences I was very nervous, but the trip was beautiful and I kind of wanted to skip the trip to OZ and stay in NZ. But my hubby wouldn't go for it!

There truly are many downfalls to living in NZ. You can read about them on the forum. But, I have beautiful, unforgettable memories from our time there and through the adversity I learned heaps about myself. We absolutely loved the nature beauty and the feeling of freedom and wildness that seems to be in the air. Needless to say, I would return to live in NZ at some stage, if offered an attractive position. I would love to live on the Coromandel Peninsula or any number of other places. To me, the worst thing about the place is the health care system. If I ever returned I would be sure to get private health cover. Anyhow, hope this helps. If you really want to live there, visit first. Make sure you have a good job or at least a good chink of money stowed away to cover your initial settlement (for at least 6 months or more.

Cheers,
Sealegs  

Hi my2nz go and enjoy yourselves Auckland is wet but has lots of sunshine and abig proportion of the city are Pacific Islanders its got a real Pacific feel about the place especially if you go to there concerts,markets,and the rugby,all of NZ is pretty good go and experience you will not regret it and you will only find negatives if you go looking for them,i worked in NZ for 16xyears and it was really good for all the family and myself,good luck and have a great time there fafatel.  

I am a NZder who has been living in London for the past 5 years. I found adjusting to the UK exhaserbating to say the least, after comming from a country which is very advanced in IT and customer service, and of course, the HUGE amount of red tape in the UK was very frustrating. Now, any person from the UK reading this will probably be gobsmacked to read this, as I am to read about negatives about my own country. My point is, we all seem to have a "grass is greener on the other side" attitude, and somehow expect to escape the problems of our natural countries with a magic wand. Every country has it's pitfalls and every country has it's unique beauty and allure.

NZ is one of the last bastions of quality living. The average person has 2 cars and at least a three bedroom house with a 1/4 acre garden attached. I am just an average Jill and I used to eat out 4 nights a week and do lunch at least once in the weekend with my friends. The food is a glorious concoction of fusion between asia and the pacific, offering the best in quality and freshness. Housing is extremely affordable, especially if you are comming over on a stronger currency (we call the NZ dollar the Pacific Paso!). Expect to be the centre of attention for a while, kiwis love foreigners and are usually very eager to learn about where you have come from.

My advise is to just get into it and get involved with the local community. We are not so cool with people who isolate themselves and live in a removed expat type role (why come over if you don't want to be a part of the action!).

Best of luck!  

Hello mistyrain i agree with all you say NZ have lots of great eating out places at super value,we were O/S for 6xmonths last year and was astounded at how dirty alot of the towns were and that includes Scotland,England,Ireland and Wales it was really refreshing to get back to some normality this side of the world,having time to reflect on our trip its only the people that we miss nothing else,so its all got to do with differant strokes for differant folks i guess.  

Hi

I have been scrolling through today becoming more and more depressed.

My husband and I have just completed an EOI, have been 'selected' and are currently awaiting the go-ahead to apply.

We were extremely excited about the whole prospect of coming over to NZ... we holiday-ed there (North Island) in February/march of this year and fell in love... or should I say felt like we'd 'come home'.

It's not about leaving the UK and it's troubles to come to somewhere where the grass is greener, it's more about living somewhere where we feel an affinity to. My husband is in IT/Consultancy and we have already been looking at what sort of jobs he could get and what sort of money we would need.

I think the negative comments have opened our eyes to the fact that not everything will be perfect, but when is anything plain sailing and easy?!?! We need to do a lot more planning and if we are granted residency, we'll need to make sure we have that pot of money to get ourselves started, rather than thinking that it will all fall in our laps. We'll also definitely come back for a 'lets have a proper look' holiday, to scope out the real NZ

We can't wait to integrate ourselves with the NZ community; one of the things that attracts us so much is the pride Kiwis take in their country, their history and the future (i.e conservation etc). We want to be a part of that.

Thank you to those that have reassured us that if we stay positive and put in what we want to get out of it, that moving to NZ could be everything we think it just might be.

Please be honest - are we being completely naive? We would rather know now, than in 18 months time, when we have moved over........