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New Zealand relocation.
spiderman - 12/5/11 at 04:13 PM

Hi,
I've been considering working in New Zealand for a few years now and after a near miss health wise I think it's now or never.
So if anyone has any experience of N.Z. and can give me any tips or advice on how I should go about getting a job/visa/ect.., that would be very helpful.

Cheers.

macc man - 12/5/11 at 04:59 PM

You will love NZ, I went for a 13 day tour of both islands and saw some amazing scenery. Lake district on steroids! Realy loved Christchurch bit like UK 20 years ago. Queenstown was also memorable. Watch the Billy Connolly tour, goes to all the best bits and loads of good info. Wish I could go back.Good luck.

scudderfish - 12/5/11 at 05:27 PM

We were doing the paperwork to migrate a few years back. It basically boils down to is you have an in demand skill and are not old (35+). I seem to remember that the NZ govt website had pretty much all the info you need about the points system. This is useful as well http://www.fraser.co.nz

Regards,
Dave



[Edited on 12/5/11 by scudderfish]

McLannahan - 12/5/11 at 05:41 PM

I would dearly love to go back as I'm a New Zealander myself. Haven't ever had the money ( but more importantly the time) to go back since my family emigrated in the late 70's. It's a lovely country,a little behind but a friendly and welcoming place. Go for it, I know property's still quite reasonable!

bi22le - 12/5/11 at 06:23 PM

I went to NZ last November for my honeymoon. Both me and my wife have (what we would consider) quite transferable jobs. I am a Rehabilitation Engineer and my wife is a Mechanical Engineer (exciting!), and due to this we were going with the intention to have a serious think about moving there for a few years.

NZ is as everybody says, like nothing else on this planet! We went for 3 weeks in a camper van and visited the majority of both islands. Christchurch seemed the most desirable place as it was most like a UK city and had good places to work. It also had some serious terrain and activities on its door step. From there you could easily visit the majority of the south island.

It was a mutual agreement around half way through the trip that we had decided NZ is not for us. We are a young(ish!) couple that have a good base in the UK. We have friends and close family all walking distance from where I live, very unusual for most people. It seemed just wrong and to uproot to the other side of the world.

So my advice is, check that you can even live in the country, if you cant even live there then there is no point in looking!
Also strongly consider what you are leaving behind. You do feel along way away from the rest of the civilised world, but it would certainly be an experience.

HTH, good luck!


Biz

TimC - 12/5/11 at 06:44 PM

My GF and I went shortly after bi22le. We loved it. The people are absolutely great. I'd echo what others have said about Christchurch - very like Oxford / Cambridge but smaller - absolutely lovely. Of course its been hit by two horrendous earthquakes in the last 9months so check what the situation is there and ask yourself if you are happy living on the 'ring of fire.'

Auckland is a nice place too - by far the biggest city but still not that big - and on the coast so beaches in easy reach, lots of boats etc. We also liked New Plymouth as somewhere to potentially settle. To be honest, if it weren't so so far from home then I'd be on Kate's case with regard to relocating - I just can't ask her to move 30 hours from the family that she is very close to though.

From my perspective, its a Rugby-mad country with a very strong car culture too. (V8 Supercars on track just have to be seen to be believed!) What more could you want?

In terms of gaining residency rights, the system is a little more flexible than in Australia and I certainly stood a better chance in NZ. It really helps if you can get sponsored by a firm though.

I actually started a blog about our trip but, shamefully, never finished it (not yet anyway.) If you are interested in seeing what I did write about NZ though see here.

Lawnmower - 30/3/12 at 09:25 AM

Did you make it?

I'm there now, been over for 3 months now. and the quakes have settled down loads. Only wish I'd done it sooner!

Furyous - 31/3/12 at 06:28 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Lawnmower
Did you make it?

I'm there now, been over for 3 months now. and the quakes have settled down loads. Only wish I'd done it sooner!


I've been living in Auckland since August, apart from spending January back in the UK (It never occurred to me just how miserable Britain is in January). I was born in New Zealand so I've had no problems with visas. The honeymoon period has passed and I'm still enjoying it, although I've realised not everything is as fantastic as it first seems from an outsider's view. We were burgled at the start of March with about NZ$4,000 worth of stuff being taken. Last I heard, the police had identified someone and were getting a warrant. I won't get anything back but hopefully they'll smash some heads in.

The cars here are terrible, partly because it's so expensive to get something remotely decent. A 2005 Holden Astra is $14000 (Around £7,200). A nearly-new ex-demo BMW 520d is $95,000 (About £49,000).

Things are expensive and wages are generally lower. The exchange rate is very biased for New Zealand at the moment so it's not the best time to sell up in Britain and move over. It always used to be $3 per £1 and in 2008 it was $2.75 per £1. Now it's down to $1.90-1.95.

The quality of food in supermarkets is pretty bad. Britain has a reputation of having terrible food, but that's only because of the national dishes. All the good food New Zealand gets shipped overseas and we're left with bruised, scarred, knobbly shaped fruit and low quality cuts of meat for a higher price than you can buy NZ lamb in the UK.

I need to work out how to get my Fury on the road here. It's not too difficult to import production cars but home built and heavily modified cars have to go through some LVVT testing. The roads not far outside Auckland are great for driving on, as long as there's no one in front. I like how you can go just outside a city of 1.25m people and it's deserted. Whereas in Britain, you leave a town or city and it's about two miles to the next big town. The roads are so smooth and free of potholes. I could also use my Fury for 10 or 11 months a year over here, while Britain only has about 7 months of worthwhile weather.

There are lots of things I don't like about New Zealand but the overall atmosphere is more relaxed and positive. The tone of British media is "Things are going well. Let's find a negative point and focus solely on that." Can't have people breaking into a good mood. The British have a reputation of whinging about everything, and I'm glad to be away from that.

bobinspain - 31/3/12 at 08:28 AM

http://britishexpats.com/glinks/search.cgi?query=zealand;nh=2

I used to work with Mike Cole who set himself up very successfully in NZ a few years back.(link).
Another work pal came out here to Spain with a view to emigrating. He ended up junking the Spain idea and went out to NZ instead.
Happy as Larry.
Mike assists other Brits to relocate to NZ.

Bon voyage!

Lawnmower - 1/4/12 at 08:28 AM

I'm still on the honeymoon period and loving it.

In my head I still convert everything to pounds ($2=1GBP). Doing this is deceptive though as you wont necessarily factor in your wage when compared to the NZ average could be much higher than the same wage in the UK compared to the UK average wage, and that taxes are less.

Only expensive things I have particularly noticed are books, purchase price of cars (although running costs are a lot less) and some food items. Rule of thumb is that NZ has little manufacturing industry and is smaller so has less buying power than the UK, so that low value to weight items that have to travel a long way are more expensive.

Loads of rebuild work in Christchurch at the moment. It may be a boom period but that rebuild boom will last for a few decades.

Also by that time I may even have built a car, and the potholes will also have been fixed!

bobinspain - 1/4/12 at 09:34 AM

I recall seeing a motoring article some time ago that highlighted the minimum driving age in NZ. 15yrs !!
The programme went on to say that car insurance wasn't compulsory and this had led to lots of litigation to claim compensation from accident-prone young drivers.
If things have changed, it can only have been for the better. The above is a recipe for disaster.

Neville Jones - 1/4/12 at 01:41 PM

North and south ialnds in NZ are some of the prettiest scenery in the world.

But, there's also a very good reason why New Zealanders mostly want to go to Aus to work.

If you want the best of both, emigrate to and work in aus, and holiday in NZ.

Nev.

Furyous - 3/4/12 at 09:59 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Lawnmower
I'm still on the honeymoon period and loving it.

In my head I still convert everything to pounds ($2=1GBP). Doing this is deceptive though as you wont necessarily factor in your wage when compared to the NZ average could be much higher than the same wage in the UK compared to the UK average wage, and that taxes are less.

Only expensive things I have particularly noticed are books, purchase price of cars (although running costs are a lot less) and some food items. Rule of thumb is that NZ has little manufacturing industry and is smaller so has less buying power than the UK, so that low value to weight items that have to travel a long way are more expensive.

Loads of rebuild work in Christchurch at the moment. It may be a boom period but that rebuild boom will last for a few decades.

Also by that time I may even have built a car, and the potholes will also have been fixed!



I was driving in Christchurch about a month ago. Some of the roads were very bumpy, even by British standards! It was like driving on waves of tarmac in some places.

I'm starting to get over converting things to pounds. It just makes things sound painfully expensive. Digital callipers here are $100 for the cheap ones, or under $40 in the UK. A cheap lathe is $1800 here or around $950 in the UK.


quote:
Originally posted by bobinspain
I recall seeing a motoring article some time ago that highlighted the minimum driving age in NZ. 15yrs !!
The programme went on to say that car insurance wasn't compulsory and this had led to lots of litigation to claim compensation from accident-prone young drivers.
If things have changed, it can only have been for the better. The above is a recipe for disaster.


No and yes. Although, I don't think they can drive unsupervised until they're 17 and they aren't allowed passengers until then (Other than the supervisor). The idea is that kids in rural areas need to be able to travel. The government covers personal injury in an accident but not the cost of property damage.If an uninsured driver hits you, you would have to sue them. But they likely don't have insurance because they don't have money. People at work think mandatory insurance is a terrible idea because prices will jump up. From what I've seen, it's not a lot cheaper here than the UK, and mandatory insurance would keep the bad drivers off the roads.

They changed one of the main road rules last week, which was fun. The old rule was that if you're turning left off a road and someone coming the other way is also turning into the side road (So they're crossing your path), you have to give way to them. Now they've changed it to match the rest of the world. Not everyone has realised despite a very big campaign, though.

New Zealand drivers are terrible but I'm getting used to it now. I use my horn more in a month than I've ever used it in Britain. I'm a bit worried about driving a kit car that barely reaches the windows of a normal car, never mind the bints in SUVs who don't check their mirrors on the motorway and nearly side swipe my Astra.

Dick Axtell - 3/4/12 at 10:19 AM

quote:
Originally posted by macc man
You will love NZ, I went for a 13 day tour of both islands and saw some amazing scenery. Lake district on steroids! Realy loved Christchurch bit like UK 20 years ago. Queenstown was also memorable. Watch the Billy Connolly tour, goes to all the best bits and loads of good info. Wish I could go back.Good luck.


Ditto. Clear air, too. Only reservation we had was re Greymouth, (see map - mouth of River Grey). Its a great place - to leave!!

Dunno too much about post-'quake situation, employment-wise. Christchurch took a hammering, fortunately friends down there were OK (i.e. not stirred, but very shaken!).

HowardB - 3/4/12 at 12:11 PM

I'm from NZ and haven't been back, as many say it is a great place for a holiday!

My mate moved out a few years back, very well paid job here, and desirable skills so no issues, and he is happy now, but it took him a couple of years to adjust to the cost/salary issues.

It is a great place, but not for everyone

jerryscales - 3/4/12 at 07:51 PM

just come back after 7 1/2 years...........
jerry
07785 623453 at any reasonable hour