What is it like in NZ as an expat?
Discussion
As per my last thread, we are thinking of moving to NZ (about to book a trip, although unfortunately earliest we can do it is December 2019, to see what it is like).
For those that have made the move already...how did you find it? Upsides? Downsides? Happy with the move? Any recommendations?
At this point not sure where we would go. Most likely Auckland although possibly Wellington.
For those that have made the move already...how did you find it? Upsides? Downsides? Happy with the move? Any recommendations?
At this point not sure where we would go. Most likely Auckland although possibly Wellington.
It's expensive, but you adapt to that, and I think it's a more egalitarian society.
It's far away from other places
But those are the only real downsides IMO. The lifestyle is good, excellent food, wine etc. The scenery is often stunning and personally that has a big impact to one's soul. Plenty of outdoor things to do, plenty of urban things to do in Wellington and Auckland. The people are generally very friendly. Work seems to be a lot more relaxed than the UK (Current place it's a ghost town at 4pm as everyone leaves early). Great roads.
It's far away from other places
But those are the only real downsides IMO. The lifestyle is good, excellent food, wine etc. The scenery is often stunning and personally that has a big impact to one's soul. Plenty of outdoor things to do, plenty of urban things to do in Wellington and Auckland. The people are generally very friendly. Work seems to be a lot more relaxed than the UK (Current place it's a ghost town at 4pm as everyone leaves early). Great roads.
Moved here 20 years ago, Nelson for 3 years, Christchurch until the quakes, now rural.
Auckland traffic is bonkers as are the house prices.
Wellington is a reasonable city but kind of isolated, you don't just pop to the next village or town for a meal in a thatched pub.
Christchurch, post quakes, is awful, uninspiring, terrible planning, roadworks and the sea always seems dirty.
Costs:
Supermarkets are a duopoly so food is expensive, I saw tomatoes for £20 a kilo last winter.
Small whole chicken is £8
Fresh fish is criminally priced.
Fuel used to be cheap, not anymore, 98 octane cost me £1.50 a litre last month.
Car insurance used to be cheap, like £100 a year fully comp, now I pay £500 for a £5k hatchback.
Tobacco costs more than cocaine.
The road's aren't as enjoyable as the UK and speeding is a no no, the consequences can be huge.
It's a 'basic' country, quite backwards, a little immature.
I absolutely love it
Auckland traffic is bonkers as are the house prices.
Wellington is a reasonable city but kind of isolated, you don't just pop to the next village or town for a meal in a thatched pub.
Christchurch, post quakes, is awful, uninspiring, terrible planning, roadworks and the sea always seems dirty.
Costs:
Supermarkets are a duopoly so food is expensive, I saw tomatoes for £20 a kilo last winter.
Small whole chicken is £8
Fresh fish is criminally priced.
Fuel used to be cheap, not anymore, 98 octane cost me £1.50 a litre last month.
Car insurance used to be cheap, like £100 a year fully comp, now I pay £500 for a £5k hatchback.
Tobacco costs more than cocaine.
The road's aren't as enjoyable as the UK and speeding is a no no, the consequences can be huge.
It's a 'basic' country, quite backwards, a little immature.
I absolutely love it
moles said:
Why are the roads not as enjoyable?, when I was last over in 2011 I thought driving was way better than in the uk. I know about the speeding issues but they were way less congested and in a much better state generally with fresh tarmac and no potholes almost everywhere!.
Correct moles, some cracking roads here (South Island) and traffic is very light but you can't enjoy them due to over zealous policing and a constant fear of being hung for 10mph over the limit.When I say 'less enjoyable' I'm referring to the fabulous roads in rural Wales and Scotland.
To the OP, why have you ruled out the South Island?
Ah ok. Even 10 years ago used to be better over in the uk compared to what it’s like now here. I’m in the south west and all the old NSL roads are now 40 or 50 and everyone normally goes slower than this!. Only time you can enjoy the roads now is early in morning or late at night. I go over to the Brecon Beacons in the exige and it’s awful compared to a decade ago. Standards of driving are a joke now.
I’m just at the start of trying to get into NZ just getting my gas qualifications transferred over and was looking forward to importing the Lotus in fact it’s one of my main reasons for coming the roads and lack of people so I’m going to ignore everything you have said.
I’m just at the start of trying to get into NZ just getting my gas qualifications transferred over and was looking forward to importing the Lotus in fact it’s one of my main reasons for coming the roads and lack of people so I’m going to ignore everything you have said.
moles said:
I’m just at the start of trying to get into NZ just getting my gas qualifications transferred over and was looking forward to importing the Lotus in fact it’s one of my main reasons for coming the roads and lack of people so I’m going to ignore everything you have said.
Lol, I've painted a bleak picture moles but you can still choose your moments. The highway patrol still work with radar over here so a good detector really helps, mine has picked up a line of sight radar from 10 miles away.I don't think Lotus has any official representation in NZ anymore, cars are distributed through a Sydney based dealer but there's a few around and when I owned a Trackday business Lotus were thick on the ground.
Where are you considering relocating to?
I moves to CHC 15 years ago. Love it overall.
Work is work, often UK experience doesnt count so much so expect a step down when you come over depending on what you do
I cant really say how house prices compare but I live in a 220sqm house with ocean and mountain views in a seaside village, 5min walk from nature/hills and 25min drive form the CBD of the countries 2nd largest city. I have mountainbiking and surfing on my doorstep and skiing an hour away. There is literally nowhere I can think of in the UK that can offer this.
Downsides shopping is limited and often expensive - small country middle of nowhere, I import a lot of stuff myself. A lot of housing stock is of poor quality (cold, poorly heated/insulated). TV sucks (sky and broadcast) I've given up and just netflix etc.
Fuel was apparently expensive, didnt notice drive on electric most of the time.
Theres plenty of fun roads but 100km limits.
other downsides - things like bands dont come here as often and usually just play Auckland etc, theres not many varied places to visit compared to UK ( aka all of Europe) , and there is only a handful of 'close' international locations (Oz and some pacific islands) so everywhere else is far far away ( party a good thing).
Economy is reasonably robust and theres plenty of jobs, but interest rates are typically a lot higher - also we are susceptible to exchange rate changes
Work is work, often UK experience doesnt count so much so expect a step down when you come over depending on what you do
I cant really say how house prices compare but I live in a 220sqm house with ocean and mountain views in a seaside village, 5min walk from nature/hills and 25min drive form the CBD of the countries 2nd largest city. I have mountainbiking and surfing on my doorstep and skiing an hour away. There is literally nowhere I can think of in the UK that can offer this.
Downsides shopping is limited and often expensive - small country middle of nowhere, I import a lot of stuff myself. A lot of housing stock is of poor quality (cold, poorly heated/insulated). TV sucks (sky and broadcast) I've given up and just netflix etc.
Fuel was apparently expensive, didnt notice drive on electric most of the time.
Theres plenty of fun roads but 100km limits.
other downsides - things like bands dont come here as often and usually just play Auckland etc, theres not many varied places to visit compared to UK ( aka all of Europe) , and there is only a handful of 'close' international locations (Oz and some pacific islands) so everywhere else is far far away ( party a good thing).
Economy is reasonably robust and theres plenty of jobs, but interest rates are typically a lot higher - also we are susceptible to exchange rate changes
Not sure where we going yet not a big city fan so it won’t be Auckland. I’m leaning towards South Island would love wanaka/queenstown but house prices are obviously expensive there so maybe Christchurch or Nelson. Wife’s a community nurse she’s going to be the main factor where she can get a job. I’m not bothered about doing gas anymore I’ve got no interest in a career I just want a menial job that I enjoy doing fancy a change from gas/plumbing.
cheddar said:
Moved here 20 years ago, Nelson for 3 years, Christchurch until the quakes, now rural.
Auckland traffic is bonkers as are the house prices.
Wellington is a reasonable city but kind of isolated, you don't just pop to the next village or town for a meal in a thatched pub.
Christchurch, post quakes, is awful, uninspiring, terrible planning, roadworks and the sea always seems dirty.
Costs:
Supermarkets are a duopoly so food is expensive, I saw tomatoes for £20 a kilo last winter.
Small whole chicken is £8
Fresh fish is criminally priced.
Fuel used to be cheap, not anymore, 98 octane cost me £1.50 a litre last month.
Car insurance used to be cheap, like £100 a year fully comp, now I pay £500 for a £5k hatchback.
Tobacco costs more than cocaine.
The road's aren't as enjoyable as the UK and speeding is a no no, the consequences can be huge.
It's a 'basic' country, quite backwards, a little immature.
I absolutely love it
Change your insurance co. I pay a lot less for an air-cooled 911.Auckland traffic is bonkers as are the house prices.
Wellington is a reasonable city but kind of isolated, you don't just pop to the next village or town for a meal in a thatched pub.
Christchurch, post quakes, is awful, uninspiring, terrible planning, roadworks and the sea always seems dirty.
Costs:
Supermarkets are a duopoly so food is expensive, I saw tomatoes for £20 a kilo last winter.
Small whole chicken is £8
Fresh fish is criminally priced.
Fuel used to be cheap, not anymore, 98 octane cost me £1.50 a litre last month.
Car insurance used to be cheap, like £100 a year fully comp, now I pay £500 for a £5k hatchback.
Tobacco costs more than cocaine.
The road's aren't as enjoyable as the UK and speeding is a no no, the consequences can be huge.
It's a 'basic' country, quite backwards, a little immature.
I absolutely love it
cheddar said:
Auckland traffic is bonkers as are the house prices.
Wellington is a reasonable city but kind of isolated, you don't just pop to the next village or town for a meal in a thatched pub.
Christchurch, post quakes, is awful, uninspiring, terrible planning, roadworks and the sea always seems dirty.
Costs:
Supermarkets are a duopoly so food is expensive, I saw tomatoes for £20 a kilo last winter.
Small whole chicken is £8
Fresh fish is criminally priced.
Fuel used to be cheap, not anymore, 98 octane cost me £1.50 a litre last month.
Car insurance used to be cheap, like £100 a year fully comp, now I pay £500 for a £5k hatchback.
Tobacco costs more than cocaine.
The road's aren't as enjoyable as the UK and speeding is a no no, the consequences can be huge.
I have to say I've had different experiences, fruit and veg is more seasonal so can vary wildly from cheap to ridiculous. But the supermarkets regularly have cooked chickens for £5-6Wellington is a reasonable city but kind of isolated, you don't just pop to the next village or town for a meal in a thatched pub.
Christchurch, post quakes, is awful, uninspiring, terrible planning, roadworks and the sea always seems dirty.
Costs:
Supermarkets are a duopoly so food is expensive, I saw tomatoes for £20 a kilo last winter.
Small whole chicken is £8
Fresh fish is criminally priced.
Fuel used to be cheap, not anymore, 98 octane cost me £1.50 a litre last month.
Car insurance used to be cheap, like £100 a year fully comp, now I pay £500 for a £5k hatchback.
Tobacco costs more than cocaine.
The road's aren't as enjoyable as the UK and speeding is a no no, the consequences can be huge.
Fuel at Waitomo stations is current £1.10
I'm paying £160 insurance for a $6,000 car, £300 for a $50,000 car
The roads are fantastic, I've driven from Hamilton to Mt Ruapehu (2+ hours) and seen only a couple of cars on the open road. Turn off that into the numerous backroads and they are generally empty. You can still find sections of 50-60km gravel roads too.
Auckland traffic is bad, for NZ, still nothing compared to the UK.
Guru's comment about fruit and vege prices being seasonal is spot on. Tomatoes can be $9.99 kg in winter, $1.99 kg in summer. Prices can vary significantly week to week depending on the weather or what the PM ate for lunch. So, don't shop like you do in UK/Europe - learn to buy & eat according to the seasons and what's on special.
I've got three cars fully insured for less than $1000, rego (road tax) is ~$150 pa for older vehicles, half that for more modern ones (though that is about to change).
The more popular parts of Central Otago are very expensive, and salaries aren't generally that good. Nelson is quite isolated, but has some gorgeous areas and some great driving roads nearby. Sun, lovely beaches, mountains, lakes and not many people. The north west tip of the South Island is really nice, and really isolated.
Of the major cities, Wellington probably has the most favourable cost of living, since wages are equivalent to Auckland, but lower living costs. Probably the cleanest air of any developed city in the world :-) Some cracking roads within easy drive, and reasonable (by our standards) public transport.
Many of the advantages to life here also lead to the disadvantages - distance, low population, etc. Those two have a big impact on the cost of living.
Don't come here expecting a version of the UK, but treat NZ as a foreign country that just happens to speak (a version of) English, and you'll have a much better experience (same applies to Oz).
If you do visit Wellington, drop me a message.
I've got three cars fully insured for less than $1000, rego (road tax) is ~$150 pa for older vehicles, half that for more modern ones (though that is about to change).
The more popular parts of Central Otago are very expensive, and salaries aren't generally that good. Nelson is quite isolated, but has some gorgeous areas and some great driving roads nearby. Sun, lovely beaches, mountains, lakes and not many people. The north west tip of the South Island is really nice, and really isolated.
Of the major cities, Wellington probably has the most favourable cost of living, since wages are equivalent to Auckland, but lower living costs. Probably the cleanest air of any developed city in the world :-) Some cracking roads within easy drive, and reasonable (by our standards) public transport.
Many of the advantages to life here also lead to the disadvantages - distance, low population, etc. Those two have a big impact on the cost of living.
Don't come here expecting a version of the UK, but treat NZ as a foreign country that just happens to speak (a version of) English, and you'll have a much better experience (same applies to Oz).
If you do visit Wellington, drop me a message.
My best mate emigrated to NZ about 10 years ago, and I fancied it too so I went there for 5 months and had a good look around. It's a beautiful country, the two islands are quite different and there's loads of great outdoorsy stuff to do. I worked in a couple of places too, didn't seem to be any problems in that department.
Would I move there? Would I b
ks!
I love a bit of peace and quiet and the ability to get away from it all but I can only describe it to feeling like I'd be living in a single county of the UK and not being able to leave. It's great, but what else?! Also as someone else said, the houses seem a bit ste, damp, wood framed buildings with poor heating and insulation.
Lastly and there's no polite way to say this, I felt the locals were a bit thick by and large! Some had done pretty well for themselves but just seemed a bit basic, and I'm far, far from brain of Britain having left school at 16 with basically nothing..
Now I'm a bit older maybe I'd consider it, but I don't think so.
My mate moved back to the UK in the end too
Would I move there? Would I b
ks!I love a bit of peace and quiet and the ability to get away from it all but I can only describe it to feeling like I'd be living in a single county of the UK and not being able to leave. It's great, but what else?! Also as someone else said, the houses seem a bit s
te, damp, wood framed buildings with poor heating and insulation.Lastly and there's no polite way to say this, I felt the locals were a bit thick by and large! Some had done pretty well for themselves but just seemed a bit basic, and I'm far, far from brain of Britain having left school at 16 with basically nothing..
Now I'm a bit older maybe I'd consider it, but I don't think so.
My mate moved back to the UK in the end too
stinkyspanner said:
My best mate emigrated to NZ about 10 years ago, and I fancied it too so I went there for 5 months and had a good look around. It's a beautiful country, the two islands are quite different and there's loads of great outdoorsy stuff to do. I worked in a couple of places too, didn't seem to be any problems in that department.
Would I move there? Would I bks!
I love a bit of peace and quiet and the ability to get away from it all but I can only describe it to feeling like I'd be living in a single county of the UK and not being able to leave. It's great, but what else?! Also as someone else said, the houses seem a bit ste, damp, wood framed buildings with poor heating and insulation.
Lastly and there's no polite way to say this, I felt the locals were a bit thick by and large! Some had done pretty well for themselves but just seemed a bit basic, and I'm far, far from brain of Britain having left school at 16 with basically nothing..
Now I'm a bit older maybe I'd consider it, but I don't think so.
My mate moved back to the UK in the end too
I was born here, I've lived in Aust, GB, USA & Germany. I've been self employed since I was 22. Now I'm a bit thick - cheersWould I move there? Would I b
ks!I love a bit of peace and quiet and the ability to get away from it all but I can only describe it to feeling like I'd be living in a single county of the UK and not being able to leave. It's great, but what else?! Also as someone else said, the houses seem a bit s
te, damp, wood framed buildings with poor heating and insulation.Lastly and there's no polite way to say this, I felt the locals were a bit thick by and large! Some had done pretty well for themselves but just seemed a bit basic, and I'm far, far from brain of Britain having left school at 16 with basically nothing..
Now I'm a bit older maybe I'd consider it, but I don't think so.
My mate moved back to the UK in the end too
stinkyspanner said:
My best mate emigrated to NZ about 10 years ago, and I fancied it too so I went there for 5 months and had a good look around. It's a beautiful country, the two islands are quite different and there's loads of great outdoorsy stuff to do. I worked in a couple of places too, didn't seem to be any problems in that department.
Would I move there? Would I bks!
I love a bit of peace and quiet and the ability to get away from it all but I can only describe it to feeling like I'd be living in a single county of the UK and not being able to leave. It's great, but what else?! Also as someone else said, the houses seem a bit ste, damp, wood framed buildings with poor heating and insulation.
Lastly and there's no polite way to say this, I felt the locals were a bit thick by and large! Some had done pretty well for themselves but just seemed a bit basic, and I'm far, far from brain of Britain having left school at 16 with basically nothing..
Now I'm a bit older maybe I'd consider it, but I don't think so.
My mate moved back to the UK in the end too
Sounds like you were in Ashburton.Would I move there? Would I b
ks!I love a bit of peace and quiet and the ability to get away from it all but I can only describe it to feeling like I'd be living in a single county of the UK and not being able to leave. It's great, but what else?! Also as someone else said, the houses seem a bit s
te, damp, wood framed buildings with poor heating and insulation.Lastly and there's no polite way to say this, I felt the locals were a bit thick by and large! Some had done pretty well for themselves but just seemed a bit basic, and I'm far, far from brain of Britain having left school at 16 with basically nothing..
Now I'm a bit older maybe I'd consider it, but I don't think so.
My mate moved back to the UK in the end too
Esceptico said:
Thanks for the comments.
Have decided to make a trip by myself in February to bring the idea forward somewhat (or kill it off depending how the trip goes!)
Will only be there for a week so probably won't see more than Auckland and Wellington.
Esceptico - did you get to NZ in February, and if so, how did you get on ? Have decided to make a trip by myself in February to bring the idea forward somewhat (or kill it off depending how the trip goes!)
Will only be there for a week so probably won't see more than Auckland and Wellington.
I've been mulling the same question as you for a couple of years, and have got as far as buying a house in Queenstown before the door got shut for international purchases as well as shipping a car out there. In total I have spent about 6-7 months in NZ across 8 or 9 trips.
As others have suggested, the decision to emigrate (whether full time or part time) is going to be influenced very heavily by what you want from life. I've lived all my adult life in London, and I find that increasingly I do not use its advantages and just suffer the costs of living here, both financial and in terms of quality of life. For me to indulge in what I find fun - driving, MTB, outdoors-y stuff - takes forever just to get to a starting point as getting out of London is such a pain in the butt. The bits of life that I find missing are all my doorstep in NZ. I could just move out of London when I stop working, but the over-population issues of the UK will always be there, and I find that grinds me down more and more. London is also a different country to the rest of the UK in any case (not better, just about as different as NZ is to the UK
). But as others have observed, NZ is genuinely different from the UK and the services that can be supported by the UK's population density can be thin on the ground. Overall I have found that the advantages of NZ's lower population density outweigh the disadvantages, and many of the disadvantages (the previously mentioned cr@p TV and cultural sparsity) are falling away as more services can be accessed via the internet (my internet speed in QT is about 5x that in London!)
For now I am planning to keep a foot in both camps (ie: London/UK and QT/NZ) ... once I have sorted out my earlish-ish retirement over the next year or two. I have too many friends in the UK to move full time for now ... but I suspect that within 5 years i will end up being in NZ pretty much full time.
I'd love to hear your thoughts if you did get to NZ in February.
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