# Is NZ for us?



## billy2010 (Sep 19, 2011)

Hi there

Sorry for this first indulgent thread!

My husband and I have been talking about the possibility of moving to New Zealand from the UK for over a year now. We have finally decided that we must get a move on and do something about this on the investigation front... We are 40 and 43 yrs old. No children (not possible). Educationally the husband has a Masters in Business and I have a science degree. I work from home and run an online business, which I could anywhere in the world, the husband works in business, most recently as a Business Improvement Manager. I may well have it very wrong but I think we score 170 on the EOI calculator. If not then maybe my degree was wasted and I need to go back to school!

The driving force behind wanting to up sticks is the realisation that with no children we have far less ties than some, and thus we'd really like to see something of the world. I would welcome hugely thoughts on whether you think NZ would a good place for us to look at based on our hobbies and lifestyle interests etc.

We are both very keen on the outdoors. In particular shooting and fishing. We are currently lucky enough to live in very rural England and can do both of these activities on a regular basis. So would like to be able to continue to do so if we were to move. Having dogs, we are also keen walkers/hikers. We love sport, mainly cricket, rugby and the grand prix and in terms of actually taking part in a sport, then sailing (husband) and snowboarding (both of us).

Socially, we are quite quiet on that front I guess compared to many in the UK. Although that said, we have a lot of good friends at our local pub - am wondering how you ever meet people outside of work in NZ without a local pub?!

We both like visiting cities on the odd occasion but would'nt want to live in one. Working and commuting to one would be fine. 

Probably most important....the husband is a massive foody ;-)

very many thanks if you read this.

Helen


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## topcat83 (Apr 16, 2009)

billy2010 said:


> Hi there
> 
> Sorry for this first indulgent thread!My husband and I have been talking about the possibility of moving to New Zealand from the UK for over a year now. We have finally decided that we must get a move on and do something about this on the investigation front... We are 40 and 43 yrs old. No children (not possible). Educationally the husband has a Masters in Business and I have a science degree. I work from home and run an online business, which I could anywhere in the world, the husband works in business, most recently as a Business Improvement Manager. I may well have it very wrong but I think we score 170 on the EOI calculator. If not then maybe my degree was wasted and I need to go back to school!
> 
> The driving force behind wanting to up sticks is the realisation that with no children we have far less ties than some, and thus we'd really like to see something of the world. I would welcome hugely thoughts on whether you think NZ would a good place for us to look at based on our hobbies and lifestyle interests etc.


Hi there = welcome to the forum.

I'd say that you'd find NZ a mixed bag - let's see how we go with your questions:



> We are both very keen on the outdoors. In particular shooting and fishing. We are currently lucky enough to live in very rural England and can do both of these activities on a regular basis. So would like to be able to continue to do so if we were to move. Having dogs, we are also keen walkers/hikers. We love sport, mainly cricket, rugby and the grand prix and in terms of actually taking part in a sport, then sailing (husband) and snowboarding (both of us).


Lots of great outdoors - especially hunting and fishing. You generally don't need permits to do either - and in fact recently there was an uproar when an area tried to introduce one. You do need a licence for a firearm - but they're easier to obtain than in the UK.

Walks and hikes - generally you don't get the walks across farmland like you get in the UK. It tends to be in regional parks - and I'm sorry to tell you that in many of them the dogs won't be welcome. this is because they're trying to introduce the native birds back and dogs and ground-nesting flightless birds don't go! Many of our doggy friends take the pooch for a walk in the morning, then take themselves off for a walk in the afternoon!

Sport - oh yes - lots of it. In Auckland there are more sailboats than you can shake a stick at. Au Bucklands Beach Yacht Club they're always after crew for various races too (Hubby - who is a non-sailor - was taken along by the next door neighbour as 'moveable ballast'  )



> Socially, we are quite quiet on that front I guess compared to many in the UK. Although that said, we have a lot of good friends at our local pub - am wondering how you ever meet people outside of work in NZ without a local pub?!


Easy! There are local 'hotels' and 'taverns' - the equivalent to pubs. In the past they were very much a male domain - but this has changed, and they are much more social places now. We regularly go to our local.


> We both like visiting cities on the odd occasion but would'nt want to live in one. Working and commuting to one would be fine.


you'll find plenty or country places that are commutable from the 'large' cities (everything's relative!). We're in deepest countryside about 1 hour south of Auckland.


> Probably most important....the husband is a massive foody ;-)


In Auckland itself there are loads of really good restaurants. My favourites are the Asian ones - some of the best and cheapest can be found in the food courts. Look for Food Alley in Albert Street - it looks really rough, and has the best selection of Asian food I've found.

Just one thought on your 'see the world' - NZ is tucked away at the bottom - it's probably not the most central place in the world. Nothing goes 'in transit' through NZ! (except maybe Scott Base) BUT it's a great base if you want to see Australia and the South Pacific Islands - and Asia is as close (closer?) as if you were in the UK.

Plus NZ itself has pots of places to see. We spent 5 weeks in South Island and ran out of time.

We still have loads of this side of the world to see.


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