# Just returned from NZ (Xmas holidays) back in UK



## mortirolo

I am from NZ, my first holiday back home for about 5 years. I'm from Wellington.

The 1st thing I noticed as the fresh air, was nice! Living in London, though we do visit the Italian lakes in summer or France, Spain - just not the same. I've listed some negatives and positives from my perspective as a kiwi and who has been living in the UK since 1992 (Switzerland 2000-2004).

Positives 

I have young children, the 1st thing I noticed was they were so happy playing with their cousins and running, the just couldn't stop running. Wanting to play cricket, skate down the street whatever, they just loved the freedom. Compared with London we may kick the football or climb trees in Richmond Park, London for example. Just not the same fun. They loved the fun of just exploring around the wonderful landscape.

The size of the houses and back yard space, a real bonus. In London and mostly in the UK unless you have a Surrey mansion, you are limited to backyard space and sizes of the Victorian houses are generally small in London/UK.

Wellington's cafés were really nice, good service and good hearty food, missed this!

The low amount of traffic, the quietness of the streets, everyone seemed relaxed. Not like the hustle and bustle of London. 

Prices of property are way cheaper in NZ than UK, double garage, 4 bedrooms etc for the price of a 2 bedroom apartment or 2 bed house in London.

Negatives

The prices of food, outrageous. I calculated that even at the old rate of 3 to 1 last time I was back wouldn't of really made much difference to be honest. The imported foods, were ridiculous. Basic produce was ok, but I like to try different foods and treat my family. Didn't really venture into any restaurants so can't comment on that aspect. Beer was expensive about £5 for ¾ of a pint!. £3.60 in London for a full pint. 

Houses were freezing, my parents house. I would wake up in the morning and be cold, remember this is NZ's summer! Coming out of the shower was like been outside. Houses have no insulation and single glazing windows. I'd forgotten about this. Mum & Dad said just put your woolly jumper, you have to be kidding! I was complaining to them all the time about this.

I spend about £120 a week on shopping for 4 of us at Sainsburys! In NZ my brother spent about $400 (£200) a week for not even as good quality products as the UK, most of the goods were basic. More complaining to family!

My Overview

NZ is a great place to bring up children, that's one of the reasons I'm thinking of moving back over the next 2-3 years. I would never move back without having under floor gas heating, whatever the cost, period! Or double glazing windows and good insulation! Those heat pumps are a joke, there air conditioning units!

If you like nice clothes, great shopping etc. You can forget in NZ, with massive sales in the UK, you can get cheap quality goods right now. In NZ you would never be able to get these goods at low prices, imported goods are expensive and hard to find like cheeses, wines, clothes etc. European/American Brands are hard to find and when you do find them they are expensive. If you love kit forget it!

NZ is very isolated, you can't just hop over to France, Spain, Greece and Italy in 2 hours. There is really only Australia and that's it. Once your in NZ you stay in NZ if your happy to do that. Unless you have lots of money! Mr brother thinks you need $100k salary in NZ to be living a good life at minimum, I comment on that. Low paying NZers - most people go to Australia they get a much better deal ,in NZ its a real struggle I was told. My brother thinks good jobs are IT, finance, accountant work etc. If you have these skills.

NZ is a great country, I'm biased! But there are some negatives like any place. I just want a relaxed life soon and more importantly for my kids to have fun. NZ in a great place for kids!


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## Neil M

Thanks very much for the balanced perspective. It's very helpful for people like me. Cheers!


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## Janicz

I love reading commentaries like this... We've lived in London for the past 4 years, and after spending 6 weeks in NZ we loved it and decided to try to emigrate there. We are positive we'll have a better quality of life in NZ than in the UK


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## Neil M

mortirolo said:


> I am from NZ, my first holiday back home for about 5 years. I'm from Wellington.
> 
> .
> .
> .
> 
> NZ is a great country, I'm biased! But there are some negatives like any place. I just want a relaxed life soon and more importantly for my kids to have fun. NZ in a great place for kids!


By the way, I assume your review is basically of Wellington. Can you say how much of this perspective is applicable to Auckland, and perhaps other cities in NZ? I'm thinking of the shopping, food and housing issues in particular. Thanks.


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## mortirolo

Neil M said:


> By the way, I assume your review is basically of Wellington. Can you say how much of this perspective is applicable to Auckland, and perhaps other cities in NZ? I'm thinking of the shopping, food and housing issues in particular. Thanks.



My brother mentioned the prices are the same in Wellington & Auckland generally....house prices a bit more expensive in Auckland he said. I visited Wellington only.


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## jenswaters

mortirolo said:


> I am from NZ, my first holiday back home for about 5 years. I'm from Wellington.
> 
> The 1st thing I noticed as the fresh air, was nice! Living in London, though we do visit the Italian lakes in summer or France, Spain - just not the same. I've listed some negatives and positives from my perspective as a kiwi and who has been living in the UK since 1992 (Switzerland 2000-2004).
> 
> Positives
> 
> I have young children, the 1st thing I noticed was they were so happy playing with their cousins and running, the just couldn't stop running. Wanting to play cricket, skate down the street whatever, they just loved the freedom. Compared with London we may kick the football or climb trees in Richmond Park, London for example. Just not the same fun. They loved the fun of just exploring around the wonderful landscape.
> 
> The size of the houses and back yard space, a real bonus. In London and mostly in the UK unless you have a Surrey mansion, you are limited to backyard space and sizes of the Victorian houses are generally small in London/UK.
> 
> Wellington's cafés were really nice, good service and good hearty food, missed this!
> 
> The low amount of traffic, the quietness of the streets, everyone seemed relaxed. Not like the hustle and bustle of London.
> 
> Prices of property are way cheaper in NZ than UK, double garage, 4 bedrooms etc for the price of a 2 bedroom apartment or 2 bed house in London.
> 
> Negatives
> 
> The prices of food, outrageous. I calculated that even at the old rate of 3 to 1 last time I was back wouldn't of really made much difference to be honest. The imported foods, were ridiculous. Basic produce was ok, but I like to try different foods and treat my family. Didn't really venture into any restaurants so can't comment on that aspect. Beer was expensive about £5 for ¾ of a pint!. £3.60 in London for a full pint.
> 
> Houses were freezing, my parents house. I would wake up in the morning and be cold, remember this is NZ's summer! Coming out of the shower was like been outside. Houses have no insulation and single glazing windows. I'd forgotten about this. Mum & Dad said just put your woolly jumper, you have to be kidding! I was complaining to them all the time about this.
> 
> I spend about £120 a week on shopping for 4 of us at Sainsburys! In NZ my brother spent about $400 (£200) a week for not even as good quality products as the UK, most of the goods were basic. More complaining to family!
> 
> My Overview
> 
> NZ is a great place to bring up children, that's one of the reasons I'm thinking of moving back over the next 2-3 years. I would never move back without having under floor gas heating, whatever the cost, period! Or double glazing windows and good insulation! Those heat pumps are a joke, there air conditioning units!
> 
> If you like nice clothes, great shopping etc. You can forget in NZ, with massive sales in the UK, you can get cheap quality goods right now. In NZ you would never be able to get these goods at low prices, imported goods are expensive and hard to find like cheeses, wines, clothes etc. European/American Brands are hard to find and when you do find them they are expensive. If you love kit forget it!
> 
> NZ is very isolated, you can't just hop over to France, Spain, Greece and Italy in 2 hours. There is really only Australia and that's it. Once your in NZ you stay in NZ if your happy to do that. Unless you have lots of money! Mr brother thinks you need $100k salary in NZ to be living a good life at minimum, I comment on that. Low paying NZers - most people go to Australia they get a much better deal ,in NZ its a real struggle I was told. My brother thinks good jobs are IT, finance, accountant work etc. If you have these skills.
> 
> NZ is a great country, I'm biased! But there are some negatives like any place. I just want a relaxed life soon and more importantly for my kids to have fun. NZ in a great place for kids!


A brilliant summary of life in NZ. I am up in Tauranga, so don't notice the cold and wind quite so much (although with these storms that keep sweeping through, you wouldn't think it was summer). Yes, I think clothes are certainly cheaper and better quality in the UK, and food can be more expensive (I mange to feed a family of 5, with nappies and formula, for $300 per week, and that's without scrimping), but in terms of what is good for my children...it's NZ every time without hesitation. And our relatives have been over and agree with this whole-heartedly too.

Thanks for your Kiwi-perspective

Jen


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## mortirolo

Janicz said:


> I love reading commentaries like this... We've lived in London for the past 4 years, and after spending 6 weeks in NZ we loved it and decided to try to emigrate there. We are positive we'll have a better quality of life in NZ than in the UK


I think the quality of life in NZ is great, in regards to enjoying outdoor life and having fun with the family, plenty of sports activities like mountain biking, hiking, golf, tennis, fishing. In the UK it's a different way of life.


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## Song_Si

Hi - good post; a comment on



> The low amount of traffic, the quietness of the streets


if you were in Wellington, it's due to so many people going away for Xmas/NY, Akld can be the same. There was a figure quoted before the break (just how they get it I don't know) stating 1.67 million NZers were 'on the road' over the break, the great emptying-out esp of Akld/Wgtn. I used to enjoy being in Wgtn when everyone else had gone away - parking, no traffic, quiet shops - was the best time to live there in some ways.

Hope you saw some sunshine, doesn't seem to to have been a very good summer so far.
cheers!


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## anski

mortirolo said:


> I am from NZ, my first holiday back home for about 5 years. I'm from Wellington.
> 
> The 1st thing I noticed as the fresh air, was nice! Living in London, though we do visit the Italian lakes in summer or France, Spain - just not the same. I've listed some negatives and positives from my perspective as a kiwi and who has been living in the UK since 1992 (Switzerland 2000-2004).
> 
> Positives
> 
> I have young children, the 1st thing I noticed was they were so happy playing with their cousins and running, the just couldn't stop running. Wanting to play cricket, skate down the street whatever, they just loved the freedom. Compared with London we may kick the football or climb trees in Richmond Park, London for example. Just not the same fun. They loved the fun of just exploring around the wonderful landscape.
> 
> The size of the houses and back yard space, a real bonus. In London and mostly in the UK unless you have a Surrey mansion, you are limited to backyard space and sizes of the Victorian houses are generally small in London/UK.
> 
> Wellington's cafés were really nice, good service and good hearty food, missed this!
> 
> The low amount of traffic, the quietness of the streets, everyone seemed relaxed. Not like the hustle and bustle of London.
> 
> Prices of property are way cheaper in NZ than UK, double garage, 4 bedrooms etc for the price of a 2 bedroom apartment or 2 bed house in London.
> 
> Negatives
> 
> The prices of food, outrageous. I calculated that even at the old rate of 3 to 1 last time I was back wouldn't of really made much difference to be honest. The imported foods, were ridiculous. Basic produce was ok, but I like to try different foods and treat my family. Didn't really venture into any restaurants so can't comment on that aspect. Beer was expensive about £5 for ¾ of a pint!. £3.60 in London for a full pint.
> 
> Houses were freezing, my parents house. I would wake up in the morning and be cold, remember this is NZ's summer! Coming out of the shower was like been outside. Houses have no insulation and single glazing windows. I'd forgotten about this. Mum & Dad said just put your woolly jumper, you have to be kidding! I was complaining to them all the time about this.
> 
> I spend about £120 a week on shopping for 4 of us at Sainsburys! In NZ my brother spent about $400 (£200) a week for not even as good quality products as the UK, most of the goods were basic. More complaining to family!
> 
> My Overview
> 
> NZ is a great place to bring up children, that's one of the reasons I'm thinking of moving back over the next 2-3 years. I would never move back without having under floor gas heating, whatever the cost, period! Or double glazing windows and good insulation! Those heat pumps are a joke, there air conditioning units!
> 
> If you like nice clothes, great shopping etc. You can forget in NZ, with massive sales in the UK, you can get cheap quality goods right now. In NZ you would never be able to get these goods at low prices, imported goods are expensive and hard to find like cheeses, wines, clothes etc. European/American Brands are hard to find and when you do find them they are expensive. If you love kit forget it!
> 
> NZ is very isolated, you can't just hop over to France, Spain, Greece and Italy in 2 hours. There is really only Australia and that's it. Once your in NZ you stay in NZ if your happy to do that. Unless you have lots of money! Mr brother thinks you need $100k salary in NZ to be living a good life at minimum, I comment on that. Low paying NZers - most people go to Australia they get a much better deal ,in NZ its a real struggle I was told. My brother thinks good jobs are IT, finance, accountant work etc. If you have these skills.
> 
> NZ is a great country, I'm biased! But there are some negatives like any place. I just want a relaxed life soon and more importantly for my kids to have fun. NZ in a great place for kids!


Yes I would say a very accurate summary. I spent the last 2 years in Cyprus & Tenerife (with lots of travelling around Europe & to UK) & returned here in September.
At this stage feeling very unsettled (we live in Auckland which I don't particularly like) & undecided whether to move to Hawkes Bay or move back overseas.
Australia is not an option for us, lived there 32 years & sort of outgrew it.

Auckland has traffic problems if living in certain parts, I live in Mission Bay & commute to CBD varies from 15 -25 minutes depending on the time I leave home.

However both NZ & AU are a long way from anywhere so you cannot hop on a short flight to somewhere different.
Australia has it's problems I speak to many Kiwi's who have moved accross for higher income but say they are no better off because of higher cost of living & don't forget you pay stamp duty when purchasing a house or car so makes them much more expensive.
We have floor vented gas central heating & the house is fully insulated so warm & cosy but we have been using the central heating in December because of the non existent summer!


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## anthem

Neil M said:


> By the way, I assume your review is basically of Wellington. Can you say how much of this perspective is applicable to Auckland, and perhaps other cities in NZ? I'm thinking of the shopping, food and housing issues in particular. Thanks.


Same in auckland as Welly, houses are pretty crap here, food expensive, you name it and it costs alot. I'm earning over 100k and we are family of 4 and its only enough to manage. Beautiful scenery, that's it I'm afraid.


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## topcat83

Houses are getting better! 

We're living in a lovely well built new house with insulation, double glazing and heating/air conditioning about 45 minutes south of Auckland which we bought for a very reasonable price.

Shop around!


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## mortirolo

anthem said:


> Same in auckland as Welly, houses are pretty crap here, food expensive, you name it and it costs alot. I'm earning over 100k and we are family of 4 and its only enough to manage. Beautiful scenery, that's it I'm afraid.


Yeah, sounds like NZ is a struggle even when I was there recently for holiday. I mean the UK can be sometimes as well but the quality of living is much higher in Europe than in NZ if you were earning a relative wage of what you get now in NZ. Houses especially are of poor quality. I have a builder mate here in UK originally from NZ he's been here 15 years. Says the houses in NZ are extremely poor with insulation, the older houses are well built sub 1940's but without insulation. 1980's are ok. Avoid 50's, 60's , 70's,90's and 2000's! I asked him why, for a start during the war there we no decent builders around and lot of cowboy work was carried out, mainly extended houses through basements etc for returned serviceman. He does say that 1990's built houses are so bad it's hard to describe. the materials were cheap and nasty, he knows he built some! The problem with insulating old houses....there a lot of gaps in the wood and is very hard to seal properly from air pockets. 

Anyway I still want to go back to NZ cause of family, but there is no way I would come from the UK to NZ (being British the other way around) unless there was lack of money and no hope of a decent job or future in the UK. There are so many things to do in Europe, buy a little house in France/Italy for retirement if you have a money! 

I don't know how the stats are gathered from International records that show NZ has highest, highest that. A lot of these stats are rubbish.


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## anski

mortirolo said:


> Says the houses in NZ are extremely poor with insulation, the older houses are well built sub 1940's but without insulation.


 True, my house was built in 1931 by a Master builder from the UK who then lived in it for 36 years. It's construction is double brick & not the hollow bricks that were introduced later. The piers are brick & these continue up throughout the house & all of the internal walls are also brick. With underfloor & ceiling insulation insulation & a gas floor vented central heating system our entire house is warm at the flick of a switch. Also because of it's construction materials never had a leak, crack that so many of the newer houses are prone to.



mortirolo said:


> Avoid 50's, 60's ,


 Sorry I have to disagree with this statement, many of the Housing New Zealand (State homes) were built in this period of weatherboard & these homes are eagerly sought because they are solid, easy to extend & have no weather tight issues.



mortirolo said:


> He does say that 1990's built houses are so bad it's hard to describe. the materials were cheap and nasty, he knows he built some!


I have to agree with this, but the demand was enormous for Mediterranean style houses which are totally unsuitable to the climate, if these houses had been properly built then ok maybe no problems but at the same time there was also a housing boom and couple that with a shortage of skilled building trade workers & you are almost certain to have problems with any house built by unqualified workers!



mortirolo said:


> Anyway I still want to go back to NZ cause of family, but there is no way I would come from the UK to NZ (being British the other way around) unless there was lack of money and no hope of a decent job or future in the UK. There are so many things to do in Europe, buy a little house in France/Italy for retirement if you have a money!


I think most people moving from the UK to NZ have had their fill of holidays in Europe & the way Europe & the € is going right now they are looking for somewhere with more stability & a safe environment for their families.


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