Hello and Goodbye

AKL,
originally uploaded by iblogster.

One of the awful things about emigrating is saying goodbye. I was struck as I passed through Auckland airport that it has been the site of so many emotional hello and goodbye moments. Magnified by the huge distances involved.

Robin Williams said " Its not the end of the world, but you can see it from there."

As I arrived home and Millie my 3 year old ran toward me so excited, that was a good moment. Saying good bye to my mother in England or to all the people who visit as they return home. Or hearing that close friends or relatives are ill or going through hard times, that's hard. You do have to have a serious control on you emotions to hold it together.

So do take into account your ability to handle the strength of that kind of emotion. It can and will effect the ability for you to make a real success of the whole experience.

Cost of Living

The Cost of Living in New Zealand is widely mis-represented in my view. If you look here you will find the latest figures for a set of everyday items as provided by the Government. Now I suppose I could be described as non typical, that is probably true in New Zealand and in the Uk I suppose I am very "London", luckily too old to be a YUPPIE, I can't even remember what is stands for. I suppose I am at a stage in my life where I'm not extravagant but I don't just want the basics! I usually tell people that you should forget the exchange rate and not convert. Just think pounds instead of dollars because you may well earn 90k NZD a year but it will be only 30k GBP. Now a litre of fuel seems great at $1.61 NZD which converts to about 66 pence a litre BUT with the wage difference it is much more like £1.61 a litre and thats expensive!

A Child's book is $35 and that is really expensive yes you can get a loaf of sliced white for $2 but we eat whole grain and its $4.30 and that is expensive! Housing is cheaper if you compare and convert. But a decent detached home in a nice area will cost you $600,000 probably nearer $700,000 and on NZ wages that is expensive.

And wine is the surprise, a decent bottle will cost between $15 and $20, using my comparison thats £15 to £20 and that is expensive! And they are for wines produced in New Zealand!

New Info

Now in the interests of supplying as much information as I can about New Zealand and all from the perspective of this is what I would have wanted to know! I have added a new feed it lists all the main cultural events coming up in the country.

If you think that the site suffers from information overload do tell me. I want this to be as useful as possible to those who are thinking of making the move.

I'll pick up writing our story later today or tonight.

A thought

I'll be back on track with the usual information leaden posts when I next write.

I'd be interested to know how anyone reading this found us? I can't seem to get the site closer to the top of the google search results. Any tips again greatfully received.

London - first time in 2 years

So I am sitting in departures after my first visit home in over 2 years. I have never been away from home for such a long period of time. And for some reason the blog software is coming up in German!

I cant pretend that is isn't unsettling returning for the first time. I am very glad that I left it the full 2 years, I still call the UK home though which is very indicative I think. Not that I found much joy in London. The plane was unable to dock at its pod on returning from France, a half hour wait and for my colleague a missed flight to LA. Returning from Norwich the over head lines were damaged resulting in the cancellation of every other train. And I had to stand on the Piccadilly line all the way bar the last stop.

Interestingly one of Becca's gripes about shopping in NZ was mirrored in London. Millie has the leggo zoo and I saw the extension pack in Norwich, a lion, elephant and keeper. a great return present however, I had also promised myself I'd search out the favorite rocket ship from little Einsteins, so I didn't get the zoo. Knowing that I was going to go to Hamleys where they would have everything. Often in NZ one sets off shopping with a goal only to find your target sold out or unavailable in New Zealand, Becca's common cause for complaint. On this occasion in Hamleys not only was there no little Einsteins merchandise but the loggo zoo extension was discontinued. Now I have nothing and refuse to get yet another cuddly toy for the hell of it. As a last resort I tried the terminal 3 Hamleys Shop, only to find the assistants playing cards, yes and using a monopoly set as a table!! and very disinterested in helping me! All this against a back drop of either monosyllabic youths on their mobiles swearing at their girl friends to over enthusiastic young guns telling the whole train the nature of their business or recounting some drunken episode after work the previous night. Also the joy of young men playing bangra over the speakers of their PDA's on the tube, a new phenomena to me. I love bangra (sorry for the mis spelling) and have nothing but praise for the multicultural societies of the world. I just don't want to listen to anyone else's music while I am on the tube.

So all in all an interesting few days do I want come home? An interesting question, yes for the countryside, the friends, the family, yes for the proximity to Europe, yes for the Natural History Museum the Tate and the National Portrait Gallery. The pollution the noise, the speed, the rudeness you can frankly keep. Ah the TV, fantastic! Oh and the one thing that really struck me? The hard sell, people actively pushing stuff at you on the street, not street traders but shop owners on the pavement trying to get you into their shops. AND the will Kiosk, yes in Norwich, I agree it has a aging population, but a lady offering to write a legal last will and testament, in a shopping mall. Look my Father died in testate and it is a real pain, but making you final bequest between Subway and phones4u, is their no dignity!

For now it is New Zealand, but that could change in the next hour, day or year! Where ever it is its with my lovely family who I've missed terribly. It took me 42 years to find them, being apart from them seems wrong!

An appology

Sorry for the lack of information recently, I am back in the UK on business, my first trip home in two years, all very strange! I'll tell more of my impressions and my feelings as soon as I get home at the weekend.

House Style and Leaks

What houses can you buy or rent, well just about anything but remember the styles of construction and the services are going to be very different. Top of the list central heating, its non existent here in NZ. Now I know that there a shouts of "fantastic, it must be so warm they don't need it" Well I've not met a person who hasn't spent an evening curled up on the sofa wearing two jumpers, under a duvet cuddled up to a frozen partner. It gets cold in New Zealand at night and in an old drafty villa you will be frozen.

Many homes are built on very steep slopes, some home are build on rather thin looking stilts with only a few bricks as hard standing, it can all come as a shock. And most houses are built of wood. And this leads on to a very real issue of leaky homes, beware of these, usually timber framed homes with some sort of cladding. For more detail about leaky homes follow the link.

Above This is a typical architect designed home, you can see the top floor has the living and the bottom at least one bedroom. this is often to maximize the view.

Many of the streets in Auckland will have fairly modest homes next to multi million dollar houses. The same rules for investment apply, but the worst house in the best street. Takapuna beach has homes worth 10 million lining it together with several very homely looking places.

The word batch is used to describe a kiwi's second home. Only 10 years ago this would have been the UK notion of a beach house, a slightly better than garden shed for carefree holidays by the sea. By the sea is the key because coastal property is at a premium and many of those very cute (and they really were great) lillte hose have been sold on for thousands or millions and the land now home to some great looking places.

Don't let the exterior of some homes put you off. New Zealanders are very stylish and quite funky in their taste, the interiors can be very inspiring.


One of the really strange things if you are 40 and from the UK are the power lines. We forget that when we were young there were power lines feeding most homes in our streets. Now they are all under ground in the UK and in modern estates you don't even see telegraph poles anymore. Here you can have half the national grid just out side little Johnnies bed room but the street lighting is still rather dim for some reason. Anyhow, if you are sensitive to the unproven issues around electromagnetic radiation chose your home carefully.

If you are going to Live in style in Auckland then the Villa is the home of choice. Especially in Grey Lynn, Ponsonby, Parnell or Devonport. But they are hard to maintain and can be cold as I mentioned. But done right they are fantastic places to live. They also offer great opportunities as "do ups" and you can make money at doing up homes in NZ.

There are great places to live and a fantastic choice of homes to live in. Enjoy the experience of buying a home we did and you don't hear many English people saying that!

Where to Live

Where to live is such a personal thing isn't it, I don't think I can begin to tell anyone where to live. I can only supply my own descriptive opinion as to the similarities! I only know Auckland and New Zealand is a big place, we've traveled around but for the moment much to the annoyance of any non Auckland kiwis reading this I'm stick to what I know.

In terms of who lives where and not the look obviously

• Ponsonby = Islington
• Remuera = Richmond
• Parnell = Chiswick
• Devonport = Harpenden with a great view (and lots of UK accents!)
• Brown Bay Brits and Braai (thata South African BBQ)
• St Heliers = Guildford on Sea

Hey look I could pobably come up with a big list and it ammuses me but probably no one else! Get the book "Where to live in Auckland" and you'll be closer to understanding.

To Buy or Rent.
The Property market in Auckland keeps threatening to burst, the wise money is on flattening off rather than a straight bust. I think we can say the huge gains of the last 10 years are over. So renting is not going to lose you much money, you will still be paying off someone else's mortgage though. However, selling a home in New Zealand costs a fortune much more than the 1.5% to 3% you'll have been used to. So mistakes at buying in the wrong area are not easily fixed. Rent and get a feel for the place over 6 month then decide where to buy is, I think the best advice.

There are lots of great on line real estate web sites on the net. Armed with the book and a fastish computer and you should get a good idea of price before you arrive. But do go and look at the place, they are very good at taking very flattering pictures here. I've added some RSS feeds of Rentals and Properties, I'll add all the estate agent sites I recommend just as soon as I can.

The whole process is going to be much simpler than the UK. The contact will be quite literally cut and pasted in front of you and I mean with a pritt stick ans scissors! No joking! There is a lot to be wary of and my next post will talk through some of the process.

Guardian Abroad - Riches to Rags(ish)

The Guardian abroad is a great place to find blogs like this one, they are all reviewed and categorized. I'm pleased that ours is one of the more credible! You can find the review here.

I am delighted to see a readers review but a little disturbed that our story is described as

a lovely Riches to Rags('ish) story

So to Becks, the lover of Richard and Judy (I was series director for about 2 years on the UK morning show This Morning) I'd say thank you for the review. We are not quite in rags yet but then again I have never been rich either. My cute reply is that...

I have never been richer, I have a fantastic partner, we have 3 gorgeous children and we live 5 minutes from a beach, well about 6 beaches actually.

I think the good people of New Zealand would be perturbed to discover that coming here relegates a person to a rags life style!