The Mega What were your goals and did you achieve them thread?

[jambo]

For people who have made it, what were your goals when you moved to kiwiland?

For people like me who haven't, what are your goals for moving to NZ?

Mine are,

1. Be a long way from MIL.
2. Be somewhere with less people and quiter roads and have a more relaxed time of it.
3. Be somwhere warmer and sunnier than the UK but not baking hot.
4. Be somewhere we can afford a decent sized house with some land.
5. Try to grow a lot of what we eat and get into a healthier way of life.
6. Be among more relaxed people who don't care so much about what you earn or what sort of car you drive and take you for the person you are.

There are probably more but I can't think what they are. It's a good idea to write them down. Once I've been inNZ a while I can look at them again and see how we've done.

[expatella]

Great idea of thread jambo

Here is what I am expecting from our move:

• I am willing to move somewhere less crowdy (Paris' density of population is 21 196 hab./km2 Auckland metro 2,653.6/km2 (6,872.7/sq mi))
• We want to give our son a chance to be in a place were children can be children.
• Offer our kid a school system not as tough and rigid as the one he would have to enroll if staying in France
• Give our son the possibility to do plenty of sports. Offer him an environment where he is not the odd one swimming at 5.
• Give him a chance to make English his main language
• Save him from the hassle of cursive letters and humiliation for not tracing them perfectly.
• This one is probably hubby's top: live in a house, have a garden to put a barbie in
• Hubby N°2: have a garage. I understand it sounds odd, but when living in an apartment having this extra space looks very attractive
• My N°1: live by the sea
• One important for me: stop making that many Euros that don't even pay for our bills, most of them being thrown in school, apartment and taxes (taxes being N°1, Apartment N°2 and school N°3 )
• Taking about taxes, stop paying so many social contributions that we are never untitled to benefit anyway.
• People say the country is remote and you can't jump on a plane to be quickly in Italy or Spain or Germany or else. Here, we can never afford to ever go anywhere as everything is so pricey. Not being able to visit other countries will be because of the distance, and hopefully will not have the bitter taste of not being able to do it because all the money went into our social contributions.
• Live somewhere where the pace seems more human
• Get more family time
• Stop living in a country where the word "complicated" can apply to pretty much everything
• Stop shouting "mind the dog shit" every other step
• Have an ordinary life

It will be really interesting to compare this list once we have made the move.

So far, my fears are:

• Having to drive on the other side of the road with a steering wheel on what is for me the passenger's side
• The huge packing when we leave

I guess the list will grow when the moving date is approaching!

[mikeandcaroline]

Some of the above plus

Living in a country that feels as if it has a future
Living in a country that its people are proud of
Living in a country where if you work hard you seem to get somewhere

Don't get me wrong I know NZ is not perfect, nowhere is, but the UK feels like a tired old country now where everyone feels tired and old whether they are or not.

[Hagabel]

Less materialism
Kids can be kids
More work-life balance
Less structure/better all round schooling
Saner country
Better quality of life (not talking about physical things)
As far away from certain countries as we could get physically

Did we acheive these?


Yes...and loving it!!!!!

[Falcon_XR6]

We wanted somewhere safer than the violent drug fueled, overpopulated, downward spiraling UK to bring our son up in.
Yes we did achieve it, and more besides.

For people who have made it, what were your goals when you moved to kiwiland?
4. Be somewhere we can afford a decent sized house with some land.

It depends where you go but I would say this will only happen if you have a lot of cash left over after you have tied up all your UK loose ends and have a very good and well paid job here, something to remember is that a salary of $100,000 a year looks fine when you write it down 'till you realize just how much tax you have to pay and just how they calculate it.
Check it out here.. http://www.ird.govt.nz/how-to/taxrat...etaxrates.html

Decent property in a decent area over here isn't cheap and don't be fooled into thinking every NZ house has a couple of acres of land with it 'cause that just isn't true.
Houses round us are selling anywhere from $460,000 to $1,000,000 (less than 2$ to the £ now and falling) This is the reason we rent.
Sorry if that wasn't exactly what you wanted to hear but they are some of the facts.

NZ is still a nice place to live, yes it does have its faults, but we have absolutely no intentions of ever going back to the UK not even to visit or for a holiday.
You need to do solid research on all aspects of emigrating here before you do emigrate or you could be in for a big shock. What you have to remember is it's all swings and roundabouts and just what are you prepared to give up to get what you want for your family.
example : - in the UK, between us we ran 5 cars plus my "Toy", a V8 Chevrolet Pickup Truck. All our 5 cars were performance models not just standard family cars, V6 SAAB Griffin, 2.2 Prelude V-tec, 1.6 Civic VTi, 1.8 Civic VTi and a Mitsubishi FTO Version-R. Over here I have a '97 Falcon XR6 and my wife has a 19 year old Mazda Lantis.

Cheers
G

[Sam B]

I wanted:

- to live somewhere less populated
- to be able to afford more land
- to put some distance between me and my family
- worry less about politics, and stop the anxiety that arose when I watched the news and read the papers
- have an adventure and explore somewhere new.

Yes, we achieved all these goals, although when you live far from family, you tend to end up seeing them for longer all at once, which can be worse. I hardly read the papers now, and I don't watch TV anymore as it's crap, so I no longer worry about what is going on in the world. Which is nice.

[dede]

I want

to live near my sister so that my kids can be near their closest relatives
to live near other rellies and friends
to live near/by the sea
to have better work-life balance (shorter commute/work from home?)
also to live in a country with a future...and the kiwis will start coming home IMHO
not to worry about medical insurance
to have a house which doesn't feel like it's rented (low property taxes)
to have a nice place for my kids to grow up in where they can be outside
to live in country which will soon be close to energy independent
to watch the southern constellations

[Dell]

I want:

To live in the place that is my home
to live in a place where the temps don't range between -15C and 46C and I'm not shovelling snow.
to live in a place where I don't live in fear of treading on a rattlesnake
to live in a place where it is SO dry that it hurts my nose when I breathe in
to live in a country where my roots go back to my great great great greats.
to lie in bed and night and listen for the moreporks
to buy a house that is on or near a Kiwi reserve so I can hear kiwi at night
to have bush out the back of the house and sea out the front
to live in a country where when I hear a plane go over, I'm glad I'm not on it
to live without the worry of 'what if I get sick' and without the huge health care expense
to live where I understand the sense of humour and culture
to live where I can just go to New World and BUY a pavlova without having to make it! ;-)
to live where I have a huge extended family
to live in a country where you don't have to worry about who has a gun under their shirt, in their car, etc.
to live in a country where just because someone is religious, it doesn't mean that you KNOW their political party.
to live in a peaceful country where my tax dollars aren't buying bombs

[BigRod]

to live in country which will soon be close to energy independent

I am afraid we will be far from energy independent - we will approach 90% of *electricity* from renewable sources and the bulk of the rest from gas, *BUT* a major fraction of our energy use is transportation which we have neither the infrastructure to power from electricity or independent energy supply.