Immigrants: What keeps you in NZ?

[A.C. Slater]

For those of you who have moved from other countries, and have chosen to stay indefinitely, what are some of the things about life in New Zealand that makes you stay? Especially interested to hear from US expats.

[tigerlily]

Hard to say for sure if we will stay forever, but for my family, we want to stay for the lifestyle.

Much slower pace of life than the US, people have hobbies here and time to pursue them. Adults as well as kids! Partly because you are expected to leave work at 5, and start work at 8:30 or 9. And people really do it. At least in government jobs (someone in private industry jump in if you are expected to work longer hours).

Kids aren't worried about having the latest coolest sneakers. Hanging out at the beach is better than hanging out at the mall.

The weather is much better than the snowy parts of America we lived in. Much less rainy too. But then we lived in Oregon and Washington.

My OH pretty well has his dream job. Though he worked 3 years in a bad job before this opportunity came. I'm hoping to finish school and get a good job too.

Much less fear than in America. Not so many guns. Not so sharp political divisions. I don't know how my friends vote and I don't care. In the US I did, so much pain at dinner parties if you lean the wrong way politically.

Most food is local. Less issues with food poisoning/contamination.

Made good friends here.

I don't really want to live in America. I could be tempted if someone offered a job in the UK, but that might be because I have heard about how good it can be there from people on the board who are homesick!

Good luck with your decision!

[Super_BQ]

1) The earning ability in NZ and 2) NZ born relatives - close family network.

[Mamee & Co]

The weather coming from Scotland
Less materialistic
Can hang out at the beach
Scenery and space is fantastic, so little over crowding for city living
The job thing though, I have to disagree with Tigerlily, but then I work for a US subsidiary.....which maybe explains it!!!

[TJH]

Our perspective as US expats....

We love the slower pace of life and more people actually living the "work to live" philosophy as opposed to the "live to work" too many people in the US follow. People seem to define themselves less by their occupation than you experience in the US.

Society is much less materialistic here. I am not saying it does not exist to some degree, but relative to the US it is much much less.

People don't identify themselves by their political or religious affiliations like you see in the US. We have been here about 3.5 years and I don't think I have ever had a serious political conversation with anyone. The political divisions you experience in the US are not anywhere nearly as deep and dividing here and people don't define themselves by their political beliefs. One big reason for this (at least in my opinion) is that people here do not tie morality to politics, where as in the US I think that this is very much the case. People generally don't care about your political beliefs here nor do they ask or talk about it.

People here seem more happy and content in general here relative to the US.

I really love the fact that Kiwi's generally have a very good understanding of the world outside of their country as many of them are well traveled and have lived abroad.

We are big into outdoor pursuits - camping, tramping, fishing, hunting - so NZ has obvious benefits in that area.

We could earn more money in the US doing the exact same things we do here so that is not a reason for us.

There are some things we miss about the US, or should I say we miss about Alaska where we came from (which is very different from the US in general) but so far those things we miss have not come close to outweighing the things we love about living here.

[A.C. Slater]

Awesome answers, guys. Thank you! This is just what I need to jump start the excitement about my July move to Auckland. I really think this is the best move for our family right now. I have to admit, though, it's really hard telling close family and friends that you're going to the other side of the earth indefinitely.

[Hagabel]

Slower pace of life, importance of work /life balance.
Less stress on long hours, more importance regarding family time.
Kiwis friendly, great way of life for kids.
Less materialism then USA.
Generally less wet.(moved from WA)
Life a lot more fun.
More time together as a family.
Less people, traffic and pollution.
Noone gives a crap how you voted.
Less guns.

[deanied]

I'm not here permanently, but what keeps me wanting to stay is the sun, beaches, and all the gorgeous blue and green. NZ just seems so bright to me and you really feel happier in such nice surroundings.

And also the warmth (relative to Canada!)

[Manks]

I think most of my thoughts have been covered : less materialism, more trust, friendly people, scenery, be accepted for who you are, not who people think you should be. I could go on. Cost of things is one thing that NZ doesn't have going for it, but everything else outweighs this

[edw123]

I'm a UK Ex-Pat, I guess for me the fact my wife is a Kiwi and is much happier near her family is the key, but I guess others are I do like the pace of life at weekends (in Christchurch) - i.e. go to the Malls, Beach, walks, local pool and generally speaking, there's rarely queues and massive crowds, so it's just, well, relaxing.

Open spaces sounds odd, but I guess I like the fact that streets are wide, and houses not close together, kind of adds to the atmosphere really.

In ChCh, like the fact near the beach, the mountains, international aiport and lots to do for cheap prices.

And like the fact town centres (OK - not much left in ChCh, but anyway) are reasonably pleasant places to go, not all bookies and pound shops like in the UK.

Beer excellent too.

One thing I would add though is I do personally believe that unless you've come from LA or Central London, the less materialism, friendly people, accepted for who you are etc. is rubbish; people are no more or less friendly here than any other western country, from the UK to UK, Aus etc., no less or more material (I've had the "look at my rolex, porsche etc" types around), and arguably you're LESS likely to be accepted for who you are in ChCh than many other countries, UK included. Getting a job in NZ if you're not a Kiwi is far, far tougher than it is in the UK, and same for "unlocking" anything else where if you're not a local, it's much tougher.

I'd judge the scenary stuff with a pinch of salt too. Milford is on S Iland, about 7hrs drive for me, I could have driven to the Grampians in that time with equally stunning scenery, I just didn't. Just like I don't pop 7hrs to Milford. It's something people don't do.

I'd also say "horses for courses" is particularly the case. Whilst I like ChCh, have stayed in other places in NZ where'd I'd have gone insane; I found small towns utterly horrible, stench of hopelessness and poverty all around, all either retirement villages (Cambridge) or ********* (everywhere between Hamilton and Auckland), Auckland like London but with a worse standard of life, and other places like Palmerston North etc. utter hovels (John Cleese got it right).

So it's about getting the right balance, and I guess the large number of ex-pats in ChCh live here for a reason....