Moving...costs and expectations

[sensiblebear]

Hiya,
We moved from the UK to NZ (Whangarei, Northland) last October and have settled in nicely. Not sure about regional differences but we rent a bigish 4 bed/ lifestyle lot (1ha) for $350 a week (its all by the week here) with a $1200 bond plus two weeks rent and a little set up charge. Around $2000 initially, if I remember correctly.
2 and 3 bed houses in town go from $250 to $300 a week mostly.

Cost of living here is not as cheap as people make out though, a cucumber for example is $5 at the moment! There is a lot of seasonal variation compared to the UK and fresh food yo yos up and down weekly. It is a small market you see and subject to localised problems. The UK places such big orders it can source from anywhere in the world.

Some things are cheaper though, such as car insurance and road tax. Petrol is around $1.65 a litre.

We are trying to do it on one salary so that I can stay home with the kids and we have REALLY had to go back to basics to manage on one salary of nz$72k a year. There is not much left at the end of the month I can tell you and that is for no frills living. How people manage on the National average of $50k or so I can't imagine.

NZ is great. Our only criticisms are that the houses are rubbish compared to UK standards! No insulation and night time single figure temps make for VERY chilly mornings and evenings, loads of condensation, mould and damp stuff. The other is that second hand cars are expensive compared to the UK (new is cheaper though!) and cars are not looked after here, have seen 10 year old cars that have never been cleaned........phew!

The locals are extremely hardy folk, it must be all that pioneer spirit!!

Let me know if you need any specific info from here, the settlement support units are great and hold regular meetings and can help with most things as well.

Good luck