What can we expect?
It looks like the average climate (temps and rainfall) of Newcastle is pretty similar to that of Wellington, NZ.
What about cost of living? Accommodation?
What do we need to be aware of?
What should we bring with us?
Thanks in advance!
Cheers
Nona
Cost of living: I have a very dear friend in Nelson, we email at least once a day and talk about everything including COL. From what I can tell from her emails, it's a little less expensive to live here in the UK but it depends on what you're buying as usual, lol-it almost seems to balance out. For example, she paid $40NZD for a new kettle, the same model costs £20 here in the UK-not much difference really. We both own our homes outright so I can't advise on mortgage or rental costs, sorry. I live in NE-Central Scotland and it's my understanding housing costs vary wildly even within the same post codes, so I wouldn't even begin to try to say what housing costs. Have you looked at any of the estate agent sites? Google (or what ever search engine you use) the area you're going to, and you'll likely get thousands of hits
Define what you mean by 'what do we need to be aware of'-do you mean socio-economically, or availability of good schools for your children, or crime stats, or...To be honest my observation as a current events junkie is that things are difficult all over, that good schools seem to be what the parents, teachers, and councils are willing to put into them, and that crime seems to be up everywhere in everything from vandalism to violent attacks like muggings and domestic violence.
Bring with-anything you can't bear to be parted with (pictures in photo albums especially), and comfort items like favourite cookbook, other reference books, and hobby materials if affordably transportable. OH! Bring plenty of foul weather gear, lol! Woolies and wellies-cannot have too many
When I came over I left my sewing machine (sniffle) in the States because shipping it would have cost nearly as much as the machine cost new. I left a lot behind in the States when I came over because the shipping costs were so high, or because it was an electrical item I knew I would be better off replacing here in the UK rather than trying to use a transformer with.
But I did bring my favourite cookbook, and quite a lot of my sewing tools and notions I knew already from research to be very expensive to replace in the UK (crochet hooks, embroidery skeins-fabric-hoops-frames, sewing patterns, reference books, measuring tape, etc); I had to leave my scissors which grieved me as we'd been sewing together for decades, but the length meant shipping them was out of the question.