Aussies and Kiwis....

[InTheSand]

X-ray wrote:
Sooooo....no Kiwis wanting to offer an opinion? Miles? Castellen? InTheSand? Hmmmm?

Heh! I'm a Pommy ex-pat! I've only been in NZ since March 2005.

I've never been to Australia (yet!), so can't really comment there...

But as for New Zealand, pros (at least for me, and in no particular order) are:
* Fantastic vast areas of unspoiled countryside, great scenery and outdoor-oriented lifestyle, etc
* Only 4 million people in a country just over the size of the UK - no overcrowding
* Few traffic problems (unless you live in Auckland!) - in the South Island, on a three hour drive during the day, I'll probably only see ten cars outside of the town areas!
* Friendly people (genuinely)
* Good system for buying a house - it's all signed off within days of an agreement, none of the months and months of uncertainty like there is in the UK (and no such thing as gazumping)
* A relaxed and laid-back pace of life
* A reasonable climate (especially in summer - weeks of great sunny BBQ weather!), and not too hot or cold
* No Australians!! (Just kidding, the Aussies I've met have been good fun!)

Cons (again for me and in no order) are:
* Low wages, cost of living is actually fairly high
* Imported items cost a fortune and take forever to get here
* Computer-related goods (e.g. printers, etc) can actually cost *MORE* in NZ (for NZ/Aus models) than in the UK when doing a direct £ to $ conversion... Unfair! But the manufacturers quote small market size, etc...
* IT jobs are hard to find outside Christchurch, Wellington or Auckland
* The resident telecoms operator is a privatised monopoly (think British Telecom in its worst days of the early 1980s and multiply it by a few thousand), resulting in expensive line rental and expensive capped broadband with no alternative (as other ISPs have to buy their capacity from the incumbent)
* No digital telly (though this is set to change in 2007) unless you pay for the rather poor offering from Sky NZ or make do with a handful of FTA channels, and no digital radio (yet)
* Cold houses! Broadly speaking: no double glazing or central heating, no mains gas (aside from a few areas). Heating in most houses is via a fire in the lounge, using either wood or coal. More modern places use electrically controlled heat pumps but electricity prices are quite high

So, in a nutshell: I really enjoy living here and wouldn't consider going back to the UK.

However, beware the cost of living. It's easy to see NZ as a cheap place when you're bringing in pounds or US dollars, but you'll get a shock when you start earning and thinking in NZ dollars.

 - Ali

[X-ray]

Thanks Ali, that is good info.
So let me ask you then, do you think a radiographer can earn enough bucks in New Zealand to be comfortable?

[smithy]

Both of those countries are fab.  I love them both.  Whichever you choose, it won't be a bad decision!

But if I had to choose I think it'd have to be NZ.  I love that it's just like England, but even more English than England, in a funny kind of way.  It's what England should be like.

And there's lots of space, hardly any people, they drive on the correct side of the road, amazing countryside, there's subtropical weather up north and there's no nasty animals.

Australia is very cool too of course.  It a young, confident nation, and perhaps on its way to becoming a world power.  The people are so friendly, the weather is great, and it's still quite Englishy.

[InTheSand]

X-ray wrote:
Do you think a radiographer can earn enough bucks in New Zealand to be comfortable?

Err... I guess so, if you stick to one of the larger towns or cities. A good place to check is on the Seek job site, but often jobs are shown there without a salary range, which can be a pain!

It's good that you have the immigration stuff sorted. Quite a lot of the job ads state that you have to be resident in NZ and with the right visas/permits before you'll even be considered. I'm here on a family working visa at present (my other half's a Kiwi), and I need to apply for residency very soon, currently getting all the evidence together to support my application.

smithy wrote:
I had to choose I think it'd have to be NZ. I love that it's just like England, but even more English than England, in a funny kind of way. It's what England should be like.

I wouldn't say NZ is like England, or that it's particularly English - the old notion that NZ is "like the UK was in the 1950s" no longer holds true. However, people are certainly friendlier to each other and have a lot more respect - imagine how much friendlier people were in the UK in the 1970s and perhaps early '80s, where you could pop down the road and leave your door unlocked, etc, and speak with your neighbours, etc. - it's a bit like that (obviously depending on the area you're in).

 - Ali

[adz]

InTheSand wrote:

Heh! I'm a Pommy ex-pat! I've only been in NZ since March 2005.

So you're one of the few "New Zealanders" that can actually say "Fish and chips" :-P

[adz]

Oliver wrote:

What I really don't like about Melbourne is weather, whch frankly is just cr@p compared with Perth.  Far too many dark, overcast days, and too much rain in summer.  May be good for plants, but no fun for me, getting rained on in singlet and shorts, after enjoying a 35 degree sunny morning.

Rain in summer you say? We hardly had any rain in winter, summer has only just started and we've had bugger all thus far. The water storages are running dangerously low at the moment, I wish it would rain.

[cecilia]

I have to admit I would love to retire to NZ. It looks beautiful.

that's some loong way to move, however. well, we will see what happens

[adz]

cecilia wrote:
I have to admit I would love to retire to NZ. It looks beautiful.

Indeed it is beautiful, click here and have a look at his galleries, there is a whole heap of shots from NZ. He also has a book exclusively devoted to NZ.

[InTheSand]

adz wrote:
So you're one of the few "New Zealanders" that can actually say "Fish and chips" :-P

Hehe! Yep, no "chups" or "fush" for me!  :-)

It took a bit of getting used to the accent, especially to start with! My girlfriend had been in the UK for around five years when I first met her, so her accent wasn't so strong, but coming from the relatively accent-less southern UK, some words do sound weird!

A quick NZ speaking guide!
Fish = Fush
Chips = Chups
Black = Bleck
Ali = Elli (rhymes with "smelly", much to my girlfriend's niece's amusement!)
Check-In = Chicken
New Zealand = NewZild
Grown = Grow-Un
Shown = Show-Un
Pair = Peer
Bare = Beer
Beer = Beer (just to be inconsistent!)
Air = Ear (always amuses me when people talk about the "earport"!)
Beat = Bet
Auction = Oction (but Auckland is not Ockland!)

And, like Australia, every sentence is a question? Which can get a bit annoying? As the intonation is raised at the end regardless? :-)

 - Ali

P.S. Yes, NZ does have fantastic scenery! I nearly always take my camera with me when we go visiting and will quite happily take a few hundred shots in a few days at some places. Glad it's digital, or the cost would bankrupt me!

[iamaboringperson]

The NZ accent alone puts me off.

It's the worst accent in the world.

[Oliver]

adz wrote:
Rain in summer you say? We hardly had any rain in winter, summer has only just started and we've had bugger all thus far. The water storages are running dangerously low at the moment, I wish it would rain.

Yeah, well, haven't been to Melbourne for a few years.  I know the whole not having enough water thing is a bit of a downer, but I still don't like bright sunny days that turn into rain storms within half an hour.  Perhaps my experience of Melbourne weather is not a good sample, but that's what has happened every time I've been.  Still a really good place to be, in many ways.

Actually, the weather in Perth is not so clement now either.  Gets more humid every year.  Still not much rain to speak of.  I liked it in the good old days, where winter was marked by rain storms, separated by fine days, and summer was hot and dry, with the occasional thunder storm, usually at night, and you could see it building all day.  Sometimes dry thunder storms.  Quite spectacular, and horrendous for starting fires.

oli

[Karlos]

InTheSand wrote:
...
Black = Bleck
...

That's sort of how I hear the afrikaans accent...

[X-ray]

Ja, there are quite a few similarities between Kiwi vowels and Saffer vowels. Of course there is a far greater range of accents in South Africa than in New Zealand, so not all Saffer vowels will match. Wait until you hear a Cape Coloured accent, you might not recognise the language being spoken, even when they speak English
The Kiwi accent is definitely not the worst in the world. I had trouble telling the difference between a Kiwi and an Aussie accent when I first arrived in London, so I used to ask them to say "I bought six packets of fish and chips" so that I could get a clue  :lol:

[cecilia]

adz wrote:
Indeed it is beautiful, click here and have a look at his galleries, there is a whole heap of shots from NZ. He also has a book exclusively devoted to NZ.

WOW - if someone could invent a Transporter I'd be there right now! just stunning!

and I have always found the accents from that part of the world to be really interesting and even sexy. :-D

[InTheSand]

iamaboringperson wrote:
The NZ accent alone puts me off.

It's the worst accent in the world.

Well, that's a bit harsh!

Surely it's not as bad as a Forrest Gump-style accent! Does anyone even speak like that?!  :-)

 - Ali

[Karlos]

iamaboringperson wrote:
The NZ accent alone puts me off.

It's the worst accent in the world.

Clearly you've never spoken to any Yams*....


(*not the vegetable variety, though given the accent, you could be forgiven for failing to perceive the difference)