The idea for this book started when my family and I first thought of emigrating to New Zealand. I used to scour the shops and libraries for books on immigration but they were practically non-existent. There were plenty of works showing beautiful scenery and wildlife. There was even one I remember called “New Zealand on 20 Bucks a Day”, but nothing on everyday life.

There were so many questions I wanted to ask and I vowed that when I finally made it to New Zealand, I would write a book giving all the information that I craved.

My pre-occupation in the early stages, was what were the correct qualifications to gain entry into New Zealand? What was the viability of shipping the car out and would it be worth taking the TV? These questions, although valid enough, almost pale into insignificance compared to a lot of things I did not ask, because I never thought of them.

I never asked myself what would it feel like to be a foreigner in a country, or did I mind the children losing their English accents? I never asked, because I did not know the questions that needed asking. What I really needed was an expert, but where to find one and what is an expert anyway?

Using what little information we had, my husband and I and our two children decided to take the plunge anyway and in the process I have learnt a great deal about emigrating, a lot about New Zealand and plenty about myself. I have also learnt how experts are born and I declare myself an ‘expert’ on emigrating (mostly learnt the hard way)

The purpose of this book is to share my experience. Even more importantly it is my aim to get you asking the right questions. It provides up to date, first hand information wherever possible, but I would urge you to check out current statistics.

It is written by someone who has ‘been there’ and appreciates the problems and knows the pitfalls. Someone who has laughed and cried and survived and lives to tell the tale. I hope that by sharing my experiences you might have an easier path.

New Zealand Immigration - The NZ Immigration Guide features interviews with recent migrants, visa rules, employment information and other useful topics.

BP Publications accepts no responsibility for errors or omissions.

The template design is released under the GPL: www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.php. Template designed by Vladimir Simovic. Web hosting and customisation by Shaun Malone.

“You’ll learn in time that us Poms need to stick together”

“My children have had the most wonderful opportunities here and have done things we could only dream of in England”

“I am suspicious of a nation who do not have vinegar on their fish and chips”

“I miss absolutely nothing about England at all”

“They have no sense of humour do they?”

“We got ourselves into a financial position where we could return to England and then decided to stay here”

“New Zealand is a very small place - never fall out with anyone, you never know when you will come across his relation”

“I went for a visit back to England but this is my home now”

“I have lived out here for thirty years but now that my husband has died I don’t know where I belong”

“We went back to England but couldn’t settle, we missed the blue skies and came back”

Just so you know what everyone is talking about, I list below the most common words that are different:

Aussie or Ocker - Australian

Bach - (pronounced Batch) Holiday home

Backyard - garden - could be a considerable size

Bench - worktop

Blue - mistake (you made a blue)

Bottle store - off licence

Bush - forest or dense wooded area

BYO - bring your own drink (seen outside certain restaurants)

Cheerios - cocktail frankfurters

Chilly bin - cool box

Chips or Chippies - crisps

Chook - chicken

Cobber - friend

Cockie - Farmer

College - High school

Crib - Holiday home (Otago)

Crook - unwell, broken

Dag - a bit of a character

Deck - patio

De-facto - unmarried live-in lover

Dairy - corner shop

Daylight savings - putting clocks back/forward

Domain - public picnic green

Flog - borrow

Fossick - look for (fossick about in the cupboard)

Godzone - New Zealand (God’s own country) - used mainly by satirists

Good as gold - yes, that’s fine

Good on yer - Good for you

Gumboots - Wellington boots

Hoon - moron, rush around in cars

Hot chips - chips

Housie - bingo

Ice blocks - Ice lollies

Jandals - flip flops

Judder bars - sleeping policeman

Jug - kettle

Kiwi - New Zealander

Lollies - sweets

Manchester - linen (department)

Morning tea - mid morning coffee/tea break

Muffler - exhaust pipe

Paddock - field

Pakeha - white person (Maori word)

Pants - trousers

Park - parking space

Pikelets - scotch pancakes

Pink Batts - fibreglass roof insulation

Pom, Pommie - Englishman

Pottle - small plastic container, or punnet

Section - plot your house is built on

She’ll be right - It will work out OK

Skite - braggart

Smoko - term for tea break used in factories or industrial sites

Sneakers - trainers

Tad - small amount

Togs - swimming costume

Trundler - shopping trolley

Varsity - university

Veges - vegetables

Washhouse/laundry - utility room

Wee - small

WOF - MOT

Both myself and members of my family have enjoyed some great opportunities since we have been in New Zealand. But it would be wrong of me to suggest that it has all been plain sailing. There have been times when I have experienced great loneliness and wondered if the cost, both financially and emotionally has been worth it.

One thing I do know for sure, by planning and preparing before you come you will have a far better chance of settling and of avoiding expensive mistakes.

Whatever you decide, I hope that by reading my book, you might have a smoother path along life’s journey.

Christmas pud, turkey and all the trimmings are available in the shops but many people quickly adopt the Kiwi tradition of a cooked ham with new potatoes and fresh strawberries for dessert. A barbecue or picnic are both popular alternatives.

If you are a lover of Christmas trees and like to go the garden centre and pick out a beautiful pine to grace your home over the Christmas period, then I suggest you go into hiding and re-emerge mid January when the festive season is over. The ‘trees’ here are in reality branches lopped off huge pines. They resemble monkey tails and all your decorations slide off them onto the floor, in their favour they are extremely cheap, a six footer costing on average $8.00.

Signs offering trees for sale appear at school playing fields or similar sites, in the lead up to Christmas. Often the trees are sold as fund raisers. Many people choose not to have a tree at all, particularly if they are setting off on their Summer holidays on Boxing Day, which many do.

After enduring a couple of years of a “Kiwi’ Christmas tree, I purchased a pine tree from the local garden centre, which I have dug up and re-planted successfully for the past three years.

Petrol stations and video shops are open on Christmas day. The television’s contribution is an advertisement free day on all channels, with a selection of Christmas viewing that also includes the Queen’s Speech.

The statutory holiday consists only of Christmas Day and Boxing day but for many people it is Summer Holiday time. The Christmas festivities are quickly over but the holiday lasts for up to three weeks with everything often not returning completely to normal until the end of January.

If you are used to traditional family Christmas gatherings then you might find it a rather quiet time of year and may feel you wish to take off on your holidays with the rest of the population.

Mid Winter Christmas

Mid Winter Christmas is a term that pops up in June. A strange custom, ostensibly to give immigrants a ‘feeling of home’, Many restaurants and clubs offer a Christmas dinner in June ( Mid winter) as it is seen as a more seasonal time to be eating roasts and plum pud. It is a thriving commercial tradition, that sees artificial trees, decorations and Christmas trappings appear in some shops in June, in the middle of the New Zealand winter.We arrived in New Zealand in the May and our first encounter with Christmas paraphernalia in the June stopped us in our tracks. I can honestly admit that for a couple of minutes I was unsure. I remember thinking that possibly, but surely not, New Zealanders celebrated Christmas in June.

Taking children with you when looking for property can be a big mistake. Dismissing a prospective home as being unsuitable because it is damp, can seem extremely unreasonable to a six year old who has set his heart on the swing in the garden.

Normally well behaved children can become disruptive if handled in the wrong way. Whilst extra cuddles and a few treats are a must and will help the transition period, avoid over spoiling, as suddenly you might find you have a tyrant on your hands.

As you and your partner will be the only unchanged factors in their life at the moment, try to be consistent with the discipline they are used to. If you suddenly move all the perimeters, you will only result in making them feel even more insecure and that insecurity will manifest itself into bad behaviour.

Food colouring is not banned from many food products, as it is in the UK. Orange drinks made from powder are particularly high in additives and should your child suddenly become hyperactive, I would suggest exploring food contents more closely.

If you have school age children keep a close eye on how they are getting on. If you have problems, involve the teachers as you will probably find they have dealt with similar situations before. Sometimes it is just a case of helping your child find a suitable friend.

Talk to the Head Teacher (Principal), who can put you in contact with children who live close by and they can walk, or bike, to school with them.

The Kiwi kids are noticeably different to English kids, more sporting and not as materialistic, they have a different humour, different accent and are often quite tougher, possibly having experienced more freedom as children.

Their friendly and open manner means that your child will quickly be accepted into the group and hopefully will soon be eating their school lunch outside without comment and telling you that tomorrow is a Mufti Day (non-uniform day)

A child who refuses to go to school or complains of mystery illnesses however, is probably having difficulty settling in their new environment and needs careful handling. It is very important to acknowledge the child’s feelings (often they can feel quite physically sick). The kind, but firm, approach seems to be the answer here.

Once a child understands that you accept how they feel, but that you are going to compel them to attend school, they quickly settle down within a couple of weeks. The more you give in to them, the worse they will get.

Teenagers can bring their own problems and if you have one who is adamant that they do not want to leave the UK then you will have a tough time on your hands and would need to involve them in an activity that they love, such as surfing, that would not be available back home. One good thing, once your teenager does make friends, local phone calls are free.

During all this period of disruption take time out for yourself. I will never forget an Australian woman I met down at the school, after a particularly distressing scene getting my reluctant daughter into school.

I was tearful and harassed when this mother spoke to me, “I’ve been in this situation a few times”, she commented “and the less fuss you make and the firmer you are, then the quicker they settle down. You want to look after yourself - why not join an aerobics class and get rid of all that tension?” and then she looked me up and down once more and said “and if you need the name of a good hairdresser I know one”!!

Rent on a reasonable family home will cost from $220-$300 per week. Small units cost in the region of $130.00 while sharing a house with others will cost about $80.00 a week.

Do not become too disappointed during the first few days, you will obviously be given a lot of mediocre properties to look at, that have been on the books for weeks. After a few days of checking the papers early each morning, you will quickly identify any new properties being offered and you can get in quickly.

Sometimes there is room for negotiation with regard to rent. If you like a particular property but feel the inside needs cleaning up, you might be able to negotiate to paint the walls yourself and the landlord pay for the paint. Good tenants are hard to come by and if you fall into that category then you will have more bargaining power.

You will also be required, in most cases, to pay a Bond. It is normally equivalent to two weeks rent and is held by a separate body known as the Office of the Tenancy Tribunal and is returned when you vacate the property, provided you leave it in a good state of repair. The Bond may be transferred on to another property.

When signing a rental agreement check the small print. If you sign a periodic tenancy, that is a tenancy with no fixed term, then notice to terminate the tenancy has to be given in writing, 21 days notice for the tenant, the landlord however has to give 90 days notice, although only 45 days is required if he wishes to sell the property, or needs it for his own use.

If you prefer you might settle for a fixed tenancy of say six months, which means you cannot be given notice for at least six months and then normal termination rules apply. But be warned, this agreement works both ways, whilst it gives you more security it will also tie you down should you be offered a job in a different area or find you are unhappy with the house you have chosen. You will find most properties are let unfurnished.

Many rental properties are bought as investments and are for long term let, but check to make sure that it is not just being rented out until it is sold.

Once you are in a position to buy a home of your own, the process is relatively simple. Either you can build, as mentioned in a previous section of this book, or buy a home already built.

You will need a deposit of between 10% and 15% and then you can approach the bank to arrange a mortgage. You normally pay a 1% loan establishment fee, which is added to your mortgage.

As you may not have all day to devote to job searching your efforts need to be efficient and well organised. Before you leave England think about how you are going to carry out your search for work once you arrive in New Zealand. By making sure you have a good, up to date CV. you will have one less thing to do. Bring it out on disc and then just get your new permanent address added.

You might find it useful to set aside time each day to look for work. Although it is tempting to organise the rest of your affairs first and then look at job prospects, you might find the process rather slow. If you have some applications in the pipeline, you have more chance of something coming up and at least you will start making contacts.

Job opportunities in New Zealand often come by word of mouth and it is vital that you make as many contacts as you can, as quickly as possible. Let everyone you meet know that you are looking for work, it is by far the most effective way to find employment

Use the employment agencies, (find them in the Yellow Pages) newspapers and NZ Employment Office. Another successful way is to ring round or personally approach different companies.

Kiwis are fairly relaxed in their dealings and will quickly call you by your first name. They would not be too impressed with a letter, enclosing CV, addressed to “The General Manager” if they are a small company, which many of them are. They are far more likely to respond to someone phoning to see if there are any vacancies and then calling in for a chat.

Short term employment contracts are often offered and I think it is reasonable to say that no job is for life here, any more than it would be in England in today’s climate. Voluntary work is sometimes a way to get a ‘foot in the door’.

Most vacancies are advertised in the newspapers on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It is important not to become too despondent as opportunities will always come along, it is very much a case of keeping your eyes and ears open and ask everyone you meet if they know of any jobs going.

If you decide to opt for self employment, check out with the Employment Office to see if you are entitled to any free training or Enterprise Allowance (another reason why it is really important to register unemployed when you first arrive - as these benefits are often only available after a certain period of being registered unemployed).

I think it is safe to say that on the whole New Zealanders are extremely helpful and optimistic towards anyone trying to help themselves and the big organisations like the Employment Office and Taxation Department seem to have their fair share of helpful individuals that make life more pleasant.

In their desire to be encouraging they can at times, without realising it, give false hopes and it is important, therefore, not to place too much stock on what people say until they come up with the goods.