Were should I move temporarily? New Zealand, Ireland, Or England?
Question by Davion A: Were should I move temporarily? New Zealand, Ireland, Or England?
I am an American. Always loved England, been before, and have family there. As an American I can only stay 6 months without a visa. If i did the UK I could visit more countries,,,in NZ Ive never been but all Id have nearby was Aus to visit ( but Ive been to Australia before) If I was in England, I could visit friends in nearby Sweden,Poland, Netherlands, Italy and Morocco. BUT NZ is so much cheaper WAAAAY cheaper, and I could find work there! I would love to get a working holiday visa in Ireland but, finding a job in Ireland is pretty hard, I hear. Dunno if thats the same for casual work. What should I do? England is calling to me, but NZ is a new adventure half way across the world!!!
Best answer:
Answer by Sarah
I don’t know how old you are, but if you’re over 18 you should go for NZ. You need to work and make money so that you’re not living off of your family. Well, unless you’re independently wealthy(doesn’t sound like that because you mentioned cost of living and finding work). I would LOVE to go to NZ. It is soooo beautiful!!! I say go for the new adventure!!!
What do you think? Answer below!
The very first thing you need to do is do a search for the New Zealand Department of Immigration (www.immigration.govt.nz) website and do A LOT of reading. You can’t just decide to move to NZ and get a job. You can come here on a working holiday visa, if you are between 18 and 30 years old, which means you can come here and work for a year. However, you also have to prove you have $4200NZD available to support yourself when you get here. See the website for the rest of the criteria. Also, you will wind up with jobs like picking and packing fruit (which brings to mind sunlit warm days in orchards, but in fact, is hard, back breaking work for not a lot of pay.) It is also expensive to live here – everything is about twice as much as in the states, and the GST (like sales tax) has just gone up to 15%! The recession has also hit this country, so there may not be a lot of jobs available. Yeah, the adventure is great, but you also need to look at this from a practical standpoint. You will also need to factor in the cost of health insurance because you won’t be covered here if you get sick. You also have to apply for an IRD number and pay taxes here if you come on a WHV. If you come as a visitor without a work visa, you won’t be able to get any work, period, unless someone is willing to risk paying you “under the table”, which isn’t all that likely. If you run out of money, there is no one to fall back on in New Zealand. Scary, but it happens. Look at www. trademe.co.nz to see how much housing costs here and remember they list is as per week, and that is how you do indeed, pay rent here! Look at “flatmates” where you may pay for a room in a house, living with other people. That’s usually a relatively inexpensive way to go, or back packers places (but then, people move through and not all are all that honest, if you get my drift, whereas as a flatmate, you live with the same people.)
you should definitely come to nz, i haven’t been to ireland or england but nz is such a pretty and safe country and there are heaps of jobs here.
Oh no, I can see a baby has been here as well not answering the questions in any form just giving a thumbs down to postive answers Grow a life baby If you are older enough share your views stop giving everyone the thumbs down. It has no style!!! Bet you have never been to NZ to even add an answer, you just some baby doing Dumb thumbs down huh
I’m an American in NZ on a working-holiday visa. Koogy, who was the 2nd answerer to your question had a lot of accurate information, but some of it was a bit dramatic so I thought I’d clear the air. First off, go to the website Koogy posted. Apply online -for free- after you read it. Once you’ve submitted the application you will get your visa within a week. I got mine two days after I applied and my friend got his 4 days after he applied. Yes, they ask that you have NZ$4200 and health insurance that covers the duration of your stay. HOWEVER, NZ$4200 is roughly US$3500 at the moment. Having that amount will be helpful, but not necessary. They will not ask for proof of your funds at customs. They also will not ask you for proof of insurance. I bought insurance (paid around US$400) just because it’s better safe than sorry, but it’s not essential.
Regarding work here. I have moved around quite a bit since I’ve been here because of traveling. Yes, the recession has hit NZ. But, I have -seriously- been hired by 5 different places: a restaurant, a real estate office, a major NGO in Auckland, a NZ product sales company and where I’m starting this month. I was offered NZ$23/hour at the NGO, NZ$16/hour at the sales and real estate positions and $14 at the restaurant. Not bad when you consider the fact that I am a) an American here traveling and b) the American economy is such that thousands of people are unemployed. I have been here for 3 months and have been hired by every job I applied. Go to Trademe.co.nz and check out job listings. There is also Seek.co.nz for job listings. I would NOT worry about getting a job. Yes, you can pick fruit, but that would be your choice. You will very easily find a job in anything you’re qualified for i.e. you won’t find a job as a surgeon unless you’re a surgeon lol.
The people here are pretty friendly. Not as friendly as their reputation, and not as friendly as in say Australia or Ireland, but friendly nonetheless. Come to think of it, the nicest people I’ve met in NZ have been from Ireland, England, Australia and the US. The New Zealanders at large, think they understand what America is like based on what they see on TV. I talked to a girl who said she would never want to come to America because “that’s where all the worlds’ serial killers are.” The only reason she was say something that ignorant is because she watches those American Crime TV shows. Nevermind the fact that a NZ woman’s body was just found this week chopped up in a container – allegedly killed by her significant other. So what I’m saying is that my experience has been that Kiwis have a very narrow worldview because the majority of them have never left NZ at all.
Finding a flatmate won’t be hard. Look at that Trademe.co.nz site as well as Gumtree.co.nz and you’ll find a flat even faster than a job. You could literally move in to a place the day you land if you wanted. Look to spend between NZ$60-200/week depending on your budget. I pay $175/week and live in a gorgeous home.
Things are more expensive here. You definitely learn to live without excess, but that’s a good thing, right? Simple things like shaving gel or shampoo are RIDICULOUSLY priced. I bought conditioner for my hair the other day for NZ$50 that would have cost me about US$24. Today I bought some outdoor clothes for my new job: a rain jacket that retails for $99 in the US and I bought it for NZ$230. Shoes are a whole other story. Bring all your shoes unless you’re ready to hand over your first-born child for a pair of boots.
Groceries are also expensive, but it’s made me a healthier eater. You just buy what you’ll eat for the next couple days. So food doesn’t get wasted like at home. Bring your favorite snacks because you’re unlikely to find them here. Don’t let the cost of things scare you away because it’s like that almost everywhere. Unless you’re planning on staying in Eastern Europe, SE Asia or South America you’re not going to live cheaply.
A realistic price for a one way ticket is between US$690-1200. The more flexible you are with your travel dates the better.
Cell phone and Internet coverage is awful here. I wanted to downgrade my phone plan this afternoon because I’m not using all my minutes and they wanted to charge me $45 to downgrade it. Totally nuts. Internet is like gold, you have to dig to find it. Once you do it’s expensive. As you know, at home we pay a flat rate, so if you’re using Comcast you might pay $50 a month for unlimited Internet, but here you’ll pay around NZ$80 for LIMITED use. So if you want to download anything expect to pay a lot more.
The weather here is getting really nice so this is a great time to come.
Having said all of this, I would go to Ireland if I could go back to the start. You can get working-holiday visas in dozens of countries so check out your options. Australia would be a really nice place to go, but you have to pay to apply for that visa. The NZ visa application is free.
Compromise.
Come to NZ for the adventure, you’ve never been here before and as you said you can work here and live cheaply. While you explore, met new people and create new connections on this side of the world you can save money and go visit England afterwards as a massive detour home — sounds like a bloody good plan to me hahaha
Btw Koogy is talking crap, it’s not expensive to live in NZ…maybe in Auckland and Queenstown, but I doubt it’s more expensive than the US.
I’m a student in Dunedin and I survive comfortably in a nice, fully furnished, newly renovated flat with two other girls on just $260 a week, and I usually have $100 left over that budget to spend on what I like — this includes my rent/groceries and power share.
Even at home in Christchurch it’s not that expensive, I don’t know why people keep telling foreigners NZ is expensive. It’s not. England is expensive, New Zealand is not.
Finally: Snow is also inaccurate about kiwi people, it’s not that we’re “unfriendly” or whatever, it’s that we’re very laid back, very care free people and not much bothers us. So it comes across as rude or a bit cold to foreigners. And it’s only the ignorant uneducated kiwis that say that stuff about america.
I agree with the above answer, she is from nz as well as i am. Snow is talking rubbish! kiwis are very friendly and always willing to help out if need be.
my advice is to come for a holiday first. Have a look around the place and see what you think.
I have been the all of those places. I live in NZ now, and I love it here. listen to KOOGY he knows his stuff. I had to obtain a visa before. And to tell you the truth, its vey expensive here when you first move out here. i live in auckland
good luck
I don’t know what everyone’s goin’ on about but here look, you’ve been to England so it is indeed time for a new adventure! If you love adventure, sports, canada/britain-like sort of weather, anything Kiwi then yes, NZ is the place to be! NZ isn’t wayyy! cheaper. I don’t know where you’ve heard that from but it’s not exactly cheap but not everything is expensive either. So i pick NZ of course.
I’d choose NZ.
The moon.
If I were you, England would be the way to go.
It sounds like you want to see the world and travel, but kind of want a ‘home base’. Correct me if I’m wrong lol.
I’m also America, have family in England (visited for 3 weeks once), visited Ireland for 3 weeks, and lived in New Zealand for about 20 months.
And I’d have to agree with Snow too. The people in NZ aren’t really as friendly as everyone says xD When we lived there I used to get really upset over it =
But New Zealand is a beautiful country, no one can say otherwise.
But there’s just something about England
I LOVE the history you have access to there. You’ll never find anything like that in NZ. So much history everywhere you go.
And you have quick access to the rest of Europe, and can easily hop right over to Ireland.
But then again, Ireland is pretty much the bomb. People there DO live up to their name xD Lots of pubs/drinking, parties, beautiful countryside, castles, <3 I love Ireland.
Personally, I’d choose England. You have so much as your fingertips that you can’t really pass up this opportunity
And is it possible for you to stay with your family? Because that cuts a ton of the costs.
If you were in New Zealand, you could go to Australia and maybe the islands, but that’s about it haha. And you can always go later. OH, and jobs are tough to find in NZ right now (we just left). So it would probably be better for you to visit for 2 or 3 months instead of 6.
I reccommend England having lived in both NZ and the UK. Nz has a reputation as being cheap but it really isn’t. Grocery shopping over here is out of control, there is no pricing regulation and no competition as only two companies control all the supermarkets.
Wages here are very low and if you don’t work in a corporate job you get treated like crap. The Kiwis can be friendly but you can’t generalise. I find the South Island is the friendliest. Auckland is pretty cool to, better weather and more to do. Don’t bother with Wellington, the weather is horrible and the people are all agressive. I think they drink too much overpriced bad coffee.
speaking as someone who’s lived in europe three years with the same idea as you ( to use it as a base to travel) you get a lot less travel done than you’d think, unless you live somewhere REALLY close to everything like vienna or switzerland you have to remember that most of your time and experiences will be spent in the country/ city you choose to live in, not the ones around it.
id say go to new zealand, there are a million different landscapes rolled into one little country, its fantastic for road trip and out doors activities.