[missvee]

Oh dear, seems like some raw nerves have been hit again. I am sorry to hear that NZ is not the place some people think it is.
I hope I will not be disallusioned with New Zealand. I know I am not going to be rich, I know I will have to watch the pennies and I won't have many, if any luxuries. I am what is classed as a professional here in the UK. I am a single mum and earn a relatively good wage but I struggle. I work to pay bills, I haven't had a holiday abroad for a few years. I don't buy expensive creams and cosmetics. veery rarely go out for meals etc., I am overdrawn in the bank and have very little savings. I don't have a good quality of life and hate working in the NHS, I have to work nights most weeks because I earn more. The last time I did that I ended up being very ill. My daughter wants all the designer clothes and gadgets, her day out is the Trafford centre or she is on her PC because there is nothing for her to do here.
I am looking for quality of life, less traffic, noise pollution, people, politics and terrorism. I would like to be able to leave my door open when I go out to the shop. I want to grow my own veg and have chickens. I can't do that hear because I can't afford to buy a house. There are many other reasons why I choose New Zealand to live. I looked around New Zealand to compare house prices and population sizes, crime rates and looked at schooling. I looked at what places had to offer in terms of things to do, resteraunts cinema and shopping, (I do have a teenager) beaches and scenery. I have done a lot of research about the place I am going to live. I think I know more about it than the town I live in.
What I am trying to say is as I have said before, I know NZ isn't a Utopia and it has it's problems like any other country. I think it has something I need and that isn't something I can quantify. It isn't just for me it's for my daughter too. I know what struggling is, I have done it for the last 13 years with a daughter. I am not going to New Zealand with my eyes shut.
I am writing this for other people who are thinking of going to New Zealand. Think very carefully. If you want certain things from life and you have a certain standard in the UK then New Zealand may not be for you. We are all different, we come to expect certain things from life and what makes us happy, that isn't wrong, it's the differences in us.
Dawn you are most welcome to have a cuppa with me, when I eventually get there. Do they have decent tea bags in NZ? If not I'm not going. ;)
Vee