I think we're trying to get away from everything bad that the UK seems to stand for currently. Although we haven't lived there for quite some time, we've been monitoring the news coming out of there, along with taking on board what other people are saying. Where the media is concerned, of course you can discount some of it because it's often blown out of proportion, but we feel we can't just ignore what everyone else is saying. They can't all be wrong and that's one major reason why we chose NZ. There's always someone coming back here from holidaying 'back home' and they usually have a tale of woe about how bad things are there. Perhaps if you're still living there you don't notice it so much, whereas someone who's lived away and returns with fresh eyes will notice changes so much more, especially when they're for the worse.
It's been said that NZ is, to some extent, 50 years behind the times, but from what we've seen of it, this is part of its charm and it's not so much in a way that really matters. Comparing visits back to the UK with visits to NZ, I'll take the latter any day. Being smiled at and chatted to on a regular basis in the shops was just one point we appreciated in NZ. It's not too different scenery and culture-wise from the UK and they speak the same language (nearly, anyway
) so it was a good option when we were looking for somewhere to settle when retirement looms.
The twice we've been to NZ, I felt quite at home and didn't find it 'strange' in any way. I just felt 'grounded' there. Originally we were going to live in Spain, but, apart from our new-build house there being a disaster which we disposed of quickly, there were other issues we didn't like e.g. British colonies where the expats were fighting amongst each other in a power struggle, thieving was very common and the Spanish people weren't particularly friendly, which I suppose I can understand with all these Brits descending on their territory,trying to take over. Then there was the language to contend with.
Next up we considered Dubai as they were opening up to expats buying property there. I think we had a lucky escape with that, as it's just one big building site these days. It's a concrete and glass jungle and not what we're thinking of for retirement. On top of that the climate is very similar to here and the summers are gruelling and not so easy to cope with when you're older. We won't appreciate the winters in NZ, I'm sure, but with the prospect of central heating going into the house shortly, that should help a lot.
I hope we've made the right choice and certainly, at the moment, we feel we have.
