Hey Monica, my kids aren't in school yet, we're still waiting for our WPs to come through and they wont take them in until they can see them (this is to make sure that you are entitles to be accepted as a domestic student). However, on eof thebiggest reasons we left the UK was because of the education system. I've worked in it for many years and haven't seen any improvement as far as the 'one size fits all' mentality they have. If you've read my other posts you'll get the jist that I'm not quite a conventional parent, well person really, and I won't have my kids do what other people reckon they should do just because they want them to do it and for no particular benefit to themselves. I wanted them out of education in the UK and fast. From what I've seen here, I am vair vair impressed with the system here. They actually encourage kids to break out from the norm, discover who they are and take risks - risks - now there's a word you'll see actively avoided in UK school policies, they daren't even go there. The education seems much more holistic, they seem to teach the whole child ot just the bits that will get them through their SAT's and earn the school points on the tally board. We'll see the actualities when they start in a few weeks, it's end of term right now.
As for the dogs, well, we brought them over on the same flight as us and then they stayed with a friend of ours who breeds Newfies, we have a Newfie and an Old English Sheepdog. Fiona kept them for a month whilst we went on a tour about and then we just had to do the footwork when it came to finding a rental. Not many take the dogs, you have to ask, ask, ask. The agent we've just rented our last place from told us that it's because they do tend to be a bit anti-dog here. They see dogs as being destructive, nuisances and irrelevant. As far as the kiwis are concerned animals are to be used for a purpose not as pets, they don't seem to mind cats anywhere near as much. There have been several bad dog attacks here recently and the media has had a field day with them hence a lot of people are scared of dogs full stop. Our dogs are really, really soft and have gentle natures, Newfoundlands are bred for rescue, they are the gentle giants of the dog world but people still gather their small children up when they see him coming. NZ is definitely not as dog friendly as the UK and there are very few places you can take them or exercise them so be aware of this. We used to walk ours a good 3 or 4 miles in the woods every day but here they're limited to a run round a half mile designated park or a walk on the lead.
We are people who enjoy spending time with our dogs, we like to take them with us when we walk or whatever and we used to do this a lot in the UK. We thought we'd have more opportunity to do it here with all the outdoors space but although it's readily available for people to walk, they don't welcome dogs.
Drop me a PM f there's anything else we can help you with.