The Old Introduce Yourself - Now Closed

[DawnMarron]

Hello to you all, I joined this site a few months ago but haven't really been on it much as our plans all went pear-shaped but I'm back, even though we don't intend to come out until next year, thought better get the ball rolling now.
I'm Dawn and am a dance/drama tutor working in the community with young people, my partner Gary has a degree in Humanities but has never done anything with it and gets away without doing real work if at all possible, we have three kids Lauren 15, Charlie 10 and Poppy 4.
We want to give them a cleaner, safer life with more opportunities than they currently have, also we live quite an alternative life-style choosing to resist the rat race and consequently are made to feel like weirdos here in Nottinghamshire.
That's us, pleased to meet you all.
Oh yes, we have an Old English Sheepdog and a Newfoundland that we will be bringing over with us so would be quite interested to know whether there are any Newfoundland clubs that do water tests etc?

Bye for now
Dawn

[MotherBear]

How did I miss this post?!! :icon_eek: That's the problem with a thread being up the top on a sticky, it can sometimes be overlooked as many people look further down the list for the latest posts. Sorry for the belated welcome and we're glad to have you aboard.

Hope all your plans go smoothly now after a shaky start. Good luck.

[johnty]

hi all
we should have done this a tad sooner,as we have both been gleaning info
for a few weeks now and found every one so helpfull.
so here goes,i am tom (johnty)my partner is alison our daugter ottillie, and our son elijah. i am 37 as is ally,otty is k8 eli is 6.
we went to NZ about two years ago and had agood look at the north island and only a couple of weeks at the south.
although we think that the south will be the place for us.love love caterbury and hope to settle somwhere about an hour or so from christchurch.but will not rule out most places in NZ.our motivation to make the move is the crime rates in the UK and bringing up the kids in a place where they can grow up a bit safer ,plus we should be able to own a wee bit of ground, to grow our own veggies without having towork ever hour to afford a small slice land.
i am a electrician,and ally does factory work ,although she does have a handfull of A levels,we were going to use an agent to get us out there but since finding this site have decided to do it ourselves.many thanks to everyone who gives there time to help us newbies and we hope we may even be able to give the odd wee gem of advice or even just a different view

cheers tom

[SteveyC]

Wow Ottillie. Where does that originate from? Elijah is a very cool name also very biblical, intentional?

Hehe nosy bugger. Just intrigued, with two boys named Rupert and Isaac, I'm in similar boat.

Interesting to hear you've seen lots of North Island but fell for Canterbury in a short time. We're stuck choosing between There or north of Wellington (Kapiti Coast/Hutt area), did you see any of this are on your travels. We've never been you see so shooting in the dark somewhat crazily hehe.

Nice to meet you (belatedly) anyway. Could be a very stong concentration of folks from here in Christchurch area at this rate, you're not alone in your plans.

[Pulsarblu]

After reading your posts (SteveyC and johnty), I will look at North island closely the next time I am there. I have made travel plans from Aug 13 to Sep 2 to look for jobs and secure one.

Had visited south island before (vacation), yes it is beautiful. I would love to stay around Christchurch too.. However being where the IT jobs are (Wellington), I have to explore Welly and surrounding areas a bit more to appreciate. I am sure no matter where in NZ, it is more pleasant than Singapore (some may argue this... :icon_biggrin: )

If I stay in North Island, I will visit south on vacation...COOL! And NZ is a large country, there are plenty of places to fall in love with..

pulsarblu

[MotherBear]

Hi and welcome (officially) Johnty, :)

Hope we can help you through immigration without a hitch and you can get down to the nitty gritty of enjoying a new life in a new land.

Good luck as you progress on your way. [smilie=Best_wishes.gif]

[DawnMarron]

Hi SteveyC and Johnty
Dawn here, couple of things Stevey like you we have never been over there either but somehow just know it's the place to be but it is so difficult trying to choose a place to live when you have very little idea about what it's like. Gaz is happy to do anything but I work with young people in the community on arts projects so we need to be where there is a community to be 'got at'. We also have three kids one who will be 16 when we come over and is adament about securing a place at performing arts college, she is a dancer and like me wants to work with disadvantaged kids. The others, Charlie and Poppy will be 11 and 5 respectively so we need good schools too. Trying to look for a place with good bumber of people, good schools and a university/polytechnic not too far away, not easy when you don't know your Hawkes Bay from your Nelson!
Johnty, Lauren used to dance with a girl called Ottilie, I think she had Welsh roots! I can remember thinking we had never heard the name before.

See y'all

hi to all
to start we are led to belive ottillie,is an old english name,but someone told us that they belive it to be french,we thought it would get shortened to tilly,but everybody calls her otty.
and then the wee fella our eli,just both loved the name.
dont even get us started on the pets,but will mention the tortious hinemoa (yep i know iasked ally the same question)
and to dawn m,nelson in hawkes bay is certainly a place we could settle
nice climate ect
to stevey c we did stay in lower hut but only for a couple of days,so would not be able to give a fair view ,only to say very handy for wellie and as far as citys/towns go wellie has a nice feel to it.dont know how far up that coast you were thinking but we thought about levin at one time .with the idear that as palmaston north is a fast growing area it would be good for my work(sparky)maybe a bit to much of a drive to wellie though.
if we are honest there are not many places we would say a definate no to in NZ we were considering dunedine when we were going down the agent
route,as the agent set up a chat with a company for us(city care if anyone knows of them,)and we have not even been down that far south.


thanks again for your time
johnty

Good choice on Palmy North!!! It's quite happening from what I can work out and house prices a LOADS cheaper than all the traditional places people go as it's quite far inland. Danieverke (spelt?) is REALLY cheap but can't help thinking that might be for a reason.

Masterton looks nice and cheap..

There haven't been many updates on the Wairarapa region on this site. Mainly because I don't think there are any forumites living there..
I will happily volunteer my services as the movetonz.org rep for the wairarapa..