Why are so many Britons bailing out?

[KiwiHopeful]

Why are so many Britons bailing out? - Yorkshire Post


I was poking around the news looking for an article about NZ's working hours/productivity problem and found this interesting article about people leaving, and some then returning to, England.

Enjoy!

Jason Deeth and his partner, Stacy, left their comfort zone in Leeds two years ago to start a new life in New Zealand. At the time he had just been made redundant from his market research job and she was a midwife at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

"I was getting frustrated not finding a decent job, and someone said 'why don't you go abroad?' I thought 'why not?'" After talking it over with Stacy, they decided to go for it.

They wanted an English-speaking country and plumped for New Zealand. Neither of them had been there before, but Stacy had little problem lining up a job. Less than 10 weeks after making their decision they were starting a new life on the other side of the world.

"A lot of people move to a new country after going on holiday there, but it's a lot different starting a new life somewhere than it is being on holiday," says Jason.

"We went there with an open mind. We didn't know how long we would stay, but we said it would take something really big for us to come back."

Jason soon got a marketing job, and reckons their overall standard of living was better than back home. But after a few months the novelty began to wear off.

"After a while Stacy was working weekends, which meant I was on my own, and then she would be on her own during the week while I was at work," he says. "New Zealand's a beautiful place ? you've got the sea and stunning scenery, but you go over there and there are many of the same problems as in Britain. You just don't hear about it as much.

"There are immigration problems and a lot of the Kiwis worry about the number of people coming from Asia.
They have gangs, and drink-driving is a big problem because most people live miles from a pub."

Despite this, Jason and Stacy were happy to stay. It was when several close family members fell ill back in England that they had a rethink.

"You don't realise how far away you are until someone becomes ill. When you're planning to move you think it's just a 24-hour flight, but when you take all the travelling to and from the airport then from door to door it's around 40 hours.

"We perhaps didn't appreciate how important our families were to us until we got there."

After eight months in New Zealand they returned to the UK, and Jason is now working for his father-in-law's emissions-cutting firm in Northampton.

"It was an amazing experience, and we don't regret it because if we hadn't done it we would still be doing the same jobs as before, living in the same house, doing the same things. But our lives have completely changed and we're really happy."