So, has anybody here got any advice or experience of living and working on North Island (Auckland), in particular the armed forces?
Serioulsy considering emergrating after 21 years of service to queen and country in the RN. Any advice would help, housing, schooling for teenage kids, work oppornities for the other half, quality of life ect, oh and are the local trails as good as they look!

http://www.riderotorua.com/

This is close by

I’m here at the moment – my sister moved seven years ago.

Quality of life is great, property isn’t far off south of England costs. Food shopping is costing me a fortune!

I’d be here in a heartbeat if the pay was good enough

Have you thought about oz? There are loads of opportunities both in the forces, and private sector

Thought of Oz, but the prospect of being stuck out on a limb in Perth dosn’t appeal. We’d rather be able to get out and see everything we wanted around NZ. The pay in the RNZN isn’t far off what I get already from what I can gather.
Anymore advice, expericence appriecated.

Serioulsy considering emergrating after 21 years of service to queen and country in the RN. Any advice would help, housing, schooling for teenage kids, work oppornities for the other half, quality of life ect, oh and are the local trails as good as they look!

Not being funny, but there’s not much left of the Defence Force these days- after they crashed all the Skyhawks, the Scorpions self destucted and the most of the frigates were scrapped.
Are you sure there’s any employment opportunities?

Thought of Oz, but the prospect of being stuck out on a limb in Perth dosn’t appeal.

Consider me offended…

It’s all up to you of course but Perth isn’t out on a limb any more – it’s a real city!

TBH, it’s a fair point about Perth…

Aren’t there plenty of military bases on the east coast of Australia, Townsville and the like?

It’s all up to you of course but Perth isn’t out on a limb any more – it’s a real city!

And you pass through some weird time vortex back into the early 1980s every time you land there.

Townsville and the like?

Read Bill Bryson: “Queenslanders: as mad as a bag of cut snakes”

Thought of Oz, but the prospect of being stuck out on a limb in Perth dosn’t appeal.

Perth isn’t all of Oz….. it’s quite a big country

Never lived in the N Island, but I did work out in the South Island for some time a few years back. New Zealand is a long way from anywhere, so things that are imported are expensive. Food is expensive (although oddly, when I was there, eating out was dead cheap). Buying a house is very expensive, particularly in the ‘big’ cities. Obviously visiting people back home is also very expensive – don’t plan on doing it if you like to see the grandparents more than once every few years.

The trails that they have are good, but they don’t have a right of way system, which means that you don’t have the thing they have in the countryside here, where you’re always near a bridleway, it is more that you travel to particular places to ride – expect to spend a lot of time driving on infuriatingly slow roads to trails. For example, someone above posted that Rotorua is ‘close by’ to Auckland, which it is in New Zealand terms, but it is still going to be 3 hours driving each way, so a 6 hour driving mission for a day trip. It is only close by in the way that if you live in London, Cwmcarn in Wales is close by.

The no rights of way thing did get on my nerves a bit too – if you like doing journeys on your mountain bike at all, like going from place to place, you essentially can only do a few official tracks that exist, which are great, but it isn’t like you can think “I’ll ride off road from Wellington to Auckland” – most riding is in trail area type places.

About your wife, you need to know the details of the visa that you’d get, in terms of whether she’d be eligible for a spouse visa, hence able to work at all while you’re out there (assuming she doesn’t have one of their target skills). Work wise, it is a much much smaller place

My experience of it is that much of New Zealand is a lot like the less populated bits of Scotland* – they have a quite high quantity of mountains and things, and the trails are nice, but the whole place seems a bit backward and isolated and it is a pain to get anywhere else. In general it is a good thing, but it isn’t like here where I’m 2 hours by train away from a major city if I want culture, and where I have easy access to things like nice British and European cheese (it may be more important to me than you, but New Zealand bans the import of a lot of nice cheese), and am close to family if I need to see them. If you’re into culture, it is a bit of a pain – for example people I know into music over there are always having to fly or drive to Wellington to see bands, because any band touring only plays one of the big cities in New Zealand. Auckland is the biggest city, but bear in mind that it is only a bit bigger than Birmingham, so we’re not talking massive metropolis here.

I’m not saying don’t do it or anything, it’d be an adventure whatever, but I would say that a lot of people have an overly positive view of NZ, based on having holidays there, with every day free to drive long distances to ride, and money to spend on the vast number of very well organised tourist things to do.

Joe

*although they don’t have midges – they do have various kind of bastard man eating flies in many parts.

Excellent postings so far and some good points to consider. I appreciate all the advice and thoughts. I have visited both NZ and Oz in the past, so do have a little knowledge of them both. The travelling time needed in NZ is a very interesting point. Please don’t be offended about the Perth comment, it’s where the majority of their Navy is, so is where I would have to locate to if I ended up there. Sydney dosn’t appeal at all in that respect.

+1 joamarshall

And you pass through some weird time vortex back into the early 1980s every time you land

OP is presumably coming from some English port town!

+2 joemarshall

There is loads of good info on the NZ Immigration Service website. It’s essentially a points system and certain occupations will get big points.

I was out there at Christmas and if you can build houses you are in, there is LOADS of work with the ChCh rebuild, although some logistical problems as rents have skyrocketed and there is no accommodation for all the builders descending on the place.

Also worth noting on the points system is there is no automatic right for a spouse to get in if you get in, it will help by adding points to your wife’s score if you get in, but she will still be assessed on her own. At least that was the system last time I checked (it’s my excuse and I am sticking to it)

My step bro and law is in the NZ Police, they are pretty good, not all corrupt like the Aussie police, so worth a look. The NZ Defence Force is more ceremonial these days AFAIK, mostly United Nations peacekeeping duties which would take you out of NZ anyway.

And last piece of advice, it’s THE North Island and THE South Island. Best to start getting that right now. They just didn’t have names when the Poms drew the maps all those years ago, although Maori people call them the Fish of Maui and the Waka of Maui. (Maui being the chap who fished up the North Island with his canoe)

Please don’t be offended about the Perth comment

Nah, no offence taken, just kidding ya!

it’s where the majority of their Navy is

Really! Well all I can say is they keep it damn well hidden then! (which is probably a good thing as far as defence capability in general goes 🙂 )

Know what you mean about New Zealand. If I thought I could get a job down there I’d happily live there…