We're a British family who moved to New Zealand some years ago.
Pros:
It's a gentle way of life in many ways. Kids here don't know / care about brands in the same way they do in UK. Not much bullying. None of the insane rule-following that UK does. People are more down to earth and matter-of-fact about stuff.
Also the geography is very pretty. Mountains, volcanoes, sea etc. Very nice.
Cons:
There is no culture. No history.
There is no architecture. Just damp wooden houses.
No touring artists come here. Nothing comes here. We barely get post.
No food culture - I mean, people eat, and you can get a decent coffee, but there's no love of food. When we go back to Europe we are blown away by how GOOD everything tastes.
It's SO farking expensive here. We spend £600 a week to live in a shit clapboard house in an unexciting suburb. We will NEVER buy a house here because houses cost at least 1.5 million - and for your money you get a 3-bed single glazed shed.
Kiwis socialise in a really weird way - you have to bring your own food and drink when you're invited to someone's house. And when people come to your house they bring a cooler of beers to drink, and then take home any they haven't finished.
Kiwis are famous for being friendly and they are friendly but they don't really mean it. They're nice but not kind. It's a very insular society and you'll be making friends with people who still socialise with their entire high school friend group , and their aunty and sisters live in the same town, so they don't really need a new person.
I was talking to a Brit who has been here for 20+ years and he said that the difference between the Brits and the Kiwis is that if you're new, the Brits will invite you for a pint and if it turns out you're a wanker they won't invite you again. The kiwis won't invite you to anything until you prove you're not a wanker.
And although the geography is very nice the houses are so bloody ugly. All the settlements are ugly. New Zealand is ALL inland Cornwall. They talk about Raglan like it's Padstow when it's actually a poor man's Newport at best.
The waste water management is so awful that it's the height of summer, and we haven't been able to swim in the sea for weeks because the sewage level is too high. Not a one-off. Just a shit (ha!) system. All local beaches black flagged.
And it is SO FUCKING FAR away. My mum fell down the stairs and I felt so helpless and far away. The flights are so expensive I'm not even sure I'd manage an emergency flight home. It's not even just about travelling. You have to work so hard to schedule phone calls to keep in touch. You can't just phone for a quick chat at 3pm because everyone's asleep. You make it work for family and close friends but you will lose touch with everyone else.
I thought of another pro: It's really far away from all the wars and nuclear threats. Safe. Also good at managing pandemics. Although the amazing lady who did that was bullied out of office and we now have the Antipodean Nigel Farage in charge. Their first ruling was to remove all the indigenous language signs from public places, next up: tax breaks for landlords.
Oh, another con: My teenagers are now thinking about what they want to do with their lives.... aaaand it's not live here. So now I'm looking at potentially having my kids living in different hemispheres and wondering how I'll manage to see them as I get older.
And your kids can't come back to UK university - once they have been out of the country for some years they need to be back and live for 2 years or you'll need to pay overseas university fees. Think about the difference between a degree from a decent UK university and one from overseas.
You can speak the language, but you'll still be a foreigner. As much as you would be in Russia or Brazil.
I think I'm done. That was cathartic. It's a treat to be able to say what's shit about living here because obviously I would never be rude enough to tell my host country it's arse, and everyone else in the world thinks that New Zealand is this magical wonderful dreamworld. It's not. It's a shit Newport.
I name changed to do this and I'll name change back now and probably not check this thread. Unless I think of anything I missed.