WHERE'S BEST TO LIVE IN NZ AND WHAT DO WE NEED TO KNOW: PART 5!

[AngryBeaver]

Look at us Chatty Cathy's!
Justa oh nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
(I'm not sure )

Is your dh keen to move to Auckland AB? Weren't you thinking of Tauranga?

We did want Tauranga,yes. But willing to give Aukland a try.
I just dont want to drag the kdis all over the country. It's unfair. They've had enough upheaval and upset.
It's the lack of garden that puts me off. The kids love cycling around the house.
What about Waheke?
Dh going to try and negotiate more money,but i think he is tempted anyway.

He would be the boss and theres the chance to travel abroad.

Gah,don't know don't know!

Oh I don't know justa, now that theyve started school it's a different ball game.

Good to know about Glenfield. Do you find it crowded there?

I would definitely recommend living in Auckland. But I have never lived in small-town NZ so it's hard for me to compare.

Oh and you could get a garden. It's just not "loads of land to keep chickens on and grow veggies on" which I think is what you were looking for at one point? Our house and land are on 600 sq metres and the garden is plenty big enough for the kids....we have trampoline, swings and slide, sandpit, paddling pool, fruit trees etc etc.

You could look howick and bucklands beach way and DH could ferry in. For you you'd get your more rural feel and land without being too far away. Pretty over there.
I like this city - love the diversity and liveliness about it and it doesn't feel threatening. We rent a 4 bed for $775 but really we could do a 3 bed as top 3 in one room and baby in another and them is. Know your mum comes lots but if she did you could put your three in together.
It's not cheap but I don't think NZ generally is. We struggle with good wages but we have big rent and nanny overheads (weep). After rent and nanny I have $10 a month for me and we live off DHs salary. People friendly here too. And you'll know me!!!

Well that's a big plus I'd like to be included in the meet ups.
Would really like to actually know you guys!
Ok, so this is the state of play as it stands.
Dh has told them that he has reconsiderd and we couldn't survive in Auk. on 90k.
He said he could tell an eyebrow or two were raised but he carried on.
He proposed that that they complete the trial period to check that both parties were happy, and then renegotiate the salrry and look at 100k.
They said ok.
I think we have decided that if they meet this, or close, we will move up.
But where is the question!
And I feel absolutley shit about the children.
They are all set to start this new school, and are dead excited about it, ahve seen classrooms and met teachers etc. And they will haev to start there as trial period is only starting in Jan.
We will have to buy uniforms etc and settle them in, and then bloody move AGAIN!
I am fucking them up?
as an afterthought:
Would any of you consider Waiheke? Or is it insanity?

Sorry for typos. Have 3 meals on the go and am battering this out quickly! Also, internet connection in this house is frustratingly hit and miss! So,sorry for delay.

Oh, also, don't know if I have mentioned. THey asked what I did and dh told them used to work for BBC and they said there might be part time for me in a broadcast/editorial capacity. That would be pretty good.
Although I think because of (let's refer to it as) The Difficult Time, I have develpoed a sort of agrophobia...not a acually that but a paranoia of new thins/places.
I would slap myslef and get over that and get my arse in gear if need be.
That would be good anyway, would like to help in the money making

Tbh lots of folk do live on 90k or less in Auckland but if you can get it to 100k even better!

Where? Oh it's so big and spread out...you can't go wrong with most of the North Shore

Some of west and south is nice but you have already been warned off I believe .

Can you give us rough budget for renting and we can start property porning searching for you. Like justabout says, everything else should cost the same

Got to go, off out for drinks

I've considered Waiheke but OH does out of hours work that requires him to be in Auckland. If we win the lotto we will by a bach there though.

What would 100 k be per week after tax? We spend 42% of our basic income on our mortgage which is tight. I've done some work which has helped with paying for holidays and our trip back to the UK.

What would happen with your visa AB?

Does anyone here do any consultancy work? I've been doing some which has ended up being by the hour- a 2 hour meeting followed by a couple of hours work on a document sort of thing. Not sure if I should charge for travel? I'm not that fussed about the money as it's been a great opportunity and I want to keep working for them.

Hi Littlest - I charge for travel time (as I am working) over and above what it would take me to get to my normal place of work as they provide me with an office. I also charge expenses, mileage (.74c) and parking as these are not covered in my contract but am able to claim them. I guess it depends on your contract. i think travel time is a fair claim (I even claim when I am in-flight by the hour).

Oh this is funny, dh has just told me that the CEO was asking about me an background. Dh was saying about BBC,broadcast journalist/voice over work etc. CEO says "Oh brilliant, there might be an opening for some voice over work...as long as she's not a scouser!!!!"
Dh was like "aaha hah ha hah ah hah...."
CEO was like "she is a scouser isn't she?"
Dh said "yeeeeeaaaah"
He said he could see him dying!
Hilarious!

Thanks Sibble. I'm torn between trying to put myself on a professional footing and making sure I don't piss them off and do myself out of future work.

LOL. That's very funny AB.

I am a posh scouser!

And I sound very scouse when i am pissed or cross

Ooh justa provisionally yes!! With the caveats that DH is a NYE grinch & DD2 doesn't survive much past 6:30 most night. I shall talk to DH and see what he thinks. (I think my folks are trying to go somewhere for NYE, even if it's just Takapuna to stay in a hotel & watch the fireworks - we're sending them off gladly as our two little monsters don't mix well with late nights and/or babysitters )

Thnks Justa - we will have to decline. We're heading to the beach on the 22nd through to 6th (ish). Have a great time everybody thought. Weather pending I'll be down there on an off through to the boys going back to school. Have no internet, phone or anything usually so will be a bit quiet! However bought a vodem yesterday as have heaps of work to do and am hoping to be able to connect to internet to send it into the office when done. Beauty of doing contract littlest = when everybody goes back to the office I can 'work from home' or juggle contracts so I am very lean over school holidays - love it!