Married Canucks looking to relocate to NZ

Quick
New Member



Joined: 28 Nov 2005
Posts: 1
Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 7:20 pm

 

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Howdy

The wife and I have been researching moving to NZ for some time, and are just looking for input from those who are, or have been living in NZ. We're generally seeking general advice on prefered cities (where you like and why) and any and all advice you might have for us. We've done a fair bit of research on our own, but are looking for any additional info that may be helpful.

Thanks so much

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Nicci
New Member



Joined: 07 Jan 2006
Posts: 4
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 4:39 pm

 

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Hey there,

I noticed you posted this over a month ago. I just joined but figured you might still be looking for info, plus other people seeing this post who have similar questions.

There's a great site that we've used in moving to NZ called (funnily enough <g>) www.move2nz.com. We've found it invaluable with all of our questions that we've had through the whole process.

>>We're generally seeking general advice on prefered cities (where you like and why) <<

We arrived in Auckland, spent a week and went on to Wellington where we decided would be the place where we wanted to settle. Because we'd decided that I would secure employment and my husband would start a business I set about applying for jobs (I'm in web). After a few weeks of submitting applications for about half a dozen jobs, a job came up that I was ideally qualified for, I submitted my resume and had a request for an interview come back just hours later. Guess what? The job was in AUCKLAND! So, after heading back for the interview and deciding to take the job we ended up settling in Auckland rather than Wellington.

Life's like that.

If you make contacts with potential employers prior to arriving you'll be able to arrange an interview schedule based around city visits. The super nice thing about NZ is that it's relatively easy to get from one city to the other, so you can arrange job interviews in each of the major cities and then factor everything in to your choice. It's easiest and quickest to fly, the train is okay but pretty pricey - it's actually cheaper to rent a car and drive. Driving is mainly single lane, twisty roads and takes quite a while, but you'll have the convience of having the car for getting around to job interviews. You'll find that a lot of jobs aren't necessarily in the Central Business District, sometimes offices will be out in the burbs.

The cities are fairly small here, Auckland is by far the largest at 1.4 million. Wellington is 500,000 and reminds me a lot of San Francisco (and may remind you of home, I've never been to the Maritimes but my husband attended NSCAD and lived there for 5 years and it reminded him a lot of Halifax). Auckland kind of reminds me of Vancouver ...but with palm trees.

So, your choices will definitely depend a lot on:

* What kind of work you're in
* What sort of culture you're looking for
* If there are specific activities/etc that you want to be near

Hope that helps!
Nic

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tamrib
New Member



Joined: 13 May 2006
Posts: 5
Location: A Canuck in NZ

Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 12:04 am

 

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So, Haligonians, did you ever decide to move to NZ?

We are also Haligonians and just moved to Christchurch complete with dog and cat in March/06.

Let me know if I can help you with info!

Tami

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MikeJ
New Member



Joined: 05 Jun 2006
Posts: 2
Location: London, Ontario

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 9:11 am

 

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Tami,

Could you provide some details (quarantine times, costs.) around bringing your animals into the country.

Our family may be moving to NZ in the near future. We have an older cat and would like to have some insight into the process.

If it is too complex, risky, or costly for our cat of 13 years, we may have to consider putting her up for adoption.

Mike

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tamrib
New Member



Joined: 13 May 2006
Posts: 5
Location: A Canuck in NZ

Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 1:17 am

 

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Hi Mike,

Its not cheap to move an animal to NZ unfortunately but is quite a bit cheaper for a cat then for a dog. I think altogether it probably cost us about $8K for the 2 of them.

You'll need to have your cat microchipped and also, you'll need to have a rabies titre test done 6 months before you enter NZ. You will also have to repeat this test 30 days before departure and it costs about $200 each time just for that. They will also do other testing (I can't quite remember what it all is)and quite a few innoculations are required and it'll probably cost a few hundred dollars for all of that.

We hired a pet transportation specialist to help us with our move because there is so much paperwork and specific test methods that need to be done and I just found it to be WAY too much stress trying to stay on top of all of that in addition to our stuff.

Surprisingly, the transport people weren't terribly expensive and they were really helpful. For example, they would fax my vet a check list for each appointment, the paperwork was all filled in and all the vet had to do was tick off a few things here and there and follow the instructions. It was way easier! They also booked the airline passage for our pets. Because of these people, we were able to break the trip up into 2 legs. We flew Toronto-LA and spent a few days there with our pets to give them a break from their travel crates and then flew LA-NZ. Our bill for this was approx $3K but it included the final vet appointment/vaccinations, crate sealing in Los Angeles by US gov't vet, transport to the airport, their airline travel and the fee for the service by the pet shipper.

Your cat will also have to spend 30 days in quarantine (longer if your paperwork is not done correctly!) and I think its about $30/day but that includes food/treats etc.

There's no doubt that its hard for them (our pets are 11 and 12) but they are both perfectly fine now. I basically didn't sleep for the month they were in jail and I do think that while it was a long stretch for them it was probably worse for us. Atleast we were able to go and visit everyday so that made it a little more tolerable.

Its a hard decision to bring pets.especially older ones, but I'm glad that we did. Just so you know, we also did a lot of crate training with ours so that they felt safer in their boxes. The cat now likes hers quite a bit.

Hope this helps!

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MikeJ
New Member



Joined: 05 Jun 2006
Posts: 2
Location: London, Ontario

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 1:42 pm

 

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Thanks Tami. That helps alot. I had heard around $10K per animal. I am relieved to hear it is much less than that. $3K-$4K per animal is alot but much better than the alternative.

Mike

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tamrib
New Member



Joined: 13 May 2006
Posts: 5
Location: A Canuck in NZ

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 3:06 pm

 

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Mike, I should probably add that the money I spent with International Pet Transportation in Los Angeles (around $3K) was in US funds, but with the CDN $ being so strong right now I guess that doesn't really matter.

Let me know if you need more info. I do highly suggest talking to the pet shipper and if you want, I'd be happy to provide you with their web address. They are very nice and worth every penny for the peace of mind knowing that your pets will not have to be subjected to longer quarantine because of incorrect paperwork.

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