In retrospect, would you move again to New Zealand?

Hi All,
I moved here in 2006 and am now a citizen.
I am from Boston, Massachusetts and met my now husband in 2001 while he was working in Boston. a year later his work transferred him to Sydney and he asked me to come with him saying " you'll get a free trip out of it if anything" ! I had been working in the states as a gate agent at American Airlines previously but when I moved to Sydney due to laws, I couldn't just get a de facto visa as the laws for Kiwis had changed. I got a network engineering diploma and worked part time. We had enough of Australia and wanted to move and we decided to come to Wellington as it was closer than America and less expensive. Also I was curious about the new Zealand culture and lifestyle compared to Australia.
I got a temp job in banking right away after getting my residency and worked my way up over the course of 10 years to where I am now, A Business Analyst in Banking.  I found out my role is being disestablished so have been looking for work and find it hard as you have to go through several agency's and its very competitive.  I have also had issues with managers on power trips and women in general who have tall poppy syndrome. Its extremely frustrating but I decided to stay as we cant afford to move back to America and I decided I will try to make this work.
I have had several friends over the decade and hobbies but none of them have stuck and I have yet to find anyone that I click with where we have things in common on more than superficial level. For the record, I have a great personality am emotionally intelligent and very easy to get along with. I have recently made efforts to take up new hobbies and try to change my experience and make new friends and to change my mind-set from lacking to abundant with opportunities. It would be nice if there was less of a class system or nanny state here and that people would just really accept people more freely. I do like kiwis and new Zealand is very innovative in a lot of ways so I am hopeful that I can turn things around. I find that my primary support is from my husband and he has been wonderful
If I had to do it all over again I would probably try to pursue a different career path and save more money as office life is too political for my taste. I have enjoyed the art-house culture here and the throwback styles and restaurants and theatre scene.

I love New Zealand and would move back again in a heartbeat.  I was fortunate to make some really good friends through my work, and as a Canadian I found it fairly easy culturally to fit in.  Not all kiwis are accepting of foreigners (or perhaps not immediately, anyway) but given its relative remoteness and low population (giving most places a rather small-town atmosphere) this is perhaps not too surprising.  Most of the people here are kind, generous, and very laid back.

Average incomes/salaries are low compared to most other OECD countries.  But the thing I realized after living here is that you don't need much to have a high quality of life, particularly if nature and the outdoors is your thing.

Cheers,
Chris

It is with total relief that I have now permanently left New Zealand and I have no wish to return. Originally from the UK I now live in California and partly in UK and China! I shall at some point write up my experiences and submit to UK and China newspapers warning people of the very many pitfalls that may befall them. If needed, I can relate some of these experiences here etc. Obviously, I would have liked my experiences to be very different but sadly compared with my life in the other countries mentioned they have been the worst experiences in my life; sad but true!

I love NZ and would move again in a heart beat. Lovely scenery, nice people, no drastic climate changes. an all around lovely place to be.

Yes I would definitely do it again, this time just sooner.

Hi

No I would not come here to NZ if I had the time over. The family is a bit issue and coming to a country that is rife with xenophobia you can feel isolated and alienated. I would leave it i could. The media sells NZ as a wonderful place to live. But it is really only the wealthy that can enjoy this place as it is very expensive to live here and everything costs a fortune. If you enjoy the out doors you can really only go out for 4/5 of the year.I enjoyed travelling around as kiwis think you only passing through and are much more friendly when they try to sell NZ