PHYSICAL MIGRATION

settling in to aotearoa

education IN NZ

The NZ school year runs early February to December and is made up of 4 terms. There are no half-terms and apart from the long break over Christmas/New Year (about 6/7 weeks) the break between terms is 2 weeks.

There is a three school system in the majority of places:
•    Primary School - from ages 5 to 11 
•    Intermediate School - from ages 11 to 13 
•    High School - ages 13 to 18 

Most of the bigger towns/cities appear to have some kind of zoning but it appears to us that it really only applies in the major cities of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton and Tauranga. Here in New Plymouth, for example, whilst zoning exists is doesn't seem to be enforced - we live on one side of the city and the kids' schools are on the other.

Generally the New Zealand school atmosphere is a little more relaxed than in the UK, however, there is still an emphasis on success and working hard. That being said, there aren't quite so many tests being done to provide evidence as to how successful the school is or supposedly is.

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One father we know asked his son what he most liked about school in NZ after he'd been at school for about 3 weeks - the child replied that he liked not having fences all around the school which begged the question as to what he felt about school in the UK!

Here in NZ they have not yet got to the point of creating compounds and teachers are still readily accessible at the end of the day for a chat which is a nice change from the UK.  In addition, you will NOT get fined for taking your kids out of school.  We have regularly taken the kids on trips to the UK which cut into school terms and ALL schools have been very supportive and simply asked for a daily diary to be maintained.

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MEDICAL INFORMATION

If you have got your visas and you are getting ready to go we suggest you do the following:

• General practitioner: Get down to your local surgery and ask your GP to gather up your records to take with you. Without doubt they will say they can't but under the Data Protection Act they must give you copies but do not have to include your GP’s ‘personal’ comments… it really pays dividends to take the info with you as it will help when registering here. You may have to be insistent (as we had to be) and it may even cost you but do not be put off.

• Dentist: Do not bother with trying the same with the dentist Our experience is that they will not give you your records. You can try and we wish you luck.

• Optician: We also went to our optician for copies of his records and he agreed to give me copies.

• There will be other people you see/have seen and we suggest you approach them for copies of your notes, as it will make things that much easier once here.

GPs

In theory once in NZ you can register with any GP you want. Note, you will have to PAY each time you visit (approximately $30 - $60 each time). When registering they may well ask you to have a medical examination which is usually free. They are basically assessing what you may cost them in medical care. GPs do not appear to make house calls out of hours but there do tend to be out of hours clinics that you can access.

State Insurance / ACC

In NZ there is a State Insurance scheme called ACC. This is funded from taxation and allows that if you attend a GP or physiotherapist or osteopath because you have an injury you simply fill in a claim form and ACC will pick up the tab, or the majority of it. You may have to pay a small amount to cover the full costs. In some cases, if you are unable to work due to injury sustained whilst working, ACC will pay your wages after an initial period.

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Once in NZ, where sickness is concerned, you should consider taking 2 types of cover:

• Income Protection - this will pay you an income once you have been off work for a given period (minimum 4 weeks) until you return to work.

• Hospital Cover - this will pay for you to see a specialist, have any required tests and any hospitalisation (including operations) up to a set amount per incident, as a private patient. It can cover the whole family. You can get cover for all GP visits and dental work but obviously the premiums are very high……but then if you are likely to see a GP on a regular basis this may be money well spent!!!

For more info on the cover outlined above and complete medical cover insurance, contact Mike.

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Sick pay

Culture shock! Sick pay, in very general terms, is usually only for a period of 5 working days. If you are off for longer you then start eating into your holiday allowance or simply do not get paid unless ACC picks up the tab - most longer term illnesses seem to be as a result of an accident!

Hospitals

Hospitals are modern and have a pretty good reputation but like the UK waiting times for specialists and some operations can be long but it will depend where you are in the country. Naturally, the 3 large cities fare less well on the timescales than smaller communities.

New to NZ flu!

It is very common for new migrants to go through a period, within the first 6 months, of flu like symptoms. This tends to actually be due to the change in the vitamin and mineral make-up of the food here in NZ. NZ can be quiet deficient in minerals due to its volcanic nature. One key mineral which NZ is deficient in is iodine which affects your thyroid function and leads to lethargy and tiredness. This tends to be added to standard table salt but if you are not happy with taking too much salt try taking a kelp tablet day and night. The solution to this situation is to take mineral supplements obtainable from any good health food shop. In our experience, with the supplements we were through the "detox" period within about 9 months.

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TRANSPORT

Now to state the obvious….this is not London or New York or even mad, bad Paris this is New Zealand so be prepared for:

• Lack of trains anywhere! NZ’s largest city, Auckland, has a very poor commuter rail service (but getting better) whereas Wellington’s is not too bad - surprisingly the UK rail system looks like luxury!

• There is only one passenger service which runs between Auckland and Wellington and that is mainly a tourist run – certainly NOT a commuter type service!

• There are no tube systems in NZ

• There are bus stations in most NZ cities for commuter, schools and long-distance travel although a more frequently run service is usually available only in the major cities. Here in New Plymouth (population about 72,000) bus service has only been up and running cross the city in the last 5 years

• Flying between the cities is quite common and not overly expensive if you book far enough out from departure date but, be prepared to hop about and swap planes if flying within the provinces, as most flights only fly direct to Auckland or Wellington or Christchurch.

• In comparison it takes us bout 5+ hours to drive to New Plymouth from Auckland but only 40 mins by air!

• Travel between North and South Islands is either by air or by ferry and the ferry prices reflect the seasons…….it was significantly cheaper for a colleague to drive his family of four to Wellington and fly to Nelson on South Island than to take the ferry in January at the height of summer!

• The car is the preferred mode for almost everyone and the range of options is huge from normal cars, to 4 wheel drives, to Utes (car like pick-up trucks), to vans, to the proverbial combi/motor home. 

Of course with the wide open spaces and lack of people motorbikes are very common as a leisure machine but not so much as a work tool (for instance there are NO motorcycle courier companies in Auckland or Wellington – they use pedal power bikes!) - indeed it is said that the South Island has some of the best biking roads in the world. Along with their big engined cars a vast number of Kiwis own boats or jet skis and, like cars, these tend to be over powered. A decent little day boat with an 80 horsepower outboard will set you back about $8,000 (about £3,000).
 

Cars

As in the UK you can get both petrol and diesel engines and both manual and automatic gearboxes. There is an additional tax premium paid for diesel engined cars based on the mileage driven (yep just a crafty old tax) – but is bought separately rather than included in the price at the pump so if you will do plenty of miles then go for a diesel. Prices for petrol and diesel are lower than in the UK but still seen as high here. You can also run your car (if it can be converted) on LPG but not sure what that costs - although it will be cheaper than either of the other two.

There appears to me to be a preponderance of automatics and we did struggle to find a manual with the size and power I wanted. Our impression is that Kiwis love their 4x4s and they must be the main cars on the road.

You can obviously buy brand new and there are deals about but our experience is that the main dealers are very reluctant, at present, to do deals particularly when they hear a Pom accent…there is a general view that you are getting $3 to the £ (we all wish) and that you are therefore “well off”!

There are plenty of second hand car dealers about and of course there are good and bad amongst them. In addition there are a lot of dealers importing second hand cars from Japan. These used to have a terrible reputation for being dodgy but regulations both in NZ and Japan have been tightened and if you use a reputable dealer buying a 'Jap import' should not be a problem.

Now for a shock… you do NOT have to take any car insurance out here in NZ! Naturally it is still very worthwhile doing so, especially Third Party (which covers the other car). Without Third Party you would be liable for any damage to the other vehicle or property. And cost of insurance is very reasonable compared to the UK!

A further warning now for parents of teenagers - Kiwi kids can start the driving process from age 16! Gaining a licence is a lengthy process and the advice we had from Kiwis was to start as soon as legally allowed. The only drawback to this, as a generalisation, is that apart from restricting the hours they can drive and who they can have in the car the system does not restrict the engine size/power of the car they can drive - but they have to start sometime.

As a driver in NZ with a UK licence you can drive with no problems for up to a year but will then need to switch to an NZ license.  This is very easily done at any AA shop and does not involve any tests – just money!  

With regard to the law, as you might imagine police are not always very popular so we suggest always stick to the limits in towns etc and be careful on the open road and very, very careful going through road works when temporary speed limits are in force and particularly around schools when the speed limit is rigidly enforced.  

The 100 kph limit is very frustrating with such large distances to cover, but for good reason, roads in NZ aren’t as good as UK.  Usually windy and narrow over mountainous terrain but then you do get to see more of this magnificent country!

For more information on how to move about in NZ, car dealers, prices and driving licence requirements, please contact us.

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