I have heard from people that the standard of living in NZ is lower than in NZ. That there are more lower middle class people than in SA. Is the cost of living that expensive? And whats the biggest culture shock to get used to??
Hi Kj, I am presuming that you mean that the standard of living in NZ is lower than in SA?
More lower middle class people in NZ than SA? Thats really not true. The main thing what i think you have to consider is this, when living in SA you are living amongst the better off, we all tend to forget about the huge amount of poverty in SA and the fact that the whites only make up about 5% of the total population of SA, we also forget that the whites are now such a minority. (sorry i hate using the term whites, i actually mean non blacks) Taking that into account, the standard of living for all new zealanders is much higher in NZ than SA, there is just no poverty here, or very little. Another thing you have to take note of is that most of the people here are middle class and this is where most south Africans coming here will fit into. Its true though I think that many south Africans have a better standard of living in SA than the middle class in NZ. Most south africans arriving here will fir into the middle class. I don't think its possible for a family to emigrate without having to downscale quiet a bit in the beginning, that aside the advantages of living in NZ and raising a family here outweighs SA completely, free schooling, free good quality health care, and the most important of them all, very little crime, the list is endless actually.
The cost of living is expensive, yes and no, it depends on so many things, some times in the shops i look at the price of something and i want to choke (still multiplying everything by 5.5). Other times I cant believe how cheap things are. Takeaways are very expensive here and i know already that we not going to be having them as often here as we did in SA, groceries are about the same price as SA with the exceptions here and there, cellphone calls here are a lot more expensive than SA, especially if you are on prepaid. Silly little things are expensive, plugs for your appliances $3 each, i bought 3 wall hooks yesterday for $5. Good quality clothes are expensive, It costs me $75 to fill my 45litle tank with petrol, i get about a week and a half out of that (rav4 4wd which is heavy on petrol though). Parking in town costs me $7 per day, this works out to be a hell of a lot of money just to get to work and back. Unlimited train tickets from my house to town and back for a months costs $140. It pays to use the public transport system and even though i hate riding the trains I have now decided that I am going to use them, will just have to get use to it. Insurance here is so cheap, I pay about $50pm for the car and householders. Appliances are more expensive, but again it depends. If you smoke, give it up before coming here, its like $12 a box!!! beer and wine is also much more expensive.
For me the biggest culture shock so far has been the weather, the houses, the lack of good shopping centers etc..
In SA i think we were lucky enough to have been able to class ourselves as above middle class, we had a nice house in Cape Town, in a nice suburb, living the so called high life but in constant fear all the time and the continue worrying about the future of our daughter. The so called high lifestyle will now be gone, but its a good trade in my opinion to know that i can finally sleep through the night without the constant fear of someone breaking in, to think too that our daughters have a future here and they will never be discriminated against. In NZ i would probably now class myself as just middle class. But guess what, the kiwis here don't care, they appreciate you for who you are, and not the kind of car you drive etc.. Overall NZ is a great place, think long term, what are those middle class people in SA going to be doing in the next 10 years? And what class are they going to fall into then?
