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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Book Review, 16 May 2005
This review is from: Emigrate with Caution (Paperback)
I first read this book amongst several others last October 2004.My partner and I were giving serious thought to living and working in New Zealand and so wanted to do as much research as possible before making a decision. In addition to reading this book we actually flew out to New Zealand and travelled around for a month during November and December 2004. I have just finished re-reading Nicola's book with the benefit of first hand experience if only for one month. New Zealand is indeed a physically beautiful country with a land mass equalling the UK. New Zealand does perhaps lack the sophistication of thousands of years of culture that we in Europe take for granted. I think that Nicola has missed the opportunity to fully integrate and benefit with the NZ way of life. I am sure that I will be corrected if I am wrong but during their four year stay neither Nicola nor her husband worked. This is perfectly fine if you can afford to take a four year holiday. To really appreciate New Zealand I believe it is important to "muck in" with the locals or you will always feel and be viewed as an outsider. To continually judge, compare and find fault with another culture is pointless, they would have been better to have never left England. The saying "the grass is always greener" might well have applied in this case but sometimes it genuinely is "greener" if a little "full bodied". I feel bad criticising her book as it obviously didn't just fall out of the trees. My personal advice to anyone thinking of living and working in New Zealand is to take a couple of months and experience it for yourself. It's the only way to know for certain if you are going take to it.
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