Is two years a good enough try?

[JacAng 8]

I suspect you'd feel a lot more at home in Seattle... and you don't even have to leave the state to get there.

Yup looking at that pic of aukland i would agree and right across the border is vancouver which also looks like that.......

[Kajikit 65]

Yup looking at that pic of aukland i would agree and right across the border is vancouver which also looks like that.......

I loved Seattle when I visited it... that part of the US seemed much more cosmopolitan than most of the other cities I went to when I travelled around the country. It's a different world to Florida.

[G0ds1ay3r 30]

I know what you mean about feeling like you're in a prison, that's what this town feels like to me. The mentality here is really conservative and backward, really different from Auckland which is so diverse and liberal. I'm glad I'm going back to New Zealand for a holiday first, to see whether I really do want to move back there eventually or whether it's just feelings of "the grass is greener on the other side". But I have more friends and family back there, and my job skills go a lot further than they do here, so hopefully I wouldn't regret it because it would be awful to feel like I don't belong anywhere. My husband won't move right now so I'm stuck here for another year and a half at least. It's interesting to hear from another Kiwi who didn't enjoy returning to NZ though, maybe Reno is the place I oughta be! Lol

We were also not prepared for the price differences in New Zealand.

In America we were living great on about $4000 a month, we are able to save money each month and could live life to the fullest by going out for meals; going on trips etc

In New Zealand we earn almost $4k a month and are barely scraping by; if it weren't for the $100 we get each week in child tax credits we wouldnt be able to afford to come back to America and we wont be coming back with much savings as it is.

In the 3 years since we got back to New Zealand we have taken one trip and that one trip was over a year ago and was to a crappy camping ground for a few days break; we haven't even gone out of this city since then Or before then because petrol is way to expensive (8.20per gallon) so we have pretty much been stuck in this dinky little city for 3 years.

We wished we had have come back to New Zealand for a visit before making plans to move but we didn't do it that way unfortunately because if we had we wouldnt have come back to New Zealand to live at all.

I was nostalgic for my home country but that was short lived when we got here :-(

I suggest you take a road trip around Washington; or further to find a better place to live because trust me New Zealand a country you want to get stuck in.

[kiwibelcanto 3]

I suspect you'd feel a lot more at home in Seattle... and you don't even have to leave the state to get there.

Yup looking at that pic of aukland i would agree and right across the border is vancouver which also looks like that.......

Exactly! I've been to Seattle a handful of times now and every time I don't want to leave. It's so nice to start seeing evergreen trees lining the road instead of sagebrush, it's so opposite from where I live that it really FEELS like a different state, which is nice. But you have to get over the Snoqualmie Pass to get there, which from November-Feb/March is pretty dicey. It's so similar to Auckland, even the layout, that I could really see myself living and working there and loving every minute of it. It would be a lot harder to get a job though, because you're competing with so many more people.

I would love to visit Vancouver too, but we'd need to find the time and money to take as many trips as I'd like to take! I thought living in the US was going to make traveling easier, but so far I've been to only WA, ID and OR. I haven't even been to a beach in two years! I totally took it for granted when it was 15 minutes from my house.

We were also not prepared for the price differences in New Zealand.

We wished we had have come back to New Zealand for a visit before making plans to move but we didn't do it that way unfortunately because if we had we wouldnt have come back to New Zealand to live at all.

I understand what you mean, I'm so used to the prices here now (even with sales tax and tipping which at first threw me off completely) that the prices in New Zealand, even though your salary reflects the cost of living, is enough to make me feel sick. I'm really looking forward to going home for a visit in September, because it'll be my first time viewing NZ through American eyes, and hopefully I'll miss the US too much to move back there permanently. I just feel like I'm moving backwards here, two years and I'm still in the exact same position I was in when I first arrived. That's pretty disheartening!

[wee carrington 33]

I'll say just from my own experience and from what I've seen on these boards, woman generally seem to have a tougher time permanently moving abroad than men. I would agree with Trompe that it takes about 2 years to even semi-settle in and I think moving to a bigger city with potential to meet other New Zealanders would be a big help!

[G0ds1ay3r 30]

San fransisco has a restaurant called there new zealander. They also have monthly meetings of the kiwis in there expat kiwi club.

[jessicaruizw 9]

Zeddess - I grew up in spokane, and visited Tri-cities many times as a child.... I am actually going through this process so that we can eventually move back to spokane, but I am well aware that if after a while (like beejay says, 2 years is a good indicator) he doesn´t like it, i am willing to try something else. I have to be, he was willing to drop his friends, family, education, and job for me (as do so many foreign loved ones). Why wouldn´t I be able to do that for him?? I understand if your hubby says "you would both be w/o friends and family" but how dare he compare a couple hour drive you can do on the weekend (to pacify mommy dearest for example) with a very $$$$ plane ticket you might do every couple of years to see your loved ones.

I totally understand why you are miserable, we spokanites always call Dry-$h!tt!es . If you are miserable because of your environment, you need to make that clear and as a couple you need to address it so it doesn´t affect your relationship. There are a lot of GREAT cities in the pacific NW. You could move a seattle as you mention is a good alternative, very heterogeneous. Portland is great because it doesnt have quite the "big city" feel, but its got a nice public transportation system, etc. Sandpoint, ID is actually a gorgeous little somewhat hippy town up north, great lakefront properties!

If you choose to continue to live in Tri-cities then you must get out and do!!! the PNW is one of the most beautiful regions in the world, you just have to get out and see it. On our side (getting to the border of idaho) we are chalk full of trees, rivers, lakes, mountains, etc. And we are just 3 hours from you! If you want to explore, I know greyhound has some great rates right now, or take advantage of having a car!

Good luck with your decision!