What prompted you to make the move overseas?

Was it something you had been planning for years, a spur of the moment thing?

Trying to decide if I want to go...

I've wanted to go to London since a few friends went over in 2002, now *touch wood* I finally got everything sorted and am leaving fairly soon. Plus ever since my friends went the more I've thought about it the more I've wanted to go. Considered moving to Sydney in 2005 but that was mainly due to nothing doing in Auckland and wanting a change.

I wanted to make the move to London primarily for life experience, and secondly for career reasons.

It's something I've always wanted to do. From my adolescence the idea has always been there. It's something of a "rite of passage" in my Dad's family amongst my cousins, and my parents never did it so they were always keen for me to go over, especially with my access to a UK ancestry visa. I planned to head over between the ages of 24 and 25, and ended up arriving here around 6 months after my 25th birthday, so it was mostly to plan.

Essentially you're not getting any younger, so if it's something you're thinking about doing, look at doing it now rather than later on. Whatever "responsibility" you think you may have pales in comparison to the real responsibility that comes with having a mortgage, a family & children.

Mid-20s is a good time to come over, as by that stage most people should have a career path in place, which you can build upon while overseas.

I got my passport when I was 18, with intentions of going then.

6 years later I ended up moving to the UK and never looked back. I'll think I'll be here a while longer.

So many opportunities and options for travel, after traveling back to nz for Christmas i thought it's far to slow for me at this stage of my life... so I'll continue caining it over here.

NZ is always going to be home... but there is to many good parties here.

I was in a rut in Auckland and wanted to do something different. Ended up coming out here by myself. Best move I've ever made. Very hard to do but worth it. It was probably about 3 months from deciding to do it to acutally going.

We had been thinking of moving overseas, with Sydney, Dubai and London on the list, and then work offered me a promotion in Sydney so we packed up and left.

As for why we wanted to move overseas ... Well I was lucky as a child to have travelled a lot with my family and wanted to live in different countries like my parents did ... The boy hadn't travelled and was absolutely dying to. We both want to see the world and travelling around a lot with NZ as your base is impossible unless you have piles of money.

As heresy says, once you've got commitments like children and a mortgage you don't have the freedom to just up and go. Now we're in our mid 20s we're keen to get moving again or we'll have to choose between putting off a family or putting off travel.

So yeah, England is the next stop on the cards, opens up visiting Europe and I've got a British passport

Mabee, where are you thinking of going?

I am not exactly sure... I was thinking UK (London etc) but maybe starting with a stint in Australia. Nothing is set in stone as yet.

Oz is good. NZers scoff that it's not really moving overseas but I think it's a good step for your first big move - you still have to set up base in brand new country, and it's nice being able to get home to see family and friends if you need to.

Good luck, and remember ... If you don't like it, you can always move home!

My ex decided to go to Japan in 2002 ... and I followed her. Travelled from there with my Japanese girlfriend (!!) round Europe for 2 months and Asia for 5 ... awesome earning and saving the yen!! (Well, it used to be when the yen was stronger). Tried top settle back into NZ life 2006/2007 and it just didn't happens so I decided to travel again. I'll reassess things Novmber this year when I get home.

If UK is your final goal, I would suggest no doing a stint in Aussie first. It's such a great place that's it's easy to get comfortable and having such a good time can make it hard to save the necessary $$$ to get to the UK.

Actually, I will back track on my "Oz is good to start with" comment and agree with these wise words.

We were definitely getting very comfortable here and it was only when we were planning an overseas trip and realised how ridiculous the costs were compared to what they would be if we were travelling from Europe that we realised we'd better just get ourselves into gear and move to England and travel from there instead.

Had that not happened it's very likely we'd be plodding around here thinking "UK one day" instead of setting a firm time frame and planning.

However, we are saving more money here than we could have in NZ, in my case probably more to do with career progression, but more because of the move to Oz for the boy.

Have to say I love Australia though, would definitely consider it as a place to settle down when we're ready to do that.

Yeah, do the UK first. It takes a while to get settled into a new country and you incurr costs in doing so. A lot of kiwi's who have lived in London a few years end up moving to Australia afterwards anyway.

Yeah have decided to save more and just go straight to Europe. Have family in Australia anyway.. so I can go and stay with them if I leave Europe and decide if I go there or home.

Some great advice thanks! Helped me make a few plans

Well Dad is off to Grozny until the end of the year! So this may change a few plans...