Why This Kiwi Left Hobbiton
And can’t afford to return to New Zealand.
Kia Ora whanau! (Hello, family).
Barely anyone I speak to in Melbourne, Australia believes that New Zealand is a more expensive place to live than here. I’ll admit to my situation being unique… I’m single with no kids. However, I’ve always worked in the relatively low-paying industry of education, with one, very average salary to finance everything at a time when the cost of living has hit hard.
I love Aotearoa, the ‘Land of the Long White Cloud.’ I was born in Auckland, completed all my schooling and university there, and my oldest friends and some family still live throughout the country. My latest adventure took me to China to teach English for 2.5 years. After 6 months there the pandemic hit, so it was a steep time of learning and growth. By the time I was able to return home, in Christmas of 2021, I was deeply ready to settle down once again in my homeland.
I rented a stunning rural property as it was all I could afford on my own, and worked for minimum wage as a childcare educator an hour from home. I tried to make a go of online English tutoring, so I could travel less and live a sustainable life. However, I found the market to be pretty saturated at the time. Petrol (most of you say gas) is 3–4 times more expensive in NZ than in the U.S. and…
