Following in Nexus's footsteps, I am now in Kiwi-land.

New Zealand is awesome, both in its beauty and people, and also in how fricking expensive everything is.

That is all.

Everyone thinks it will be cheap because they're a bit backwards, but its no joke how expensive everything is there. Happy for you getting settled there though! 

We knew it'd be expensive but I think the other issue is just the shock value of the different currency.

E.g., say something costs £5 in the uk. It might cost $15 here. There's an immediate knee jerk reaction at that number being so big.

The exchange rate also means that $15 = £10, so you then start to think "that's still 2x as much". We have to remind ourselves salaries are better here, I'm going to be earning 2x what I'd get in the UK for the same job, so in the end that thing that looks expensive isn't so bad.

I think we'll feel better once we've been here a few months and have had some pay cheques so we can get a feel for the true costs of things!

congrats on the move, at least property is cheaper

maybe some of it is the psychological factor - it doesn't look like it would be too bad, 30% more expensive for groceries but if you're earning twice as much then you're sorted .

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=United+Kingdom&country2=New+Zealand

I guess once you've adjusted to being paid in the local currency then everything will feel cheaper even... and cheaper still when you visit the UK again!

Do they have car breakers, maybe i could follow