Northlanders moving over the Tasman with hopes of earning heaps and having a better lifestyle could be in for a shock.
Two women who moved to Whangarei from Sydney this year warn Australia is no longer the Lucky Country, especially in the city they once called home.
The women areShirley Dollimore - who crossed the ditch from Whanganui for a "look-see" 33 years ago - and her sister-in-law Kathy Rzoska, a dinkum Aussie married to Shirley's brother Stephen. All three reckon you'd have to be a mug to swap life in Whangarei for the pressure and expense of living in Sydney.
"It's a rat race over there," Kathy said. "Maybe Kiwis will do all right in Western Australia if they get high-paying jobs and don't mind heat and dust, but living in Whangarei is wonderful after Sydney. You have to be a millionaire to live over there."
Kathy said she and Stephen were earning $130,000 a year between them, yet they struggled to make ends meet. "Housing, electricity, food, travel - everything is more expensive there."
Gridlocked roads were among Kathy's major complaints. She had lived five minutes walk from a shopping centre, yet she claimed it took 20 minutes to drive to the shops and then it was impossible to find a place to park.
She and Stephen had sold their Sydney house "which needed knocking down and rebuilding" for A$500,000 ($638,000), collected up to NZ$1.31 per Australian dollar when exchanging cash for their move, and paid just over $300,000 for a house in Whangarei.
Kathy was rapt with her new home, its garden and a yard "big enough for a pool". She had spent a week back in Sydney recently visiting a daughter and had "no intention of going back".
