Five Kiwis share their experiences of moving from New Zealand to Australia, from the day-to-day cost of living to salaries, house prices and how Kiwi kids have adjusted to life in the “Lucky Country”.
As a maths teacher Liam McMahon is good with numbers and one striking sum stands out - when he moved to Australia, he instantly pocketed a $31,000 pay rise.
McMahon was teaching in Hamilton when he decided to cross to Melbourne, primarily in search of a new social scene.
Yet his wanderlust was swiftly rewarded in another way when his fourth-year teacher’s salary jumped $31,071 simply by crossing the ditch in January this year.
“It was a big pay increase,” he says.
The 30-year-old is one of thousands of Kiwis on the hunt for greener pastures.
According to the latest Stats NZ data, 17,500 more people left New Zealand for Australia in the year to March 2023 than in the typical net migration loss of 3000 a year from 2014 to 2019. For many, the lure of Australia has proved overwhelming - 53 per cent of New Zealanders leaving the country are flocking across the Tasman.
For many of the Kiwi ex-pats we spoke to, the chance to get a foot on the property ladder proved one of the biggest drawcards.
Analysis by the Herald shows houses are generally cheaper, wages are higher - and interest rates lower.
Every state in Australia (except for surging Sydney) boasts a cheaper average house price than Auckland, Wellington or Tauranga.
The pay is better, too - average household incomes outstrip New Zealand’s in all but two states.
When it comes to the daily cost of living, our families agreed there’s little to separate the two countries (although the price of petrol is markedly cheaper in Australia).
A Herald snapshot of Woolworths online shopping also found five out of six supermarket items chosen at random were cheaper across the ditch.
Aussies are saving about 30c on 2L of Woolworths-branded milk - one of the most common items in shopping carts - with prices at $3.63 in NZ and $3.35 (A$3.10) across the Tasman.
T-bone steaks, Woolworths-branded 1kg tasty cheese, royal gala apples and tomatoes were all also cheaper in Australia.
Only Woolworths-branded 500g margarine tubs, on special in both countries, were cheaper in New Zealand.
But it’s not all smooth sailing for “Aussified” Kiwis - rents are generally higher in Australia, especially in glamorous locations such as Sydney.
And, putting money aside, all our case studies conceded they miss the Kiwi way of life - the distance from whānau, friends and our culture that can tug on the heartstrings.
Adelaide-based Kiwi migration agent Erin Morunga says Australia recently tightened the skilled visa eligibility for foreign workers.
This has led many Aussie employers to begin headhunting skilled Kiwis - especially police, prison officers and nurses - to make up for the shortfall, she says.
Northern Territory Police made one of the most eye-catching campaigns earlier this year.
They posted advertisements in the Herald offering Kiwi cops the chance to make up to $147,114 (A$136,000) in their first year on the job in Oz, while also collecting seven weeks of annual leave.
The New Zealand Police website shows first-year officers here can earn $75,063, rising to $82,773 for an officer with five years of experience.
Another recent sweetener is the Australian Government’s decision to make it much easier for New Zealanders to become citizens, giving Kiwis more rights and stability, Morunga says.
So is the Aussie grass really greener?
The equation was simple for maths teacher McMahon.
He had been earning $70,040 when he left Hamilton in January. Now he’s on $91,286 (A$84,388) plus an 11 per cent superannuation contribution in Melbourne - a total salary package of $101,111.
Admittedly, his salary would have by now risen to $74,243 in New Zealand after teachers and the Government struck a new pay deal.
Even with the recent deal, it’s a big difference, he says.
Pointing to published teacher pay scales, he says the gap is even greater for teachers on the highest salaries, with New Zealand offering a maximum of $95,400 compared to Victoria’s $135,918.
McMahon says the cost of living is more or less the same in Australia as back home.
Petrol is cheaper but buying a used car and registering it is more expensive, he says – a comment backed by others the Herald spoke to and online forum discussions.
Rent was also cheaper in Hamilton but on the flip side, McMahon is living in Brunswick, a trendy suburb close to the centre of Melbourne, a city with a population of five million.
That means “there’s a lot more to do” socially, he says.
Still, he misses family, friends and Hamilton day trips. Travelling one hour from Hamilton in any direction can land you at the beach, Auckland or Rotorua and Lake Taupō.
By comparison, Australia’s long travel distances are “monotonous”, he says.
In the classroom, McMahon misses te reo Māori and New Zealand’s cultural side of teaching.
And while his Coburg school in Melbourne feels “a lot more competitive”, it does have a big advantage.
“I was just overjoyed when I heard that there’s no phones allowed in Victorian classrooms,” he said.
Architect Kyle Anaru and his wife almost scrabbled enough cash together to buy a home in the Bay of Plenty’s Waihī Beach in 2017.
But six years later, their goal now feels even further away as rents and house prices have soared in the popular Airbnb beach town where their extended family live.
“In New Zealand, it just seems like those key issues, like basic cost-of-living costs and housing, there didn’t seem to be any change coming,” he said.
“You work really hard and just don’t get any further ahead.”
By contrast, he’s started “accumulating savings straight away” since moving to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, after securing the first architecture job he applied for.
He’s now in the process of winding down the architecture business he owns in the Bay of Plenty, saying compliance, accounting and tax expenses are grinding.
His small-business costs mean he’s still sending more money to New Zealand than he’s spending in Australia on rent, food, petrol and other costs for his family, including two sons aged 3 and 4.
“That is just wild to me,” Anaru said.
Not everything is easy, however. Anaru says the rental market is tight, and his family only found an apartment thanks to help from his new work colleagues.
Still, the sun has shone brightly nearly every day so far, the beaches are beautiful - and Anaru feels he can finally make progress towards buying a family home.
Ex-Aucklander Keitah Tuleitu jumped across the Tasman in 2016 looking for a “fresh start” and a better life for her daughter.
Her parents earlier migrated to New Zealand from Samoa and struggled. They took on debt and gave so much money to the church they sometimes barely had enough left over for food, Tuleitu says.
Yet in Sydney, Tuleitu’s young family have thrived.
She works as a warehouse administrator, while her husband is a carpenter. They hope to buy a home next year.
In a way, however, their life has come full circle.
One by one, most of Tuleitu’s siblings have followed her from South Auckland to western Sydney, with her parents the latest family members to make the move.
Tuleitu is also back at church, giving her own donations, just like her parents did.
“Yet the higher salaries here mean we’re able to do that and still be able to live comfortably,” she says.
Tuleitu concedes she’s missing New Zealand and says western Sydney is an urban monster, with as many as 2.5 million people living there. But it also has big water parks and plenty to do, while the family go on holiday up the coast to Queensland.
Being 2 years old when the family moved, Tuleitu’s eldest daughter has only ever gone to school in Australia. She experienced bullying at her first school but now attends a school with other Pasifika children and she’s much happier.
“She loves school and I feel like they do have a good education system here,” Tuleitu said.
Tuleitu also recently made it formal, applying for Australian citizenship.
“We’ll probably be here for a long while.”
Australia found its way into Nigel Davidson’s heart before he even moved there.
He met his Australian future wife in London, and, after deliberating, they returned home to her native Brisbane in 2012 rather than his Christchurch.
Both teachers, the couple saved up a 20 per cent deposit for their first home within just two years, while also buying two cars and paying for part of their wedding, with their parents kicking in the rest of the cash for their nuptials.
Now the principal at his school, Davidson says the cost of living may be slightly higher in Brisbane than New Zealand.
“But if things do cost a bit more, it doesn’t matter so much because you’re earning more,” he said.
Australia’s bigger market offers more jobs and more opportunities.
“If I’d grown up here, I probably wouldn’t have been a teacher.”
One example is the sheer number of activities and clubs for kids from as young as 3-4.
The battle between sports is fierce in Australia, with the AFL coming in and running free clinics at his school, Davidson says. He notes as an aside that the Australian Rugby Union doesn’t do so and this is part of the reason rugby is battling in Australia.
Still, he misses his close-knit family, the more laid-back pace of New Zealand and te reo Māori being part of everyday language, such as in: “Do the mahi, get the treats”.
William saw an ad in 2009 looking for rugby players - so he moved to Perth.
Kiwi ex-pats in Perth had placed the ad in New Zealand media because they wanted under-20 players to help get their new rugby club up and running in the Aussie Rules-mad state.
William, who didn’t want to give his last name, crossed the Tasman for the adventure but soon found an entry-level sales job with Australia’s largest real estate marketing website.
He says he was “very fortunate” to get that chance with a big company in a larger market than New Zealand’s.
William has gone on to build a successful sales career, working overseas for a period and now returning to Perth.
The city also features some of Australia’s cheapest housing and has an abundance of Kiwis working in the mining industry.
“Within the space of probably 500 metres from my house is about eight guys from New Zealand that we’re mates with and that’s just my circle of friends,” he says.
Like everyone the Herald talked to, he misses New Zealand.
“If they had the same opportunities and pay, it would definitely make it a more real possibility to go back. But as it stands it’s probably more an idea.”
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