living on a tropic island with children..
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Topic: living on a tropic island with children..
Posted By: BaAsKa
Subject: living on a tropic island with children..
Date Posted: 03 February 2010 at 3:56pm
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Has anyone lived on a tropical island (if thats what id call it) with kids??/...i mean i know there a kids on those islands! lol just want to know how foreigners get on living over there....
DH and i had been talking about moving overseas for a while now for an experience and his company has just put in for a contract in micronesia and if they get it wev decided that we will definately move over there....its for 4 years - 8 months on, 4 months off... Iv googled it and am not really getting much info..... I wanted to know what there houses look like..... i had horid visions of sleepn in a hamoc under in a house made of flax ! lol Would love to hear others experiences....even if it wasnt a tropic island you moved too 
things i want to know about (how you went about it): * what did you do with your house?? rent it out?? (we own). * did you keep your cars here or sell them?? * what did you do with all your posessions?? * what did you take over with you?? TIA
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Replies:
Posted By: Emmi_
Date Posted: 03 February 2010 at 4:12pm
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I am prob going to be of no use to you, but DH and I are moving to the states this year (for 5 years) with bubs who is due in May...
We will live there full time (apart from holidays coming back) so will sell cars and most "stuff" that isnt important to us, anything that will be obsolete by the time we come back, or cant be bothered storing (fridge, wii, furniture etc). Anything that is important to us (wedding presents, stuff from my childhood that I want to keep, family heirlooms etc) we are putting into storage here. We are only taking over the minimum (some clothes, mostly stuff for bubs (cot etc)) as we get 200kgs paid for by the US army (DH is joining the army and they pay to relocate us) so will take over stuff that we wont want to bring back here. We dont own our house, but my dad owns a house in NZ and lived in Fiji for a few years and he rented his out. I would rent out our house (if we owned it) if you had someone near by who could keep an eye on it for you, or if you were coming back semi frequently to check it yourselves. Good luck! ------------- 
+1 May 09 Angel 
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Posted By: kiwisj
Date Posted: 03 February 2010 at 5:22pm
I live on a tropical island  but it's nothing like the one you're thinking of moving too!
WRT you questions though (because we moved from NZ originally and had to make all those decision too) ... * what did you do with your house?? rent it out?? (we own). We were renting before we moved but own two rental properties, we still own them but now have a property management co looking after them. * did you keep your cars here or sell them?? We sold DH's car, defo wasn't worth holding onto as noone would have used it. * what did you do with all your posessions?? We gave away and threw away a LOT of clothes. Sold major furniture that we didn't want to keep (some is stored at my Mum's farm). We kept a lot - stored with various family - and have since brought some other things back to Singapore with us and taken other things back to NZ (like winter clothes lol). * what did you take over with you?? 2 backpacks full of our clothes, treasured possesions and important documents. Also tennis racquets and sports shoes! I wish I'd take more underwear (impossible to get Fcup bras in Asia) and clothing meant for "western" women! We were different in that we didn't have Callum before we moved. We've since done a couple of big moves within Asia too and when we moved to Singapore we (or rather DHs company) shipped EVERYTHING here for us and we bought a lot of new furniture when we got here as well. Is there someone that you guys can be put in touch with who have been there done that where you're going? They will hopefully be able to give you real info about what sort of house to expect and whether it's worth bringing a lot with you from NZ. My best friend here grew up in PNG, but she's in her 30s now so I guess things are probably pretty different Or maybe not!
Just reread your post, if you were doing 8m on/4 off would you have to come back to NZ in between? I would maybe keep your house if that's the case although you'd probably want to let it out so mightn't be that easy to get it back for 4 months of the year? Do you have family that would put you up for that long? Or could you get some sort of allowance from the company to cover rental costs? Lastly, if you think you can make it work DO IT. It's the most amazing experience living somewhere else for a while .... and if it doesn't work out, you can always come home ------------- SJ Callum - Dec 2008 Daniel - Oct 2010 |
Posted By: pepsi
Date Posted: 03 February 2010 at 5:35pm
Yes, there are definitely some days I want to send DH and the kids to a tropical island..oh wait, that wasn't the question was it? 
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Posted By: BaAsKa
Date Posted: 03 February 2010 at 5:52pm
lmao Yumi
Yeah we were thinking of spending the 4 months off here in nz... We dont know anyone that has moved over those ways... Im so eager and excited to do it but im thinking its going to be the biggest mission to sort out! 
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Posted By: pepsi
Date Posted: 03 February 2010 at 6:01pm
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Well I haven't ever done it before, but it sounds very exciting, and what an awesome experience! Just think of your kids (and you) learning a different language which is so great too! One of those once in a lifetime opportunities..
Anyway, I imagine 4 years would probably go faster than you'd expect and it would be much nicer to know you have a home to come back to than to have to start from scratch.. renting is a pretty good idea no matter how you look at it really (IMO).. Cars are easily replaced, and depreciation sucks so can't be worth keeping around for that period of time I wouldn't think? Plus, you'd have to still worry about registration (unless you de-register), and insurance.. I do wonder what Micronesia is like in terms of living.. I'm sure it's not just what we saw on Survivor Palau? haha |
Posted By: kiwisj
Date Posted: 03 February 2010 at 6:38pm
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Have you tried googling for expat forums in Micronesia or specifically the island you might be living on? That was one of the best sources of info for us before we moved to HK (our first international move) ...
Also if your DHs company is bidding for a contract there then they should have some idea of infrastructure and housing already? As you DH probably wouldn't be the only one going? I've just been googling Micronesia expat forums ... not much to find so far  ------------- SJ Callum - Dec 2008 Daniel - Oct 2010 |
Posted By: kiwisj
Date Posted: 03 February 2010 at 6:42pm
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Just found this link re Micronesia, not sure how up to date it is ... and the author admits it's considered negative by some over there .. AND it's quite US centric. But still might be interesting
http://www.comfsm.fm/~dleeling/sakau/pohnlife.html - Micronesia ------------- SJ Callum - Dec 2008 Daniel - Oct 2010 |
Posted By: BaAsKa
Date Posted: 03 February 2010 at 7:37pm
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we havnt had the chance to ask his boss any questions yet bcos hes been overseas...
will check out that link now.... |