Moving to New Zealand

Few years since i lived there (Auckland), check trademe co nz, home rentals all on there, actually, everything, car, home rentals, think a lot of long-term rental come unfurnished, so trade me again. Will also give you an impression of rental costs. If I remember correct everybody when employed in NZ (and also if unemployed) is covered on ACC , accident insurance this is reason car insurance is not compulsory. To be honest I know very little about it. I remember when first there buying towels etc I think in a place I think called “the warehouse” not so important you will find when you get there.

Going over, wages are higher and the cost of living is higher, so you want to be earning asap, is ok when your working. I went travelling for 4 weeks when arrived first, morning after got back to city was little worried might be difficult finding work, I checked jobs online (seek co nz) emailed a few, one rang me back in 10 mins, from agency, meet him for lunch, went to employer after lunch and started the next day. This might just of been luck, and also sure its changes over time, check seek, send some emails.

Lifestyle is good, relaxed, in summer weekends everybody heads to the beach, in winter to the ski resorts. There is enough months of winter to appreciate the guaranteed months of sun. Is really easy place to live, I really only left because if I didn’t I would be still there. Cook in the kitchen in winter and on the deck in summer. There is so many people there that were not born there I never felt like an outsider, in fact, I felt it benefited me more than if I was a born there.

A lot of settled Irish people there compared to oz where a lot are there for a just a year or 2. I played a few games of GAA when over there, the people I meet at the clubs where really very nice and always helping newly arrived out with jobs etc. Thinking about it now I also played a few games of rugby, was in a sailing club and few others. When I say in “a sailing club”, I was dragged into this at first and I wasn’t a full member, I paid 10 nzd on a Friday evening and joined a club member who owned a boat and raced for few hours, then back to clubhouse for ½ price beers and roast chicken dinner. First time I went the guy that owned the boat asked me had I sailed before, told him never, he said ok and gave me a beer and said take the steering wheel for the race, felt like steve Staunton, but was great fun. See a lot of newly arrived people joining these clubs.

Fluffyduckz wrote: »

Myself and my partner want to move to NZ next year after some research and debating. We have concluded that Wellington is the place to go although many people have said the weather is awful and it's too expensive. We are both looking for an improvement on the Irish weather, the cost of living and quality of life in Dublin and a substantially sized city which we would need to both find work. If anyone has any tips or experience living over there I would much appreciate some advice. Also any info about the lifestyle over there like norms with property rental, public transport, shopping for both groceries and clothes/household items. Any similarities to Ikea or Penneys to get up and running for basic living essentials? Is it as difficult as Dublin to find apartments or houses to rent close to the city? Realistic amount of cash to have in the bank on arrival? Necessity of health insurance? Anything at all that I might not know, I'd love to hear. TIA

Property rental: Check out Trademe.co.nz, should have no issues finding a rental but will most likely be unfurnished as seclanmorgan mentioned, furniture can also be sourced pretty cheap on Trademe
Public Transport: I have been living here for some time and have never actually used public transport, but there is a good system in NZ, most people drive, much cheaper than Ireland, my rego (tax) is about $100 a year and my insurance is $180( not compulsory but you definitely need it!)
Groceries: Food shopping is expensive! i paid $6 for a single red pepper yesterday
Clothing/household items: Can be got really cheap at "The Warehouse", its like an ikea/penneys/2euro store hybrid 
Money: You will need a at least $3,000 to get started, will need to pay at least a months rent upfront as a  bond
Health insurance: I don't have any but probably is a good idea to get some. Have a system here called ACC so any accidental injury is covered. I had a motorcycle accident recently, spent a month in hospital and had 4 surgeries costing me $0
Drop me a pm if you have any other questions
Disclaimer: I live in Auckland, not Wellington

Loves_lorries wrote: »

cost of living is higher and wages are lower.

It's not really. While things like groceries and clothing are more expensive, overall I think cost of living is lower. Wages can be far better depending on industry and the tax burden is far far lower so purchasing power is higher.

I am currently back living in Wellington, with my husband and 2 children.  Today wasn't the best day, weather wise, but where we are located, we got temperatures nearing 40 last summer.
Wellington is pretty well served, with regards to trains, now running every 20 minutes during the day.  I'm not sure about buses, as I've never lived around the Wellington city area, and have always walked to my place of employment from the train station.
We shipped everything over from Ireland, and actually do regret that.  Things can be bought here a lot cheaper now than in the past, well, in my opinion.  We also had our stuff in storage for some time as we were living with my parents, and buying a house, so it all added up.
The warehouse and kmart are the places to go for inexpensive household items, and most other things you can think of.  The warehouse has a larger presence in Wellington, as there are only 2 kmarts in the region.  
I do find groceries, in general, quite a bit more expensive here, due to there only being 2 major players. There is no Aldi here, unfortunately.
Rentals nearly always come unfurnished, too, unlike Ireland, but you can pick things up here secondhand pretty easily.  Trademe is a good website for these things.
With regards to health insurance, some New Zealand visas do allow free access to the public health system, but some don't.
All New Zealand banks also seem to let you set up an account from overseas, and I think it's just a matter of dropping into a branch with ID or something like that.  I'm not certain of the specifics of this, as I just added my husband to my ANZ account.
All the best for your move!