garryhg

hi only been here 5 weeks,so not really had much chance to see a lot of places..taking things slowly....

but keep hearing about how different auckland is compared to other places in nz....

i thought that was just geography,and presumed apart from scenery nz would be the same no matter where you went.....

what are the differences,and why are most people against auckland,

not being defensive,just curious,

Colin in the middle

Big sprawling city multitude of cultures, go south of the Bombay Hills and you will notice how much more laid back the rest of New Zealand is.

South Island has a beauty of snow capped mountains not so many people and more pioneering european feel. North Island depends on the area culturally Maori the traditional image of New Zealand. Volcanic peaks, bubbling mud what the tourist trail takes you to.

For me its not worrying about rush hour traffic heck New Plymouth for example at 830am you can walk around the town centre and no ones around Rush hour is 10-30 minutes a day or for my area when the Ski area is open and the migrating Jafa come down for the day or the weekend

Guess you going to have to find out for yourself and move out of Auckland for a month or two to realise the differance? Just my view

Beachcombers

How does London compare to the rest of the UK?

We lived in Auckland for two years and we did enjoy it. We lived in Devonport and had all the advantages of being in the "big city", but able to go down the beach when we wanted as well.

But for us it had it's draw backs as well, cost of housing, stressful jobs, traffic, a certain aloofness of the people around us.

So after a couple of years, we realised it was not the "picture" of NZ we had before we left. So we headed to the South Island and have never looked back.

We now have the outdoors lifestyle we craved, the "quarter acre" house for $250k, laidback but fulfilling jobs (wine industry), relaxed pace of life, heaps of friends and this is definitely the right "picture" for us.

There is not a lot of Auckland bashing here, a bit of joshing maybe.

I remember talking to a customer of mine, another brit, when we were in Auckland. He had been in NZ for 12 years and he had dreams of owning a orchard and living out in the country. He came to NZ to offer his kids a life they could not have in the UK.

Somehow, he managed to get stuck as the production manger for a factory out in East Tamaki since they arrived.

mingusdynasty

I don't know why people slag Auckland, i guess it's an easy target, and perhaps a certain amount of jealousy creeps in with regards to weather, jobs etc. Cool place to live.

I live in Wellington and some of the things I miss about Auckland are
a) Access to black sand beaches like Piha
b) better weather
c) more things going on in summer - like free concerts etc
d) better job market
e) more buzz - for NZ.

Some things I like better in Welly

a) Easier access to native bush, Wellington is the most rural city in NZ.
b) Less crowded
c) Smaller and compact

Colin in the middle

Your comapring cities not New Zealand

mingusdynasty

funny, I though Wellington was in NZ.

Colin in the middle

One part

mingusdynasty

NZ is very diverse. If you want solitude and a certain frontier spirit head to the South Island west coast. It's amazing.

TeamEmbo

I don't think Auckland does have better weather and for us anyway it was certainly never on our list of places to consider moving to, so I for one am not jealous of anyone who does live there!

I much prefer Christchurch and our short and easy commute there of only 25 minutes. And I love where we live, a great community, very friendly and everything on your doorstep. 10 minutes from great beaches, good fishing spots (although we yet to master catching one!), great countryside, Mt Hutt only 1 hour away and Hanmer Springs only 1 1/2 away.

Personally, I wouldn't live in Auckland if you paid me!

teambwr47

Jobs are a key deciding point and we had the choice of either Auckland or Wellington and we're staying in Auckland......

Would love to be able to live on the South Island and have the proper winters but not an option sadly..........

TeamEmbo

Well where we are, I'm not sure you could call it a proper winter and I don't know why a lot of people in Auckland assume they have the best weather! Everyday here bar a couple have been glorious sunshine and warm. As I've posted before we have a thermometer thingy in the garden and we had temps up to 28 deg some afternoons. There are other places here on the South Island that have it even better than where we are, and that average higher temperatures than Auckland but without the yukky humidity and rain you get, so the Auckland 'weather' isn't actually a great selling point!

mingusdynasty

the thing about Auckland is it never gets really cold. In summer it's great. But like you say, so are other places on the South Island.

teambwr47

Was warm enough the other day in the afternoon to very seriously consider the pool but its not heated so chickened out much to my eldest daughters annoyance

That 28 degrees will have been in the summer i assume or else global warming has badly affected the south island

Saying that you could be talking fahrenheit i suppose

TeamEmbo

No. We've only been here 3 months. So that 28 deg was in Winter! Like I said people just assume the South Island is colder. We have the Nor'wester winds which dump rain on the west coast and by the time they get over to us are hot, dry winds which can get temps up to 40 deg in the summer (so I'm told).

teambwr47

I think your thermometer was sitting in the direct sun then which gives a much higher reading as 28c air temp in winter would be unheard of......

Still if you can sit in a sheltered spot in the garden and enjoy the same hot sun with a NZ wine to boot it sounds great....