Littlepaws

Hi been offered a job, one in Christchurch and one in New Plymouth, the job in Chch pays more, but concerned about living costs as wife is full time mum, and housing seems very expensive.
What is a good salary in New Zealand?
Has anyone got experience of both these cities?
Any advice would gratefully received, we have 2 kids aged 3 and 4, concerned about the quakes.

Thanks:

chippy64

Hi

There is a ChCh thread on here - take a look through as it may answer some of your questions.

With regards to earthquakes - NZ is an earthquake zone. Take a look here http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/. You can see that there isn't too much of NZ that is free of either earthquakes or volcanic activity .

My husband has lived in ChCh since Oct 2010 and I have been here since Dec 2011. We have both experienced some nasty quakes but we are both happy to be in ChCh (atm!).

Snap Shot

I would advise you ('cause you need advice from total strangers at a time like this !) to go to New Plymouth.

I have lived in Christchurch from March to June 2011. Earthquakes are horrible. They are frightening. They will frighten your children because the house shakes, things fall down and smash. Imagine how much clearing up you are going to have to do again and again and again. Want to come home at the end of the day to see your house looking like it's been burgled ? That's more or less the aftermath of what an earthquake looks like. If you can get home because the roads aren't all smashed up because of current and past earthquake damage. Google liquefaction.

For your needs you might want to aim for NZ$85,000 and over. I'm being realistic. That's about the start of the top third of income in NZ i.e. NZ85,000 and upwards to three figures.

You will pay less income tax and there is no National Insurance contribution to be made. However, the better salary, the less expensive NZ will feel. Statement of the blindingly obvious - ok !

Have you ever had to hide your own fear so that you come across as cool and in control in front of the children so that they are not scared ? Rhetorical question.

You would do the working week then at the weekend you couldn't go shopping or to the pictures or swimming etc (dependant on your personal choices) because so many things are closed because of structural damage. The red zone is a no go area around the Central Business District of Christchurch because it's a deconstruction zone enforced with wire fences by the NZ government.

Also, the constant, 'earthquake talk' gets very grating. Not least the nonsense talked by Gary Brownlee the Earthquake Minister and the rest of 'team' appointed by the NZ government to sort out the re-build. House insurance is hard to come by in Christchurch. Homes to rent are like hens teeth presently. We did ok for a rented house because we were there 3 weeks after the February earthquake in 2011, but now, I'm not so sure.

New Plymouth is by no mean perfect but you may find it easier to settle there.

Browner_

If you are concerned about earthquakes, you aint gonna be going to Christchurch are you?

If you are going to move to new plymouth, do some research and work out if thats the sort of remote environment you want to live in. Maybe youll love it, but I would at least ensure you have some means of changing your mind after a year or two.

Tom1983

If your concerned about earthquakes in general, may I ask why you are even bothering with New Zealand?

You do know that New Plymouth felt the 7.0 we had this year off the Taraki Straight? New Plymouth and Christchurch could easily be hit by a quake, you just don't know when mother nature decides to have another ball. It was lucky that the 7.0 this year was well underground unlike the ones we've had in Christchurch.

Don't want to put you off completely but take a moment to consider. As chippy has mentioned, there's not many places in New Zealand that are officially earthquake free.

Jan n Neil

I don,t know anything about New Plymouth but i wouldn,t recommend ChCh at the mo, nothing seems to be happening repair wise if you do manage to find a decent rental it will be overpriced and good luck trying to find a half decent restaurant or bar they all fell down, sorry if i sound a bit pesamistic it will be a good city again but it,s going to take 10 years

Neil