Does anyone know what the cost of DIY is, such as window replacement and fitting your own central heating? In the uk as long as any gas work is done by a qualified gas fitter it's fine. Are there any major DIY stores such as Wickes or similar? Or is everything covered by building regs and you're not allowed to do it yourself?

Bunnings or Mitre10 are similar to Wickes and have most things for DIY. Not sure about Building Regs etc.

Bunnings is another, again not sure about doing it urself either sorry.

someone will know

As the ad goes - DIY it's in our DNA!! A good kiwi bloke will always do it himself, or get a mate to do a foreigner (a homer to us), and as a last resort get a pro in. Yes all the regs say an electrician/gas fitter/plumber/drainlayer etc need to sign off the work but that's no different from the UK. Mitre10 and Bunings are the big ones and the the biggest rip-offs - no different from B&Q really!

Further to the above, there is no need for central heating in a modern house. We have three heat pumps, we're cozy as in the winter (it rarely gets worse than -2 or 3°C) and when it gets to +30° we're cool too. They are cheap to run in a modern insulated home and electricity is a stable price whereas a central heating fuel system is price volatile and expensive to run.

Further to an earlier post of mine.
This is good to know.

Steve

Central heating...........can't remember what that is!! We don't have any heating in winter and are still warm enough....

thanks for that and good to know shouldnt have to worry to much about heating but good to know can get on and do anything we would need

Ah, well, housing and heating should be a worry. Infectious diseases (yes, 3rd world diseases) are on the rise in NZ (and no, they are not on the rise in other Western countries). One main culprit: bad housing. You might be lucky and have enough money to buy, rent, build a modern house, but many New Zealanders are not. Their children get sick and infectious diseases by their nature spread. This is not a problem of an individual or a 'harden up' issue/get used to the cold ; it is a serious societal problem that needs to be tackled immediately.

Well, just for an example, the WHO country profile on TB in NZ is here

EVERY infection rate graph is heading in the right direction, down. Treatment success rate is heading up.

Feel free to specify which diseases you are referring to and we can see what the WHO says.