stacey19

To cut a long story short the OH has been offered a job in Christchurch, sydenham to be precise.
He was offered the job after speaking to several companies, all of whom were wanting him to step foot on NZ soil first and they would employ him no problems.
Now he has been offered another job (after the company requesting many references to check he can do what he says), and they are very impressed.
They are putting togther a "package" to beat the Christchurch offer....ONE PROBLEM THOUGH.......The company is in Auckland :scared: !!! I am probably being a soft shite over this but I don't like the sound of Auckland, the "big city life" doesnt really do it for me. HOWEVER (Oh it gets better )The company has factories in Auckland,Christchurch and Australia and relocating after a few years won't be a problem..even to OZ!!!
What do we do??? Is Auckland really that bad?? He would be working in Mangere ( I can see the grins on your faces now ..) what nice areas are around a half hour comute from Mangere??? And what is Auckland really like??

Any help would be appreciated

stacey xxxxxx :scared:

poppets

ok i can't really help,but when we first arrived we were in auckland (city) for a couple of days, its much quietier than london from what we saw.
SarahB, Jude, Kwprwn, waynefry will give you a better idea & they all love it there (see Living in Auckland thread)
good luck

Jude J

ahh, bless ya! I presume by the reaction to mangere you know a bit about Auckland then? My only experience of it is when we first arrived we had to find a hotel at the airport and cause we didn't know the area we picked one in Mangere. Only stayed there a couple of nights and the hotel was fine, a bit surprised to find the 'casino' was just a small room with slot machines!!
Wouldn't recommend living there but I guess working there would be fine. Sarah lives in Beachlands which I think is a reasonable commute she'll probably be on later, she is a sweetheart and will give you some decent advice.
Sounds like a wonderful opportunity though

Apple12

A package for Auckland should include quite a bit more money - the CoL is much higher in Auckland than in ChCH, especially when you consider house prices and/or rent.

Negotiate for quite a bit more =)

stacey19

What would be the pro's and con's of each place????

Apple12

OK, I am biased for ChCh and have never lived in Akl...
Pros for ChCh:
seasons - snow in winter, hot and drought in summer, tulips and peaonies and blossom.
outdoors lifestyle - I know that Akl has beaches and outdoors stuff, but In Chch it is easy to get to without lots of traffic and there is lots of variety. There are six skifields within 2 hours, mountain biking tracks in the Port Hills, walking tracks and surf and swimming beaches.
Access to the best bits of NZ - There is hardly any traffic on the major roads and it is easy to find spectacular parts of the country.
cheaper housing (although less wages)
not a big city atmosphere but with excellent cafes, wineries and restaurants.
Cons:
Work can be harder to find, you may have to wait until you find a job that suits, and pick up other work in the meantime.
Wages are lower.

kwprwn

Hi there

Living in Henderson in west auckland which is probably a bit to far to commute to Mangere, so not sure on what areas that are nice around mangere, but I love auckland, have lived for 6 months over here now (so still fairly new by some standards) and it still makes me smile when I see the auckland skyline and the sky tower...I think its wonderful here, the traffic is quite bad in parts but probably no worse or better than london...i read somewere when i first got here that there are more cars per household here than in LA, which was quite a scary thought

Plus points to auckland...you are close to beaches, 4 hr drive to ski resorts in winter.

when we first got here I used to miss going to the pub at a weekend, as there is not the same sort of pub life here as in the uk...people tend to stay at home and drink

I love it here, we chose west auckland as hubby has all his family here

but I guess its depends on what you like as a person

annaerb1

I have never been to Christchurch so I can't comment what it is like to live there.

I live in Auckland and it's not all City. There are some really nice places to live in Auckland, it all depends on what you want.
Where I live "Maraetai" on the Pohutukawa Coast, I think it's Paradise and couldn't imagine living anywhere else. SarahB will explain.

Auckland Airport is in Mangere. I wouldn't like to live in Mangere itself and just because your OH has been offered a job there doesn't mean you have to live there.
Have a look at Onehunga/Ellerslie/One Tree Hill/Hillsbourough OR in the opposite direction you could look at Howick/Dannemora/Botany OR in another direction look at Whitford/Beachlands/Maraetai. These areas would be approx 30-40min commute to Mangere.
Have a look at these sites which are where SarahB and I live and sourrounding areas.

New Housing Estate:
http://www.sbay.co.nz/location.asp

http://www.formosa.co.nz/
http://www.pohutukawacoast.co.nz/w/d...ewsStoryID=336

chrisvan

Hi

noone can really make up your mind for u, its individual choice. I haven't been to Christchurch but believe cost of living, housing etc. is lower so for Auckland you would expect quite a higher package. I live abt 20mins from Mangere in Manurewa, Wattle Downs. The area I live in is lovely and further down into the cove are some lovely expensive houses with great views of the reserve. I've been over to the east side Howick, Botany etc. lovely but expensive and small plots - been over to Beachlands lovely, reasonable prices but too far to travel for me. What I would suggest is that if u did take up the Auckland job rent a house for six months which would give you the time to travel all the areas yourself and get a feel for house prices etc. to make your own mind up,

Chris

Andrew Cross

Apple12 is spot on. Chch is a fantastic place to live. We are 5 mins from the city...10 mins from the beach and an hour from the alps if you want to ski. Nothing is far away and there are tons of stuff for kids and adults alike to do. The bars/cafes are great as are the parks/recreation facilities. Brilliant schools too. Weather is lovely - fab summer and snow in winter...

Ian & Sharon

CHH !

jueinnz

We have lived in Auckland for 5 years and admitted not lived anywhere else so I can't compare however I love Auckland too, I'm not a city girl I come from a small villiage in East Anglia and would never have even considered city life in UK.
But It only has 1mill. people and remeber it is the size of London...huge difference.

KWPRWN- I also love driving home over the bridge from the north shore towards the city at night and checking out the skyline. I can see the tip of the sky tower when I lie in bed at night.

In Auckland not only are you close and accessable to the beach but you can chose which side of the country you wan to go to the beach on, do you want the rugged/ surfer beaches on the west, or the smooth calm waters on the East.

Yer there are some no go areas but not half as many as you would find in inner cities in the UK.

Jude J

I love the skyline too, we came here from Hong Kong and it was like a miniature version of HK!

kwprwn

i love it here...just noticed you live near me...we live in henderson

jueinnz

Makes us happy "Westies"