Harleychick

Hi

Hope you lovely people can help. My husband and I (no kids) plan to go to Wellington now we have the acceptance. We plan to stay in a B&B, motel for a month, then look at rentals. If we like it after a year we will buy. My husbands in construction and I am in training. Does anyone know of a good website for rentals.

Q: Are the electrical items cheaper in NZ as we will leave most behind.

Q: Is the driving as crazy as they say it is out there?

Q: Does anyone have any experiences of just moving to Wellington, would love to hear these.

Thanks a million

newkiwi

Congrats and good luck......

Realenz.co.nz is a good website to start, but you will find a better selection in the paper once you get here. The quest is good for initial stays, but can be quite expensive. A month is a long time, two weeks may work for you as well. I would say dont plan to go to work the first two weeks so u can be househunting and such full time.

I dont know about the price for electical goods, maybe the warehouse or bunnings will have prices on their websites.

The driving isnt great, but personally i dont find it that bad.

We moved here 18 months ago from auckland, its a very nice compact city, and if you are not looking for a big family house there are very nice townhouses and apartements only a few minuted from the CBD, so u could effectively walk to work. Its got an amazing coastline and you can be out if the city feeling like you are in the middle of nowhere in 20 minutes, although actually still in the city. On a clear day you can the the snow capped mountains of the south island.

All in all pretty impressive scenery.

In the city Cuba street is a funky pedestrian mall with loads of off beat shops and cool coffee places.

There is a lot to do really, just depends what youre interests are.

Much nicer than auckland.....

danny fearon

Hi. We drove in a camper van,and my wife reckons I was the most dangerous by a distance. I agree with newkiwi dude. Wellington seems to have more,in a more compact and just as pretty area,great position for both North and South islands.
We've been advised by most of our colleagues who've moved to leave electricals at home so that's what we'll do. We're emigrating November to start work in feb/march in the Hospital,but chatting with these people on this site has taught me more than any mag/article,some of it is worrying-but i'll take it all on board and make my own mind up.
Good luck to you all. Danny

Harleychick

Thanks for the emails they are really helpful. Just waiting to sell the house and once that's done it will be NZ bound. Hope to be out there by Nov/Dec latest. Feedback on house positive but these things can take forever.

Heres another Q: How do prices of cars compare to UK particuarly 4 x 4

Thanks in advance.

Harleychick

Thanks that info is really useful. Wish you all the best for your new life.

Sugo

hey well i think cars are cheaper here if you go for New for new zealand which are japanese cars that are second hand but shipped to NZ, also insurance is well cheap here,

as for electrical stuff, i bought a new 5.5kg top loader washing machine for 799NZD, my 32 inch TV sony flat screen not lcd was 999NZD furniture is cheaper here, there are some kewl shops like Kadima that will make high spec furniture to your order, you choose the style, how firm you want your sofa and what cover and they make it for you. But there are loads of furniture stores like 'Big save' which are like the english furniture stores.

look up harvey norman or lv martin online to get prices of some furniture and electrical stuff.

I live out in Petone which is across the harbour from Wellington. Its a lovely city, i moved here 10 months ago, its a small place for a capital, you can walk it in 10-15 mins but thats the kewl thing about it, other good thing is ive been there tons of times but i still find something new.

Kiwis are on the whole friendly, but this country like any other has problems. Dont expect people here to be as cosmopolitan as most Brits are, once your outside of Wellington people seem very insular. But its more friendly than the south of England. You will love it, Welly is lovely in the summer.

good luck eh

simonjb

I was told by someone who went out to welly to take all your electrical items but there you go. I guess there are pros and cons to both sides. We decided that as we were shipping some furniture out we could add in a few large electrical items too for only a small increase in the shipping. We thought this worth it as selling for second hand and buying new in NZ would have cost more.

My contact in welly also said beds were more expensive and white goods but unable to back that up as i wont be there until next month!

I will let you know how we find moving to wellington when it happens. cant wait.

Si

cottageinthesky

Thought you were going to move to Oz, Sugo, or is my memory failing with the rest of my physiology?

Sugo

i was but i ended up falling up with a kiwi, but he has English/Welsh parents and a UK passport thank the makers.

SO Oz in on the back burner for now, we might do it next year, work is better just had a big pay rise so have dropped my hours yayy, and have moved into a lovely house in petone, still chilly but were working on that.

So for the time being things are improving, work is shite, but thats not the kiwis, its the expats, and a few of the kiwis, i seem to work in a dept full of egos,

anyway im happier and more positive, its that love thing, scary that it is.

I still find some f the people funny bordering on the bizzarre, but thats through work so i see people at there worst, ( i hope its there worst). I had one women chucking her toys out of the pram yesterday as none of us could find a vein on the rhinosaurus (spelling??) sized arms she had, was funny to hear her ask what would happen if she came in really unwell and we couldnt find a vein, like it was our fault her arms were so fat we could barely find a pulse let alone a vein. She had a very snotty acusatory attitude. Wanted to say 'well if you stopped eating and moved more you might not come in so unwell'

then there was the night we had 3 cardiac arrests all at the same time, and a relative of a women with back pain or something came into the corridor to ask me how long her mother had to wait to see a doctor, when it was explained to here waht was going on she turned and said, 'well thats not going to help my mother is it' WTF yeah hang on let me go into the resus room, stop everything let the poor sod die so a doctor can come out and sympathise woth your mother and her back problems shes had for 20 yrs. When i said it will be a while she asked me if we could move her onto another more comfortable bed, again WTF yeah hang on will get all 4 of the nurses who work on the floor to transfer the lady, im sure the doctor can bag the patient, administer drugs, do cpr, comfort the family and press the flash buttons on the defib he doesnt know how to use.

LOL sorry bit of a rant there but its just really funny.

I do find some people here cant see past there own noses sometime, the kiwi spirit of make do and mend is dissappearing, yeah it was sometimes like that in the UK but i feel its worse here,

anyway please come to new zealand, polute the gene pool with new non family related genes,

now doesnt that feel better

yes i am happy here really i am

xx

cottageinthesky

Try www.trademe.co.nz for rentals

Boopy

[QUOTE=Sugo]i was but i ended up falling up with a kiwi, but he has English/Welsh parents and a UK passport thank the makers.

Sugo,
So pleased you've settle and happy. Good luck.

cottageinthesky

You should be writing scripts for a medical soap!

SarahB

Great!! lol... you just made me laugh and I'm feeling rough with yet another sore throat/ear infection-type-thingy so thank you!!

Glad to hear that youre happy here anyway.

SarahB