Stephen Jones

Seriously looking at Wellington - lots more IT jobs than were there previously. What's it like living there and where are the best places to live?

Steve

carcajou

What kind of visa do you have?

Wellington is an excellent place to live if you have money / a high income. You will struggle otherwise.

It has a reputation for terrible weather but I didn't find it too bad.

It is very scenic and there are a lot of things to do around there - Kapiti Coast, Wairapa etc. The city itself has a decent cafe/restaurant scene.

I prefer it to any other place in New Zealand.

But, again, depends on your visa, and your income.

Stephen Jones

Thanks Carcajou.

I am looking for an offer of employment before I can submit an application for a visa.

I have had some recent interviews but no offers yet.

Steve

Walfordnz

Not there yet, but we are moving hopefully soon. Was supposed to be leaving round about now but things held up. Any way...getting side tracked, I have been to new Zealand 3 times and I love Wellington. We done a shopping check whilst we was there and actually the shop was pretty much the same on a avarage. Certain items are lot more expensive. The fresh produce may be A LOT cheaper in the U.K. But in comparison to the quality and size of produce is a lot better in New Zealand. My husband, I don't think has a "high" paid job in New Zealand so I guess time will tell when we do get there how we cope financially. I have family that moved to New Zealand initially to Auckland they hated it moved back to the uk and realised they hated the u.k even more. They became a ping pong Pom and moved back to New Zealand, that time to Wellington they have now been there 20 years and thoughroughly enjoy it.

RobClubley

We love Wellington! Been here nearly 12 years now. I work in IT too.
Auckland just didn't appeal to us but Wellington has a smaller footprint and much nicer feel to it, in my opinion.

This must be an excuse to post this that I took yesterday.


And this, looking the other way


Really big versions on my Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/robclubley/

escapedtonz

Wellington is a fine place to live if you can get along with the weather.
We started off in Wellington and spent 2.5 years there.
I felt pretty settled in Wellington from day 1 but it took some time for the Mrs to start liking life there so a move was potentially always on the cards. She promised to give it a good go so we considered it home, put the lad in kindy there and the Mrs went back to work part time and it all helped massively. We got to know people pretty quickly and had a group of friends from all walks of life, majority ex. pats like us but also a couple of Kiwi's.
After 18 months an opportunity was offered for a work transfer to Hamilton meaning we could live in Tauranga as it's only an hour away so we took it.


In all honesty, Wellington didn't give us the lifestyle we expected New Zealand would give us which was the basis for the move further North.
The weather had a lot to do with it and mainly because the wind is often strong and blustery and even on the nicest of days in summer the wind or wind chill factor would ruin alfresco dining etc. We wanted better weather than Northern England and it is better but not better enough in our opinion. There were other factors also - e.g.
Majority of the beaches are windswept and strewn in driftwood and only good for walking the dog. There are a couple of exceptions though.
The sea is freezing as it's all Cook Strait and the Tasman Brrr!
We expected warmer seas, great surf and decent bathing beaches which we just didn't get in Welly but now we have it in Tauranga being on the Pacific side.
Unless you wanna pay the exorbitant ferry prices to get to the South Island for a road trip with the kids, the only option for holidays/trips away is to go North. If it's a day trip you're after there's obviously a limit of how far you can go before you have to swing round and go back home. It got a bit boring as there's only two options going North - State Highway 1 or State Highway 2.
I'm a biker (motor and push ) and sometimes life on the bike was bordering on suicidal and that was just dealing with the weather. If you also factored in the drivers.....in fact, lets not go there
Going out for a Sunday ride also became a chore as the only place to go was State Highway 2 over the Taka's in to the Wairarapa wine country, Featherston/Martinborough/Carterton/Gladstone/Lake Ferry....beautiful place to ride as there's little traffic but once you've done it 10 times you long for adventure and different roads to ride.
Wellington is also majorly overhyped when you consider events that are advertised for the general public. We went to many to get in to the Wellington scene and tried everything out but nothing really lived up to the advertised hype...it was getting better around the time we left and I'm sure it'll continue to grow as a city does with the influx of more people.


As for nice places to live it's difficult since nobody knows what you do and don't like. My take on Wellington is this :-
We wouldn't have lived anywhere South of the city...just didn't really like the areas as places to live. It's nice round the bays (Seatoun for instance) but not really our cup of tea. We were always Northern suburbs. Karori, Ngaio, Khandallah, Johnsonville, Glenside, Churton Park, Tawa are all fine. Aotea and Whitby also. If you want further out Plimmerton is really nice and Cambourne then over the headland to the Kapiti Coast but your getting to be an hour commute away over there although this may now be better since part of the new highway is in play ?
On the other side, The Hutt Valley is a very popular place to live - Silverstream and Pinehaven very nice as well as Blue Mountains/Whitemans Valley for more rural. Eastbourne over the other side of the harbor is a nice place to live and offers a different commute by passenger ferry if you're that way inclined. Another really nice rural area is the Ohariu Valley/Makara.