MattKay

Hello me and my fiancee are making the big step and moving to Wellington in New Zealand next March, we have done countless research on the this as you can imagine, but i thought i would be nice to speak to people who have made the step already.

we have chosen Wellington as i am Quantity Surveyor and my Fiancee is ICU Nurse and thought it would be a great place to start our new life.

Has anyone moved to Wellington, what do they make of it? Does anyone have any advise? i heat the weather isn't the best there? we both love the outdoors, like hiking, snowboarding.

we are planning to staying in Air B&B for a couple of weeks as we try and find somewhere to rent and then go on from there.

any comments or advise would be hugely appreciated

Regards

Matt & Kay

simonsi

Be prepared to go where the work is, even Wellington is a small town by European standards. Do you have jobs lined up?

Wellington is windy. Most.Of.The.Time....

Munchkjn

Hi MattKay,

Me and the family made the move to Wellington over a year ago. Opinions vary considerably about places in NZ as everyone has different interests and requirements. However I've traveled a lot around NZ with work in the last 13 months (from Bluff to Keri Keri and many points between) and I'd say that Wellington is the best proper city in the country, it has a vibe and some culture, decent restaurants, cafe's, bars etc.

The weather can be really atrocious at times and then when you least expect it, you get a stunning day and all is forgotten. The natural harbour and mountains make for a pituresque setting with the cbd set in the middle like a jewel.

We lived in Brooklyn (right at the top!) enjoying the views for a few months until we could bear the brunt of the wind and fog no more and then moved up the coast to Kapiti. I still commute in on the train and enjoy being in the city and also retiring to the golden coast at the weekend.

Our stay here has coincided with probably the worst spell of weather for the region in the last 50 years...and we are still here. Things can only get better!

I work in kind of the same industry as you and things are pretty buoyant around here at present, there's a sense that Wellington is on the up.

I think you'll probably like it here, but its worth travelling around seeing whether there's somewhere you'll like better at some point in the future. I really love the Marlborough area and the Wairarapa coast for the wine, weather, rolling hills and desolate beaches.

Then there's all the downsides, of which you'll find plenty of information on this forum..

Munchkjn

Wellington region population is roughly 400-500k. About the size of Bordeaux, Bristol, Sheffield. Those are decent sized cities (but not huge) with relatively dynamic economies. There seems to be a decent amount of work in the traditional professions here, so getting a job as a QS and moving on to another role in a couple of years shouldn't be an issue. The construction industry is crying out for qualified staff.

simonsi

Apples with Apples please, Bordeaux region is 1.1M, Sheffield City region nearly 2M

At the end of the day the ICU nursing may be the specialism to look for as most constrained by number of roles available.

Munchkjn

Fair enough, I was working from memory. Sheffield's never 2m though, probably includes whole of S.Yorks. Manchester's only 2.5m (well it was last time i checked, wikipedia has it as 2.8m...crikey!)

Edit: You are absolutely right about Sheffield, should have checked my facts first. Sheffield region includes half of Derbyshire as well as South Yorkshire. In fact my knowledge of cities and their populations is woefully out of date..

MattKay

Thank you very much for coming back to me, I wasn't sure if anyone would even come back to me.
I assume the place that your talking about are regions in wellington? I have already got a job lined up with a company called South Base construction. I don't know if you have heard of them?
Do you think it will be hard to find a rented properties with furniture.
How do you find the outside life there?

Matt & Kay

MattKay

Thank you for coming back to me. Well I have job lined and Kayleigh is still looking at the minute. We are hoping to do 2 weeks travelling of the two island first to get a feel on the country really.

Matt & Kay

janiejones

I'm in Wellington, and love it.

You'll be hard pushed to find a furnished rental, as the majority of rentals are unfurnished. Do you have much in the way of furniture, if so, you'd be best bringing it with you.

Check out the rentals on TradeMe to get a feel for how much you'd pay in which area.

We like tramping, so quite often go over the Rimutakas for good tramping tracks in the Tararua Ranges. We're not into snowsports, but some of my friends are, they drive up to Ohakune for skiing at weekends.

escapedtonz

Friend of mine from back home landed a job as a QS with Naylor Love in Welly which is one of the bigger construction companies. Another is Fletchers. Never heard of the company you mentioned? He hated it. Found it really difficult to transfer his UK skills to the job here as the construction industry is so different and materials / prices so different. He also complained constantly that he had to do the job the old way using out of date software that he used when he was training years ago. He probably wasn't the nicest employee though so maybe not all that bad.
We started off in Welly, did 2.5yrs then moved North for a better climate. My Mrs was ICU Sister for 20 years in uk but didn't fancy it in Wellington because of the shifts so went in to practice nursing and ironically at the GP's across the road from the hospital.
Wellington is a good place to live and I enjoyed living there but we had more boxes that needed ticking and the wind got on our tits eventually.
I did loads of outdoors stuff while there. I golfed a lot, hiked a lot and rode MTB a lot and all over the Welly region. There are loads of good hikes to get your teeth in to that surround Welly. You don't even have to go far. Depending on where you live you can hike up Mt. Kaukau, Colonial Knob or Makara Peak etc right from your front door. Tongariro Crossing is the closest Great Walk which is a must do which is also where the ski fields are.
CBD has lots of cool bars and restaurants and is busy of an evening. Often some decent events on at Westpac Stadium. You would also be close to the Wairarapa region over the hill for a weekend jaunt. Martinborough always reminds me of Hill Valley out of the Back To The Future films and has awesome festivals on during summer.
Mt Ruapehu near Ohakune is the closest ski field. Used to take me 2.5 / 2.75hrs to get there from Welly for a weekend boarding trip. Apres ski also very good there.
We managed to find a fully furnished rental but they are pricey. Think it was 725 a week in 2012 but luckily my company paid for that as part of the relocation.

RobClubley

We love Wellington, been here 12 years now.
For me personally the weather isn't an issue. It's just weather, and we have stunning days year-round. The weather rarely stays the same for long anyway.

El_queenio

We came over to Wellington in January. Found a furnished flat within 5 days but be sure to bring landlord references / mortgage statement with you. Viewings for rentals are something else with about 12 people there at the same time. Be prepared to see some shocking places. You can pick up furniture cheap enough from the Warehouse / Kmart though so I wouldn't stress too much about finding a fully furnished place. I'd also research where you want to live so you can factor that in to your viewings. Wellington is hilly so somewhere maybe a 10 minute walk to the CBD but that might be a steep 10 minute walk!
The weather isn't terrible, it gets windy but it's not every day. It's not as cold or wet as England. When we arrived in summer everyone said it was the worst summer in years but we actually found it to be quite nice! When are you moving out?

MattKay

Hello "El_queenio"

thank you for coming back to me, yeah we a planning to get a landlord references. we are hoping to have 2 weeks to hopefully find somewhere, stay in an air BNB. What is CBD?
We are coming over about May time, not sure which bit of Wellington we are going to stay, we have been looking up the North coast of Wellington.
I assuming your enjoying living there?

RobClubley

CBD - Central Business District. City Centre basically.