Nikki81

Hi,
My husband has been offered a new job in New Plymouth and is discussing salary. We will be living on one salary to start. How much would we need to live comfortable? Are there any good areas that people can recommend to live in or areas to avoid? TIA

MrsFychan

not sure about the area but I would double check the visa requirement for salary before agreeing salary and make sure you at least have that covered.

I see from a previous post that you have a 10mth old, so cost of clothing, feeding on the restricted diet, toys etc all spring to mind

Snap Shot

It's a difficult one to answer as one persons income/outgoings differ from the next. Also what it takes for one person to feel either broke or poor will differ too. It's a quality of life thing as well. Moving to live overseas can make you feel vulnerable anyway, so something you could shrug off at home might seem more of a deal overseas.

Look on TradeMe website for properties to rent and see how much the rents are in New Plymouth. They are quoted on a weekly basis by the way. I've heard of, 'Bell Block' in New Plymouth but I don't know if it's good or bad. Pukekura Park is lovely. We used to drive there on Boxing Day, it's really nice.

One income to support two adults and one child, um, er, 80,000 NZ dollars minimum. Total guess on my part, I don't have children. The income tax is lower here in NZ and there's no National Insurance to be paid either. Check whether your husband is getting his holidays at the start of his employment. In NZ, the Holidays Act 2003 states that each employee must work a full year before getting their annual leave entitlement. So, no paid time off for the first year at work outside of statutory holidays.

Check the cost of groceries on the websites of NZ Supermarkets i.e. Countdown and New World. Pak N Save has the reputation of being cheaper than those two but does not list it's grocery prices online as that would cost the company money. I couldn't believe that I paid two quid for a loaf of bread here in NZ when we arrived in 2011. That same loaf would have cost GBP1.35 in Sainsburys or Tesco ! That's just the start of it. I accept prices keep rising everywhere.

Currently petrol is about GBP 1.03 per litre but that's about all that you will find to be cheaper.

Cars are much more expensive here too. I paid 5,000GBP equivalent for a Mazda Familia back in 2011. I was used to buying a, 'pocket money' car in UK, i.e. I didn't like to spend more than 2,000GBP on a car but that was me being tight fisted ! So, someone who would have always paid more for their car than I would, might not consider it such an imposition to pay so much for a car. Oh, and the majority of cars in NZ are automatic gearbox. Mine isn't, I didn't want to get out of the habit of changing gear.

Look up Coundown's website, jot down the cost of everything that would be on your shopping list normally, then compare prices to what it would cost in your local supermarket. I accept this depends on the GBP/NZD exchange rate.

The Warehouse is a shop in New Zealand that is like all the non-food departments of Tesco. Look up their website to see what the cost of clothes etc is.

There's a chain of children clothes shops called, 'Pumpkin Patch' here in NZ, there prices might be on line. 'T&T' is a children's clothes shop here too.

Justcol

cant comment on what its like to live there or the house costs but I have visited for weekends
and it is a very nice place to be.

escapedtonz

Hi,
Sorry, don't know about actual areas to live around there.
Like anywhere outside of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, property is definitely cheaper to buy and rent in the Taranaki region, even in New Plymouth.

Don't have much experience of New Plymouth other than we've just spent easter weekend there (in the rain).
First of all we really like Wanganui which is just at the entrance to the Taranaki region. Really is a beautiful town with all the necessary amenities, but it's 1 and a half hours from New Plymouth or thereabouts so not really commutable for New Plymouth.
From Wanganui to New Plymouth there isn't much to talk about. The biggest places in between being Hawera and Stratford.

We found New Plymouth to be really nice, especially the coastal walkway / cycle route which is great for a relaxing walk or cycle. We were also surprised at how big the city centre was. Seems to be a lot more shops etc than we thought.

With a full weekend of forecast bad weather and the rain bouncing down often we struggled to find something to do with our three year old that didn't entail getting soaked. Basically out of the top 60 things to do in New Plymouth, only 10% of them were indoors and when you've discounted the museum, the art gallery and the theatre we didn't really have many options so after a car trip to Inglewood toy museum, we bit the bullet and just went out to do the outdoorsy things that we'd planned anyway.
We did a mini hike to see a waterfall at the foot of Mount Taranaki which was cool and we went for a bike ride down the coastal walkway. Must have dropped lucky with the weather as we managed all that without getting too soaked.

Stopped in a place called Omata which was approx 5km West and very rural.
All in all a good weekend but I'm not so sure we'd like to live there as there doesn't seem to be enough going on for us.
Would definitely visit again though, probably in summer when we can take advantage of the weather and the high amount of things to do outdoors.

trafford

I spent my teenage years in New Plymouth and my mother still lives there. It was a great place to grow up - safe, lots of outdoors activities, good schools. By the time I was ready to go to university, I was more than ready to leave it behind. It seemed small and insular to my teenage mind. I have only visited for shorter periods of time after that. Lots of people come back to Taranaki to raise their children. New Plymouth is quite affluent as salaries are quite high and housing prices more reasonable than Auckland. They advertise Taranaki (or "the 'Naki" as the locals call it nowadays) as having a legendary lifestyle. The beaches are good for surfing, though there are some safer beaches also, and in winter you can climb the mountain for some snow activities. They have good restaurants and cafes too. The main issue is the isolation from the rest of New Zealand - to get to Auckland it takes me 3.5-4 hours drive over Mt Messenger and the Awakino Gorge. Wellington is even further.

CarolineSwan

Hi there

We have lived in NP for over 5 years and I have to say we really love it.
We have a 7yr old and there is always something to do, lots of free community events etc.

I live in Inglewood just now which is 12 minutes out of town but we are looking to move into town in the next year or so as our whole lives are there.

Great areas to live are BellBlock (about 10 minutes from town)
Highlands Park
Vogeltown
Whalersgate
Merrilands
Brooklands

and probably more that I can not think of right now.

There are amazing schools in the area
We have theatres, race courses, a few beaches, great eating out places, beautiful parks and much much more.

The only thing we hate about it is that there is no International airport so you have to drive to Aukland to go abroad, aside from that we love it.

Feel free to ask any more questions.

Nikki81

Thank you for all the information. Carolineshewan I will definitely get back to you with some questions once we know exactly what we are doing. X

Charismatic

Definitely don't move there. It's much too nice to let expats ruin. Just stick to the Auckland or Christchurch area. We don't want news spreading because it might dilute the goodness of the regions. Auckland and Christchurch are like the jam jars you leave open in summer to attract wasps, if people ever realise they can afford to buy a beach house and commute to work without wasting hours in traffic it could cause a sort of common sense revolt.

davros1984

NP is the place to be tonight. GO CHIEFS!

toolpath

A most definite YES!!
We have lived in New Plymouth for 5 years and would not live anywhere else. If we travel away from the area its always good to get back to the "Naki".
There are many free or low cost events happening and apart from the town centre, no parking charges.

Nikki81

CarolineHandcock, just wonder if you could give me some idea of the shops that are available in NP, eg. Furniture stores, Are they reasonable priced?
Thanks

CarolineSwan

My favourite store just now is Freedom, I want everything in there just now. I have a huge wishlist and waiting to re decorate our home just now and bite into it. I think it is a really reasonable priced store http://www.freedomfurniture.co.nz/

Another one we have got a lot from is Harvey Norman, there is a dining table in there I want. You can always get a really good discount here if you buy a few things. We bought all our TV's and white goods when we built our house and got an awesome discount. https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=ha...m=122&ie=UTF-8

There is another place I love to go into for bits and bobs called Home, but it doesn't have a website.

There is also another amazing shop along near the port but I can not for the life of me remember the name, it sells beautiful things for the home.