chelsey

My husband and I have been granted residency and are due to come out at the end of May, early June 2006 so I have been finding gems of information on this site about general NZ stuff. Fascinating reading!

But now I have a more specific question please;
We are looking to spend the first 4-5 months playing and enjoying the ski season in Queenstown and are looking for somewhere to rent for the whole time. I have been emailing a few rental agencies and have found the monthly rental fee to vary enormously from $375 per week to $1500 a week.
We are looking for a 2/3 bed house with garage, furnished that will allow 2 cats and is relatively central. Can anyone give me a ball park figure? We are going to come out early April to secure somewhere but will this be too late?

Also can anyone tell me when the ski season finishes and any other tips please as it is quite hard trying to find info on the net as well as juggling everything else!

Many thanks

deedee

there is a tiny gap in the season from winter to summer when QT goes quiet...ish!This is usually September and October, but depends on when the snow goes.This last season was warm so it went early, actually it never really came and was a disaster to be honest.
This is really the only time to try get a good rental.I'd expect to pay 1k a week if you want in town,a house with a garage,but i'd say live out of town and cruise in.Its far better.You will never get a good nights sleep in town.
Choose carefully as many places, such as fernhill get such little sunlight in the winter i just wouldn't live there for any money.
good luck

chelsey

Thanks for this. Had heard that last season wasn't very good. We're forecast a really hard winter here, so maybe it will follow through down under!
The reason we wanted to live in town is just to try and be amongst people seeing as though we wont' know anyone! We live out of town now and we hardly make the effort to do anything - but maybe thats us and England!
This place we have been looking at is downtown QT 5 mins from the mall. We never saw the mall so don't know where it is. Have been quoted $850 per week so sounds OK.

What is farming life like down there?

deedee

how annoying, just typed a reply and pc crashed!
Anyhow, i'll try again...The weather outlook from the predict weather guy,who happened to give a talk last night in Gore, looks poor for skiing as it looks like a drought this year and next.
You will have no problem meeting people in QT as the population is mainly seasonal workers and transient types so the locals get to know each other pretty quick...theres so few of them.If you can find a house on Kelvin Heights, thats the place to be, but there isn't really any properties under the million mark so rentals might be slim.There are alot of holiday homes though.....just a thought.Its a 3km bike ride on the path down the side of the lake to town centre.
Farming here is good and has been for the last 5/6 years.It is a good thing too as with the downturn in the economy it might help the landing be soft as the short to medium outlook for farming is positive,after all the backbone of NZ is still the farming industry.It takes a second place in the Wakatip Basin though as tourism is the number one industry.It is first and formost a holiday resort, but a great place too imo.I'm sure you'll love it, most people do.
If you end up with transport, Arrowtown is a half decent place to live too.
cheers and good luck