wiffle?

Hi,
my family wish to emigrate from the UK to either New Zealand or Spain (costa del sol/Gibraltar). The climate is very important to us and we can't wait to leave behind the cold weather in the UK, (we live in the North-East of England). I really feel the cold and I think what bothers me as much as this is the amount of darkness we get in the winter - it is dark at 4 p.m. here :-(

Through our research we have read that the Bay of Plenty has one of the best climates in New Zealand with its 'subtropical climate'. It also seems like the place we would be happy to move to.

However we've also read it gets a lot of rain. The uncertainty of the climate in NZ is the only thing that's holding us back from making our decision!

We were wondering if anyone had experience of the climates in both the Bay of plenty and possibly Auckland (what are the winters like, dark, cold?), and also the winters of the Costa del Sol in Spain.

We are a bit ' stuck' with making a decision for any information would be greatly appreciated :-)

Thanks!

happynz

If cold bothers you I think New Zealand might not be your best choice. Even in the far north in winter it can occasionally get a little bit chilly and damp.

I wish I had an EU passport so I could live in Spain.

wiffle?

thanks for the reply. we have also spoken to a few spanish people in our resarch who say that winters in spain (even the south) are cold too which I was surprised at. It may be that it is so subjective I wonder if it is better to be factual i.e temps, rainfall, time it gets dark in winter.
Anyway I am still grateful for any info!
Wiffle?

ceri75

Hi ....check this out...

ceri75

sorry....here it is..http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/c...ml?tt=TT003100

mazi

I have lived in both places in the Winter (and Summer) - and I say go for the South of Spain, it's much, much better. The weather too.

Enormous ex pat community on the Costa del Sol though. Not a good thing. Did you ever see Eldorado? You move to a different country to get away from wall to wall Brits, don't you?

Cava Fizz

Nail on head, and to be a snob I would rather live with the type of expat who moved to NZ rather than the del sol.

Some bits of spain are amazing to be frank however.

One thing that would make me choose Spain is the easy jet type flight home, one could realisticcly go home every 2 weeks if they wanted to.

Karen2000

Hi

I have lived in the South of Spain in Almeria and the weather is definately better than in NZ . The only problem you will have in Spain is finding suitable employment , there are very few decent jobs and the pay is dire !! . I don`t think you could pay rent or a mortgage on the wages you might get there. I would look into this very carefully , I love Spain but IMO its a good place to live if you are retired and have a pension to live off .

If you want to know more just pm me
Karen

Lenmil

It snows in NZ by the way. It was quite cold in Christchuch when it did and this was mainly due to the rented house we had. No insulation or double glazing etc. Weather wise i found Christchurch to be better than Newcaste (im from the "Toon") but we never lived in the North Islad so i can't comment on that. Never been to Spain either believe it or not. Always went to Scotland as i love it. It gets dark 9pm ish in the summer by the way, and the sun goes down very quick compared to what you are used to. If you need any more info just ask.

Zigzag

Oooh i think we should rename you CHAMPAGNE fizz!!

I agree too many UK expats in spain, with bleach blonde hair, orange tans and tons of gold jewellery!"!!

NZ all the way....laid back lifestyle, in a classy joint (-ish!! )

southerner

from a weather perspective the Bay of Plenty is a huge step up from NE England. Maybe not quite as good as southern Spain, but probably 80-90% of the way there (using NE England as a base).

My view is that if its better weather you are after then both BOP and Costa del Sol will meet your needs.

Apart from that they are very different places culturally....

mazi

Not a word I would ever use to describe NZ!

mazi

Yes, I can think of 100 other places in Spain to move to rather than the Costa del Sol.

wiffle?

The plan in spain would be for my husband to work in Gibralter and we would live in an area of Spain that allowed him to travel to Gib daily. I would not want to live in Torremelinos or the like and it's too far from Gib anyway. We would try to find a nice area that meant travel to work wasn't too long - ideally!
What about winters in the Bay of Plenty? What time does it get dark, is there lots of rain, generally the coldest here (daytime) is -1 but probs averages around 4 in the winter. how does that compare to BOP?
Our winters are spent with our kids (3,7) stuck in the house or taken somewhere else indoors.

ballsrburning

Sorrry to go off at a bit of a tangent
Looking at the link posted for the BBC web site, I do not understnd how people say london is the same roughly in climate as auckland.

The lowest temp in auckland is 7 degrees C where as the uk is more like 0degrees C. looking over the year as a whole the average temp in London is way way lower than Auckland, more importantly however is the amount of hours of sunshine per day in any given month Auckland averages roughly 7 throughout the year where as london only goes to 7 for two months of the year the rest can be as low as 1. So how the hell do i keep reading the weather is the same.