wellyornot

Hello

Apologies if this isn't in the right section - it's my first post and me and other half have only recently just started thinking about making the big move after visiting the NZ Expo in Leeds last weekend, with some friends who are planning to move out to Wellington next year.

I know I need to get some books and do a bit more research as we're pretty clueless about everything at the moment really (and have never visited - planning to get some funds together to fly out next autumn hopefully) but was wondering if I told you something about us, someone out there might be able to offer some words of wisdom as to whether you thought we might suit life in NZ (Wellington specifically) and whereabouts we should look?

I'm 35 and a graphic designer, OH is 34 and works in traffic management for local government. No kids (and no plans to!), just one rescue doggy that we'd want to bring with us (even though I dread the thought of inflicting that long flight on him cooped up in a box for a ridiculous amount of hours!). Number one love for both of us is mountain biking, but also love loads of other sports and outdoorsy activities. More mountains and forests type people than being-on-a-beach though!

We currently don't live a life of materialistic luxury here in the UK - no flash tvs or expensive cars and we don't eat out much - prefer to have friends round or go round others for dinner. For those reasons I don't feel like we fit in with a lot of our neighbours or other people round here who are all about going to the pub/clubbing/getting smashed/watching soaps on tv/spending every saturday running up credit card bills on retail therapy.

Currently have a 20 mile round trip commute to work and have to drive about half an hour to an hour to get to the Peak District for decent countryside.
We wouldn't have masses of cash to spend on a house if we moved to New Zealand (don't expect we'd earn much either given our jobs), but is there anywhere round Wellington that would offer good from-the-doorstep access to mountain bike trails and the like, without being too far from the city, that's not too expensive?
And are there any rough areas best avoided? I've heard witterings about damp problems too - is this more prevalent in some areas than others?

Sorry if this is horribly rambling. I think I've just got so many questions I don't really know where to start!!! So really any advice would be most welcome.

Thankyou!

shirl

I don't know but I am bumping this back up to the top.

Luvwelly and Genesis and a few others will tell you all you need to know about Wellington I expect. They will be along soon no doubt! If not - pm one of them.

Jokerman

Man, that's so hard to answer. It's a bit like me asking you "Would I like Leeds?"
Im 37, studying journalism, like the outdoors, love sport and im single.
It's impossible to answer for sure and there is only one way to find out.

Dustybin

don't talk to me about culture.... I've been to Leeds..

Browner_

Wellington has reasonable access to some bike trails and the like, but bear in mind that Wellington is pretty built up (or VERY hilly) generally. And its pretty remote, so after you have been there and looked around for a while, you realise you have to travel further and further for new experiences. Imagine Penzance, but 20 miles further west.

Plenty of rough areas to avoid.

As for damp, ideally you really need good all day sun. Because of the hills there are plenty of houses that dont get that, and these are the most damp.

Genesis

'Ere I am like a bad penny. Don't know much about Welly, I live a 2 hour drive north, only been a few times. I know its lovely, windy and where you go to earn 'better' dosh. Not for me as I shy away from big cities these days..but you are youngsters and from your post you sound like you would fit in to the NZ psyche. I imagine amongst all those ranges there are endless MB activities.

Welly is well placed for vibe, culture, the south Island, beaches and loads more positive stuff that where I choose to live does not have...I could not afford the house I live in in Welly..pays your money takes your choices. I think Wellington is bloody marvellous and a very beautiful, cool, relatively unstressed place.

The down side is traffic can be crap and houses are on the pricey side..bigger wages bigger house prices. It sounds like you will both be on good wedge and have no rug rats to fund. Which is nice from a fiscal perspective. Finally you are only 1 hr from the marvellous Kapiti Coast. Which again is nice, very nice. Get your jobs and do one!!!! Wellington's a bloody great choice!!

BEVS

I know zip , but out of all the Nz cities , I like Welly the best.

There , that was no help at all.

cappuccino

I like living in Welly

Welly Wife

I like you living in Welly as well!!!

eddie_nz

What are you thinking of NZ what are your driving factors??

Do you like visiting other countries / weekend city breaks / travelling???

luvwelly

Me too....if you are outdoorsy and not a 'shop till you drop type' - you will probably like NZ and of everywhere I have seen on North Island, Wellington is my favourite. It is a tiny city for a capital and very rural in its hilly setting. The weather is not as bad as it is painted in my humble opinion.
Having to do the same mountain bike trails over and over is probably a valid point but I am not a mountain biker so can't comment that meaningfully. There are mountain bike paths around the town I understand such as down from Brooklyn into the flat part of town along the harbour or waterfront as it is called.
I suppose you could bike over the Mountain at the end of the Hutt Valley down into Martinborough if you are really fit....you'd certainly get more fine days a year for biking than in UK. (Apparently right to roam doesn't exist).

The biggest downside is can you afford it financially? Is it worth it? Do you really want to live in an earthquake zone with the big one overdue? The number of people who must come here not knowing that .

Once you are here on NZ wages, you are pretty well stuck here...because Oz the nearest place 4 hours away..is culturally pretty similar. Flights out are very expensive and you have to book early or risk finding only Business Class left especially during school holidays.
If you are very close to relatives/family/friends back in UK that will be a major downside as it's a b***** long way away. I am only here for x years and am uncertain that I would be happy to be here permanently but with no kids it would be less risky for you to give it a whirl..you can always return especially if you rent here and don't sell up in UK immediately.

The traffic in Wellington itself is not bad in UK terms at all although coming in from the Kapiti coast in rush hour may be more similar. You could probably rent centrally and bike/bus it quickly to work. Dampness/lack of sun is an issue with property - one with proper heating is best but they are rare.
In many ways it is like being in the USA/UK 1950s (think Happy Days wooden houses , coffee bars, especially school uniforms -not that I was born then) but food in restaurants is good (unlike 1950s), customer service is good, strangers will smile and chat (in Wellington) and the important stuff such as internet/medical is pretty much in the 21st Century.
Will you like it? Only if the figures stack up.

cappuccino

To the OP - as you can see, we are all like one big happy family of Ex-Pat Loving Living As New Wellingtonians.

newkiwi

I like welly, its the most european feeling of all the cities in nz, in that the centre is very walkable and it is not as sprawling as say auckland. I believe there are good mountain biking trails around wellington, its very hilly around there I think if you are outdoorsy and like other sporting activities you should do well in wellington too. The ski fields on the orth island are only about a 4 hr drive away if you do that, and on the flipside you can go scuba diving right off the beach every weekend if that takes your fancy. And prob other sporty stuff inbetween.

not being materialistic will help..tv is shite so if your not that into tv then no big loss. Most kiwis invite friends round to theirs which is what you seem to like doing, but a word of warning that you mite find it takes quiite a long time (think a year or so) before you have a close enough circle of friends to do that easily. but then again you might make friends easily in the first week, but it does take a little longer to get close friends with kiwis in my experience.

welly is full of brit expats, proportionally more so that auckland so you should run into a lot of brits in work etc.

there are areas to avoid but they even the bad areas arent that bad, and there are a lot of really nice areas. wellington is relatively small and compact so your commute would probably work out less than the 20 miles your doing now.

Yes some areas are damp, more so than others, the trade-off is live up on a hill and be buffeted by winds but be dry or lower down where youre more sheltered and be more damp. Ngaio and areas around there seem to be more damp than others.

It is quite an arty city so as a graphic designer you should be ok, but i dont really know enough to say if there are jobs in that area. look on seek.co.nz or trademe.co.nz

as for your wife when you say she is working n traffic management for a local authority i take it you dont mean she is a lollipop lady? I work in transportation planning too, I know the company I am rejoining in Auckland in December are keenly recruiting in the transport planning field, and looking for people in their wellington office so if you want to know more feel free to send me a private message. There are quite a lot of jobs in transport planning going around in the wellington area..

good luck

wellyornot

Oh you're a lovely lot

Thankyou for the replies and helpful pointers and nuggets of info. All very useful stuff.

In answer to a couple of the questions - we're not at all into our city breaks or holidays of that ilk, in fact we've not left the UK in about 10 years, mostly because of lack of funds (and not wanting to join the just-lob-it-on-the-credit-card-and-worry-about-it-later bunch) but also because we've been happy to holiday on our own turf. So I don't think that being so far away from everywhere else in New Zealand would be a problem, especially given the sort of landscape it offers.

Family-wise, my hubs-to-be has never really been close to any of his family so wouldn't have a problem leaving anyone behind. And for me, there's really just my dad and my sister who I am close to but sis has often wittered about moving to NZ since a holiday a few years back, and as my mum died 5 years ago and my dad would probably give up the will to live if both his daughters buggered off to the other side of the world (!), then we'd need to look at sponsoring him to come over after having been here 3 years.

I must admit the thought of moving to a major earthquake zone is a bit off-putting (especially as the next big one is due!) but I guess you maybe just have to weigh everything up don't you and perhaps think the positives outweigh the negatives and that it might never happen in my lifetime...

Do you experience many little tremors in Welly though? Enough to cause any damage to houses? How does this affect house insurance .. are you still able to claim for damages?

And this whole thought of being in a damp house in winter with no heating ... is it really as miserable as it sounds??! I don't like the thought of being soggy and blue-fingered

Newkiwi, be interested to know who your employer is and what opportunities there might be in Welly for other half. He got chatting to Opus at the Expo over here the other weekend and they were very helpful and positive that they'd be able to make use of him (I'm the graphic designer wots a girly by the way, and hubs-to-be is the bloke who works in traffic management!). Will drop you a private message, thanks

wellyornot

Oops. Apparently you need to have made more than 3 posts to use the PM facility. So here I am back to up my posts to the minimum amount!!