Davmac04

Hi there,

Looking for any info on the weather in Wellington?
Is it that bad?
Worse the rainy Scotland?

Thanks again 😊

Woodlea

Apparently it is really sunny in Welly

Nowhere in NZ is worse than Scotland! The southernmost part of the South Island is closer to the equator than Paris. The antipodes of Christchurch is in northern Spain, today was cold but dry and sunny, so a shorts and T shirt day for working in the garden. A jumper was required when not working though.

Davmac04

Ha ha this made me laugh!

That's good to hear....we have the choice to go to Auckland or Wellington...and love the sound of Wellington but apparently the weather is horrific....we keep thinking it can't be worse than here????
It's horrifically windy...rainy...has night chance of earthquake...Oooft....what do you think?

Hazelnut

It can be horrifically windy but then so can SW Scotland. Given the choice I think we'd opt for Wellington as we loved the city and the housing is so much more affordable. When looking at housing watch out for ones that seem too cheap to be real, they're possibly right next to the new, multi lane motorway that's going to be built.

There's been a couple of good threads on Wellington

http://britishexpats.com/forum/new-z...ington-839421/
and
http://britishexpats.com/forum/new-z...ington-835479/

MrsFychan

I didn't realise I was wind phobic before I came to Wellington, and that includes the great storm of 1987. We moved up to the Kapiti coast and it still can get bad but not where I now spend the nights crying because of the wind. We are in a brick based house now and not a wooden house raised off the ground so don't get the wind whipping underneath, but the wind still gets up at times. The rain can be so heavy that their is no point having the TV on as you just can't hear it and the power goes off because the wind/rain/weather has taken out a tree or something and the power lines have gone down. Auckland also has the same type of weather. Check out Stuff as there are often weather related reports on there.
Earthquakes are everywhere and we experienced 7 within the first 6mths of being here, varying in size. but did take my son over a year to experience his, he seemed to sleep through or was just in a different part of the house or somewhere else when they happened.

Tom H

There's no such thing as windy Wellington - it is a figment of ones imagination

You'll find all those stories about having one of the most dangerous airports in the world is a lie as well. It is completely safe to land, when the cook strait is experiencing left and right hard pushes from the Moa's breathing. Birmingham Airport is far more dangerous than Wellington - just look at that B777 plane video, you never experience that in Wellington.

Every day will be glorious sunny weather. Don't bother bringing any jumpers, trousers or coats/rain jackets with you. You'll soon be praying to the Maori legend gods for rain when we're experiencing another long draught.

Oh and I wouldn't give any thought of mother nature's discos. You'll be fine, Wellington is well prepared for any ground shaking activities. In fact, you'll find it so much fun and want more, more, more.

Plus, where else in the world can you have the greatest coffee in the universe, whilst sitting outside on a bench admiring ferries, boats and hills from Wellington Quay? You don't get that in Scotland or anywhere in the world.

BEVS

It's a nice little city but you wouldn't want to land there. Definitely windy

moonie2011

Came from Devon and live in Welly,it is noticeably windy, but not all the time. It can go from dry and calm, to high winds and rain, to blue sky's and no wind all in 12hrs. It certainly has more strong winds than anywhere I have lived....but the beautiful days are beautiful, summer is longer and hotter than the uk. Wellington city is vibrant but not over crowded and as already said housing is more affordable. We had never been to welly before we emigrated and we love it here ������

Robbie2010

Wellington is regarded as the most windy city in the world, on the basis of highest average wind speed throughout the year.

Wellington wind summary:

• Wellington is located in a River of Wind - a wind corridor between the South Island and the North Island.

• Wellington is the windiest main centre in New Zealand with a mean annual wind speed of 22 km/h.

• Wellington also has an average of 22 days per year with mean wind speeds over 63 km/h (40 knots).

• Wellington averages 173 days a year with wind gusts greater than about 60 km/h or 32 knots.

• October is generally the windiest month of the year with a mean of 27 days with wind speeds over 15 knots, 19 of those days are over 20 knots.

• North is by far the most common wind direction, blowing from this direction (0 degrees) a massive 37.6% of the time.

• Wellington is one of the windiest cities in the world (possibly the windiest) and is windier than other southern windy cities including Cape Town, Perth, and Geraldton.

• The strongest wind speeds where recorded at Hawkins Hill of 248km/h (134 knots) on the 6 November 1959 and 4 July 1962.

NZL 727: Wellington, New Zealand - the windiest city in the world?

scrubbedexpat094

Wellington is in the 'roaring forties' and hence the very strong winds. Great if you are into sailing!

This is just my personal opinion but there's no way I'd live in Welly. Far too cold for me. I'm from the north-west of England and used to be quite a hardy specimen. Alas, I have turned into a soft southerner and anything less than 20C is cold to me now.
We visited there approx 3 years ago now and I never really feel the need to return (I may do in November as a friend of ours has the lead role in Evita, but only going to support her!). I found the city itself quite oppressive. It was okay to visit, did a tour of the Beehive, went to Te Papa (which we thought was poor, compared to Auckland Museum), went to the observatory and through some gardens (good). I couldn't wait to head up home to the north of Auckland.

Friends of ours live in Paraparaumu which is pleasant enough with some good facilities and a nice beach nearby. Just wouldn't be for us.

Our requirements are all different so what suits us wouldn't necessarily suit you. Can you get over for a visit to see which you would prefer? A friend's son, wife and toddler came to live in NZ earlier this year. She had a job in Welly but they didn't like the weather or lifestyle down there so hot-footed up this way as soon as she had fulfilled her visa requirements.

Moses2013

The problem is that the OP somehow wants to escape Scotland for better weather lifestyle, but Wellington is certainly not paradise either if you can't adapt. People looking for a Mediterranean climate might be in shock New Zealand is a great country but so is the UK if you have enough money/time to enjoy things. At the end of the day you'll need a windproof jacket in Wellington if you complained about the UK weather. If you don't mind cooler weather and can appreciate the great scenery, it's certainly an option.

MrsFychan

see I'm the opposite to Vital, visited Auckland CBD and disliked the place, far to built up and oppressive for my liking. best place was Davenport as its across the river and was about the right distant away from Auckland CBD for me. Mind you I hate built up places so have the same feelings towards London.
But up there too you get the bad rain and wind, don't you as well as the bad traffic ?

escapedtonz

We did 2.5 years in Wellington.
At first we didn't quite beleive that it could be that windy but in all honesty it is. There aren't many days without any wind. Maybe only once a year as it generally makes the news when a day goes by without any wind.
It ground us down slowly over those 2.5 years and was one of the reasons we wanted to try elsewhere. I'm a biker and was regularly peed off at the buffeting wind on the motorway. It was sometimes bodering on unrideable at times - dangerous even, so not only did you have to check the rain forecast, one had to also consider the wind speed and gusts.
In our time there we experienced a good hand full of serious storms and it was frightening to be honest. Really thought the windows were gonna go through! One storm was so severe we removed our boy from his bed and took him in with us for the night. That time the wind speedometer thingy registered 210kph on the top of Mt Kaukau that overlooks the city!!!
Don't get me wrong there are many beautiful days but often the wind and the wind chill spoil it and cause a dinner on the deck be too cold or too breezy to actually sit out.
There's a reason why there's a huge windfarm spread across the West of Wellington over Makara n it ain't because the wind doesn't blow!!!
If I had a choice I'd probably choose Auckland over Wellington but live away from the city where it is affordable but that's just me as I quite like Auckland.
Wellington is fine but having been there and done it and have hindsight I wouldn't go back.
Auckland can also get pretty bad storms. It sometimes suffers from the effects of tropical cyclones that originate in the Southern Pacific Islands.

scrubbedexpat094

It was being surrounded by the hills as well as the buildings that gave me that oppressive feel Mrs F. We live 20 km north of the CBD as the crow flies and can see the sky tower from our lounge. We can some heavy downpours and strong winds from time to time but it's generally warmer than Welly and certainly not as windy.

Devonport (across the Waitemata harbour ) is lovely. Jolly expensive to live. Not had many earthquakes in the 8.5 years we've lived here, 5 in total methinks. We had 3 on one day, back in 2007 and 2 on one afternoon a couple of years back. Experienced 2 in the UK that were worse. Of course if Rangitoto decides to awaken then we could all be toast.
Traffic is bad in Auckland. OH gets the ferry into the CBD, so doesn't have to worry about the roads too much.

MrsFychan

yeh didn't like to mention the volcano