[vixxann]

Just wondering if we can start this off, hopefully with all those that have settled in NZ giving their reasons for choosing where they went eg. work, family already in NZ or just favourite part of country etc

I'm having some issues with choosing locations myself at moment and just wondered how most people had done it ! :)

[Familyofmonkeys]

We went to Auckland as OH got good job offer. Enjoying our time here seeing all the sights etc and slowly making friends. Planning on moving to Christchurch eventually....couple of years yet though.

[benandclare]

Work brought us to Christchurch.

Our initial thoughts were Nelson as loved it there last December, but having been here 4 weeks think we'll be staying here a wee while :raebanana :raebanana

[Nettie 2]

We chose Taupo as Kevins sister lives here and we lived with her for the first couple of months so seemed logical to stay put as we liked it. My youngest son lives at Mt Maunganui which we also like but a bit too pricey in the housing market at mo. Give us a few years and we may work up to it hopefully!
Good luck with your choice. :)

[Timbo]

We came to Whitianga in 2004 on holiday and fell for the place. By pure coincidence, my OH was offered a job here when we returned, so we stuck around.
Fate??

[kellyfamily]

visited many areas but fell for Tauranga. Beautiful scenery, noisy parts (My maunganui in summer) with allthe visitors but many quieter outlying areas which are within 10 mins drive from town centre, Lovely beaches but it all depends on what you want , everyone here seems to love the place their in and moved to them places because it what they want. But remember IM always right lol :laugh

[wiki]

We wanted Dunedin or Invercargill to be close to my family - and the better job offer came up in Invercargill. It probably won't be our life-long location, but it's a very reasonable place to start living.

[Kim39]

Was suppose to go to either Auckland, Hawkes Bay, or Palmerston North as the job dictated, but settled in Te Awamutu due to my best friend of 40 years is only a 7 min drive away from us. Oh yeah, didn't take the job that's why we have ended up where we are.


Kim

[Sam B]

I was offered jobs in Wellington, the Waikato and Northland, but the job in the Waikato sounded the best, and I thought Northland would be too far away from everywhere else to explore. And the job in Wellington wouldn't let me do 4 days a week, and I didn't want to work harder than I did in England. So, the Waikato.

[Nick88]

I picked Northland partly for work, and it was a logical place to create our business (rural). Plus when in England I promised myself I would end up somewhere I never have to scrape frost off my windscreen again. Not quite there yet, I have had to scrape once or twice in the last few years. Basically I just like being warm.

[Mickstim]

We'll be heading for Tauranga. Mostly because son and family there but also love it. We've been to NZ 3 times and done a fair bit of travelling around N Island and haven't found anywhere we like as much anyway. We've ruled S Island out as although it may be beautiful it's too far away from our gorgeous 3 year old grandson!!

Bxx

[LesleyS]

Also heading to Tauranga!

OH spent a month having a look at lots of areas on both N and S Islands, and came to the satisfying conclusion that the Bay of Plenty ticked more boxes for us than any other place.... :clap
I'll let you know....setting off in 3 weeks! :yes

[dharder]

Auckland for us to be close to my partner's family (though some of us were keener on that than others...).

Once I realised that nowhere in NZ is actually tropical (I do like it warm as well), I wasn't too fussed, and Wellington sounds like an option as well where IT jobs are concerned.

Daniela

[srivett]

We're headed for Nelson with a few months in Christchurch first to kick things off. We loved Nelson instantly. After a long recce of both islands, visiting all the major towns, Nelson was the only place that made us look at each other with wordless grins of approval. Artsy. Beautiful climate. Golden beaches (me) and alpine mountains (her) both within easy distance. Opportunities for everything we want out of life. I'll know soon whether it meets our expectations :)

[veronica]

As we are in the ski business we wanted to be somewhere relatively close to the mountains but with a static rather than transient customer base so really Christchurch was the only option. Not the most romantic reason for choosing but having made it that way we are now quite happy with the choice.

[M&J]

We looked all over the North Island, we thought Wellington to start with due to jobs. But during our reccie we decided we didn't want to live in a city or commute into one everyday (thant's what we did in the UK and we wantd to change. We eventually decided on the Waikato for two reasons OH got offered a good job and as I have an Agricultural Degree and it is a big farming area I was more likely to get something too.

We love it here too, it is just so close to so many things and a variety of landscapes. :)

[gil]

Auckland because of the type of work I do (OD consulting), there's just not the scope elsewhere at a sustainable level without doing it as home being just a base and me having to travel. Did that for far too long in UK and didn't want to repeat it!
Selected Bucklands Beach by internet. We just liked the look of it and the schools were important to us too. In our first week, we hade scheduled to visit North Shore, Titirangi and more central Auckland, to look around and visit schools, but we absolutley loved Howick and surrounds, so stayed put!

Gil

[Carol]

Welly because of the TYPE of IT work hubby does - I'm a teacher so can work anywhere.

We spent one day in Auckland with family and then flew to Welly - so glad we "had" to come here!

[willsken]

We decided that Napier looked the best bet for us, mainly for the weather and I really loved the look of the town. When we came over on holiday we realised we would be pushing ourselves paying the price of the housing. We carried on down the North Island and arrived in the town we settled in. There was something about the feel of the place. Not sure what it was. It had everything we were looking for and the houses were a lot cheaper. Only draw back was getting a teaching job, OH is a builder so no worries on him finding work. As luck would have it 18 month after coming back from our trip the head of computing job came up at the local college and I got it. Meant to be as they say!

[Nienke]

Auckland for us, as that's where my OH's job offer was. We chose to live in Titirangi, as it's village-like and very close to the beautiful nature of the Waitakere and west coast.

[jubjub]

Well, we chose Auckland as hubby had to be in a major city for work, and we felt that this was the best climate of the three major centres.

Chose east Auckland after reading the Where to Live in Auckland book, visited, liked it, bought house and moved in....

I say we, it was really hubby..... but when presented with the options I was more than happy with them :) , he nearly bought a house before I got here too...

[KerryS]

I was offered a job after arriving in Auckland, so stayed here. I've visited other cities and although I like Welly and Christchurch they're both a bit small for me.
I chose Ponsonby because I like the vibe - lots of great bars, cafes and restaurants, nice clothes shops, and local butchers, grocers etc all on my doorstep.
I lived in Parnell for 2 years before moving over here, and although I liked it there, I never really loved it in the same way.

[thezorbster]

The beautiful coastline for kayaking, the beautiful mountains for skiing and walking, 3 national parks within an hour, The view across the bright blue bay towards Abel Tasman with the snow capped mountains towering above it. The lovely craft galleries, cafes and vineyards dotted everywhere. The fact we have everything here we need without the big city mentality and masses of people. The sign driving into Nelson proclaiming "Nelson, Live The Dream" which makes me smile and think every time we pass it - yeah, I'm living my dream.

It's early days but I think we are going to be very happy here!:D

[mgbridges]

We ended up in Auckland despite OH also getting a job offer which would have been based in Wellington. The decision to come to Auckland was mainly due to the specific job being offered although we kinda thought we'd end up in one or the other before we came here due to where the IT jobs are.

OH found a rental in Campbells Bay, North Shore and once I arrived we decided we liked the East Coast Bays area so decided to stay put. Once our son was accepted into the local Catholic Primary that we liked it narrowed the house hunting area and we have just purchased a house in Browns Bay.

Loving it so far.
Anneliese

[katandbob]

we thought Christchurch, but found it too big, started driving and ended up in Invercargill, we now live inbetween there and Bluff, I have 4 horses 8.5 acres and have southland,Fiordland & the catlins on my doorstep, can ride over hills, beaches, etc...and all for less than a price of a small doer uper in chch.
oh and the weathers better than NE lincs! so I don't complain about the weather here.

Kat

[Lupin]

Wanted somewhere remote where living rurally would be financially doable, where the pace of life was very different, where the climate would be a significant improvement, where we could afford to live near the sea and somewhere that felt remote but provided the things we really needed (decent schooling, proximity to city/large towns for clubs etc, etc)

Tick, tick tick .....

Beautiful Central Hawkes Bay :)

[Charlesw25]

Biggest problem we're having at the mo is deciding where we should go. Christchurch or Wellington? Wellington or Christchurch? Never fancied Auckland as we didn't think it was as nice as the other two and a bit too built up in parts. Didn't see the point of moving to somewhere like NZ and living in an overgrown suburb. Both our picks have lots going for them, but it's very close to call. Our expat Kiwi friends say Chch is too insular and on its own, but I liked it when we went in May.

[wiki]

Biggest problem we're having at the mo is deciding where we should go. Christchurch or Wellington? Wellington or Christchurch? Never fancied Auckland as we didn't think it was as nice as the other two and a bit too built up in parts. Didn't see the point of moving to somewhere like NZ and living in an overgrown suburb. Both our picks have lots going for them, but it's very close to call. Our expat Kiwi friends say Chch is too insular and on its own, but I liked it when we went in May.

And don't forget your ex-pat Pommy friend votes for Chch being nicer!

[veronica]

if its any help most of the backpackers who come through reckon that theres more buzz in Christchurch than the other citys (excluding queenstown/wanaka)

[vixxann]

Thanks for all answers - seems that its mostly a work related choice or people were definate in what kind of location they had in mind before they went.

Still don't know where we might end up... my list of narrowed down choices has got bigger and bigger - oops :o

[j.cool]

We came to New Zealand and didn't know where to start. Practically no internet information at this time when we arrived.
We know that we didn't want to clean cars of snow in the morning or clean the way of snow masses as Nick88 said about scraping windscreens.
We started in Wellington, couldn't find a job there and 5 month later we moved to Auckland, where we never wanted to be, because I got a job there. We just wanted to stay in New Zealand, not going back.
We moved to Mairangi Bay, which was not so bad for the beginning. But we know, we will not stay. A couple of month later we bought our first house in Orewa. My husband got a nearly a heart attack when I told him at the second day in the house: We will not stay long here. The house was nice, the walks at the beach we enjoyed but... there was something missing. Nine month later we moved to Wellsford. We are here since 5 years now and we love it. Still only 1 hour drive to Auckland, 45 minutes to Whangerei, we are happy!
So many nice place to choose from. Life is good!

[Patricia]

We moved to Auckland as our son lives here. We are living in Henderson which is West Auckland so we are known now as Westies which is nice.
Bought a bungalow 5 weeks after arriving 5 minute drive away from family & loving it. :D
Neighbors great we were cutting the front grass yesterday & it took nearly all morning as people stopped to speak & when they knew we were new to NZ made a point of making us feel very welcome, :cheers wouldn't have got that in the UK so much. :uhoh
Patricia

[Jo Jo]

My criteria was that it had to be warmer than the UK, and that I wanted to be near the sea, and we ended up choosing Whitianga for both those reasons, plus it is near my husband's family. We were lucky because my company in the UK wants me to continue working for them, so we could be much more flexible about location than if we would have been if I had had to find a job (basically, it would have been Wellington, or possibly Auckland).

[Perksy]

No-one is voting for Wellington which is a tad worrying as I think work is going to dictate I end up there. Out taking a look in November. Any bids for nice places within easy commute of Welly??

[IanW99]

No-one is voting for Wellington which is a tad worrying as I think work is going to dictate I end up there. Out taking a look in November. Any bids for nice places within easy commute of Welly??

I think you are mistaken, Carol voted for Wellington.

Welly because of the TYPE of IT work hubby does - I'm a teacher so can work anywhere.

We spent one day in Auckland with family and then flew to Welly - so glad we "had" to come here!

If you want more votes then Wellington gets my vote :yes

Ian

[barryp]

If you fancy urban living, Welly is your only option in the entire country (IMNPHO). Of course, many posters here came to NZ specifically to avoid urban-anything, but there's nowhere else in NZ that I could live.

Tons of nice options w/in easy commute of Wgtn; all depends on what you value and your commute choices. Many discussions on this board.

[Perksy]

Cheers Barry/Ian and sorry Carol (eyesight's obviously failing me). I like having urban within reasonable reach but don't want to live and breath it. It's a pity my work is so restrictive as would have prefered a bit further north Hamilton -Waitomo way. Just have to give Welly a chance and do some exploring when over in November.