[clg]

I am planning a one week trip to NZ next month to make sure this is the place we want to be. I am going to scope out neighborhoods and I hope inverview as well. We have never been to NZ before.

We are about 95% certain the Wellington is where we want to be. My question has to do with how much time to spend there? Any ideas of how long it will take me to get a feel for the city and the surroudings? Also, I am guessing that renting a car is a must. Should I just spend the whole week there or would I have time to spend a couple of days driving up to Auckalnd to sightsee and catch the return flight.

Any input is greatly appreciated

Chris

[SoCal Gal]

Hi Chris,
I have send you a PM too, but in general, if you think Wellington is where you want to be, I'd spend my time there....you can't just zip up to Auckland like driving up the '5', we took a train one way down to W, and fly back to Auckland. Before we left CA, we toyed with the idea of driving between the two places to check them both out, but it would have eaten up too much time travelling back and forth. You can vacation other places later! : :cool

[sarahw]

I'd spend the week - we came over in October for a week & it was hardly long enough to explore everywhere around Welly to work out if we wanted to live here - I knew immediately when the plane came into land here that I wanted to live here whereas Ian waited until he got back on British turf to make his decision and it was touch and go as to whether he wanted to make that move - he really needed the full week to come to his decision.

We spent the week not only on interviews, but on exploring shops, suburbs, beaches - we went out for a day with an Estate Agent who showed us what we could afford to buy for our budget, went up the coast, out to Martinborough wine country etc... Our main reasons for doing all the exploring - to see if the city could offer us a good social life/standard of living for a good cost of living & whether the kind of things going on in Welly were the kind of things we'd enjoy.

I think if you only spend a couple of days here you won't see as much as you might need to make the decision...

Good luck with the trip :nice1

[clg]

I had some PM's from people and I have decided to just stay the whole week in Wellington. Now I just have to book a ticket. I think I am leaving here Feb 18th unless I can get a better price on airfare with some different dates. I will get all of this sorted in the next day or two.

Thanks to all for your input!

Chris