[Sheldon]

On a trip to New Zealand last year, my wife and I fell in love with Dunedin. It appealed to us for a number of reasons. I realise that we were seeing the city through the rose tinted specs of a tourist, so would appreciate hearing some negative things, if nothing else, to balance my view of the place. My positives, out of interest were:

Great schools and university.
Small size of the city
The beautiful architecture
Amazing beaches
Natural beauty of the peninsula and the harbour
Incredibly friendly locals
The Botanical Gardens
The town belt
No traffic

Looking forward to your thoughts!

[TheBigSaxon]

I haven't been to Dunedin yet, but from what I understand there are alot of sharks in the water because of the seals & penguins. But there are a fair number of shark nets up and fatal attacks are very very rare.

[BkyMonster]

We went to Dunedin as it's one of the locations that could reliably have a job for me. However it was not for us. Perhaps we are spoiled but here are a few of the things we found we didn't care for.
We didn't find there was enough shopping for the apparent population density. (Christchurch is opposite, hence us being spoiled)
As an addition to this there seemed to be a lack of basic services, we had to look quite hard to find the local dentist/doctor/flower shops etc and didn't seem to be enough for the area again. Saw plenty Veterinarians though.
Apparently shrinking economy, lots of empty store fronts and buildings. More than I see around here at any rate.
Didn't care for the public transport (frequency, range), and some parts of the city are certainly more pedestrian friendly than others, though that may not be an issue for you.
Town population seemed older. Seemed split between older people and college students with few families with children.


For background we walked from South Dunedin to the Octagon (30 minutes each way, though we had to hurry on the way back as we weren't sure the area we were walking through was one we'd want to be in after dark on foot), checked out the bus depot, counted the grocery stores, and spent time checking out the various suburbs. Roslyn seemed most 'normal' to us.
We also checked out the surrounding beaches including Sand Fly Bay, went to the Aquarium, and looked at surrounding towns. And climbed Baldwin street :D

We did quite like Mosgiel though. A very nice town of ~10k people IMO.

[mylesdw]

I agree with your plus points, but that's not what you were asking about...

No one's mentioned the weather; it can get pretty cold that far south. Not from personal experience but I imagine a town of mostly students probably gets pretty rowdy at nights.

I like Mosgiel too, simply because it is such an 'ordinary' little place.

[aberdian]

Cold and wet :( Although I do like Dunedin it must be said, it's nice to go for a trip to the big city after living in a town of 5000 people. You don't complain about the lack of shops then either, especially after not seeing any for 6 months :)

[Kanga]

We *nearly* moved to Dunedin but didn't. We've spent some tourist time there too, which was partly why it ended up on our shortlist. The pluses are numerous but the negatives that we felt would effect us included the bad weather coupled with the cheaper housing being often on the shady side & the isolation from anywhere else in NZ. In the end we choose Hawkes Bay, which was still quite isolated but not as much as Dunedin but does have fabulous weather. Sea temperatures round Dunedin were also off putting.

[mylesdw]

Aberdian: Wanaka I like very much, far more than Queenstown. For me, lack of shops is a real bonus; I HATE shopping with a passion!

[broadsword08]

its always 'each to his own' isnt it ;o)
we live where most people would call the middle of nowhere... if we go to 'big' town we go to invercargill or dunedin and are about the same 1.5 hours from each... we like it quiet where there is still a real sense of community yet people are not living on top of one another
dunedin has a little more choice in terms of shopping but then there are more people... i'm not a shopping fan personally anyways...

but for me the single biggest downside to dunedin would be the students... if their disrespectful attitude to landlords houses was the prevalent attitude in england then the country would be in an even worse state than some say it is already (not that NZ is any panacea of course!)
but as with most things its a double edged sword... the students bring in money and help provide the shops and eateries

its all relative... dunedin might seem quiet to you... it did to me when we first got here... now I struggle to deal with the traffic and all the people !!! lol

i say if you think you'll like it do it... you can always move... or live 30 mins out or somesuch - nothing is forever...

oh and the weather is a contentious one... we are on the edge of central otago so climate here is about the same as southern england... maybe a little colder in winter... but there really isnt much in it! we get more seasonality and less 'grey' days - being coastal dunedin is wetter but you cant have everything... if you want to me close to the sea...!

good luck with whatever you decide... the grass is never any greener just a different shade!

[stellachiara]

ithe grass is never any greener just a different shade!

I love that so much! Thank you -- I will keep that with me :)

[colindp]

Hi,
I spent two years in Dunedin and loved it, I had a house which had a 2 million dollar view in Company Bay. To be honest I find there to be more reasons for going to Dudders than not to....The weather was the only real let down for us it does get very cold in winter but having said that the large proportion of days in winter were dry and sunny.

We had no problem shopping, and found that we could get all we needed,
I used the bus to work every day and never experienced a bus not turning up or being more that a couple of minutes late, I found a great doctor in Helensburgh and my wife had very good and reasonable dental treatment at the hospital dental school... there are areas of the city that you would want to avoid but saying that here in Perth there are places you would want to to avoid....but then isn't that the case in any city?

And to avoid rowdy students basically don't settle in Northern Dunedin!!

[Sheldon]

Thanks for the input. It helps to get a balanced view of things. I suppose the moral of the story is "don't expect Utopia, you will be disappointed". The cold and the rowdy students seem like two fairly big negatives. To counter this, it would seem that the best thing would be to settle far from North Dunedin in a home that is well built, well insulated, well heated, and that gets lots of sun. Sorted!

[RJLink]

I suppose the moral of the story is "don't expect Utopia, you will be disappointed".


Or as the mock poster on Murray's wall in Flight of the Conchords said:

"New Zealand: Don't expect too much. You'll love it!"

[Richard7666]

The main reasons I could think of not to live in Dunedin would be the appalling quality of the roads, and also the student population are rowdy, giving it a high idiot-per-capita ratio. Also the houses are terribly old and cold and dark unless you live in an outer suburb. Other than that, it's one of the best places in NZ!

[Shones]

Anyone have any comments about difference in student behaviour/attitude Christchurch vs. Dunedin. Haven't read any comments about rowdy students in Christchurch, is this just because it's a bigger city and students more spread out??

[BkyMonster]

I live fairly near to Canterbury University and the houses around mine are either mid income people or occupied by (multiple) students. (We even saw a neighborhood car on TV in Dunedin :D It was covered in green shaggy grass stuff iirc)
We've heard a few parties on weekends, but not much other than that. I used to live near and work at Oregon State University (which IMO is fairly conservative as Universities go, I've lived near others), and here isn't even as rowdy as that would get (though the lack of Pac10 football here would almost certainly account for that, do Universities have sport teams here?)

When we went down to visit Dunedin we saw more obvious student housing with horrible couches on roofs, suspect outside decorations (You honk, we drink) etc. There is some of that here, but the student ratio I think is much lower here. Whatever CU and Lincoln students (I wouldn't count CPIT as IMO it's more a working student demographic) who live in ChCh to the population of ChCh (380k) compared to Otago's student population to the population of Dunedin (115k).

[Shones]

Thanks, we spent a month living very close to the University of Canterbury and my impression was that the students were very "orderly" but all those comments about students in Dunedin made me wonder if I was not looking properly!

[Richard7666]

Anyone have any comments about difference in student behaviour/attitude Christchurch vs. Dunedin. Haven't read any comments about rowdy students in Christchurch, is this just because it's a bigger city and students more spread out??

There are more students in Dunedin for starters. Overall though the behaviour of the general public is much better in Dunedin than Christchurch I find, even if a fair few of the students in Dunedin are morons who are only there to drink.

[72andsunny]

On a trip to New Zealand last year, my wife and I fell in love with Dunedin. It appealed to us for a number of reasons. I realise that we were seeing the city through the rose tinted specs of a tourist, so would appreciate hearing some negative things, if nothing else, to balance my view of the place. My positives, out of interest were:

Great schools and university.
Small size of the city
The beautiful architecture
Amazing beaches
Natural beauty of the peninsula and the harbour
Incredibly friendly locals
The Botanical Gardens
The town belt
No traffic

Looking forward to your thoughts!


Let me start of with: I wanted to like Dunedin. It looked perfect on paper.

We were there in the middle of June. It was unbelievably cold. I could adjust to that.

It was dark until 8:30AM and dark before 5PM. Although it was sunny, the sun never really came up; every picture I took in Dunedin has huge shadows...even at noon, it felt like the sun was about to go down.

We were there around the shortest day of the year. Still, I would never be able to adjust to a couple of months without sun.

[newarrival]

I feel I have to put a good word in for Dunedin after the last post.....
We lived there for the past 4 years and don't get me wrong- I do feel it is quite cold down there, especially because the houses are not central heated.
But to say that there are months without sun is not fair, I think. There are beautiful days with lots of sun and blue skies..., especially in winter!
Two of our children are at uni there at the moment and we talk almost every day- and compare the weather- and they do have sunny days. Definitely the night temperatures are warmer than up here.;)
It might be not the right comparison between California and Dunedin..., it is just a different cup of tea.
And yea, of course the days are short(er) in the middle f winter, but I honestly never felt like the sun was going down at midday already.
Just my opinion.

[macs gold]

On the shortest day in NZ 8.30am and 5pm would be twilight, not all out darkness. In compensation we get summer daylight out to around 10pm, which California will never have.

[72andsunny]

I feel I have to put a good word in for Dunedin after the last post.....


Wait, I'm the only person who followed directions. The OP wanted reasons not to move to Dunedin. I could also come up with several reasons to move there...

[newarrival]

Ok, point taken!;)