[jbharvey]

Hi guys,

My wife and I are moving to NZ this spring as visitors and I'll be finding IT employment (she's an artist).

We have narrowed it down to Wellington and Auckland. I know that Wellington is the capital and that there are more and more jobs being created. However, Auckland is nearly four times the size of the capital and thus, my reasoning is there should be at least 3 or 4 times more IT jobs.

What are the pros and cons of each city, not only in terms of finding IT jobs but for living? I'm interested in things like climate, terrain, leisure, rent, etc.

Forgive me if this is too broad, but I just would like to solicit some personal opinions =)

Justin & Lori

[Alex]

You might want to consider Christchurch too, there are IT jobs there too. That's where we intend to go.

[real_sunfire]

Hi Justin,

In terms of your situation Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch would
all be suitable. In terms of climate, rent, etc there are differences
but not huge ones.

It really depends what you want. I'm also in IT (have been an Internet services support bod for the last 11 years). If you have enough cash behind I would recommend staying for at least a week in each of the three cities to get an impression which one most meets your needs.

I can only tell you why I am chosing Wellington (hoping to move out their with my fiance in 2007) and rejected Auckland and Christchurch. Wellington is a small and friendly city based around a culture and coffee shop environment, easy to walk around, with a good public transport systems, and lots of countryside nearby. THere seems to be alot going on - theatres, cinema, and museums, and plenty of nightlife. It is also where Parliament is based and it is a short hop across to the South Island on the ferry.

Why not Auckland - I personally found it too big - a bit like London nice to visit but not to my taste when it comes to living somewhere. From what I was able to see Auckland is built around its suburbs so I found the city centre a bit dead in the evenings. It also seemed to be a city you needed a car to live in. Both my fiance and I can drive but we would prefer to do without a car if possible.

Why not Christchurch - I can't really put my finger on it, but it didn't really click for me. Christchurch is a very English like town - imagine Oxford or Cambridge without their university buildings and you half way to seeing what Christchurch is like.

Of course all the above is IMHO and I am sure our people will sing the praises of their respective cities.

To misquote Airplane, "the desicion is yours!!!" *:)

Rgds.,
Nick.

[louron]

Hi,
My OH is also in IT and originally we were looking at Auckland cos of the job situ but as someone pointed out to us there may be more jobs in Auckland but will also be more people chasing them so its all relative. Having investigated Wellington I think that it will suit our needs better particularly on the property front in terms of the type of house you might get for your money. I think I'm also right in saying that Welington is particularly good for the arts so that may be something to consider too.
Just my opinion but thought I would share.
Cheers

[sizzlingbadger]

We chose Wellington over Auckland.

Although having never visited Auckland we decided that it would be too big and busy for us. We like the quieter life and with sprawling suburbs it just seemed to be too busy.

Wellington is a compact city and we love visiting. We're an hour away by train in Featherston and it's a great little community. There's a lot of arty people living here with a gallery here in Featherston and I think a couple in Greytown. With Wellington being the centre of both islands it's easy to travel up to Auckland (1hr by plane) or down to Christchurch (45 mins).

My husband works as Oracle Senior Consultant and found work relatively easy. There's a massive shortage of good IT people in Wellington. As soon as my husband updated his seek details to an NZ address he had about 3 calls in half an hour all offering interviews.

Try and visit each city and spend a few days travelling around it, it's going to be the only way you'll find the one you really like.

Good Luck :-)

[dave k]

Wellington is IT central. I wish I'd bloody well studied IT instead of going down the creative arts path sometimes...
Getting IT employment here will be like shooting fish in a bucket.

I've spent some time in both Auckland & Welly...and there's really no contest. Welly has a great vibe to it, is exceptionally beautiful, compact & friendly....and maybe a bit cheaper to live in, but it's negligible really.

[Singel]

I'm not going to sing praises about Auckland, just want to highlight the problems here.

The spiralling house prices :
If you have children, you have to live near the good school zone and also the need to live in a safe neighbourhood, you got to pay a lot of monies for the house.
I can only comment about the area that I'm living now.
The price of our 8-month new build has already gone up by 15%.
Have a look at this link about a 8-month old new build on sales http://www.barfoot.co.nz/scripts/db.dll?sid=300.2&ref=325958 and also the price of a new build here http://www.wattlecove.co.nz/
Recently, we have been bombarded by phonecalls and leaflets from property agents because there are very few houses on sale and the construction of new homes are not fast enough to meet the demands. I know of one house was snapped up within 2 weeks on the market.
So you got to either bring a lot of monies or set foot in the property market as soon as possible.

The rush hour traffic :
Most of the businesses are located in Central Auckland and the rush hour traffic are pretty bad if you travel by car. However, if your office is within walking distant from the train station, then you could avoid this traffic woe by using the public transport. I took the train when I was temping in Auckland CBD last year. Fortunately, my hubby office and my office are located at the fringe of Central Auckland and our journey to work is 30 mins one way by car.

I hope these information will give you some information about living and travelling in Auckland.