[RonnieB]

Hi There, my frist post and all of that!

As the thread title says I am departing for New Zealand in just over two weeks, really looking forward to it. I have a 1 year Working Holiday Visa, which I hope to use for most of the year (2 months travelling first) My plan being to find a job I enjoy and hopefully extend my stay longer than 1 year. :cheers

Im planning on basing myself in Wellington, there seems to be a lot of jobs in the area I currenty work in (I.T., Hardware Engineer)

To any other Irish on this site how do you find the costs of living compared to where you were previous in Ireland? I cant imagine it being any worse!

[kiwidollie]

Just want to say hi and welcome to the forum. Can't help you on the costs front but no doubt somebody else will be along soon with lots of advice - they're a really good crowd on here.

Good luck for your coming adventures.

[Smiler]

Hi Ronnie


Welcome to the forum. :nice1

I can help you only with UK comparisions reallysorry, but what do you intend on doing here, renting, buying a car, back packing? There is a cost of living indicator here, www.emigratenz.org (http://www.emigratenz.org/).

However, I spent my 1st couple of weeks comparing everything to £'s and then gave up. I'm living here, being paid in NZ dollars and I need to buy food, rent etc. If my toothpast is 50 cents more expensive here, so what I still need peg paste.

We're in Wellytoon too and OH is in IT, if you fancy coffee, just yell.

Good luck

Deborah

[RonnieB]

I dont plan on making any significant purchases, rental accom will be my main one. Cant be any worse than a flat in Dublin for 1600 euro per month :) I have no real plans to be honest apart from my aim of finding a job and maybe settling for a while (which is a plan!) One day at a time I suppose, my main reason of going is to improve my current quality of life which involves sitting at a pc for 16 hours a day! Go back and start the hobbies I used to know!

[tigerlily]

Welcome welcome welcome!
If you are planning to head to Welly- check out
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/st_services/accommodation/accommFinder.aspx
it's from the uni there and it has lots of shared accomodation as well as places you can get on your own, gives some idea of prices. Also lots on
http://www.trademe.co.nz/structure/rentals/
if you haven't looked there yet. I'd say you could have a palace in Welly for 1600 Euro per week.
Good luck and have a wonderful trip!

[starkhorn]

Hi Ronnie,

I'm from Derry originally so prices in Wellington would be seem slightly more expensive but when you compare Wellington to Dublin prices then there is no comparasion.

You were paying 1600euro month for a flat in Dublin? Well you could get yourself a fully furnished serviced apartment in central wellington with the below crowd for less than that. Obviously you can find alot cheaper than the below, they just probably wouldn't be furnished.

http://www.whatsnew.co.nz/index.php?id=426

I'm also in IT and that I'm also planning to go to Wellington when we get PR. Who knows we might end up working for the same firm! :)

Slan.

Cheers
Brendan

[SharpBlade]

Hi Ronnie,
We used to live in the West of Ireland, not far from Castlebar, county Mayo. Life was very quiet but great (especially for the kids who got plenty of freedom. You know, it was the typical Irish landscape of green fields, little stone walls, sheep and turf burning smell from the chimney... I loved it and still kind of miss the sense of space. I think the kids are finding it a bit hard o adapt to city life...)
but anyway, we are in Christchurch now, and I can tell you that the cost of living is way lower than in Ireland, but then again, Nz wages are just really low.. So comparing is probably not a good idea. Food shopping is half what it used to be, but we still have to budget and be careful with any other expenses. We are renting at the moment, at 380 $ per week, but you can find cheaper accommodation (we probably picked an "expensive area", we wanted to feel safe and liked the look of this place. Also, it was the only tidy and kind of ok place we saw... I have to say, I really can`t stand this house..). Internet access in the city is very good (a big difference to the poor dial up access we had in Mayo) and about 40$ a month. My husband is in IT and is salary is about 3/4 of his Irish wage. The only good thing is that the exchange rate is getting better and better everyday, and if you can play on this, you probably make up for you losses. We have sold our house in Ireland and are waiting for the right time to bring our money back.
Diesel is way cheaper as well, medicines, etc... Don`t know about the costs of beers and eating out because it is really not a regular thing with us (well, we have 4 young kids..) but it looks way cheaper (especially cheaper than in Dublin !! ) TV in Ireland was not great, but it is worse here..
Anyway, best of luck. I really love when people tell me (or the kids) I have an Irish accent (although I am originally from Belgium)..I haven`t noticed big differences between Irish and kiwis, but I think the Irish are less individualist (spelling?) and more welcoming (but then again, that was in a small village lost in rainy Mayo.. ).
Laura