Looking for some impartial advise on living and working in NZ (Christchurch), should the oppourtunity arise in the near future. Specifically:
Cost of living – Are there the same problems with house prices as the in the UK. Can you afford to live out of a town / city centre / suburb on an ‘average’ wage (engineering professional with 10 years experience). How do other living expenses like food / vehicles compare ?
How does the education system compare to the UK’s
Are the opportunities for outdoor activities (cycling, kayaking, walking, climbing) as good as they seem – How do they comapare with say Scotland.

Ta

Marcus, I’ve been in the UK for 6 1/2 years now, but grew up in NZ so I’ll try and answer your questions (bearing in mind that I’m not that sure what things are like there now and how the financial issues facing the world are affecting NZ):

Cost of living – Are there the same problems with house prices as the in the UK. Can you afford to live out of a town / city centre / suburb on an ‘average’ wage (engineering professional with 10 years experience).
Yep, house prices have been as much, if not more of an issue in NZ. However, if you can take a reasonable amount of savings with you from here you’ll be well placed with a deposit due to the value of the NZ$. NZers drive everywhere, so living out of the town centre shouldn’t be an issue and houses will, generally, be cheaper than in town. Without knowing what sort of engineering you do it’s hard to comment on salary, but this may help: I trained as a civil engineer and salaries for that role have increased significantly in recent years due to severe skills shortages, at least in Wellington, but I would be surprised if Christchurch is any different. A potential downside relating to work is that the range and scale of industries that are available is significantly less than here so that might be an issue depending on what you do for a living and how important ‘career progression’ is for you.

How do other living expenses like food / vehicles compare ?
I think food in NZ is pretty comparable, if not slightly more expensive than in the UK; it certainly isn’t cheap. Vehicles are also expensive compared to here. Basically, most things are imported, the market is small and a long way from anywhere and there isn’t that much competition so you pay a premium for manufactured products. Bikes are really expensive relative to salary. As a slightly simplistic example, I don’t recall seing a single XTR rear derailleur on a mountain bike in any bike shop when I was back on holiday two years ago.

How does the education system compare to the UK’s
I think the schooling system is pretty good, on average, and generally includes a lot more in the way of outdoor activities because there is more space and things are more accessible. Sport really is a way of life, in some respects. Some NZ universities are world recognised for certain subject areas, including engineering and medicine (I think).

Are the opportunities for outdoor activities (cycling, kayaking, walking, climbing) as good as they seem – How do they comapare with say Scotland.
No idea how they compare to Scotland, but I’d have thought pretty well, as the Southern Alps are much bigger than any ‘mountain’s in GB. Not having been smoothed by glaciation they are also more rugged and a lot steeper, on average so that can make life interesting. Within 2 hours drive of central Christchurch you have about 12 small skifields, several rivers and any number of other ranges of hills with great mountain biking. If you’re into that range of activities get yourself over there and enter the annual Coast to Coast race (the width of the South Island using kayaks, MTBs, running, etc).

Hope the above is some help. Happy to talk more if you email me your phone number. adammonline AT gmail DOT com.

Not having been smoothed by glaciation…

So the Franz Josef, Fox, Mulluer and Hooker Glaciers (to name but four) aren’t glaciatation? 😉

House prices are crazy mad – Christchurch is supposed to be one of the least affordable places to live in the world, thanks to the massive prices, and low salaries. If you have a UK sized deposit though, that’ll make a bit of a difference. It is quite cheap to rent there though, and they are having a house price crash at the moment, so who knows.

Raw ingredients for food are pretty cheap. A few things are silly expensive, like anything imported. I don’t know about buying cars, but petrol was dirt cheap when I was out there. They don’t have very good public transport out there though, so do expect to have to drive around a lot unless you’re the sort of person who uses a bike for their shopping (I had no problems without a car, but without using the bike so much I’d have been screwed).

In terms of riding and outdoors stuff – Christchurch has some nice local riding which you can sensibly live right next to (the hills are 300m high, about 5km from the centre, and there are a ton of good trails in there – they have uplift days on them too). You can drive out to the proper mountains for a day ride (or longer rides).

The downside compared to Scotland is that they only have access on some trails – so it isn’t like you can always do a massive ride just anywhere you want, in some ways there isn’t the same variety of trails. Also, do expect it to take a long time to drive anywhere, and to have to drive quite a way for rides (like 1-2 hours each way for much of the out of town riding). In terms of paddling they have some quite good rivers, I’m not sure if there are access limitations though.

Road biking is massive in Christchurch if you like that – really big group rides, and lots of lovely people who do it.

In terms of jobs and stuff – be aware it is a very small place. I’m from Nottingham, and Christchurch feels a whole lot smaller. It is very spread out too. In any particular field, there aren’t going to be a large number of potential companies, so be sure the job you get is one you want to stay in for a fair bit of time.

The culture is a bit small town too, and if you like bands or art or anything, don’t expect anything significant ever to come to Christchurch. Personally I like to at least have access to a major city for culture and the like, without having to fly to Sydney. That’s one of the things that put me off.

Joe

I can only give you some advice based on the fact I emigrated here 10 years ago and had lived here for 2 yrs before that, i’m from Scotland. Some of what has been said above is good advice , some is a bit odd but thats opinions for ya !

general points
1) Don;t expect iot to be like the UK. If you want it to be like the UK i suggest you stay in the UK
2) Its a very young country culturally and physically so don’t expect loads of buildings frmo the 1600’s – you;re more likely to find things built at 4pm 😉
3) Ditto tracks – there a lot of tracks and a lot of private land but yu can get access easily if you ask

Cost of living – Are there the same problems with house prices as the in the UK. Can you afford to live out of a town / city centre / suburb on an ‘average’ wage (engineering professional with 10 years experience). How do other living expenses like food / vehicles compare ?
House prices went nuts here like the rest of the world in the last 5 years. The market has dropped significantly in the last 6 months and is pegged to drop a bit more (but I would question that based on what I am seeing at the moment). Have a look at http://www.trademe.co.nz and the property section on there or http://www.open2view.com to get a feel for prices. I live in Wgtn and would safely say that you would struggle to get a 3bd hse in town (or within 5-6km) for < 450-500KNZ that was worth living in. Around the 500K mark you will find a heap of property and depending on your criteria you’ll possibly pikcup a bargain at the moment. (I just missed out on a property that had a GV of 1.3M and my offer was pipped by 10 grand and i offered 900K !!). There is a hangover where people are slightly deluded and seem to think the price of their property is ‘as it was in the boom’. But anyway. Have a look at those sites to get a feel. Obviously things like a view, decent sun, access etc all cost more/less depending. You’ll find things odd – specifically central heating is non existent despite it being needed, houses are very poorly insulated, location and aspect are king, access if you are ona hill is important. You pay rates (and water in chch i think now too) and a property has a GV (government valuation) which is used to calculate rates. Historically the balance of costs/wages against the UK could have been approximated as 2/3 i.e. it was abotu 1/3 cheaper to live here. Not now. Food is quite expensive and the general cost of living seesm to have accelerated in the last 10 years. Saying that i get all my fruit/veg etc from markets and its cheap and top quality. Its definitely not a cheap place to live esp compared to the salary you can earn. ChCh will also be slightly lower paid you’ll find than wgtn and akl generally but of course there are exceptions. Its a small labour market as well. My main gripe with ChCh (and I lived in Methven which is 1hr outside chch) fro 2 years is the winter when the temp inversion strikes and it can be **** cold and miserable. Add in lots of wood burners and it can be quite unpleasant. But you can drive out of town and be in the arse end of nowhere in 40 minutes.

How does the education system compare to the UK’s
One of my mates who is a teacher refused to have his kids educated here. I’ve got no children but all my friends with kids (some kiwis some ex-pats) seem to reckon it is ok.

Are the opportunities for outdoor activities (cycling, kayaking, walking, climbing) as good as they seem – How do they comapare with say Scotland.
Different. If you lived in ChCh you have access to teh Waimakaririri, Rangitata, Rakaia rivers which all are good WW rivers. You can be in Springfield in 30 mins and Arthurs Pass in maybe 70 minutes which is real mountains. Theres the Wharfdale track nearby, Oxford etc etc. Theres lots of outdoors stuff nearby. Port Hills and Akaroa area good for roadie rides and lots of mtb tracks on port hills. I’ve got lots of ChCh based friends who never complain. Although Wgtn is better 😉
Walking – lots of tracks etc but very diff structure to Scotland.

Anyway – as i sadi before depends what your expectations are. I love it here and will never go back to the UK as I enjoy my balanced lifestyle here. I can paddle before i go to work, bike home etc I went for a quick 1hr mtb last night which was all offroad from my house etc. But then, you could do that in the UK as well so its no better or worse – just different. Feel free to mail me if you want specifics.

http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/ will have more answers than you have questions.

Cheers guys, some good info.

Sounds as though the place has a lot to offer and i know that there is a shortage of geotechnical engineers out there.

I just find the UK generally too busy in terms of people per square foot, be in on the roads, trails, hills, shops or camp sites. I like my space.

I just find the UK generally too busy in terms of people per square foot, be in on the roads, trails, hills, shops or camp sites. I like my space.

If you don’t like busyness, then NZ would definitely be worth a try – except on the main tourist routes in summer, New Zealand is certainly not a busy place.

Joe

spent 2 years over there and wish i was still there……the supermarkets had seasonal foods, the folk there were amzingly friendly, the landscape is ‘awesome’ and the riding out of this world.

must agree with adamM, not 1 bike shop stocked any ‘exotica’just way too expensive so take an xtr/k1ng/fox equiped Turner over there and you’ll be the bell of the ball…saying that though many of the cities were outdoorgeartastic as everyone seemed to be into ‘tramping’

Once the nippers get a little older and my lottery win comes in, we’re off back to golden bay…

oh, and the reason we now live in the Highlands is becouse we wanted a place similar to where we were in NZ.

Honestly – i can walk into a bike shop 5 mins from my house and find nice well equipped bikes on the shop floor. Jesus, you know its not that backwards or maybe its like me saying that because Halfords only has sh1t bikes noone has a decent biek in England…..Theres also a lot of nice exotic bikes around the place…weird.

Anyway, just beware my missus is a engineer and they are under a fair cloud of redundancies esp geotech engineers apparently so the recession has definitely landed.

But saying that I’ve just been for a lovely 2 hour paddle before work (although it was p1ssing down but warm !)

NZCol – a paddle before work sounds more like it. Interesting (read worrying) that you say geotech engineers are being laid off in NZ, as people within the industry in the UK (probably, however, driven by the recruitment agencies) say you guys are crying out for people in that field.

only reporting what i know in the larger organisations – basicaly hiring freeze and layoffs, not a huge amount but redundancies all the same. Geotech was one area of many that was targetted but i think its more of a reflection of some of the companies being Aus driven so just doing it across the board. Labour market ismuch tighter just now in all sectors though.

and f uck me if a decent flat white (Lge, 1 sugar) isn;t $4.80 now – jeeesus. I’m buying a cow, and a coffeee machine, and a coffee bean tree thing…

lived in christchurch for 6 months few years back, nice place but it is small in terms of UK citys, hard to explain. I loved NZ as a whole and we are thinking of taking the leap in a few years, as i fell in love with the place.

the best way to explain NZ is its slightly larger than UK in terms of land mass believe it or not but the UK has 60 odd million people and NZ has 4!!

i stayed with a few kiwi families out there and the lifestyle is really laid back, your never too far from the sea, great winter sports lieftstyle

you really need to check about what jobs you can get, what skills you have.

the best advice is to try and get a long holiday over there to check it out.