Where is a good place to live in New Zealand?

Question

I want to move to New Zealand. I'm looking for a good place for living. I had considered of going to Queenstown, beautiful but too much expensive town.I'm looking for a place near the mountains, with a good hospital and schools. Can you help me with my research? thank you

Answer 1

I live in Palmerston North ("Palmy") which is in the Manawatu region of the North Island.  It is a couple of hours away from Wellington, Taupo, New Plymouth, Napier and beaches are reasonably close.  It is a university town with population of approx 75,000.  We have plenty of cafes/restaurants etc.  It is flat and easy to navigate, the wind can be annoying but we also don't have extremes of temperature like some areas of NZ.  Because it isn't a tourist destination as such cost of living is better than some main centres.

Answer 2

if you like the idea of Queenstown you could try looking into Wanaka. it is about an hour from Q'town. it is a lakeside town that is a lot smaller but still has the same sort of things to do. Wanaka has three ski-fields within 30 min drive. i lived there for a winter and on the off mountain days you can do a drive to Q'town to do the fun things that it has to offer. there is a few smaller towns like Cromwell (between Q'town and Wanaka), cheaper to live in but quite a boring town with a seedy element to it.

a wee bit further a field is Dunedin. it is the main city for the Otago region, it has about 130000 people in it including the 30000 odd students at the Otago University.

it is a historic vibrant city the is only 3 hours drive from Q'town.

lots to see and do if you like nature watching.

Answer 3

You could live in Taupo which is near to National Park in the North Island.You have the lake and the mountains much like Queenstown. It too is a tourist centre. Christchurch is reasonably close to MT Hutt and the Southern Alps. All have good schools and hospitals.

New Plymouth near Mt Taranaki is another option.It is a small town on the coast of the North Island.

Other small towns near the mountain are on the West Coast of NZ . Greymouth and Westport.I am not sure just how good their hospitals and schools - particularly hospitals are.We have a problem in NZ with smaller places which cannot get doctors and nurses and teachers.

I hope this is helpful.

Answer 4

Well, it depends partly on how much money you've got.  I like living in the far south because it's cheap, the climate is cool and there aren't many people.  But people from small towns are often stupid inbreeds, and it's expensive to travel overseas from here.  For instance, if you live near Auckland, it costs me about twice as much to travel to New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, the Cook Islands or Tonga as it does you; the fare from here to Auckland is more than from Auckland to some of those places.  You're right about Queenstown being expensive.  How about Oamaru, Ashburton, Methven, Waimate, Fairlie, Twizel, Tekapo or Kaikoura?

Answer 5

You might possibly consider Christchurch, its the 2nd largest city  in New Zealand  and whilst its not directly surrounded by mountains like Queenstown is you do get wonderful views of the Southern alps in winter. the closest skifield is mount hutt which is about 1.5hours away, then to truly be amongst beautiful mountain scenery Tekapo is 2.5-3 hours away and another hour past there is Mt Cook, NZ's largest mountain.

Another option would be Taupo in the north island it is quite close to Mount Ruapehu. its a bit bigger than Queenstown but not particulary big (approx 30,000 population)

check out this site for an idea of house prices

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-me-proper...

Good luck

EDIT: you're going to have to make some sort of compromise, whether it be paying the expense to live in Queenstown which fits want you want perfectly

OR settling for somewhere a bit smaller (i.e Tekapo, Greymouth, fairlie, Geraldine) whilst you might get cheaper housing prices you would pay more for petrol and groceries.

OR try out somewhere like Christchurch or Taupo thats a bit further away from the mountains (yay you'll have great exscuses to go holidaying) but are cities and so therefore would cater for you better in terms of schooling, choice etc