Where would you suggest living in New Zealand?

Question

For a new British immigrant, where would you personally suggest living? What struck me about New Zealand is that it's major cities like Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington are pretty built up, yet one you drive outside of them, it's not long until your in untouched countryside, however, in the UK, the major cities are sorounded by dozens of towns that would be pretty major by New Zealand standards.

I'd like to live in a rural area, yet not be more than say 50-60 minites from one of New Zealand's bigger cities, is this possible, even in the Auckland area? Also, I know the costs are pretty high in Auckland city itself, but one you get about an hour or so outside, do the property prices drop by much?

I also considered some where like Nelson on the South Island, as the place itself looks nice, but I felt it could be a bit isolated, as I understand its a good 5-6 hours drive to Christchurch alone.

Thanks

Answer 1

yahoo answers has cleverly created a "general new zealand and australia category" but that category goes under the Australian section so I'd re-list this q in the new zealand section as well

living in a rural area 50-60 minutes from the centre of auckland isn't really possible as getting from south auckland or north shore to the city centre probably takes about this long anyway

yes it is a good 5 hour drive from nelson to Christchurch but nelson is big enough to pretty much have everything Christchurch has, it just has one whereas Christchurch may have 10, if you add richmond and stoke to nelsons population (2 towns about 10-30mins outside of nelson) then the population would be more like 80,000 at a guess. Motueka, abel tasman national park, picton and blenheim are all within a 45minute to 2 hour drive away from nelson also so theres still a lot of towns and things in its vicinity.

I personally would still recommend nelson over the Auckland area, it would be my pick of cities to live in NZ, otherwise Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty

Good luck

Answer 2

i suggest that if you can afford to rent a house and travel around and  research the country till you find your dream home. another suggestion is to rent a large motor home for a month or two till you get the feel of the country. there are so many options

Answer 3

There is a city (just a town by UK standards) about 1.5 hours drive from Auckland, its called Hamilton, and its in a region called Waikato. You might want to look into it.