> Have you looked at Christchurch? Apparently the government is incentivizing companies to build there with the goal of making it the high tech capital of the South Island. I believe Vodafone has some pretty impressive plans for the city.
I was last in Chch a couples years ago, so it may be changing, but my impression was not great. My wife lived there during the earthquake and their recovery has been slow. I think it will improve, especially with increased investment, but it's probably years away from being anywhere like Auckland or Wellington again. Even 2-3 years ago the downtown area was essentially a ghost town from what I remember, and that's still several years post-earthquake.
I found an article [1] about it which contradicts your understanding of the crime here. Auckland is much worse as a city overall, but Cathedral Square in Christchurch is dangerous compared to the rest of the country. I can't find a good comparison of actual crime rates between countries, but did find articles saying the perception of crime risk is way off here compared to reality.
1. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/79704084/New-Zealand-rates-f...
For food, it seems like for the food problem it's also caused by the lack of 'culinary education' as we may call it in France. Children are eating bad food very early and those habits stick for life.
We too have kids, and it looks like an amazing place to raise them ! People are super friendly, especially to kids. There are playgrounds everywhere, a ton of outside activities to do. One thing bothering me a bit is the lack of history / culture, at least as I know it. This is again very biased by my education, but in Europe, you have castles, small villages with rich history literally everywhere. NZ is much younger so it's not surprising of course. Just a little con I forgot to mention.
But yeah, totally agree on the fears - kids have a lot of freedom there. On the other hand, I believe US is an outlier here too - it's quite frequent in Europe to let kids get back home alone.
South Island is best island buddy ;)
> For food, it seems like for the food problem it's also caused by the lack of 'culinary education' as we may call it in France.
Obesity directly correlates to poverty here.
> One thing bothering me a bit is the lack of history / culture, at least as I know it. This is again very biased by my education, but in Europe, you have castles, small villages with rich history literally everywhere
Yep, we're a young nation, I routinely drink in pubs in Munich that are older than my country - but New Zealand's history is older than NZ, Maori have been here since the 1100s at least. Also, our natural history is very compelling .
Of course, the Maori culture is amazing and I'm eager to learn more about. It's just that I feel like my kids will miss something I had the chance to experience.
I guess if I'm being picky, I'd also pick you up on the point prior; fatty foods aren't necessarily correlated to obesity, but I'm guessing that's not exactly what you're driving at.
Thank you for making me think a little more!
Call it an experiment in whether they can build a country around American tech billionaires. I would wonder whether the prices of things reflect that, and whether it's different if you're a native (or whether there's some other mechanism at work: in Vermont, I pay less for housing because I'm able to declare my home as a homestead. If I was an out-of-stater keeping a summer house in Vermont I'd be paying a different rate.)
It will be interesting to see how New Zealand deals with its influx of hyper-wealthy. That will probably continue until we invent the intercontinental ballistic pitchfork ;)
One point to add - mentioned in other comments in the thread: the Auckland housing market is toxic.
No captial gains tax on property along with crowded population in Auckland means that this is the best investment available, hands down. The yield isn't in the rental market, but appreciation of 30-40% YOY has not been uncommon.
The major side effect of this that many people miss is that business investment has been stifled because property is a far safer bet. Auckland has a very weak startup/VC scene, and salaries have not increased in line with living costs.
It's unlikely to be seen as a major downside by those living in California and along the Pacific Rim, and it's clear NZ is no worse than Japan in terms of seismic risk, yet an advanced economy with plenty of people thrives there, to put it mildly.
But coming from the US midwest and then the southeast, where these issues are seldom a concern, it makes me nervous.
What are your thoughts on that?
But, the earthquake that hit Christchurch directly removed the seismically vulnerable buildings, and typically we've built for earthquakes - hence why our predominant building material is wood not brick or stone.
The whole place feels like it's unstable and ready to blow ! I loved the city, but I'm not sure I could live there, with those constant remainders of the seismic activity (this plus the smell...)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taupo_Volcanic_Zone
Fun fact - Auckland is built on a large monogenetic volcanic field.
Which units of measurement? :)
> housing prices are extremely high. I don't understand that, there is plenty of space everywhere (maybe except Wellington) and somehow they manage to not use this advantage..
Yes, it really is crazy particularly when you look at prices relative to salaries. As I understand it, the primary driver is everyone wants to live in Auckland as that's where most of the higher paying jobs are located which is driving up prices. Also, given the city is on an isthmus, the main space is really North and South of the city which increases commute times on already clogged highways.
> housing quality is really poor (comparing to Europe)
This is slowly changing as proper insulation becomes a requirement, but compared to Europe and US houses the quality is incredibly poor.
> prices are generally quite high
For consumer goods, absolutely. Also dining out seemed expensive, but supermarket costs seemed pretty reasonable given the quality of the food.
>internet connectivity feels like we're 10 years back
I was pleasantly surprised by this. I was regularly getting 50-100 down where I stayed, and it appears the government has made ultra-fast broadband a national priority so it should hopefully continue to improve over the next decade. One thing people warned me though is don't expect anything to happen quickly in NZ.
>outside of Wellington and Auckland, I didn't feel like there were any interesting opportunities in IT
Have you looked at Christchurch? Apparently the government is incentivizing companies to build there with the goal of making it the high tech capital of the South Island. I believe Vodafone has some pretty impressive plans for the city.
>food quality is good, but eating habits don't seem to follow. Obesity seems to be a huge problem there (we have kids so will need to pay double attention to that). We were pretty much shocked because we naively thought that in such a beautiful and clean country everybody is running / biking all the time.
I believe this is largely driven by income inequality, much like here in the US. While the food really is phenomenal quality, families at the lower end of the socio-economic ladder are often priced out of the market and default to unhealthy options as a matter of necessity. Also, it was explained to me that a lot of Maori and Polynesian recipes are very fatty which is why they tend to be over-represented in obesity statistics.
Overall my impression after visiting is that it's a great country, but it's not perfect. Prices are higher (due to it's isolation) and salaries are lower, but people tend to worry less about materialistic things and "getting ahead". There seems to be more of a relaxed mood to everything and as my wife contemplate where we want to raise our kids that is hugely appealing.