pakeha-boy

That would be NZ butter of course, none of this foreign muck... :}

Nice post aintsaying. Good selection of websites that seem to give a balanced perspective of living in NZ. Public Transport would be my biggest gripe with NZ (except Wellington, where it is quite good). Otherwise, I wouldn't want to change a thing. Selection for some things may not be as good as other countries, but we don't seem to be as tied down by red tape as most other countries either. Connecting utilities is easy, and pretty much instant. Not like the 2 weeks I had to wait for my phone to be connected in Italy. Sheesh!!
All countries have good points and bad points. It just depends what things you value more.
We should actually be making NZ out to be a s:mad: hole, that way we can keep it to ourselves!! :}

Sorath5

Heres some more info for you.
If you have lots of cash/assets with you, if you still head to NZ, you may be able to pick up a nice property with all these morgagee sales coming up.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/s...ectid=10391493

I'm thinking about heading home to NZ for a visit and look at some long term property investments. Don't know if the numbers are low enough yet.

....and to that I say....

Two Arms,
Two Hands,
Two Steely Bands,
Beneath the Southern Cross I Stand,
A fig of fern clasped in my hand,a product of my native land,
When suddenly a voice within me cried....
NEW ZEALAND!!!...YOU BLOODY BEAUTY!!!!!
so, up the ol-brown kiwi...and drink more piss!!!

poet and dont even know it...PB:}

Tin looked at a beautiful Swiss Chalet style house for holiday hide out on the edge of the lake in Queenstown in 1983 had a hot tub on the balcony looking out over the mountains etc etc price $80000 AUS.(OZ$ to $kiwi $1.50 then)
Now look http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...-25658,00.html

NZ?. Great Country, Great People.

I've looked at buying a holiday place in the South Island and from many trips to NZ, my opinion is NZ$70k is quite livable.

However, I think the top tax threshold bites at about NZ$60k?. :eek:

What are you guys smok'n?
 

I've lived in all 4 countries mentioned.

In decreasing order of cost-of-living.

UK, USA, Oz, Kiwiland

R:cool:

Those "alloexpat" figures are abit off the mark or old.
Price of fuel is $1.76 Kiwi!
Inflation 4% and interest rates just gone up to 8.3%

Auckland is an expensive place to live (especially if you get caught by one of the million Parking Inspectors/Tow trucks!) and compares with Sydney to an extent. South Island and outside Auckland is cheaper.

As with any place, you adjust. For example, instead of EFTPOS for transactions over the counter out of your savings account, use Mastercard/Visa to avoid massive bank fees.

Telecommunications are expensive but losening up at the moment, due pressure ON the (:yuk: ) Govt :ugh: and their monopolies.

Infrastructure is disgracefull (roads/Fwy, Pwr etc), considering the taxes and huge increase in council rates, nationwide. Housing affordability is usually out of reach due to the poor Kiwi dollar and continuing influx of overseas money buying up property.

Apart from that, you'll love the spectacular countryside and chasing the hobits around:} .

Hi, yeah 39% tax kicks in at 60K IIRC. NZ is not a country to go to if you want to be a millionaire, however, the country and its people are superb.
As an indication, I`m on 75K supporting a mrs and a 1 yr old without any problems, which is why I`m an IT geek not a pilot. From what I can gather low level ga is not that well paid.
Median household income in NZ is about 42k or something like that. Now I don`t see how a family can live on that without a filip from Social Services.
As a, so far, very happy and reasonably successful expat pom, my only gripe is the damned interest rate - its heading for double figures and the promised economic slowdown still hasn`t quite materialised.
However, I`m basically paying in dollars what I would pay in pounds back home to smash bugs, which more than makes up for the interest rates!
Cheers
Rotten