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Old 06-08-2008, 10:01 PM   #1
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Default Unique places to live in NZ?

I'm going to be travelling to New Zealand in September for a working holiday thing. I've already booked it through SWAP, but kind of regretting that a bit because it doesn't seem THAT useful.
Anyway, I'm flying into Auckland and so I thought that would be the best place to centre myself and rent a flat for a bit, blah blah blah.
But now i'm not so sure. I want to make this a pretty unique trip, but I am going for 3 months so I guess I could have a central location in Auckland and then just travel around..

Anywho, anybody lived anywhere really nice in NZ? Should I stick with Auckland?
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Old 06-08-2008, 10:13 PM   #2
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firstly, do you have to stay in/near auckland? can you go to the south island?

auckland sucks. honestly, a few days there is probably enough, unless you have to be there for work.

id head to either the north of the north island-the bay of islands area -lots of dolphins and snorkling type places,or the south of the south island- queenstown- lots of snow and extreme sports. orrrrr maybe if you wanna join the fruit picking trail head to hawkes bay or somewhere.

depends what your into
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Old 06-08-2008, 10:31 PM   #3
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yeah honestly dont stay in auckland. there is so much more to nz then 'that' place. Ive just come back from half a year in nz. I lived in wellington which is a cool town. i quite enjoyed myself. If I was to go back a second time (which i might) I think I would maybe live in or around nelson. THe marlbourough (sp?) are gorgeous , as is the marlbourough wine region. Also abel tasman is pretty close.
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Old 06-09-2008, 02:22 PM   #4
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I follow everyone elses advice saying dont stay in Auckland unless you have too- its just a big city, nothing great about it...

Depends what you want, most people just go to the south island, but i am one to defend the north island - i guess it depends what you want though, if you want to be near mountains somewhere like taupo (very touristy mind you) is within a couple of hours of mt ruapehu, new plymouth is right on the coast and mt egmont is under an hour? maybe an hour away? hawkes bay/napier is quiet pretty with vinyards around everywhere and the coast, although im not so sure its any good for swimming or anything?

Bay of islands and north of auckland is really pretty. Wellington is better than auckland in my opinion - although still a biggish city (well for nz!) at least there is the coast right beside you, you have pretty hills around you and is easy to get to the south island from there...?

If your planning to go south, i havn't seen that much down there but blenheim & nelson are nice towns and are where the vinyards are - marlborough sounds are amazing, although admitedly not that much to do there unless you work, so maybe just go there for a bit of a look around for a few days?

Christchurch is nice and our best 'big city' if you ask me, its really relaxed for a larger city and is close enough to the marlborough sounds etc to go there for a week or so trip,

Unfortunately i have yet to go further south so can't comment on them - although i know this is meant to be some of the best of NZ!

Hope this helps a bit, i am meant to be studying for exams hehe better get on to that- enjoy your planning and feel free to ask anything else!
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Old 06-09-2008, 08:15 PM   #5
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Ah! Thank you guys for the help, that's awesome. Now though I am really confused as to where to live. I guess the only thing to do is actually GO there and decide. I don't want to be really stuck with nowhere to live though..

I am wanting to work, but just Part-time because I'd rather travel around and spend time being tourist-y and enjoying time off.. Is it hard to get jobs in places other than the big cities?

I am interested in the Bay of Islands but is it too isolated?
My dad tells me Wellington was not great at all, but he was there 30 years ago so his advice is kind of useless!

aHH decisions are so scary.

What months are fruit-picking best? I'm going to be there from Sept-Dec so what is the weather like & I'm assuming snowboard season is over then? Are there any jobs that are suitable for these months? I.e. is fruit-picking only in the summer??
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Old 06-09-2008, 10:15 PM   #6
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I can't help too much with the work side of thing, I have my job and don't take much notice of others to be honest, although here are a couple of sites you could look at...

http://www.seasonaljobs.co.nz/

http://www.backpackerboard.co.nz/wor...cking_jobs.php

Or have you looked at WWOOFing at all??

http://www.wwoof.org/

As for the snowboarding season - yeah I think it will be over then, well at least in the north island - not so sure about the south island but it proberly will since that is after winter. Maybe try doing a search for Mt Ruapehu, Mt Egmont/Taranaki etc to see on their websites if they say when the season closes...?

As for bay of islands, its lovely up there - but i think you are proberly correct in saying that it will be a bit harder to find work up there, unless you can go to kerikeri or somewhere like that and do some fruit picking?

As for wellington - don't discount it its a great city and definately better than auckland! perhaps ask Dio for some more specific info since she lived there for half a year?

Keep the q's coming
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Last edited by mooloo; 06-09-2008 at 10:21 PM. Reason: add more info
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Old 06-10-2008, 04:54 AM   #7
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just from quick impressions when I was there a few years ago, I really liked Christchurch and Queenstown. they both seem like places where there would be plenty of work too.
(btw mooloo, your avatar pic really makes me laugh! I'm not sure why)
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Old 06-10-2008, 11:02 PM   #8
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ali - i'm not sure if thats good or bad, maybe its time to change...
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Old 04-07-2009, 03:37 AM   #9
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im just finishing up my working holiday here, i fly to ozzy for another one in 9 days. and man this is one beautiful country.

for that time period id suggest going north right away. the weather is going to be great and some of the beaches up there are amazeing and empty. then come back past auckland (like everyone said, aucklands not worth your precious time) and look for work in bay of plenty. there is quite a few hostels that help find fruit picking work in that area. i was working for mount backpackers through the summer. christmas and new years got really crazy so book ahead. i know they were even setting up the trasport to and from work for people.

im living in dunedin right now and its got a really awsome vibe as well. if your into surfing theres usually always waves somewhere along the coast here. but was pretty hard for me to find hospitality work here in dunedin. i have a few friends who got work fairly easy in queenstown and its deffinatly a tourist/party place if your into that.

new zealand is a fairly small country (well at least compared to canada) and you can get almost anywhere in just 2 days drive. i found it great to have my own car because i didnt have to go where everyone else was going, i explored and found alot of empty places that were almost more amazeing than the stuff in the lonely planet.

theres so much to see and do here that i still dont feel like i have experienced enough and i have been exploreing almost the whole year.

highlights deffinately were:
90 mile beach
taupo bay
raglan (great waves and vibe)
hot water beach (go durring just after sunset and wait for the crowd to leave for the best experince)
mt maunganui on new years
tongariro crossing
mahia paninsula
castle point
takaka and golden bay
driveing the whole west coast
milford sound (could have spent years here and still be awe struck)
heavy drinking and great hikes in queenstown
the catilins if you have a car and can really explore it

bottom line is to have fun man so enjoy every minute of it and dont regret anything.
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Old 04-07-2009, 03:42 AM   #10
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haha now that i think about it takaka would be a really "unique" place to live if you could get down there, i dont think it would be to hard to find work and the people that live there are one of a kind.

or call up the mount backpackers, they will sort you out with work and its pretty close to coromandel for cool day trips up and down the coast.
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Old 04-07-2009, 08:30 AM   #11
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just quickly u may still catch the end of the snow season, we had a freakishly long season till i think maybe beginning of november last year post closer to and i'll let ya know how its going
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Old 09-15-2009, 09:52 PM   #12
 
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I loved the lake Taupo area. It was big enough to have stores that I needed, but wasn't a huge city. Plus where ever you were the views were great.
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