thinking about New Zealand

[surfsc77]

im thinking about moving to the island nation after i graduate college, and was wondering where people thought the best place to live might be.

[greg@hoodatsurfco]

i think you have to have something to offer the country in order to move there but i could be wrong.. something like they need more doctors and you're a doctor.. stuff like that.. but i maybe wrong.

[RJD]

I moved to NZ couple of years ago.

Theres qute a few ways to do it, but to do it permanantly you'll need to be on one of the skills shortage lists and have qualifications/experience/job offer (at least 2 off), its also reasonably expensive to do (needing expensive medicals etc).

If your young enough(under 30?) you can come over on a working holiday type visa and get a job here, then apply for a longer term work visa and work from there on.

As to wheres best, prolly depends on what work you'll be doing and what you want.

For surfing Gisborn is probably the best spot but theres no work. Auckland has work but limited surfing (Piha is OK but quite a treck).

Wellington is smallish but has work and surf, but is wet and windy.

Christchurch has surf (not the best), jobs, sun and easy Skiing - guess where I am But easy reach of Banks peninsula and Kaikoura etc

Dunedin has some cracking surf spots but is colder and small.

[Hang11]

It's not too hard to get some sort of visa, just depends on what your job is, qualifications, experience etc. If you work in medicine, IT or something else that is on the skills shortage list, and have some kind of college/university education, then you can get a residency visa quite easily. If you've got a job offer it makes it pretty simple too. Otherwise, you can just show up as a tourist, get a job, and usually sort out a work visa when you're in NZ. You can also get a working holday visa easily enough, which lets you do casual jobs, and from there, find a permanent job, and apply to get a full work visa. After 3 years you can change that to a residency one, and after 7 years, get citizenship. There's only 4 million people in NZ, and one of the biggest issues in the economy is finding skilled workers, so the government encourage immigration. Once you're a citizen, you can live and work in Oz too.

Where to live is a tough one, depends on what you do to earn money really. There's 3 main cities, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and that's where a lot of the work is.

If work doesn't matter, then for me, first choice would be Gisborne, awesome waves, then Taranaki, also got great waves, Dunedin, great waves but bloody cold. But then in the winter, I'd go for somewhere in Canterbury or around Wanaka, because there's great snowboarding/skiing.

Have a look at www.surf2surf.co.nz - they sell a surf guide to NZ - should give you a good idea of what's what.

[Hang11]

^^^looks like we crossed posts there!