A Place To Live In?
Is New Zealand an ideal place to live in?
Bright blue sky, green lands, ocean, forest, mountain…. New Zealand seems to be a perfect place to travel, and possibly, to live in. I always dreamed of living in a beautiful country surrounded by nature, and New Zealand seems to be the answer of my dream. But is it really?
Living in New Zealand has it pros and cons. You have to know your preference before you decide to move out your country. For example, i prefer living in a quiet, laidback, close-to-nature places so NZ is perfect for me. For some people living in NZ can be so boring though, because it´s so quiet and laidback.
But as much as i want to live in New Zealand, i´m taken aback on how everything is so expensive in New Zealand. Like the housing, groceries, material items.. and traveling to another country is expensive because NZ is so far from everywhere. I dreamed about getting a country-style house with large garden and many pets, but i think it´s impossible in New Zealand if i´m not really really rich. I have a Kiwi friend who just bought his first house in Whangarei. He told me jokingly that he still have 30 years to pay the house loan. I also checked this website and see that the average housing prices in Auckland in 2015 is NZD 500.000 (EUR 313.000 or IDR 4,7 Billion). In Indonesia you can buy luxury house in a upper-middle class residence with the same price. The average flat rent in Auckland is NZD 500 (EUR 313) per WEEK, and in rest of New Zealand is NZD 380 (EUR 238) per week. It IS expensive. I mean, in Germany you can get decent flat for EUR 400 per month, and i still consider it expensive. Not to mention it´s hard to find a job, high taxes, slow internet connection (NOOOOOOOO), high interests rate, lack of public transportation… The last matter means death to me, as i can´t drive anything (can´t even ride on a bike without causing accident….) and i have bad sense of direction. Oh and also, stores are closing early at 5 p.m. I lived in Germany for almost 3 years and still get annoyed when i found stores are closing at 8 p.m and on Sunday.
Living in New Zealand can be fun, though. Don´t let the cons take you aback. In New Zealand, every place seems so beautiful that you can get lost somewhere and ended up in a very beautiful place. Even though New Zealand is not 100% pollution free (they still have major pollution issues for land and water), the air here is clearer. Yes, landing a job in New Zealand is difficult, but they have strong employment law towards protecting the employee. Food quality is good because everything is local (great news for me!). Uncrowded place, one of the safest places in the world, less traffic jams, friendly people.. the combination is amazing, if you ask me.
For now, living in New Zealand seems difficult for me. But maybe someday, when i´m ready to settle down my life somewhere (and really rich), i will spend my retired life in New Zealand. Who knows? :)
