Our Recent Trip to Wellington

[kermitmd]

Hi folks!

We're back from our 10-day Welly trip and it was very enjoyable. I thought I could share some stuffs that we had experienced. Maybe some of our folks here are planning to visit or move in the next two months. With some comparisons between NZ and Singapore where I live.

Housing

Housing in New Zealand is bigger and more reasonably priced than Singapore. It's made of wood though (Not sure if this is part of quake-proofing). We went to some open houses on a Sunday and noticed that most of the houses has moldy smell, maybe because of the cold, damp weather.

Car Rental/Petrol Prices

It is almost the same rate as Singapore. Booked at Apex Car Rentals (thanks for the recommendation JandM) and the car we used is nice, considering that it is an 8-year old Tilda. Staffs are courteous and helpful too.

CBD Parking

Oh my! It's expensive. What can I say?

Food prices/Groceries

It's expensive compared to Singapore if you're shopping in the first two dairies.

New World: Expensive.
Countdown: Hmmm. Yes, expensive too.
Pak N' Save: The most reasonably priced stuffs I saw in Welly.
Farmers: If driving is not an issue, you can go to nearby farm-shops, 1 hour or more from the city and you can get great deals with fruits, veggies, meats and dairies, not to mention their cute shops and displays for photo taking.

Eating Out/Fast Food

It’s expensive in NZ compared to Singapore. But food portions are bigger though. Quality of food is also better in NZ.

McDonalds: Singapore is cheaper, but NZ tastes better.
Burger King: Singapore is cheaper, but NZ tastes better.
KFC@Broadway: Horrible. Very unsanitary.
Local Cafes: Reasonably priced because of big portions. Price is $8 and up per item.
Gasoline Stations: Self-service. Fully stocked with food and drinks. You'll gain weight during roadtrips.
Choices: Reasonable. Saw a lot of cafes, bars and takeaways serving authentic cuisines. Chinese Food shops that sells Fish & Chips are everywhere, Oh well... Forget authenticity a bit.

* We tried the wood-fire oven baked pizza at Heaven (Cuba Street) and it's real good. We will try Hell Pizza next time for a change. Oh and don't forget the cheap but nice $6 Fish and Chips at Seafood Trawling Market (Cuba Street).

Customer Service

No offence to Singapore folks. IMHO, customer service in New Zealand, especially in shops and restaurants is much better than Singapore. New Zealand staff are very accommodating and gracious. I hope it could be the same with Singapore.

Weather

Singapore: Consistently sunny and warm.
Wellington, NZ: Freezing cold, windy and rainy. (Maybe due to the wind, and besides we arrive just after the big storm.)

Places

Wellington CBD: Don't expect tall and newly-designed buildings, but still nice. Area is more relaxed than Singapore CBD.
Suburbs: Petone is breath-taking, especially when you drive via SH. You can see the beautiful sea and other structures. We had a 5-hr roadtrip from the city to different points and the scenery was spectacular, especially up the mountains.
Rangitikei/Manawatu: Nice scenery for photography. Good trout fishing (River is freezing cold).
Unsealed Roads/Back country: Lots of ranches, mountains, natural structures. Sheeps, Cows, Horses, Deers by the hundreds, maybe thousands. Spectacular views. A lot of roadside memorials though that gives us the creeps (at least it reminds you to drive safely).

POI (At least for the next 2 months)

Te Papa Museum: Nice place and it's free.
Weta Cave: The paid workshop is nice. The free exhibit is quite limited and looks like a glorified warehouse.
Botanic Garden: Don't bother to go for the next 2 months. Everything is dead due to the recent storm that hit Wellington, except for the cute mallards that swims around the fountain.
Zealandia: We stayed in Karori and it's a 5 minute drive from our rented house. Nice place.
Cuba Street: Nice place to go to eat, drink, be merry.
Te Papa/Harbourside Sunday Market: The one that I liked the most as I love cooking. There’s a lot of great cooked food as well. We tried almost every food stall there. Yummy!
Victoria Tunnel: Honking horns on weekends is funny. They really honk-back (on a "that's all folks!", "let's go" and "name-that-tune" fashion). Drive in normal speed and play with your car horn. You'll get the finger response by peeping your horn in other countries.

Be careful folks!

Most of the roads outside Wellington CBD are unsealed. Blind corners, sharp turns and steep roads are prevalent. Roads are also somewhat icy and slippery in some high areas. It may be more challenging for some to drive during night-time. I believe it is the same case to other parts of NZ.

During your flight to New Zealand (Connecting Flight/Stop-over from Sydney)

Some of you might have some stop-overs to Sydney, Australia. Be sure to bring some Australian dollars if you plan to buy something there, as most likely your card would not be accepted (at least in our case). We have several Savings Account Cirrus cards with international access, Visa/Mastercard credit and debit cards and none can be used to withdraw cash. If you plan to change currencies in Sydney, forget about it. Travelex (The only currency changer we saw there) charged us $4 for every $20 as some sort of commission charge. Oh my!

Overall Impression

We loved our stay in Wellington and we are looking forward to go back real soon, for good.

[girlwithanewf]

Glad to hear that you had a good experience in Wellington and you seem to have picked up the atmosphere very well. A lot of people just don't understand the horn pipping in the Victoria Tunnel at all! (it's not just at weekends, although if you see pedestrians walking through the tunnel, don't pip please! There's a footpath going through too).
Never heard Petone described as breath-taking before though. It has been literally breath-taking, usually in a southerly coming straight up from the Cook Strait. Nice view of Wellington and down to the Wellington heads though. Next time, take the ferry from wellington across to Matiu/Somes Island where there is a great walk round the island, then back via Days Bay and Seatoun.
Re the housing, the mouldy smell isn't there in houses which are heated and well-ventilated. So it is a question of money and well the house is heated. And where the house is located too of course. How much sun it gets etc. There are lots of houses in NZ which don't smell mouldy.
Weather: you should have been here today! Beautiful blue sky, calm sea, and at the weekend I was sitting outside reading. If you were during the storm, you saw it at its worst, although it didn't rain that much. The council have done a fantastic job of clearing up and repairing though. They have swept all the coast roads to remove the rocks, and the roads which disappeared partly into the sea have been fixed immediately.
Pizza - Heaven makes great pizza, try Scopa on cuba street too.
I have to disagree that most of the roads outside Wellington CBD are unsealed. That isn't true at all. We have driven all over New Zealand from Bluff up to Cape Reinga and it is perfectly possible to do that entire trip with detours to scenic areas without going on an unsealed road once. Certainly all the roads around Wellington into the rural areas and beyond are sealed. If you are only used to city driving, driving in more rural areas is something to be careful of, although the rural roads here are far easier to drive on than in parts of the UK for example, they are at least not single-track roads with passing places. I think maybe you were expecting a higher standard of road surface?

All the best for your future plans.

[batgirl1001]

NZ houses can be of poor quality and standards and made of many different materials including concrete. Wood is common and plentiful and considered cheaper than concrete, masonry. The equivalent if you prefer some solidness to your building is brick-n-tile. The majority of houses in Welly tend to be older, so it is not uncommon for people to buy houses which can be 50, 60 or over 100 years old and still find it more or less in the same condition with some cosmetic changes over time. And yes, they can smell moldy. Not all houses in Welly, but there are some that do especially if you are tight on the budget.

The difference in price has to do with the extraordinary premium people pay for land in Singapore which makes building costs relatively reasonable. The opposite is true for NZ where the cost of building is far more expensive than land which tends to make people hesitate to build anew.

Dining out is rather expensive in Welly especially if you are looking at restaurant-quality food instead of take-outs, fish-n-chip stores, cafes. But the food quality is better and fresher if you are eating in restaurants. As for Singaporean food, the Malaysian restaurants in Welly make a decent go for it but it would be expensive to continually dine on this cuisine to what we consider as cheap hawker fare in Singapore. So the best thing is to learn how to cook and learn fast.

Generally unsealed roads tend to be farm roads, off-the-track trails in quite isolated areas. Most of the roads in NZ are sealed although you may find it rather rough in comparison to Singapore roads.

As for having CIRRUS, VISA, MAESTRO etc on your atm/debit cards, you need to remember to go to the bank to activate it first before you can use it overseas. It is a safety feature that Singapore banks install on their cards. You cannot automatically assume you can use it just because you have the facility. But also remember there are additional fees when withdrawing from an overseas bank atm on top of the foreign exchange rates.

[kermitmd]

Glad to hear that you had a good experience in Wellington and you seem to have picked up the atmosphere very well. A lot of people just don't understand the horn pipping in the Victoria Tunnel at all! (it's not just at weekends, although if you see pedestrians walking through the tunnel, don't pip please! There's a footpath going through too).
Never heard Petone described as breath-taking before though. It has been literally breath-taking, usually in a southerly coming straight up from the Cook Strait. Nice view of Wellington and down to the Wellington heads though. Next time, take the ferry from wellington across to Matiu/Somes Island where there is a great walk round the island, then back via Days Bay and Seatoun.
Re the housing, the mouldy smell isn't there in houses which are heated and well-ventilated. So it is a question of money and well the house is heated. And where the house is located too of course. How much sun it gets etc. There are lots of houses in NZ which don't smell mouldy.
Weather: you should have been here today! Beautiful blue sky, calm sea, and at the weekend I was sitting outside reading. If you were during the storm, you saw it at its worst, although it didn't rain that much. The council have done a fantastic job of clearing up and repairing though. They have swept all the coast roads to remove the rocks, and the roads which disappeared partly into the sea have been fixed immediately.
Pizza - Heaven makes great pizza, try Scopa on cuba street too.
I have to disagree that most of the roads outside Wellington CBD are unsealed. That isn't true at all. We have driven all over New Zealand from Bluff up to Cape Reinga and it is perfectly possible to do that entire trip with detours to scenic areas without going on an unsealed road once. Certainly all the roads around Wellington into the rural areas and beyond are sealed. If you are only used to city driving, driving in more rural areas is something to be careful of, although the rural roads here are far easier to drive on than in parts of the UK for example, they are at least not single-track roads with passing places. I think maybe you were expecting a higher standard of road surface?

All the best for your future plans.

Oops my bad! Not unsealed. What I'm thinking is most of the road outside CBD is unlighted. During our first trip, I think about 4 hours away from city, had experienced night-time driving on our way back. It was a dark long road until I reached the main highway. I can't remember the name of the place though. I think it's Rangitikei if I'm not mistaken. But overall, Wellington is such a great place.

We plan to move in this August.

[kermitmd]

NZ houses can be of poor quality and standards and made of many different materials including concrete. Wood is common and plentiful and considered cheaper than concrete, masonry. The equivalent if you prefer some solidness to your building is brick-n-tile. The majority of houses in Welly tend to be older, so it is not uncommon for people to buy houses which can be 50, 60 or over 100 years old and still find it more or less in the same condition with some cosmetic changes over time. And yes, they can smell moldy. Not all houses in Welly, but there are some that do especially if you are tight on the budget.

The difference in price has to do with the extraordinary premium people pay for land in Singapore which makes building costs relatively reasonable. The opposite is true for NZ where the cost of building is far more expensive than land which tends to make people hesitate to build anew.

Dining out is rather expensive in Welly especially if you are looking at restaurant-quality food instead of take-outs, fish-n-chip stores, cafes. But the food quality is better and fresher if you are eating in restaurants. As for Singaporean food, the Malaysian restaurants in Welly make a decent go for it but it would be expensive to continually dine on this cuisine to what we consider as cheap hawker fare in Singapore. So the best thing is to learn how to cook and learn fast.

Generally unsealed roads tend to be farm roads, off-the-track trails in quite isolated areas. Most of the roads in NZ are sealed although you may find it rather rough in comparison to Singapore roads.

As for having CIRRUS, VISA, MAESTRO etc on your atm/debit cards, you need to remember to go to the bank to activate it first before you can use it overseas. It is a safety feature that Singapore banks install on their cards. You cannot automatically assume you can use it just because you have the facility. But also remember there are additional fees when withdrawing from an overseas bank atm on top of the foreign exchange rates.

Hi batgirl. Yup all the cards are activated beforehand and had been used in NZ without any problems. When we arrived in Sydney, this is where all the hassle began. None of my cards are working there and I was left with no other choice but to change my SGD to AUD and bear with Travelex's horrible commission rates.

[batgirl1001]

That is most extraordinary. It's been a while since I've been to Oz but I did not have such an issue with using my atm card and I withdrew quite a large sum at that. It is worth checking out with your bank why such a thing has happened if you plan to transit in Oz again when you visit NZ. Best wishes on your move to NZ!

[Anne Goulding]

Glad you enjoyed your trip despite the poor weather. I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say everything in the Botanic Gardens is dead because of the storm more likely dormant because it's winter! Still a great place to visit, though, especially if you have kids - lots of space for them to run around and let off steam and a good play area. It's lovely in the calm, sunny weather we've had these past couple of days

[ralf-nz]

Housing

Housing in New Zealand is bigger and more reasonably priced than Singapore. It's made of wood though (Not sure if this is part of quake-proofing).

There are a couple of reasons to build this type of houses. BTW: They are called timber framed houses; 'timber' is dressed wood used in construction and 'framed' as they are not made massive of timber.

One reason as you picked up is their capacity of dealing with earthquakes, i.e. with movement generated by them. But they are also best suited to be built by DIYers or builders (very small construction companies) especially on properties with not the easiest access or topography. An additional factor is the possibility to easily make change to timber framed once built.

[batgirl1001]

Steel framing is also resistant to earthquakes (as buildings in Singapore are built with steel framing and concrete and able to withstand 7.0 earthquakes and tremors) but it has proven not to be too popular in NZ.

I am guessing that tradition is hard to beat as wood is cheaper, plentiful and is time-tested to be durable and reliable in NZ over and over again. Even a 'solid' brick-n-tile house has timber framing so it isn't quite as solid as imagined. But when there is a tremor, a brick-n-tile home tends to shake just a little more than a wooden house as we experienced it ourselves even in Auckland.

When we were discussing with our builder about steel framing, (it can be used for slopes and difficult terrain builds and by small-time builders and companies), one thing that discourage us was the cost of it, which adds some cost to our tight budget and the cons of using steel framing which included that it was fairly new and the 'noises' it makes.

[ralf-nz]

Even a 'solid' brick-n-tile house has timber framing so it isn't quite as solid as imagined.

You are talking about timber framed houses with brick veneer as opposed to solid brick buildings without timber frames but just brick, often several wythes of them (ideally) tied together.