Moving back into Wellington.

June 22, 2010 by
Filed under: Cost of living, Jobs & Work, Property & General Investing 

The one thing you can pretty much be sure of when you emigrate, is that things don’t always go quite to plan.

Hubby’s redundancy has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works, in that he can’t work at home. The contracts he’s on mean he has to be in the office, so it’s getting difficult to maintain a life in the Wairarapa and keep stress levels down. So we have been renting a Studio apartment in town, which he lives in during the week, sometimes with me there as well.

Unfortunately its too small for both of us, so we were stuck with living apart most of the time, and that’s just not exactly the “lifestyle” we were after when we emigrated.

MoodSad

So we have bitten the bullet and rented a full size two bed apartment in the centre of the city. We actually own an apartment in the same block, but its tenanted – and besides – it would actually cost us a lot more to live in our own apartment.

I say full size because New Zealand cities (Particularly Auckland and now Wellington is following) are notorious for “shoe box” apartments. That’s fine if you are renting studios or 1 beds for just a single person, but I saw some brand new 2 bed apartments the other week that were about half the size of ours (and only a bit less in price). It pays to be aware of this if you are renting – don’t rent anything without seeing it first – you will probably get a shock.

So we are going to actually become the kind of “trendy wellingtonians” who live in the city during the week, and descend en masse to the Wairarapa at the weekends. Because I know full well that I cant live in town full time – its too crowded and noisy for me. I intend to make the most of city living – it will be nice to get back to going to the movies regularly for example, but I know I need to be able to get away from it as well.

And to be honest we live in such a stunning place – I just don’t really think giving up the big house in the country with the pool is an option.

So – I may be writing some slightly different blog posts – more stuff about Wellington and less about living in the back of beyond.

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Related posts:

  1. Moving to the city: not as easy as it sounds.
  2. Wellington life; the three minute commute
  3. Free Wi-Fi in Wellington (but not Petone).
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Comments

3 Comments on Moving back into Wellington.

  1. heaps! on Tue, 22nd Jun 2010 9:55 am

    2. I think it is great that you decided to move into Wellingotn. Perhaps I am being biased becasuse I am from Queens, NYC, but the higher cost of rent and higher apartment prices are undoubtedly worth living in the middle of a city.

    Ever since coming into Wellington I have fell in love with it. Wellington is a lot smaller than NYC but that is probably what is so fantastic about it. You can walk from one side of town to the other in a rather short amount of time, and public transportation is pretty good considering Wellington is not nearly as big as other global cities.

    You have the best of both worlds, to be able to live in a larger country house during the weekend and the city centre during the week.

  2. Sarah on Wed, 23rd Jun 2010 10:50 pm

    3. Good on you for seeing the positive aspect of your change in circumstances. I shall look forward to some cinema, theatre and restaurant reviews on the side then! All the best and enjoy chilling out at the weekend in the country x

  3. Avalon on Fri, 25th Jun 2010 10:31 pm

    4. Move in tomorrow – we wait with baited breath to see whether this really is a good thing or not. It will make life a lot easier for Hubby’s new career, and i really promise to make the most of what the city has to offer.

    We are just round the corner from Moore Wilsons – best place to food shop in the whole of Welly.

    I should be posting restaurant reviews already – with just a 2 ring hob and about 4 square inches of food prep space in the “studio” apartment, we have eaten out way too much. I cant wait for a full size kitchen again.

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