We may be a little bit biased, however, we think that living in New Zealand is pretty flipping awesome. Life in NZ is pretty cool no matter where you live. With over 15,000 kilometres of coastline, you are never too far from the ocean no matter where you live and we have an abundance of national and regional parks that are teeming with amazing fauna and flora.
Of course, we’re not completely blinded by our love of Aotearoa. We know that not everything here is perfect and that’s why we wanted to pull this post together to cover off some of the most important things you need to know about living in New Zealand – the good, the bad and the…well, let’s face it, there is no ugly in New Zealand!
On the whole, we reckon New Zealand deserves its place in the list of best places in the world to live and that’s why we always love to help people to make the move, whether it’s an overseas experience trip or making the permanent move down under.
If you needed any more proof of how good New Zealand is as a place to live, look no further than the most recent Economist Intelligence Unit survey of the most liveable cities in the world where Auckland came out as the number one ranked city in the world to live – pretty cool right?
Here are 11 things you need to know about living in New Zealand…just so you’re nice and prepared!
1. Shoes are optional
That’s right. For many overseas visitors, this can take a bit of getting used to. People will literally go barefoot everywhere. Bars, restaurants…the supermarket! It looks a bit weird the first few times you see it and it definitely feels weird the first time you try it, especially in the supermarket. You do get used to it though and eventually, you come to embrace it.
Freedom to the feet!
2. We have the world’s best coffee
Alright so this is a pretty bold claim but we’ve done some research (we Googled it) and it seems to stack up! Whilst we are bound to blow our own trumpets about the quality of our coffee, it seems that our many international visitors feel the same way about our coffee. We’re not sure what it is about it. It just tastes so flipping amazing. It’s such a great way to start your day. Knowing you can pretty much go into any café in New Zealand and guarantee yourself an awesome coffee.
All hail New Zealand coffee!
3. Card is king
Don’t ever ask a Kiwi if you can borrow some cash. It’s not that we’re tight. Far from it. It’s just that none of us carries cash. Ever. Unless you have to catch a bus (and even then you can usually use some sort of card) we use our cash cards wherever we go. Paying by card is usually referred to as ‘Eftpos’ here in New Zealand and quite frankly, it’s pretty awesome. No need to carry all that loose change around…just whack it on the card.
Card is definitely king.
4. No tips are necessary
New Zealand literally has no tipping culture. We have a really good minimum wage that means no matter where you work, you get paid a fair price for the work you do. That’s not to say that tips are not welcomed – who doesn’t love being told they are doing a good job. However, you never need to feel bad about not leaving a tip as we totally don’t expect one. It’s a really nice thing not having to worry about a tip as it can cause a bit of anxiety. We’ve even been known to chase after people who leave a tip as we think they have dropped some cash!
5. We have a whole different vocabulary to the rest of the world
Like most countries, we have a lot of colloquialisms and our slang seems to confuse many of our international visitors. Some of the most confusing include:
- Lollies – a general term for all sweets
- Hot chips – the ‘hot’ park is very much needed as we refer to ‘crisps’ as chips so if you want some proper chips with your burger, make sure you remember the ‘hot’ part
- Dairy – no this is not the place where the milk is produced but the common name for the corner shop
- Jandals – whether you call them flip flops or thongs (weird Aussies!), we call those summer beach footwear jandals in NZ
- Togs – a term used to describe both male and female swimming gear
To find out more about Kiwi slang terms, check out our 30 Kiwi Slang Terms you need to know before you visit post
6. Place names are hard to pronounce
OK maybe not all place names are hard to pronounce but there are a lot that are. Whilst it can be pretty amusing to hear foreigners pronounce some of our place names, it’s true that there is a pretty big percentage of Kiwis who also struggle with some of them! The biggest area of confusion is around place names that begin with ‘Wh’. In the main, the ‘Wh’ is pronounced as an ‘F’ which dramatically changes the way you say the name. A favourite example is ‘Whakapapa’…we can hear the clogs ticking and then it dawns on everyone “Ah…’Fackapapa’” – whoops!
7. We have some of the clearest night skies in the world
Whether you’re into stargazing or not, when you move to New Zealand or if you spend a lot of time here, you never fail to get blown away by the night skies. Unless you spend your whole time in the centre of Auckland, the night sky in New Zealand is super clear thanks to the lack of light pollution. We even have one of the world’s first Dark Sky Reserves down in the Mt Cook region which is classified as one of the best places in the world to stargaze. The next time you’re here, take a look up into the night sky and be blown away by the number of stars you can see.
8. We’re the first country in the world to see the sun
This one is a little bit contentious but we’re sticking to our guns on this one. New Zealand was, for a long time, recognised as the first place in the world to welcome in the new day. That was until Samoa decided to move their position on the International Date Line. Their day now aligns with Australia and New Zealand where they do most of their business. Now, there is some sort of weird earthly phenomenon that means that whilst Samoa is the first place in the world to welcome each new day, New Zealand is still the first place to see the sun rise thanks to the curvature of the earth. We’re not scientists but that’s our claim and we’re sticking to it! You can read more here.
9. We have pretty terrible internet…but it’s getting better
For a lot of overseas visitors, they can’t believe how slow our internet is (you should have tried visiting 8 years ago when dial-up was still in operation!). We are making giant leaps and bounds with our internet speeds and a lot of places do now have access to Fibre, however, in many rural parts of New Zealand, internet access can indeed still be dog slow. The reason for this is that we fall right at the furthest end of the underwater internet pipe thingy which means we are at the end of the line when it comes to fast internet.
Oh well, it’s a good job everything outdoors is so amazing so you won’t really be needing much time on the internet anyway.
Source: https://visual.ly/community/infographic/technology/internets-undersea-world
10. We do have quite a few earthquakes
You see, not all the things you need to know were good and this is one of the downsides of living in New Zealand. We literally have thousands of earthquakes every single year (most of which are tiny and no one ever notices) and it can be a bit of a shock when you first experience one. They do say that New Zealand is in danger from a potentially huge earthquake at some point in the not too distant future but we are pretty good at taking safety precautions and if you live in the more dangerous areas, there is tons of information available.
It’s always good to know about these things though!
11. Our wildlife is pretty incredible no matter where you are
So the final thing on our list is our wildlife. Whilst you might have heard about our amazing wildlife, nothing quite prepares you for it. That’s especially true when you move here or spend a lot of time here. You never really take things for granted. It never gets boring seeing amazing dolphins, hearing the beautiful birds in the morning or perhaps even seeing something new and unusual like a weta. Our native wildlife is pretty varied and best of all, it’s not dangerous (unlike our neighbours across the ditch!). Take a stroll pretty much anywhere in New Zealand and you will come across something pretty cool either down in the ground or up in the sky.
Some of our cool wildlife includes the Kiwi Bird, Hector’s Dolphin, Kea, Little Blue Penguins, Tuatara, Tui and the Morepork Owl.
FAQs about living in New Zealand
OK, so there’s some of our best tips for living in New Zealand, however, there are plenty of frequently asked questions out there that we also want to tackle in this post so here goes:
Is New Zealand safe to live?
If you are planning on moving to a new country on the other side of the world, you would want to know that it’s safe right? Well, plenty of people out there are asking whether New Zealand is safe to live and the overwhelming answer is yes. Of course, we are not crime-free, however, we do have very low crime rates throughout the country, we have no deadly predators like some other country that we could mention and in more recent times, we have been praised for our handling of the COVID19 pandemic when our early lockdown meant that we have been able to live relatively normal lives for much of the pandemic.
What is it like to live in New Zealand?
This is a commonly asked question and one that is very much dependant on what you are looking for. New Zealand offers up a huge range of options when it comes to places to live. Whether you want to live the big city life in Auckland, the world’s most liveable city or you are looking for the quiet life in one of our stunning rural towns, live in New Zealand can be vastly different depending on where you decide to locate yourself. That’s the beauty of New Zealand though, you have plenty of options. You can find out more about some of our biggest cities in another of our blog posts and this might help to give you some ideas about life in New Zealand.
What are New Zealanders like?
Of course, moving to a new country is not just about the destination, it’s as much about the people. Again, call us biased, but we think Kiwis are some of the friendliest people in the world. We are very welcoming to visitors from all over the world and whether you choose to visit us on holiday or make a permanent move, you will be welcomed with open arms. New Zealanders are famously open and friendly and you will find a warm welcome wherever you are in the country. You can tick this one off your list.
So there you have it. Some of the things you can expect when you get here. Just ditch the jandals, forget the cash and be prepared for some early starts and late nights to see our amazing skies!
If you are planning on moving to New Zealand (as a result of the above or otherwise) we recommend that you take a look at the awesome blog, How to move to New Zealand, which offers some great tips covering all you need to know about making the big move! And of course, if you need to rent a car when you’re here, you know where to find us!
Updated: 18 August 2021
