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I have lived in Whangarei and I'm still a regular visitor (live in Auckland now). There's about 60,000 people living there so they have all the amenities you'd expect of a decent sized town. A good hospital, sports clubs, bars, restaurants etc. It's about a 2 hour drive from Auckland.
The weather is sub-tropical. It is one of the warmer parts of New Zealand but it can get quite wet in winter. The city is surrounded by hills (some bigger than others) and the suburbs sort of stretch out into these hills. In some places you'll be quite close to nature there.
The key environmental feature is the marine environment. The harbour and sea nearby are really Whangarei's "playground". Many people own small boats & fishing is incredibly popular (as are lots of other outdoor activities).
Frankly, I thought the lifestyle there was terrific. You can knock off work & get to a good, uncrowded beach really quickly, or go hunting, kayaking, diving or whatever you're into (unlike big cities where you spend half your life commuting). Socially there's a lot to do, twilight sports are really popular (5 a side soccer, hockey etc). For you english guys there's about 4 or 5 soccer clubs.
Nearby there's the Whangarei Heads - which I personally love. Beautiful bays and inlets & a spectacular surf beach that's never crowded (even when its raining in town the heads always seem to have sunshine). Unlike Australia New Zealand has pretty safe seas around it - you might see the odd shark but thats only natural & attacks in NZ are incredibly rare. On the other hand around Whangarei you'll see dolphins and whales very often.
There's also the Ngunguru Coast, which is also very beautiful & of course the Bay of Islands are only 45 minutes away.
The people that criticize Whangarei usually point to the "rough" element in town. Well sure, there's a few around like any place but not as bad as some people make out. It honestly is a very peaceable town (compared to some parts of Auckland). There are however some places, streets where you wouldn't want to live.
Workwise, I'm not too sure. Whangarei & the far north go through spurts of development & then seem to stutter. It isn't one of the richer areas in New Zealand. There has been talk over the years of re-locating the NZ Navy to Whangarei - which I hope they do one day. This would be a massive boost to the whole district.
In short, you may not get rich in Whangarei but you should have a great life, especially if the outdoors is your thing & it's a great place for kids. The people are laidback & very friendly.
If there's another city in New Zealand to compare it to, it would be Nelson (actually I've also lived there). Nelson is more expensive though (in terms of house prices) & although they have good summers, they have cold winters & the water around there isn't warm enough for me!
People (usually foreigners) often say that the South Island is better than the North Island, mainly because they see the mountains and go uhh ahhh! The far north is actually my fav part of NZ & there's lots of little hidden gems & deserted beaches to discover up there.
Hope this helps
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Dangerous
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It's just my opinion, but I think the place is an utter sh-thole. Some really awful people and nothing interesting. The climate's pretty warm but can get horrid and muggy.
And people from there are generally strangely parochial (amongst many other thing), and will probably get all offended by this. But I offer no apology, it's 2nd only to Invercargil as the cities in NZ I'd least want to live in. |
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