Which are the ideal towns to live in NZ, with no serious floods, wild-fires, active volcanoes..?

Show all answers

Zebra

Lol, you do sound a little paranoid! I mean nowhere anywhere in the world is truly safe these days, the weather patterns are so unpredictable.

The only active volcano I can think of is Mt Ruapehu in the Taranaki but it's well monitored & there would be plenty of warning if anything was to happen & nothing ever has in terms of killing people or damaging homes. Bushfires are a threat in Australia, not here, we don't have their extreme hot weather at all & if there is a small bushfire here it tends to be remote & doesn't affect people or their homes & is usually put out pretty quickly rather than being out of control for days or weeks like in Australia.

Northland is prone to flooding.

Re medical services, depends if you're referring to access to a GP or access to an actual hospital. If you're that paranoid you're better off sticking to living in a city where you would have the best of everything & are less likely to have flooding, etc.

Wellington & the area in and around Napier are prone to little earthquakes (although no deaths or major damage - there hasn't been a major earthquake here since the big one in Napier in 1930).

The biggest risk in NZ is buying a house built on a cliff. The cliffs are eroding & every year a few houses start slipping as the cliff slips away in wet weather. The biggest problem with that is that insurance companies are now starting to refuse to insure these homes, which also means the people who own them will find them impossible to sell to someone else (the irony being that many of these homes are multi million dollar mansions that they bought for the great seaview they get from living on a cliff). Their own fault as the slips are usually caused by then cutting back or removing trees on the cliff so they can get a better view & also by concreting out much of their yard. Both of those things are what are causing the cliffs to erode.

There are tons of towns or small cities in NZ that would meet your criteria, it's impossible to mention them all. Tauranga is safe, has nice weather, access to all things & very few dangerous weather type things have happened in that area (but nearby Coromandel can get flooding). It also has employment opportunities although bear in mind we are in a recession.

Employment opportunities in a town should be your top concern really, unless you're retired perhaps?

Richard G

Ok, let's eliminate risks:
Earthquake risk rules out the West of the South Island, Marlborough, Wellington and the east of the North Island (and possibly Christchurch).
Most of the few tornadoes happen in the west.
Volcanism rules out New Plymouth (pity!) Auckland, and Rotorua just feels unstable.
Tsunami risk is mostly on the east coast.
Flood risk is much more localised - many towns are in river valleys, but have areas which would be safer - but beware landslips. There are no areas of major wildfire risk (the east is dry but not forested like Australia or California).
Northland and Bay of Plenty are subject to cyclones.

That leaves: Parts of Nelson, Hamilton, Dunedin (does get cut off by heavy snow now and then),

Dorrian

I am strongly biased but I believe the best town in New Zealand is without a doubt Dunedin.

Dunedin has a lot to offer in many ways. In addition to meeting the criteria you list above, and being in my opinion the city with the best 'culture' in New Zealand, Dunedin boasts many important things such as being the site of New Zealand's first daily newspaper, art school, medical school and public art gallery.

It has a strong university, amazing libraries and the Highlanders!

Here is a nice link:

http://www.visit-dunedin.co.nz/

nztraveller

Most of New Zealand suffers from earthquakes, floods etc so its more a question of where there are fewer of these things happening.

The northland of NZ has fewer earthquakes so thats a pretty good place to be. I live in Auckland so its pretty safe here and although volcanoes and earthquakes can still happen the chances are pretty slim. Rotorua has to be the place most under threat from volcanic or earthquakes activity.

I think there are maps available on the internet showing the distribution of earthquakes in New Zealand so that might be a good place to look to see where the safer spots are.

daisyrose

really you made n z sound like a third world country , services you mention are avb in all town, in country are is where we mainly have flooding in the winter .,bush fire are rare , if they mainly on hillside,

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: