Auckland to Wellington.

[MotherBear]

Originally Posted by ebianca

Does Hamilton have it's own job paper or anything we could get listings from for IT jobs?

The Waikato Times has jobs but I'm not sure on what day. I'm sure the local mafia will fill you in.

You could also browse through Trademe's job section . Not sure if I've chosen the right job type, but I'm sure you can tweak it on the left hand side. Only one job on there at the moment for Hamilton but you never know what might come up.

Jobs Select job type on the right hand side.

You could also look on the NZ Website List on here under Employment. There's some job agents on there and some have IT next to them, but this doesn't necessarily mean they specialise in IT jobs. Try Seek as they usually have a lot of jobs.

If you want to pay for a job, there's always New Life NZ . They are based in Hamilton.

[hatter5]

Blah Blah ..Hamilton...Blah Blah... Hamilton...Blah Blah Blah.... cutting the grass...long drive to get to the beach (only half an hour???)...Back to the 70's ideal of 'The Good Life'

The garden size thing was a concern to us initially (well me being a male) but why you need to spend all day in a big garden when the beach is 5 minutes away? A nice sunny spot for the bbq and a shaded spot for the chilly bins is more than adequate.

A roll of the die... take your chance you'll be happy were ever you land.

North Island? South Island? Dip your toe in the water and see how it is.

[Dawn]

Hatters right Beth. And just to re-iterate Wellington is stunning. We may end up there yet but it's not right for us just now.

[ebianca]

I think we will most probably end up in Welli.

May have to sacrifice the size of house that we want until I start working (whenever that will be).

[Ace]

It's quite a long drive from Auckland to Wellington, and driving in NZ takes some getting used to -- maybe not so bad for someone like you coming from the UK, but learning about the differences right when you first arrive could be challenging, especially with kids around. So unless you're really into seeing the sights, I would recommend flying. You can book your flights all the way through to Wellington.

I've been to LAX hundreds of times, and it's usually not that bad. It does get unpleasant if you need to change terminals. Most international flights are in the same terminal though, so you shouldn't normally have to change since you would be arriving from the UK. You do sometimes have to walk quite a ways, especially if you have to change airlines. SFO is nicer, but I don't think it's a big deal one way or the other.

One thing to be aware of is that Air NZ doesn't guarantee that more than one piece of luggage per person weighing more than 20 kg will be carried on the domestic connecting flight with you. It's usually not a problem, but if the flight is particularly full, some of your bags might follow later if they're heavy. You might consider packing your important must-have-the-first-night stuff in one bag per person, in the off chance that the other bags get delayed.

You will need to take a little shuttle bus from the international terminal in Auckland to the domestic terminal. It's easy and quick, though.

[Dawn]

Avoid LAX

[selchie]

I can't recall enough of my LAX experiences to compare with SFO (San Francisco), but SFO is an alternative for travel from the UK to NZ.

The main negative I recall about LAX was returning to the US, and passing through customs (this was pre-9/11). We were bleary eyed and semi-deaf from the plane noise. The customs agent was extremely rude when I didn't understand a query about some object in my suitcase, and immediately started tearing through my stuff to find a perfectly innocent coffee press. With a snort of contempt and some snotty comments, she sent us off. At worst, the workers at SFO have been surly but not aggressively rude.

Besides, if you have a layover of sufficient time, you can explore San Francisco, which is much nicer than LA (says the Northern Californian).