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Comment by djsumdog | Hacker News Reader

I lived in Wellington for two and a half years. It's the most beautiful city I've ever lived in.

That being said, most of the tech is centralized in just a few shops. Everything is contracted out to Datacom, Catalyst, Frondie, Solnet, etc. etc.

I mean companies do have their own IT staff, but just due to the shortage of talent, a lot gets contracted out, including tons of government stuff.

If you're under 30 and a US citizen, you can get a Holiday Work Visa and live/work there for a year. (This is how I started out, before switching to another visa). If you're a citizen of a commonwealth state, I think you can get a two year visa to most other commonwealth countries (including AU/NZ).

Oh and Wellington is the windiest city in the world. This is not an exaggeration. Oh and expect at least one earthquake a year too.

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"Everything is contracted out to Datacom, Catalyst, Frondie, Solnet, etc. etc."

It's true that there's a big services sector, especially around government work. But there's also a lively startup/R&D scene. I worked 4 years for Mindscape (a dev tools startup, later to become Raygun), and then moved to GreenButton (HPC in the cloud, later acquired by Microsoft; the R&D team is still based in Wellington). Xero is a thriving, lively product company, although now large and mature; same with TradeMe. Weta Digital has a lot of in-house tech. And there are companies like 8i, just kicking off doing amazing things in motion capture and rendering.

So what you're saying is fair for "IT services" tech - if you want to do that, then yeah, Datacom is it. But there's so much more to the Wellington tech scene than IT services.

I lived in Auckland; aren't the winters worse in Wellington? Part of the reason I moved back(other than low wages and crazy housing prices) was to get away from those Auckland winters. Lucky for me I moved to CA right when they got over their drought... Yay.

New Zealand is really nice though. Laid back, safe(accept CBD on drinking nights), clean, etc.

Winters are worse in Wellington. My sister puts bricks around plants in her relatively sheltered garden to keep the plants in the ground. On unusually windy days the bricks are blown into the house. Occasionally she stays late at work because it's too windy to walk down the street, and I've noticed wind guard shield thingys at intersections to protect people from getting blown into the street.

What is CBD?

Central Business District (aka "downtown")

CBD is the Central Business District. Basically the city center, which is also where all the businesses are.

Central Business District.

It's what Aussies (like myself) and Kiwis call "downtown", or the city-centre.

"CBD" is used in some Asian and Middle-Eastern countries too. But I've never seen it used in Europe or the Americas.

I've heard the term used in London as well. But never in the US. I first ran across it when I lived in Australia, so I wonder if it's a British term.

It's possible it's an Australian term and you were just surrounded by Australians in London.

Yes. I've never heard anyone use it in the UK except Aussies and Kiwis.

Houston uses it occasionally. Probably picked it up from all the oil expats in town.

I've heard it used in wonky circles, and if you pronounce the whole thing instead of the acronym people know what you mean.

New York City is unusual for having two different CBDs, with midtown being denser than downtown (but each are denser than anywhere else in the US).

"Part of the reason I moved back ... was to get away from those Auckland winters"

Wow, if you think Auckland winters are bad, you must not have experienced a real winter in the northern hemisphere!

There's far colder (and darker, and wetter) winters in much of North America and Europe.

As for New Zealand (and I'm saying this as a Kiwi), it's an amazing place for the lifestyle. Not necessarily an amazing place for career opportunities, though.

Perhaps they mean they wanted a more traditional winter than what Auckland offers?

I grew up there (and Christchurch) and remember being excited when their was a frost - it was the closest to snow we ever got.

It's an amazing place for sure but everytime I look at moving back to NZ I just get depressed about housing costs.

> everytime I look at moving back to NZ I just get depressed about housing costs.

How does it compare to bay area housing costs?

Probably comparable. I'm in Minnesota though where the cost of living is low but IT wages are relatively high.

I think Minnesota is underrated. Great place to live.

> I think Minnesota is underrated

Shh. The locals like it that way.

Apparently. The last few jobs I tried to get in the twin cities was met with resounding silence.

As a New Zealander, I can't afford a home in Auckland. I have 0 desire to ever move back to NZ.

If you can't afford a home in Auckland, you can't afford one in the bay area either.

Christchurch winters are rough because it is pretty humid there and most people don't have central heating. It isn't so cold temperature wise but It feels more cold in general than other places I have lived in The Rockies.

I live in Minnesota now. My wife was born and raised here but has spent a couple of winters in Christchurch. She has always maintained that a winter in Christchurch is worse in some ways that one in Minnesota because of how damp the cold is.

Of course winter is a shorter duration in Christchurch!

It was the rain and the humidity. Auckland seems to get more rain than much of the north island in the winter. Coupled with very few living situations having central heating and poor insulation; it can really wear on you. Hamilton was becoming very appealing from a weather and cost of living standpoint(it's also just nice down there too).

Constant weather is a bummer, but the cold and snow doesn't really bother me. As long as I can control the environment of my home without going broke from space heaters and dehumidifiers.

I have a very nuanced opinion of the life style :)I do miss the road trips and coffee. You're right about the opportunities; I may end up back in NZ some day when that's less of a concern.

> Constant weather is a bummer, but the cold and snow doesn't really bother me.

I might be misunderstanding what you're saying, but it doesn't snow in Auckland.

I've lived here in Auckland since 2010, being originally from the north of England. I am yet to see a 'winter' in Auckland. Every year it gets a bit more rainy in the winter months and the temperature drops to around 3 or 4C at night...that's it, it's still in double digits in the daytime. Although I am coming from a place where it rained all year and had snowy -10C winters. I remember not long after I arrived in NZ there was one freak weather day where there was sleet in the city for about 60 seconds and everyone lost their minds as it hadn't snowed in 50 years or something.....those who had never left the city were experiencing snow for the first time....it baffled me how much of a big deal it was. I haven't worn a coat for the past year and I've downgraded to one pair of jeans as I'm always in shorts and jandals. This place really is part of the 'winterless-north'.

I meant generally, in regards to the comment about places in the US having colder/wetter winters.

Auckland "winters" haha, try a Dunedin winter buddy

> Oh and Wellington is the windiest city in the world. This is not an exaggeration

Seriously. I agree that it's a beautiful city in so many ways, but just spending a week there made me wonder if I would want to live in such a windy place.

It is windy there, but I lived there for 4 years, and you kinda start to love the wind, at least for me. It keeps things interesting :P

Maybe you could commute to work on one of those sail powered bikes? Those get a bit scary if the wind is gusty though.

Fronde*

I don't know what Frondie is, and it's weird to see those companies mentioned on HN. Yes, they're all terrible body-shops to work for and they outsource a lot of work.

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