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Comment by lacampbell | Hacker News Reader

A lot of Americans seem to have an idyllic notion of moving to NZ - often for political or LOTR movie reasons. If you're even toying with the idea, do yourself a favour and check out the following:

- Salaries

- Housing price

- Housing quality - expect to pay top dollar for luxuries like insulation, double-glazed windows, and kitchens built within the last few decades.

- The cost of a car, and the size and quality of the roads

- The cost of electronic appliances, food, etc

Completely unrelated, what's the going salary for an intermediate programmer/analyst in one of those really flat US states full of cornfields?

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The politics of New Zealand, especially when it comes to land rights + individual freedoms, can be enlightening.

How so?

Waitangi. The successful negotiation of land with Māori. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Waitangi

Kiwi here, what happened is moreso that the British accidentally gave the Maori more rights than they anticipated in the translation, and as the country became more progressive in the 20th century, the govt decided to respect those rights.

>Completely unrelated, what's the going salary for an intermediate programmer/analyst in one of those really flat US states full of cornfields?

Just based on my job hunting over the past three months - ~55k usd

FWIW that's about the same as Auckland.

> Salaries

Are salaries that bad? I know a bunch of developers in the Wellington area (and used to be one), and most are making around ~100k USD a year. Yea, it isn't Bay Area Google money, but also not terrible.

> the size and quality of the roads

I can't speak too much for the south island, but on the north island the roads seemed fine. The roads in San Francisco and Oakland where I live now are way worse then I ever experienced in NZ.

140,000+ NZD for permanent devs in Wellington? Doing what?

From what I can tell that's management salary in Wellington.

In 2014 I was making 141 NZD writing C++ at Weta Digital (I had colleagues breaking 150). They were mostly contract jobs renewed annually, but I didn't know of any tech people there who were not renewed.

Interesting. Is this C++ anyone could do, or were they wanting maths and physics qualifications?

That salary doesn't sound far fetched for a contract though.

It was a mix. There were definitely MS/PhD level maths people, but also a lot of people writing more systems oriented code to deal with the metric tones of data that they generate, people writing code to specific APIs for software packages that they use, etc.

That's likely an exception being paid for out of deep Hollywood pockets

Also while the food is high quality don't expect the variety you're used to. Until recently NZ had a pretty bland palette.

I think you're on the money; bland food is not only tolerated but revered, at least in my experience, and I'm not particularly 'foody'. Recently moved here from England via Thailand and Indonesia so take my opinion for what it is worth. Food is better in Wellington than places like Christchurch but still not generally up to scratch. Planning on starting something to fix this after a little contracting but while COL is lower than London, it's probably not up to SF salaries/options packages, so that should be considered. It's also not as cosmopolitan as I'm used to in European cities, although I can't speak for Auckland, as I'm yet to visit (something tells me it will be similar though!). NZ strikes me as very nice for a sight seeing trip but somewhat wanting when it comes to actual residence. Obviously YMMV.

Auckland is definitely more multicultural, but in my experience as an ex-wellingtonian it's more divided. Wellington's size and geography tends to force people together, whereas Auckland keeps them apart.

Why do you think that is? Aucklanders ostensibly lament mobility in my experience, but I'm new and thus open to the views of people who've lived here longer.

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