After spending 6 weeks in the paradise that is Paihia in Northland, we headed back down to Auckland to start work and to find somewhere to live.
If you’ve come to New Zealand on a working holiday visa with the intention of travelling the country, you’re probably not really looking for career relevant jobs, but we came with an open mind in terms of possibly staying out here, so career jobs were definitely on the agenda for us.
Searching for Jobs in Auckland
There are heaps of ways to look for work, but the most beneficial for us was Google and the various job-search websites that we found as a result.
The search began for Hannah pretty much as soon as we got to Paihia, whilst I concentrated on finishing my book. Being a Youth Worker, Hannah was primarily looking for work in the youth justice sector and found that the most useful sites for her search were Seek and Indeed, two of the bigger job-search sites in NZ.
After a few weeks, she’d landed an interview!
For me, I started my search for a Web Design job in Auckland a couple of weeks after and I was really lucky in that I was offered three interviews very soon after I started applying. Again, I used the standard Google and job-search site approach and it seemed to pay off pretty well.
We managed to arrange all of the interviews into a single day and headed down to Auckland for the night where we had booked into a hotel. The next day was a good one.
My first interview of the day was for the job I wanted most and by the end of the interview, I was offered the position of Senior Designer & Developer at a small start-up web agency in Auckland. Banging!
I was open with them in that I had two more interviews that day, but told them they were my preferred option. By the end of the day, I accepted their offer and I was now officially employed in Auckland! (This was mid-April, with my start date confirmed as May 6th).
Hannah’s wait was much longer and so she continued applying for jobs on our return to Paihia.
A couple of weeks later, it was time to say farewell to Paihia and head back to reality – we gave ourselves five nights in an Auckland hotel, during which we had to find somewhere to live before I started my new job! Also, a few days before we left Paihia, Hannah had landed another interview!
The interview was first on the agenda as we headed back down to Auckland and fortunately, the wait for a response was much shorter this time. Just a day after her interview, Hannah had landed a full time role working in a children’s prison!
All of a sudden, we had both landed the perfect roles in which to further our careers and the only thing left to do was to find somewhere to live! And we were really running out of time to do so.
Finding Somewhere to Live in Auckland
It was such a relief that we had both now landed jobs, as it obviously gave us a much better idea of where we wanted to be living and how much we had to spend. My new job was right in the CBD and Hannah’s was in Manukau which is South Auckland – about half an hour south of the CBD.
The aim was to find somewhere within 30 minutes of the city (by bus) for me and within 30 minutes drive of Manukau for Hannah. The best sites for property searching in New Zealand are definitely TradeMe and Realestate.
We viewed flats in the city, Parnell, Remuera and finally… Mount Eden. We immediately fell in love with the latter, as it provided the perfect location and offered a nice, ‘villagey’ feel despite being right on the edge of the CBD. It was just 20 minutes on the bus for me and 25 minutes down the motorway for Hannah.
The flat we viewed there was, again, in the perfect location, right on the edge of Mount Eden high street and with views of the actual volcano from the windows. We hadn’t fallen in love with the actual flat though.
There were many pros, but it felt a bit dated and that put us both off initially. But with only one more night booked at the hotel, the new job to start 4 days later and considering it was in the perfect location, we felt that we’d be daft to turn it down.
So we went for it. And nearly 5 months later, we’re glad we did. We still absolutely love the area and the commute to work for both of us couldn’t be much easier!
Mount Eden Village itself is full of character, with an awesome Belgian pub (De Post) that we absolutely love, a couple of other nice bars/restaurants and an array of tasteful cafés and bakeries; all overlooked by the rather attractive volcano that gives the suburb its name.
Oh and it’s also home to New Zealand’s biggest stadium, Eden Park, the main stomping ground of the rugby world champions!
We’d recommend living here to anyone that’s considering it; however, due to its awesomeness, it’s not cheap. It’s also a sought-after area for the local schools which only adds to the cost of living here. So obviously bare that in mind.
On a final note, we found that the cost of renting in Auckland is much, much higher than the UK – well, certainly higher than Nottingham where we were previously renting anyway. And on top of that, many of the properties are not as well insulated, rely on electric radiators and don’t have double glazing, mainly because Auckland winters rarely get anywhere near as cold as they do in the UK. But because of these factors, you will definitely want to make sure you’re wrapped up when inside on a winter’s night.