God New Zealand is shit (or is it?)

Just having a look at a price comparison thing on the Guardian website that looks at the costs of 7 standard items across 40 standard travel destinations (http://www.theguardian.com/travel/interactive/2014/jan/17/where-is-the-most-expensive-holiday-destination-for-travellers).  This is where NZ places in the list for these items:

* 1.5ml bottle of mineral water - 7th most expensive

* 3 course meal (with house wine) - 3rd most expensive

* bottle of Coke/Pepsi - 3rd most expensive

* bottle of local beer - 4th most expensive

* cup of coffee - 5th most expensive

* glass of wine - 12th most expensive

* 200mls of sunscreen - 4th most expensive

this is staggering.  There has always been the arguement that NZ is very isolated so it costs a lot for products to get there, but there is no excuse when it comes to beer, wine, meals out, etc as they are made with local products.  I was back in NZ for about 6 months last year, and it just reiterated what I think everytime I am home - how the hell do people get ahead (financially) in this place?  So much of everyone's pay packets must go on the basics needed to survive (groceries, champagne, travel, rent/mortgage, meals out, etc) that I just don't know how people are able to save anything.

I do agree with you that NZ in general is a pretty expensive place to live. But surely it is up to individuals to live within their means to help minimise their financial burden?

Also housing, transport, petrol are all expensive realtive to other developed countries (and wage/salary).

I'm here because of the weather and football.

The one thing that shocked me was the house prices in Auckland. They are a joke. Young people have no hope of owning one at these prices.

This is depressing.

At least we've got the wind, the rain, and the Phoenix.

It is interesting that the majority of the comments so far are from people who have spent a large period of time of their lives in other countries. Is that because they are the only ones up early (due to still being on other time zones)?  I am interested in how young New Zealander's see it - even if living in NZ is all they know, how do they think that their lives/prospects compare to their peers in other countries? 

yep. time to increase GST again as prices aren't looking high enough...

NZ is fairly sweet in many respects though. It is much quieter (=boring for some) than places with larger cities, but there is access to things like parks and beaches which is great, there isn't that much pollution, society is by and large fairly chilled about things, but yeh the drift of our economy of late ...

This website breaks it down quite well 

It also ranks us 8th by CPI

Being in New Zealand is a little bit sweeter this morning I can tell you that for a fact! 

30 years of Free Market Capitalism Frankie.

If you think NZ is shit, then go!

Fuck off and read your Ann Rand somewhere else. 

Living in a country isn't like choosing between Mcdonalds or the Ritz to eat at cos one is cheaper. And if all the other kids at school are getting $20 pocket money and you're getting 50c you're allowed to query that. 

5-0! We won 5-0!!!

trust you were watching??? bit of celebatory leftie-trolling huh?

Frankie, where did England rank in those catagories? Just curious. Housing in this country is just a rip but that is mainly because we are a low wage economy. Politicians from both main parties are as guilty as each other for this happening.

England not on that list, but a cup of coffee is apparently about £2.10 (I don't drink the ghastly stuff, but that is what the wife says it cost) which is cheaper than NZ (£2.32). Also a bottle of beer is about £4 (£4.12 in NZ). We have no need for sunscreen. 

I live in England at the moment having lived in NZ for the previous 25 years. Granted that London isn't the best gauge as it is a stupidly expensive place to live but my observations would be:

- Rent is probably cheaper in NZ, you can get much more for what you pay in Wellington than you could in London. I can't comment on purchasing as it simply isn't an option in London and I never really looked into it at home.

- Food and booze is much cheaper in the UK. That comes down to size of the market though doesn't it? I've got three mini-supermarkets within 200 metres of my house in London so they obviously need to compete and thus keep prices down a bit.

- Power and the like seems more expensive over here. Thats probably because you need more of it though as it's so freaking cold half the time.

- I spend as much money on public transport here as I did on petrol at home. That's mainly because I work in Zone 5 though and live in Zone 2.

If and when I go home, it will be for the lifestyle. The cost of life is what it is and i'll get over it but the pace of life at home, the fact you can walk down a street and not have to dodge thousands of people, the fact we put cheese into our mince pies and cook them with puff pastry all mean that i'm quite happy to head home.

Herald looks like it will run a series of good introspective pieces: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11188987

Tomorrow: Lifestyle versus cost of living

Yup, was at the RoF.  Great game. :)

Spent the morning playing mini golf at Carlucci Land (Happy Valley) then lunch at the Bach Cafe (Owhiro Bay) followed by Orca spotting as a pod cruised by between Island Bay and Owhiro Bay.

Yep. Pretty shitty.

were the Orcas coming to NZ or leaving?

Sort of hanging around at the edge.  A few ventured up really close to the shore but then decided to go back out with the rest of the pod.

It might have been the welcome crowd at the waterfront that put them off ("Orcas go home", "Leave our fish alone", "Stop taking our jobs, no more fishing industry because of you").

Interesting comments.  Personally, I don't find London that expensive as I look at the main things that I pay for (food, drink, clothes/shoes) and it is all cheaper here than in Wellington. I own a place in both NZ and London, and the rent I get in NZ seems mental to me (ie, I would never pay that) whereas what I was getting when I rented this place out for most of last year was about what I expected it to be.  To be honest, I am not sure what I actually get/got at either place, so that previous comment probably doesn't actually mean anything.  Again, bills are not really an area of expertise for me (I sometimes have to pay them, but I don't really look at the amount that I am paying) so I cannot comment too much on those.

I am not sure if it is because I have lived about 3/4's of my adult life here that I am just used to things costing what they cost, but everytime I am in NZ (either holidaying or living) I keep converting things to pounds and being (slightly) outraged.  This doesn't take into the relativeness of everything (such as wages and disposabale income, both of which will generally be higher in London), just the cost. 

For someone who complains so much about the cost of living here it seems like you don't have a very good grasp of managing money. Going by that last post anyway

I think anyone who has spent any time with me will confirm that I don't have a very good grasp of a number of basic functions that normal people need to survive (except dancing - I'm very good at dancing). 

I mentioned that I was (mildly) horrified by the prices of things that I have involvement in buying - beer, pasties and slacks.  I don't think that I complain too much (about this) but I was curious to see what other people felt about it (and I like slagging off NZ)

Find out how much it is to see a movie, say at Islington. Would be an interesting gauge.

You obviously can't compare the level of footy to anything we can see - but aren't tickets to the Bridge for example about seventy quid now?

We get the posh seats, which are about £17. I think the normal ones are about £14 (that is at peak time). No idea about tickets at the Bridge, but a Milk Cup semi final ticket at Upton Park is from £42 (when West Ham are 6-0 down from the first leg). There is variety though - I paid £84 for Arsenal vs Spurs, and £25 for Arsenal vs Cardiff. 

With what I do I earn a fairly good income in NZ, overseas I could earn more of course - I have worked in Europe and the US and find that NZ ticks most boxes for me.

1. Plenty of accessible activities - lots of fields for sports, nature, water access. Sure there is more available in Europe and to a much higher standard but you have to fly to get to it. Apart from skiing I have what most people dream about within 30 minutes drive of where I live in Wellington.
2. Easy to live in - Wellington is probably the easiest place in the world to live. I live nestled in the bush by Zealandia on Wrights Hill in Karori, 4 kms away from bands, night life, great cafe's, cinemas, yet I get amazing bird life sitting on my deck in what sometimes seems rural (can hear cows, clucking chickens, etc.)
   
3. Laid back culture + not too crowded
   
4. Friends and Family are here.
5. Fairly accessible - until last week you could fly on Air NZ to Auckland for $35, air travel is fairly accessible  - I tend to manage to get to Europe every couple of years, and while that flight is a pain its definitely first world problems.
6. NZ is stable and well run - some times it feels like the sanest country - however sanity also leads to being overly PC which is a problem.
7. Culturally I find other places that I have worked to be overly bureaucratic and frustrating with too many checks and balances, here you tend to get a bit of freedom at work and just get to take the initiative and crack on with it.
8. I know the income gap is widening and while lots of families live on or under the poverty line we do not have the homeless problems of say San Francisco also the rich do not flaunt there wealth as much as overseas. It sickens me when I see people flaunting wealth among poor, I would rather earn less in a country which on average is fairer.

Most people think NZ is a paradise, and while it has plenty of flaws it more than makes up for them in my book. It's really only the right wingers that leave, and you know what Muldoon said about the brain drain... 

My girlfriend and I talk every now and then about relocating permanently - she is from Latvia and I am a British citizen by descent so we could go anywhere in Europe - but if you spend any time overseas you appreciate how really pleasant NZ is. It's the little things that makes life easy here.

A fiver to see Basildon v Stansted the day I went.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/social-issues/news/article.cfm?c_id=87&objectid=11189470

Bit of a disappointment - was expecting more about why NZ is so expensive - is it really just we are small and far away?

If so then I would like us to be larger.

As a Kiwi who has lived in wine producing countries abroad I've never been able to get my head around how you're expected to pay as much or more for the same wine at a vineyard as at a retail outlet. This just does not happen in France, e.g.

From the Herald article: 

Riga, Latvia... The home of the Russian Discotheque Mafia and anal encounters