New Zealand Internet (apartments, how much, hotels)
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I am currently living in Austin, Texas, United States and I am considering moving to New Zealand in the next 5 years. I am only 22 years old but I make good money with an online business. My question to you guys is...does anyone know what they have planned internet wise over the next 5 years in New Zealand? I understand that they have wireless right now, but I am wondering if they have Aircards (broadband cell phone cards) for computers yet???
Also, I have heard that becoming a citizen is extremely hard to do. How would I go about doing this and how much would it end up costing me in the end?
I wouldn't worry about specific pieces of technology. Anything that is available in the USA will also be available here. And in some cases it may be available here first, even if only by a few hours due to time zone differences The problem is with our infrastructure which is lagging behind many countries. As an example, I currently have a 3.5Mbit/s internet connection at home and that is probably considered above average here but would be below average in many other countries. The current government is talking about making big improvements to things over the next few years but whether we catch up or not, only time will tell.
Becoming a citizen is not particularly hard here, at least compared to most countries (including the USA). I would suggest taking a look at the official NZ immigration website
My guess would be that either the "Skilled Migrant" or possibly the "Business Migration" categories will be your best bet depending what you want to do when you get here. Once you're a permanent resident, then it is just a case of living here (and not getting into any legal trouble) for five years and you can become a citizen.
You will be paying a lot for internet. ISP in New Zealand will only allow about 1 GB per month on a standard plan.
Interesting. Care to provide more details.
Here in Sydney, I pay $60 bucks a month for a wireless 12 GB plan with speeds of 100mbps. It's generally great but can be quite annoyingly slow at times and drops out often
Broadband is the one thing moving to Australia or New Zealand would be huge drawback for me. I could not imagine going back to 1990s internet speeds with caps. Although I do remember seeing another thread here where some one said in some areas you can get service without caps.
Here in Sydney, I pay $60 bucks a month for a wireless 12 GB plan with speeds of 100mbps. It's generally great but can be quite annoyingly slow at times and drops out often
You can get 1GB plans, but I would call them "entry level" plans, not "standard". Some ISPs don't even offer plans below 5GB unless you live in a rural area.
I pay $60 a month for a 20GB plan with 3.5mbps which drops to something like 64kbps for the remainder of the month if I go over my 20GB. I've only ever had that happen a couple of times, but it's not much fun.
Also, 3.5mbps isn't as bad as it may sound. As an example, before we started getting it on TV here I use to watch The Colbert Report online and could watch it full screen at maximum quality without any problems at all. The only time you really notice the massive gap between 3.5mbps and 100mbps is when downloading files, and then there is just no comparison. For ordinary daily internet usage, it's not too bad.
Broadband is the one thing moving to Australia or New Zealand would be huge drawback for me. I could not imagine going back to 1990s internet speeds with caps. Although I do remember seeing another thread here where some one said in some areas you can get service without caps.
You can definitely get plans without caps you just have to pay for it. I'm afraid I can't remember exact dollar amounts, but I do remember when getting my internet account having the option for an uncapped service. I also remember thinking that it was so expensive that it wasn't worth it. With the lower internet speeds I rarely download enough to exceed my 20GB limit anyway so until the speed increases, the caps are not the main problem.
I wouldn't worry about specific pieces of technology. Anything that is available in the USA will also be available here. And in some cases it may be available here first, even if only by a few hours due to time zone differences The problem is with our infrastructure which is lagging behind many countries. As an example, I currently have a 3.5Mbit/s internet connection at home and that is probably considered above average here but would be below average in many other countries. The current government is talking about making big improvements to things over the next few years but whether we catch up or not, only time will tell.
Becoming a citizen is not particularly hard here, at least compared to most countries (including the USA). I would suggest taking a look at the official NZ immigration website
My guess would be that either the "Skilled Migrant" or possibly the "Business Migration" categories will be your best bet depending what you want to do when you get here. Once you're a permanent resident, then it is just a case of living here (and not getting into any legal trouble) for five years and you can become a citizen.
I have heard that its quite a bit harder than that to become a citizen but I guess ill look it up...if thats the case I would be very excited. I am not worried toooo much about the technology or anything I guess...just making sure I can still work there. I would be working yes, but I would also want to go to Grad School there. I am not sure where. I have heard and seen that housing is quite a bit cheaper there than it is in the USA.
One thing I dont understand is that they have Apartments that are nightly rates? Are those hotels or what? Any what does the average apartment go for in North Island compared to Southland??? If I was just working I would much rather live in Southland...the Dunedin area is where I was looking at. Obviously if I was in school I would be living in Wellington/Auckland.
I have heard that its quite a bit harder than that to become a citizen but I guess ill look it up...if thats the case I would be very excited. I am not worried toooo much about the technology or anything I guess...just making sure I can still work there. I would be working yes, but I would also want to go to Grad School there. I am not sure where. I have heard and seen that housing is quite a bit cheaper there than it is in the USA.
One thing I dont understand is that they have Apartments that are nightly rates? Are those hotels or what? Any what does the average apartment go for in North Island compared to Southland??? If I was just working I would much rather live in Southland...the Dunedin area is where I was looking at. Obviously if I was in school I would be living in Wellington/Auckland.
If you are thinking of doing a masters, then you should definitely wait until you have permanent residency otherwise you have to pay international fees, which can be really high. If you are thinking of doing a PhD though, you might be interesting to know that in NZ, international PhD students only pay domestic fees. If that is what you are thinking about, it might be a nice way for you to come and experience the place without commiting to the whole immigration process yet.
I actually grew up in Dunedin and now live in Auckland. I loved growing up there, but I should warn you the weather is not for everybody (think of Seattle but with slightly lower temperatures, more rain and spread out more evenly over both winter and summer ). It is a great university town though, so depending what you would be studying, you don't need to automatically assume you have to come north to Wellington or Auckland for grad school.
The apartments with a nightly rate are pretty common here (and Australia too). I assumed they would be in the USA too, but maybe not. They are basically managed apartments in a standard residential apartment building. You can use them just like a hotel room, but the main advantage is if you are staying somewhere for like a week or more then it's nice to have your own kitchen and things like that. The only downside versus a hotel is that they probably won't have somebody in the lobby 24 hours a day so you usually need to arrange a time to check in and collect the keys and there won't necessarily be anybody to give you advice or directions like there would be in a hotel.
I can't offer any advice on specific apartment prices, except that south is generally going to be cheaper than north (unless you end up in a tourist resort town like Queenstown). You may want to check out trademe to get ideas though.
Trademe is basically our equivalent to eBay, but we use it for everything including finding flats/apartments.
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The problem is with our infrastructure which is lagging behind many countries. As an example, I currently have a 3.5Mbit/s internet connection at home and that is probably considered above average here but would be below average in many other countries. The current government is talking about making big improvements to things over the next few years but whether we catch up or not, only time will tell.
). It is a great university town though, so depending what you would be studying, you don't need to automatically assume you have to come north to Wellington or Auckland for grad school.
