Living in Auckland

I just replied to a PM I got from someone asking me similar questions, so I thought I would post my response here, hope it helps!
The best of Auckland;
•    The climate – it's mostly mild, though can get a bit chilly in winter (May/June is the coldest time of year when you can get frost) but even in winter you get the most gorgeous sunny days. It does rain a lot, but again, in between downpours it will be warm and sunny. No snow in Auckland!
•    The beaches/bush walks/scenery – there is so much to do within an hour's drive of Auckland; loads of stunning and deserted beaches, amazing scenery in the Waitakere national park and beyond. The scenery is breathtaking and unspoilt.
•    The people – I should have listed the people first as really, that is why we will stay here, I don't just mean the friends that you will undoubtably make (this is one of the easiest places to make friends) but the strangers who smile, say hello, offer help or kind words when you least expect them. We are constantly humbled when we meet Kiwis who are just nice, friendly, warm and generous… We have been welcomed by people, invited in to their homes and in to their families and it seems Kiwis actually like each other. I don't want to make direct comparisons with London (where we lived before coming to Auckland)as this would be foolish, but the cities couldn't be more different in that respect.
•    The space – ie lack of people. The population is so small that wherever you go, cafes, parks, bars, beaches there is hardly ever a queue or many people and you often have the place to yourself. Many Kiwis are actually disappointed if they head to a beach in summer and there are more than a dozen people there, they are used to having the place to themselves.

The worst of Auckland
•    The housing – the houses here are very, very badly insulated and hardly any of them have any form of heating. We liken them to living in tents. This is what annoys me most about living here. We rent what is called a “villa” which is an old, wooden bungalow – lovely to look at but freezing in winter. Although the temperature outside isn't that cold (compared to the UK) the houses get very cold and damp (it's not uncommon to walk in to our lounge of a morning in winter and the thermometer will read 11 degrees). People heat their houses using electric oil heaters (expensive and inefficient) and use de-humidifiers to try to dry them out. Kiwi houses (it is the same all over NZ) are mostly built with summer in mind so today, for example, is a lovely, hot and sunny day and with all our doors and windows open, our house is very comfortable. But in winter it is a drafty, cold house where no amount of layers or oil heaters can take the chill off. I could go on for hours about this and I am not alone in thinking it's ludicrous that houses were (and still are) built without insulation.
•    The distance from everywhere else – it's obvious but until you live here you don't really understand how very far you are from friends, family and other countries to visit. This doesn't actually bother me so much and we've luckily had a lot of visitors and have travelled around a lot, but it's an expensive place to get to, so your folks/ mates can't just hop on a plane every few months (unless they're lottery winners!)
•    The cost of living – it's by no means high, but it's not as cheap as we'd expected. Food is much more seasonal, ie buy a cucumber in season and it's delicious and very cheap, but try to buy one out of season and it will cost $5. Generally food is more expensive as is public transport, gym membership, flights (it costs far more to fly from NZ to the UK than it does to fly from the UK to NZ) and housing is not cheap if you want to live near the centre of Auckland. If, however, you are not tied to a big city you can get a lot of land/house for your money.
•    Shopping – this sounds shallow and materialistic but the shopping here is not great, there is not a huge selection, it's mostly made in China and not good quality and it is far more expensive than the UK. Most expats I know stock up when home and bring it over here with them.

So – it depends what you are looking for and it will be what you make it. There are lots of great things about living here and for us, we feel it's one of the best places in the world to raise a family, there is so much to do that is not expensive and generally there is less materialism and it's not all about having the latest trainers or computer game (you get a bit of that, but definitely not as much as we saw in the UK).

Cheers
Peregrine