Settlement Assistance Links

General Reference

• New Zealand Immigation Service
• Migration News: excellent resource for anyone considering emigrating to New Zealand
• TheTelecom New Zealand's Yellow Pages Telephone Directory and Telecom White Pages Telephone Directory
• The New Zealand Government Directory
• Statistics New Zealand provides basic official statistics on New Zealand
• Stock Exchange

Notes on the cost of living in New Zealand

The cost of living in New Zealand is high and choice is relatively limited. This reflects two fundamental facts namely: New Zealand is remote and New Zealand is sparsely populated. Of the two the sparse population makes the biggest impact. This reduces the scope for services or products which are not mainstream. Remoteness simply adds to the cost of transport and hence the cost of opportunities to service this market. Surprisingly many things New Zealand makes are also expensive owing to the fact that much is exported and exporters prefer offshore premium prices to onshore ones.

• Grocery items - Woolworths Supermarket
• Online Auction site Trademe
• The Autopoint site for information on car prices
• Book and Stationers Whitcoulls - Dymocks
• Telecom and tolls rival TelstraClear
• Air New Zealand
• Real Estate

Funds Deposit

The following retail banks have web sites in New Zealand:
(Most list current interest rates).

• ASB Bank also owns the virtual bank Bankdirect
• Bank of New Zealand
• Westpac Trust
• National Bank
• Kiwibank
• PSIS

  To check Exchange Rates of your currency against the kiwi.

Employment

• IPENZ JobHunt engineering recruitment website.
• IPENZ Directory of Recruitment Consultants
• Rob Law Consulting Group, CRS Recruitment and Technology Recruitment Specialists also deal in technology and engineering recruitment.
• Probably the largest online job site seek
• Wheeler Campbell, Momentum Consulting Group and Sheffield Consulting Group, cover the management end of the employment spectrum.
• Kiwi Careers is aimed more at unemployed youth but has some useful links

Remuneration Survey

IPENZ conducts an annual remuneration survey of its members. Results are available to IPENZ members and are available for purchase by the general public. Click here to order a copy

Immigration Consultants

(Let us make absolutely clear we do not endorse any of the following consultancies.
These links are provided for your interest only)

• Innes Dean Barristers and Soliciters

• Malcolm Pacific Immigration Consultants

• Working in New Zealand
  

Real Estate

You may know already which region you are moving into. This page from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand provides a comprehensive region-by-region introduction to NZ real estate.

• Harcourts is one of New Zealand's bigger real estate chains

• United is another.

• To find out more about New Zealand regions by their web presences

Office hours, holidays etc in NZ

• Time Zone: GMT+12 EST+17 (+1 for daylight saving:1st Sunday in October until 3rd Sunday March)

• National Telephone Code: 64. City Codes: Wellington 4, Auckland 9, whole South Island 3. eg Wellington 64-4

• Official Languages: English is the most common official language although Maori is officially recognised literacy is about 98%. British spellings are used.

• Measurements: New Zealand uses SI units.

• Government and Bank Office Hours: 0830-1700NZT Monday to Friday. Shopping is generally seven days for supermarkets

• Official National Holidays:

• (New Year) 1 Jan, 2 Jan; (Waitangi Day) 6 Feb; (Easter Weekend) by lunar calendar;(Anzac Day), 25 April; (Queens Birthday) first Monday of June;(Labour Day) 3rd Monday in (Christmas) 25 and 26 Dec.

• Official Regional Holidays of main centres:

• Wellington 25 January; Auckland 1 February; Christchurch 12 November. There are other regional holidays.