Would someone from New Zealand tell me if it’s as great of a place to live as I keep hearing?

Answer 1

I'd rank it pretty high. There are places where life is pretty much as good as it is in NZ though. In my opinion, they are:
- Australia (creepie-crawlies though)
- Sweden (cold and high taxes though)
- Western Canada (BC, the mild part by the Pacific ocean)
- probably much of the US West coast, like Oregon and Northern California (if you like the US)
- southern Ireland (if you can stand the crazy driving)
- parts of Britain, such as North Wales and Eastern Scotland (extremely similar to NZ, but UK has lots of yobs, NZ not really)
- Germany (cold winters though)
- Austria (also cold winters)
- Finland (really cold, and have fun with the language)
- Norway (cold and dark, too, I'm afraid)
- Denmark (cold)
- France (hm... pretty comparable, actually)
- The Netherlands (same, but densely populated)

It compares pretty well with those places, I find. Mellow, liberal, mild-mannered, safe, free-wheeling, and inspired.

There are a few things absent here which the other places mostly do have though: NZ has no conscript army (which most of the European nations I mentioned do have), crime is pretty low here, nobody really owns guns, there is no capital punishment, and winters are really mild, unless you're in the mountains.

On a day-to day basis, I'd say life compares favorably to most of the above places:

Healthcare is free and one of the best in the world, there is a good social system, car insurance is a joke by comparison with all of the above, house prices are about 50% of current US prices, petrol is cheaper than in most places (about US prices), it's no problem at all to get hold of a BMW or Merc if you want one and drive it on a daily basis, restaurants and shopping are better than in many European countries and can compare to Canadian levels, and you can buy anything you like. The economy is good.

I'd say it's not breathtaking, but in the sum of things, probably hard to better. One thing that is breathtaking though is the colours. Every day, as I look out my window, I am amazed again by that sky and vegetation.
I hope I'm not hurting anyone's feelings when I say this, but in terms of mentality, there are friendlier places than NZ, like Canada or the UK. The people here in NZ do not have the same, overwhelming warmth and bubbliness of the former. But they are certainly comparable to the French or the Dutch or the Germans - which is to say, reasonably nice, with the odd rough edge.

Answer 2

It depends on what you consider to be 'great' - it is a personal preference kind of thing. And different parts of NZ are different, and suit different people.

Answer 3

It's pretty good if you can take the ozone hole.