Lifestyle and more
With a wide variety of landscape and climate, New Zealand has conditions for almost every outdoor activity and sport. If you enjoy fishing, tennis, swimming, water sports and golf, you’ll love it! The most popular spectator sport is rugby - followed by cricket, athletics and horse-racing.
All major cities and towns have cinemas, nightclubs, restaurants, art galleries and museums. Several professional theatre companies and professional orchestras operate throughout NZ. Many communities have art centres and adult education classes for a variety of crafts, like pottery. You’ll find restaurants, cafés and bars of all nationalities throughout NZ and Wellington has more cafes and bars per capita than New York.
New Zealand is easy to get around but the public transport system is not that well developed due to a small population and high level of car ownership. Road conditions are generally good - although in country areas many secondary roads are still unsealed. National bus and train services operate between most cities and towns plus regular ferry services operate between the islands.
New Zealand has a unique and dynamic culture with a diverse and multicultural population living together in relative cultural and social harmony. You’ll find many good qualities, like friendliness, individuality, invention and self-reliance, in most New Zealanders. The culture of the indigenous Māori people affects the language, the arts, and even the accents of all New Zealanders.
New Zealand’s population is just under 4 million - the majority of migrants being of British and Irish descent. The culture and way of life is noticeably British in origin, although with a distinctly New Zealand flavour and classless society.
The majority of employment is in manufacturing and services located throughout New Zealand with only 10% in Farming and forestry. NZ has one of the highest investments in information technology, and its people are proven early adopters of a whole range of technologies.
New wealth has been created by the newly booming economy and only a small proportion of people have incomes far above or below the national average.
New Zealand’s health care and education systems are excellent and enjoy a high reputation. Health care is considered ‘cradle to grave’ whilst the education philosophy is based on the British tradition with a vocational South Pacific orientation.
More than three-quarters of New Zealand’s population live in the major cities of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. Housing prices are extremely affordable and are yet another reason why New Zealand consistently rates amongst the best places to live in the world.
Read much more…detail about Lifestyle – culture – business/employment – Health, Housing and Education (PDF)
