Originally Posted by
datlas
Hey gnome, I get letters in the mail asking me to come and work in NZ...how's life there??
not bad. we pay up to 33% income tax and also pay 15% GST (value added comsumption tax on goods & services) and the local body property taxes seem to keep rising. but on the plus side there is a reasonable social safety net, most healthcare (except dentistry) is paid or heavily subsidised by the Govt and there is a govt scheme called ACC which will pay out an income replacement in the event you are unable to work due to an injury/accident.
property in Auckland (the largest city) is overpriced but the rest of the country isn't to bad. Stuff is a bit more expensive to buy here by and large.
The weather is fairly temperate: lows in the south of the South Island can reach about -10°C in the middle of winter. We are currently in the middle of summer and sizzling with temperatures reaching about 32°C at the moment. In the western sides of the country it rains a lot.
Most of the roads outside of the main metropolitan centres are surfaced in chip-seal.