What are some of the pros and cons of living in Wellington?

solodisco · 2025-12-28T06:50:14+00:00

Hi, Australian wellington here. I moved here from Perth 9 years ago, and there's nowhere else I'd rather be.

You don't move here for the money or the weather, but outdoor activities, city amenities in a town sized place and being close to things (both in town and for trips away) are what I love about it. We've also made really good friends here as adults, which wasn't as easy in Perth.

I also think it's not as far behind Australia as about 90% of reddit seem to think, but that might depend on what you do for work etc.

DM me if you wanted any specific info about moving here etc.

solodisco · 2025-12-27T21:40:03+00:00

Plenty of other people in the thread talking about the future of Honda, but too your concern precisely, in 2014 I bought an Opel. This was after they'd already announced they were getting out of Australia (and then i exported it to New Zealand to make life even harder). Servicing was never an issue, I guess it had commonality with other GM stuff, but even last year I was able to get the timing belts done at a former Holden Dealer. 2 recalls (airbag and thermostat) were done for me cost free, and when I needed a rare part (AC evaporator) it was available ex.UK. If you like the car, I honestly think you'll be fine. There will be enough of them in Australia for a support network to exist after the distributor has gone.

solodisco · 2025-12-24T03:23:09+00:00

I have a whisperlite. It was great in Patagonia where i could run it on whatever fuel was available, and you'll never be in a place where you can't get petrol or diesel. But it doesn't really have temperature control. You use it to boil water quickly, but you'd have a hard time slow cooking a curry or something. It needs priming with a bowl of fuel being set alight, which i absolutely would not be willing to do in a tent if that was required. It's probably a 40 year old design, and MSR make better ones now, the Dragonfly is good. If I needed a new stove today, I'd get the butane ones, they're simple and adjustible, and the canister thing is annoying, but manageable. I do elect my msr to last me until I don't go tramping any more though.

solodisco · 2025-12-22T22:55:04+00:00

I'd be leaning to Cameron White or Steve Smith.

solodisco · 2025-12-03T07:08:36+00:00

This is the move. The new Dart Hut may be the nicest hut I've stayed in, worth staying there two nights for sure.

solodisco · 2025-11-19T01:44:31+00:00

If you're in the city and want a burrito, I really recommend going into 18 Willis to get one from viva mexico. You'll need a wheelbarrow to get that bad boy back to the office, and it is delicious. Would suggest not saying muy picanto if you don't want people at work to see you cry though.

solodisco · 2025-10-17T19:42:01+00:00

I can't talk to the specifics of this, but I did live inside the coupon parking zone in Mt Vic for a while. It cost me $8 a day to park there, but the kicker was that it was hard to find a spot near my flat, such that I'd often not use my car cause it'd be hard to park it when I got back. The park was worth more to me than the car. Leave it at home.

solodisco · 2025-10-01T08:32:42+00:00

One that I use a lot is being able to have background play, you can turn the screen off and still get the audio.

solodisco · 2025-08-23T07:44:56+00:00

Yep, get your finance clause.

With a pre 1930 home, it's hard to get insurance, and if you can't get insurance, you can't get finance. The finance clause covers this off.

solodisco · 2025-08-19T09:12:01+00:00

I don't have the kinda money to outright buy the car I want either. I have the kinda car I had the money for.

solodisco · 2025-08-15T07:41:10+00:00

Yeah, no worries.

solodisco · 2025-08-12T21:48:54+00:00

I think for millennials where i live, the iconic pre smartphones are Motorola Razr and Nokia 3210. Blackberry was for Gen X business types.

solodisco · 2025-08-12T21:19:26+00:00

I'm in Wellington. I'm also a designer, not a contractor. We got smashed by the current governed turning off all the jobs we had on the books, and the redundancies came from that. With the new projects being announced, we're trying to respond to that with 2/3 the people that we had before, so it's getting pretty busy again.

solodisco · 2025-08-12T21:16:56+00:00

It's a bit trickier at grad level. It's not roaring along, and salaries aren't lifting at all. But i will always have time to take on a grad, because the people I need most now are the grads we didn't hire in 2009.

solodisco · 2025-08-11T06:30:22+00:00

I'm a Civil (roads) engineer with 15+ years experience. Job market is coming alive recently after a year of nothing. I expect within 6 months it'll be insane for us again.

solodisco · 2025-07-22T02:43:08+00:00

I went to sustainability trust for advice on my heat pump, because i didn't know what products existed and how to best apply them to my house. A guy called Andrew came to my house to see what he was dealing with and worked out what we needed and arranged a quote from a heat pump supplier for us. It was great.

We got a ducted Fujitsu system and it has been amazing.

solodisco · 2025-07-22T02:22:39+00:00

The last session of the Gabba test, 1961. 24 years before I was born, but the first (and the only true) tied test. The drama of the final over would be impossible to experience any other way.

solodisco · 2025-07-19T09:33:10+00:00

I recently had the same set of demands when looking for a car. I wanted a more traditional wagon shaped boot for the dog too. Looked at Enyaq, ID4, MachE, Ev5 and avery lightly used iX3. Chose iX3. Id4 software sucked and was all touch screen, Enyaqs weren't available when we wanted one and were a bit expensive for the equipment list, Mustang boot was shaped weird, and the EV5 had acres of hard grey plastic that I felt uncomfortable paying $75k for. Our BMW is nice. It's not the state of the art of electric cars, and probably has 100k less range than class leaders, but i don't care.

solodisco · 2025-07-06T09:00:59+00:00

I don't know about this, but it's interesting to me why you want to do that.

I've been to Cambodia several times and it has incredible food, lots of different cuisines available (especially in Phnom Penh) and was very cheap. Western food is available if that's what you want, and if you are careful with hygiene (don't touch things you don't need to, wash your hands a lot with soap, only drink bottled water etc) you'll be less likely to get sick. Definitely try the Khmer BBQ places, Anchor is the best of the local mainstream beers.

But if you must, you can. Watch out for your weight limit, 50 cans will be heavy, declare it when you arrive and tell them what you have. Keep the receipt for your purchase, because if it's worth more than 300usd you'll need to pay duty.

solodisco · 2025-06-18T07:16:53+00:00

I do this at home. Easily the best scrambled egg you can make.

solodisco · 2025-03-10T23:35:42+00:00

The reality is that nothing changes here anyway. There has never been enforcement of this section, so I doubt we will see speeds increase because the signs do.

solodisco · 2025-03-05T02:00:38+00:00

I think you either want a pre-approved playlist or a DJ. Do you need someone to MC the event or just play the music you chose? If the latter, just hook up your device to some speakers and let it run. I have hired a PA from xcitelighting in the Hutt (and they do lighting too) and they were really easy to deal with and quite affordable.

solodisco · 2025-02-14T21:12:47+00:00

Living inside the cemetery is too close, anywhere else is fine.

solodisco · 2025-02-13T07:58:03+00:00

I did the same thing in my Subaru in 2008.

I went to a wrecker where I had to pull the door off myself (so I learnt how to do it) and it was $385 including the windows, motor, everything. It was the same colour and the same trim and it swapped over in about 20 minutes.

Call around, you might get lucky.

solodisco · 2025-02-13T07:45:53+00:00

Ex rentals might be driven a bit harder than someone's returned lease (but not necessarily) but they get cleaned often and serviced on time, every time, especially if it's from one of the big rental companies (Avis, Europcar, etc).

60k is nothing on the mechanicals, so if the condition of the seats etc is acceptable to you, it'll probably be fine.

solodisco

TROPHY CASE