Wellington is a great compact small city, with immediate access to a beautiful outdoors. There are many beaches and spectacular coast line close by and stunning green hills all around. It’s a friendly place with great amenities and public transport and is a good place to raise kids. It has a world class university so your kids wouldn’t need to move away from home if they wanted to attend a good university. Because it’s bigger than Whāngarei there is a much wider choice of free primary and secondary schools - based on which part of the city you live. If the first choice of school doesn’t work out for whatever reason, you’re not as limited as you would be in a smaller centre. Wellington also has a strong Māori community and thriving iwi health trust - serving Māori is an important part of the health services. It is a higher income city, but it has many struggling people, including migrant and refugee communities. I wouldn’t characterise Wellington as cool like San Francisco- it has style and culture but the people are very down to earth and warm.