Best places to live in NZ

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wembley
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Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by wembley »

I came across this website

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/114331 ... n#comments

It also shows the sunshine hours for the various places.
RODALCO
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by RODALCO »

Nice reading I like Auckand, regardless of congestion. Great place to live, good climate, and when it doesn't rain, we have lots of sunshine.
Who put the LED's on the lightning arrestor ?
RWood
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by RWood »

wembley wrote: Thu 25/07/2019 10:24 I came across this website

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/114331 ... n#comments

It also shows the sunshine hours for the various places.
The sunshine hours are quoted for one year only (2018) and implicitly gloss over the problem of non-comparability beween manual and electronic recording. For inter-site comparisons it would be better to have quoted NIWA's own table of 1981-2010 averages. Shallow stuff.
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by NZ Thunderstorm Soc »

Auckland is obviously the best place to live in New Zealand as a good percentage of the population live there.
Good climate, ie, lotsa thunderstorm, no snowfalls or frosts in winter and lots of beaches if you into that sort of thing. 8)
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RWood
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by RWood »

NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote: Thu 25/07/2019 17:58 Auckland is obviously the best place to live in New Zealand as a good percentage of the population live there.
Good climate, ie, lotsa thunderstorm, no snowfalls or frosts in winter and lots of beaches if you into that sort of thing. 8)
Permit me to disagree. I want the sunnier drier climes in appropriate eastern regions (plus parts of Nelson of course).
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by NZ Thunderstorm Soc »

RWood wrote: Thu 25/07/2019 18:01
NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote: Thu 25/07/2019 17:58 Auckland is obviously the best place to live in New Zealand as a good percentage of the population live there.
Good climate, ie, lotsa thunderstorm, no snowfalls or frosts in winter and lots of beaches if you into that sort of thing. 8)
Permit me to disagree. I want the sunnier drier climes in appropriate eastern regions (plus parts of Nelson of course).
I was speaking on the population count rather than any specific area.
I would never move from Geraldine. The weather here just suits me to the ground, even though you get clagg now and then. :rolleyes: :smile:
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by tornado »

NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote: Thu 25/07/2019 17:58 Auckland is obviously the best place to live in New Zealand as a good percentage of the population live there.
Good climate, ie, lotsa thunderstorm, no snowfalls or frosts in winter and lots of beaches if you into that sort of thing. 8)
we do get frost. and we do get the rare snowfall once every 80 years. 2011 for example
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by Cherie »

Hmm, tough one. I’ve lived in the places below and would like to have a mixture of their weather lol. Top of south’s sunshine with top of North Island’s mild temps and occasional thunderstorms, and maybe a snowfall or two from down south to keep it fun!

Motueka/Golden Bay - grew up in both. Bit wetter in Golden Bay, but overall Mot/GB have amazing amounts of sunshine and plenty of warm days in summer. Frosty nights in winter, but you have the sun on your back during the day which makes a huge difference. Plus some good downpours and occasional thunderstorms, being in the west.

Blenheim - ditto on sunshine. Some bloody hot days, sometimes for a while week in summer, but that’s great if you’re hanging out at the river. Very cold winter nights/heavy frosts in winter.

Chch - As above, the nor westers are nice if you’re at the river/beach/pool. Always followed by a southerly though 👎 The occasional snowfall was a novelty but not sure it’s worth the otherwise often drab winters.

Timaru - Like Chch, but with heavier frosts. Only lived here one year though.

Dunedin - Also like Chch but a colder in summer and winter.

Invercargill - Pretty weak summer. Not as rainy as people think. I remember a lot of cloudy days though. Not as cold as Chch/Timaru/Dunedin, in my memory anyway.

Auckland - An interesting climate. More thunderstorms tomorrow than anywhere else I’ve lived. Winters pretty easy, only the rain to drag you down (this year has been a breeze of course). Get a handful of very light frosts. Summer is long and humid. Temp kind of parks up between about 19C-28C range for about 4months it seems.
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by RWood »

Cherie wrote: Thu 25/07/2019 20:55
Blenheim - ditto on sunshine. Some bloody hot days, sometimes for a while week in summer, but that’s great if you’re hanging out at the river. Very cold winter nights/heavy frosts in winter.

Dunedin - Also like Chch but a colder in summer and winter.

Invercargill - Pretty weak summer. Not as rainy as people think. I remember a lot of cloudy days though. Not as cold as Chch/Timaru/Dunedin, in my memory anyway.
Invercargill's Tmeans are lower than those for those 3 towns all year round. Even if you look at average Tmins over the year, one has: Musselburgh, Dunedin 7.6, Ch'ch Gardens 7.3, Timaru EWS 6.7, Ch'ch Aero 6.3, Invercargill Aero 5.5. I lived in both Invercargill and Dunedin for a significant period of time and was never in doubt as to which felt colder.


Re Blenheim frosts - some average Tmins for July are Nelson AWS 2.6, Blenheim 2.5, Nelson Aero 1.9, Appleby 1.9, Riwaka 1.1. Doesn't support your contention.
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by Cherie »

Weird. Blenheim felt colder. Would get -5C nights, don't remember than in Mot etc. Maybe Mot is more consistently colder at night than Blenheim. These are my experiences. Not data. I'll take your point on Invercargill, I don't remember it feeling colder than Dunedin which felt blimmin cold to me. I did live in Invercargill after Dunedin. Maybe I had hardened up.
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by Flutterbye »

Cherie wrote: Thu 25/07/2019 21:42 Weird. Blenheim felt colder. Would get -5C nights, don't remember than in Mot etc. Maybe Mot is more consistently colder at night than Blenheim. These are my experiences. Not data. I'll take your point on Invercargill, I don't remember it feeling colder than Dunedin which felt blimmin cold to me. I did live in Invercargill after Dunedin. Maybe I had hardened up.
I've spent quite a bit of time in Dunedin and can say that it felt colder there. Once you mentioned Invercargill, I knew that poster would appear - his dislike of the city is well known. To be fair though, I wouldn't live in Wellington if you paid me. I even made sure that when I booked my regular travel to Auckland, that I wouldn't have to come home via Wellington!
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by Cherie »

Yes, well the other factor with Invercargill is that I probably spent little time noticing the weather there as I loved my time in that city. Work and friends were great and we had lots of adventures in Central Otago, Fiordland, Catlins, Stewart Island and Invercargill … happy memories.
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by RWood »

Flutterbye wrote: Thu 25/07/2019 21:53
Cherie wrote: Thu 25/07/2019 21:42 Weird. Blenheim felt colder. Would get -5C nights, don't remember than in Mot etc. Maybe Mot is more consistently colder at night than Blenheim. These are my experiences. Not data. I'll take your point on Invercargill, I don't remember it feeling colder than Dunedin which felt blimmin cold to me. I did live in Invercargill after Dunedin. Maybe I had hardened up.
I've spent quite a bit of time in Dunedin and can say that it felt colder there. Once you mentioned Invercargill, I knew that poster would appear - his dislike of the city is well known. To be fair though, I wouldn't live in Wellington if you paid me. I even made sure that when I booked my regular travel to Auckland, that I wouldn't have to come home via Wellington!

Very sensitive. The facts simply show that Dunedin is warmer than Invercargill, whatever your subjective opinion. It used to amuse me when I was regularly travelling between the two places, hearing the locals disparaging the climate of the other one. My "dislike" as you call it was simply based on my climate priorities. Longterm averages for mean temperatures and sunshine support my preferences and anti-preferences - if they didn't, I would change them. Your opinion of Wellington is of no interest to me.
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David
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by David »

I've only ever lived in Auckland but one thing I enjoy here is the low temperature variability. A 5 degrees swing in one day would be considered unusual. My data shows that in an average month the highest temperature is only 3-4C above the mean daily maximum. Also the summers are pretty reliable, often will have several months without a daily max below 20C.
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by RWood »

Cherie wrote: Thu 25/07/2019 21:42 Weird. Blenheim felt colder. Would get -5C nights, don't remember than in Mot etc. Maybe Mot is more consistently colder at night than Blenheim. These are my experiences. Not data. I'll take your point on Invercargill, I don't remember it feeling colder than Dunedin which felt blimmin cold to me. I did live in Invercargill after Dunedin. Maybe I had hardened up.
I spent 17 years in those two centres combined. My parents wisely bought a warm house in Invercargill. I didn't always have that option in Dunedin. I knew a schoolteacher in Invercargill who had a great garden - but his secret was an extremely tall hedge/fence which cut off the westerlies and gave shelter. Spent many a schoolday and other days biking into said westerlies.

The key for many people we knew was escaping to the hinterland, mainly in summer, hence the popularity of Central Otago and Queenstown (the latter was more affordable then of course).

I know a Mot poster on another forum who gets around the "north of the south" and is in no doubt about the Mot nights - not that it matters when winds are light, and sunny days give a feel of quick warmup.
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by RWood »

David wrote: Fri 26/07/2019 07:48 I've only ever lived in Auckland but one thing I enjoy here is the low temperature variability. A 5 degrees swing in one day would be considered unusual. My data shows that in an average month the highest temperature is only 3-4C above the mean daily maximum. Also the summers are pretty reliable, often will have several months without a daily max below 20C.
Yes, those are positives for sure. But I want the extra sun and lower humidities of the "east", and significantly lower rainfall. My preferred climate in the North Island would probably be Napier.
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by spwill »

The sunshine hrs quoted for Dunedin of 1949 hrs is a particularly sunny year as the long term average is closer to 1684 hrs.
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Re: Best places to live in NZ

Unread post by RWood »

spwill wrote: Fri 26/07/2019 09:19 The sunshine hrs quoted for Dunedin of 1949 hrs is a particularly sunny year as the long term average is closer to 1684 hrs.
As noted in the past - and still being investigated - comparability between the manual and electronic readings is a problem. In the case of Dunedin and many other sites the amounts being recorded electronically are somewhere from 150 to 300 hours more than in the manual era.
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