Thursday, 14 January 2016
Jogging - 14/01/2016
This was my first jogging after moving to my new room. Was a bit slow today compare to last week. It took me 36 minutes to complete 6.13km.
Saturday, 9 January 2016
Moving Out
I have moved out.
Yes, I have moved out from my previous rented room to a new room. This house's landlord is a single mother and staying with her son, who had graduated last year in New Zealand and now works in a hotel in city. She is a friendly Catholic lady from China and guess what ? She is studying a Diploma in Mechanical at Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT). Learning is forever, age is not a barrier, only mindset !
The surrounding here is better compared to my previous place. It's quiet here and better housekeeping, the previous house was just nearby the motorway (it's actually a highway but it's called Motorway here) and the cars sound could be heard all the time, even during mid night ! I often woke up at night because of that.
Yes, I have moved out from my previous rented room to a new room. This house's landlord is a single mother and staying with her son, who had graduated last year in New Zealand and now works in a hotel in city. She is a friendly Catholic lady from China and guess what ? She is studying a Diploma in Mechanical at Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT). Learning is forever, age is not a barrier, only mindset !
The surrounding here is better compared to my previous place. It's quiet here and better housekeeping, the previous house was just nearby the motorway (it's actually a highway but it's called Motorway here) and the cars sound could be heard all the time, even during mid night ! I often woke up at night because of that.
Yes, it's the house that I moved in this morning.
Surrounding by nice houses
Backyard for cloths drying area
Living room
Kitchen and dining place are clean
Laundry place
This is the small kitchen in the backyard where I will cook my meals. I prefer because I can use the gas stove which is easy for me as I have used to cook using gas stove rather than electric stove
Finally, my room :)
This house is located in Papatoetoe. Sound funny ? It's a Maori name, it means as 'undulating area where the toetoe is the predominant feature. My previous rented room was in Otahuhu (also a Maori name). Papatoetoe is about 9 minutes or 5km drive from Otahuhu to the south. So, it is more farther to the city. If using motorway with smooth traffic, it takes about 18 mins (19km) to reach Auckland's city or CBD.
Why not rent a room nearer to the city since I have to work and attend classes in the city. Reason being is simple, cheaper rental. I pay $130 weekly now instead of $140 previously with a better and more comfortable environment. It means I can save $40 a month ! Some say the driving distance could increase the petrol cost as well. My Mitsubishi Colt Plus petrol consumption is $0.10 per km, which is reasonable fuel saver car.
By the way, the year 2005 made model asked price was RM39,000 on CarSifu website in Jan 2015. That is a very expensive car price. I bought mine which is year 2006 and cost me only NZ$4,434, inclusive of 6 months road tax. Even if I convert to RM using the highest exchange rate at 3, it is only RM13,302. But in Malaysia it's 193% higher for the same model but year of 2005 !!!
Coming back to the rental. The rental nearer to the city is higher and 2 days ago, news reported that Auckland rents likely to increase soon, probably in February 2016. Property prices here are really sky rocketing and it's getting more difficult to own a house here. Anyway, this trend is not only happening in New Zealand, particularly in Auckland. In other countries, mainly the city area, house prices are expensive as well. It is really a normal income earner has to find ways to increase the income in order to support the higher cost of living.
Why not rent a room nearer to the city since I have to work and attend classes in the city. Reason being is simple, cheaper rental. I pay $130 weekly now instead of $140 previously with a better and more comfortable environment. It means I can save $40 a month ! Some say the driving distance could increase the petrol cost as well. My Mitsubishi Colt Plus petrol consumption is $0.10 per km, which is reasonable fuel saver car.
By the way, the year 2005 made model asked price was RM39,000 on CarSifu website in Jan 2015. That is a very expensive car price. I bought mine which is year 2006 and cost me only NZ$4,434, inclusive of 6 months road tax. Even if I convert to RM using the highest exchange rate at 3, it is only RM13,302. But in Malaysia it's 193% higher for the same model but year of 2005 !!!
Coming back to the rental. The rental nearer to the city is higher and 2 days ago, news reported that Auckland rents likely to increase soon, probably in February 2016. Property prices here are really sky rocketing and it's getting more difficult to own a house here. Anyway, this trend is not only happening in New Zealand, particularly in Auckland. In other countries, mainly the city area, house prices are expensive as well. It is really a normal income earner has to find ways to increase the income in order to support the higher cost of living.
Wednesday, 6 January 2016
Sunday, 3 January 2016
Looking For a Great 2016 Year
Happy New 2016 Year. This is the 3rd day of 2016. I am looking to have a great year and life for me in a foreign but lovely country.
I had landed in Auckland almost 2 months, to be exact, it's 57 days. Class started on 16 November 2015 and the school only enrolled me for a subject, out of 4 subjects I must complete in order to graduate. I believe it will be a busy semester 1 and 2 for me, though I am still waiting for the school to reply my email pertaining to the course matters.
I had completed and submitted my 1st assignment and is preparing for the 2nd assignment, which will be due on 13 Jan 2016. Thereafter, there will be a final assignment that has to be submitted by 3 Feb.
New Zealand impression for me is so far so good. The environment, especially the air is definitely fresher than Malaysia. Weather wise, it was cool for me when at the very beginning when I landed here, though for some local people, it is normal for them but not to me as I was used to stay in a tropical country that only has two seasons, dry and wet or hot and raining. But after some times, I guess my body had started to adjust and adapt to the local weather or is it because it is summer now, that's why I am still early to conclude my body adaption to this 4 seasons country ?
The culture here of course is different from home land. The most obvious is the people and the language they speak daily. Some I can understand but some I only able to catch the overall meaning as they spoke too fast, couple with the accent, it's hard to listen every single word. Am I poor in my English ?
People that I met give me a good impression because they are nice and friendly, maybe I have yet to meet those who are not nice ? Yes, maybe. Only time can tell, let's wait to see if I will encounter such people.
Living cost here is high and reasonable. High is the property prices, which has been escalating since few years back. Average house price in Auckland as of June 2015 was between $826k to $840k, as reported on ENZ website. Scary !! For a normal income earner, I wonder how many years we have to save in order to buy a house here. Hopefully after the NZ Government and Reserve Bank new measure,which came into effect in Oct, is able to slow down the increment. There is no way property prices can go down as houses are scarce here. I believe this is the same in any other countries unless, unless another round of subprime crisis happens. Considering apartment ? It's not cheap either. For a 2 bedroom apartment in Auckland, the price was $485k, as reported by NZ Herald. Don't forget there is a body corporate fee, which is the same as maintenance or service fee in Malaysia that we have to pay regularly as well. Rental is not cheap either, I am renting a single bedroom and the weekly rental is $140, that is $560 a month ! Although the rental include electricity, water, broadband and allow cooking but is consider high. What about renting a house ? Well, a 2 bedrooms unfurnished house could fetch a rental of $400 to $450 weekly in an unpopular suburb. That's between $1600 to $1800 a month !
Reasonable living cost is the food here, I mean the food that we buy and cook at home. There are few big supermarkets such as PAK'nSAVE and Countdown which are the same as Tesco and Giant in Malaysia where you can find a reasonable groceries prices here. I normally go to PAKnSAVE as I like the variety choices and service there. There are also so called Asian supermarkets which there sell Asian food stuff including cooking ingredients. Eating out of course will be more expensive.
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