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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