Info in NZ please!

Iam living in Christchurch so I am biassed! Last year I managed to get out 2 times a week during the winter for lunchtime rides. Only cancelled on a few of them due to bad weather.

Quite active road and MTB clubs. Most of our road racing is on the flat with some events that involve climbing some moderate hills. Or you can spend more time in the hills as they are not far away.

Can't compare to Wellington as I haven't ridden there, but a bit more hilly with a fairly compact crowded city centre. Windier they say (in Wellington) but after the last year doing some serious cycling in the Canterbury area I'd wind is constant part of biking on a island.

Jobs, there are at least 6-10 large bike shops around but I have no idea if they are looking for staff. For a search for PennySport, Fleet, BikeRight, John Bull Cycles, Papanui Cycles, Chain Reaction, etc.

I'd try to spend time on both islands as there is lots to see and do.

Good luck with your plans

I am an Aussie living in the US, but have been all through NZ, and as far as finding a place to live, you can't go too far wrong. The whole country is incredibly beautiful ( apart from one called Rotorua that has a noxious smell )..

My favourite was in the South around Queenstown, but it gets cold and snowy there and you would be dealing with no winter riding I imagine.

Kiwis aren't too bad either.

Good Luck, you will have a ball!
Cheers
Damo.

Probably the biggest road scene in NZ is Auckland as the city with the largest population. There are a lot of big bunches getting out regularly, and as long as you don't mind a little rain on occasion, you can ride all year round.

Ignore the barbs about Rotorua, a little sulphur dioxide never killed anyone - well only a couple of tourists anyway :-) Rotorua and Tauranga have good cycling scenes, with Rotorua being huge for MTB.

Links to cycle stores in Auckland:

Hot Cycles - www.hotcycles.co.nz - dedicated roadies, run good bunch rides
Multisport Bikes - www.multisportbikes.co.nz - roadies and triathletes

Lindsay

Hi,
I live in Timaru, a small city about 100 miles south of Christchurch, population 30k (ish). We have it all....dead flat, rolling hills, tough hills and any mix there of. We dont get the rain like the north or the cold like the south (ie snow is a rare thing, once every 5 - 10 years). We have a bike factory here also. Around 50 cyclist ride winter road here with distances going from 40 - 160km. It is a short drive to race bigger events in Christchurch to the north or Dunedin to the south. We produce probably the highest number of top cyclist per head in NZ, we currently have 3 of the 4 members of the NZ track pursuit team of '03.

Gonzalo was moving to NZ. How fun. Queenstown and Christchurch. Very beautiful. Seems that those who can are moving to NZ along with James Cameron and whoever else. I can see what the fascination with it is. Riding a bike there that might be like heaven. Right now all I see is some bare trees, a lake, and water running out of pipe along where I'm riding. Nothing quite a scenic as NZ. But I'm not complaining I am happy to have fresh air.

Right now there are a lot of good paying manual labour jobs in Christchurch, as they are still rebuilding from the damage from the big quake in 2011. My friend moved there and got a job pretty quick with almost zero experience.