New Zealand - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

[CAAD4]

 

 

In a few weeks I will own this land. And then I can build our first NZ home.

 

#wanaka

Congrats Wayne. I wish you many happy memories with your family and the new chapter of COFBA.

[hayleyearth]

That really depends.

I watched a doccie on a couple building one in Christchurch.

The project got away from them very quickly. They budgeted $650K and it ballooned to over $1mil. Also took 2 years.

 

It is definitely capable of being a lot cheaper and modular to adding later is easy.

My favourite is the all all inclusive container pool. Drop it in a hole or on a slab and it is good to go.

Modpools-Shipping-Container-Pools-.jpg

That is quite a difficult design to get past the council. The report alone will cost you at least $5k to proof to council it can withstand that water pressure and mounting conditions etc.

[MTBeer]

True, although those skorra korra generally aren't owned and driven by people earning R750,000pa plus. 

 

It would be interesting to take a specific group, lets say young professionals (25 - 35yrs old) earning around $110k/R1.2m in NZ terms, and approx. R750k in SA terms. Then compare what percentage of their annual income they spend on their motor vehicles.

 

I know cost of living in NZ is generally higher (especially housing in Auckland), but still, I don't know ANY young professionals in NZ with brand new Beemers, Mercs, or even Golf GTi's.

 

In SA though, there are heaps of people earning that kinda money (or less) that will happily finance a car for 40-50% (or even higher) of their annual income.

 

Here that same group would generally hover around the 5-15% mark.

 

Interesting difference in perception and culture.

true. People in SA spend a stupid portion of their salary on cars

[patches]

That really depends.

I watched a doccie on a couple building one in Christchurch.

The project got away from them very quickly. They budgeted $650K and it ballooned to over $1mil. Also took 2 years.

 

It is definitely capable of being a lot cheaper and modular to adding later is easy.

My favourite is the all all inclusive container pool. Drop it in a hole or on a slab and it is good to go.

Modpools-Shipping-Container-Pools-.jpg

 

If you're referring to the episode of Grand Designs NZ where they built one out West Melton way (just out side of Christchurch)... that was pretty hideous!

 

 

 

It seemed like there was little architectural design and input into it, and looked like a grown-up was playing with wooden blocks to build a giant shed.

 

And as you say, both programme and budget were blown out.

 

The Grand Designs UK one was a far better execution. It also met budget and programme (as far as I can remember)

 

 

I think the fact that the owner is an architect (and not an engineer) helped in the far more refined result.

 

Ironically though, the architect's house (UK) was better run from a project perspective than the engineer's (NZ) house (even though the engineer claims to have construction project management credentials).

 

I also think about the future resale, and the Christchurch home will likely deter potential buyers, whereas the other would attract.

 

That is quite a difficult design to get past the council. The report alone will cost you at least $5k to proof to council it can withstand that water pressure and mounting conditions etc.

 

Yup, the council consenting processes in NZ can turn any "simple" project into a big deal. Government has realised that some of the requirements are OTT, and relaxed certain ones around sheds, sleep outs, car ports, etc.

 

But based on the plague of leaky homes in NZ, they are only getting tougher on primary dwellings.

 

In the above examples I think the one key difference in design was that the UK architect used the containers primarily as a simple, low effort, structure, not so much as the building envelope itself (as the NZ engineer intended).

[davetapson]

Yup, totally do able!

 

What mode of transport you planning on using?

Telling the missus that the only answer is a motorcycle   

 

Bus would make sense as the bus stop is at the end of our driveway on Beach Road.  Daughter tells me 866 is the one...

[davetapson]

True, although those skorra korra generally aren't owned and driven by people earning R750,000pa plus. 

 

It would be interesting to take a specific group, lets say young professionals (25 - 35yrs old) earning around $110k/R1.2m in NZ terms, and approx. R750k in SA terms. Then compare what percentage of their annual income they spend on their motor vehicles.

 

Interesting difference in perception and culture.

I think that SA is a general exception when it comes to cars - no-where do people spend as much of their income on a car as Jhbger will happily do.

 

The interesting thing is that although NZ (Auckland?) is a maritime environment, no body cares for their cars but they don't seem to rust.  Get hammered by the UV and and have paint damage, but you don't see much rust.  Although that might be a WOF thing.

 

However, I've seen lichen growing on cars here (pretty regularly), which goes to show how often they are washed...!!

 

You even look at company execs here, and they're driving nothing like what I used to see in SA.  Worked for Discovery for a while, "bring your play car to work on Fridays" used to be a bit of an eye-opener.

 

That said, there are more supercars on the suburban roads here than I ever saw in SA - Lambos, McLarens the lot.  Mustangs are like ticks...  I wonder how they raised the capital - I'm assuming riding the property market...

[Wayne Potgieter]

I think that SA is a general exception when it comes to cars - no-where do people spend as much of their income on a car as Jhbger will happily do.

 

The interesting thing is that although NZ (Auckland?) is a maritime environment, no body cares for their cars but they don't seem to rust.  Get hammered by the UV and and have paint damage, but you don't see much rust.  Although that might be a WOF thing.

 

However, I've seen lichen growing on cars here (pretty regularly), which goes to show how often they are washed...!!

 

You even look at company execs here, and they're driving nothing like what I used to see in SA.  Worked for Discovery for a while, "bring your play car to work on Fridays" used to be a bit of an eye-opener.

 

That said, there are more supercars on the suburban roads here than I ever saw in SA - Lambos, McLarens the lot.  Mustangs are like ticks...  I wonder how they raised the capital - I'm assuming riding the property market...

My car is frequently hijacked by spiders and gets covered in spiderwebs.

 

Kids have resorted to naming them. Fred lives in the left wing mirror.

Edited October 7, 2020 by Wayne Potgieter

[patches]

I think that SA is a general exception when it comes to cars - no-where do people spend as much of their income on a car as Jhbger will happily do.

 

The interesting thing is that although NZ (Auckland?) is a maritime environment, no body cares for their cars but they don't seem to rust.  Get hammered by the UV and and have paint damage, but you don't see much rust.  Although that might be a WOF thing.

 

However, I've seen lichen growing on cars here (pretty regularly), which goes to show how often they are washed...!!

 

You even look at company execs here, and they're driving nothing like what I used to see in SA.  Worked for Discovery for a while, "bring your play car to work on Fridays" used to be a bit of an eye-opener.

 

That said, there are more supercars on the suburban roads here than I ever saw in SA - Lambos, McLarens the lot.  Mustangs are like ticks...  I wonder how they raised the capital - I'm assuming riding the property market...

 

Yeah, I too wonder when one sees $100k+ cars cruising around Auckland like they're Mr Delivery.

 

There could be a few factors to this:

 

1. I think that Auckland is definitely a little more image focused than the rest of NZ. Much like Sydney is in Aus (some super flashy cars cruising around there). One tends to see just as many (if not more) new S and RS Audis than new base models.

 

2. As you mention, property ownership could have a big influence on this. Between us and our close group of friends (all young professional couples, between 30 and 35), all only have 1 car per household, and none of those cars were purchased for over $15k. We are all paying mortgages, however if we were 5-10yrs older and purchased said properties around 2012 or earlier, then the mortgages would be a fraction (or even paid off) and it would be a lot easier to redirect disposable income into a $100k+ car.

 

And that's just accounting for owners of single properties. Auckland would have a number of people with multiple investment properties, purchased a decade ago (or more) and have heaps of excess cash to buy luxury vehicles (and boats).

 

That said, compared to SA, even the flashy Jaffas are still unlikely t spend more than 10% of the value of their house on a car, whereas a showy Joburger wouldn't flinch at spending north of 25% on a luxury vehicle. (yes, I know one has to factor in that houses here considerably more expensive).

 

3. Spoilt kids. Auckland has no shortage of sub-30yr olds cruising around in super flashy cars (from AMG Mercs, to McLarens and Bentleys), purchased with mommy & daddy's money. Whilst it's not as extreme as portrayed by the Singapoean set movie, the term "Crazy Rich Asians" is definitely applicable in many of these cases.

 

All the above factors considered though, the income-to-car-value ratio in Auckland (of the purchaser, not the driver... damn trust fund kids), is still far below that of the middle-to-upper class in JHB.

Edited October 8, 2020 by patches

[patches]

My car is frequently hijacked by spiders and gets covered in spiderwebs.

 

Kids have resorted to naming them. Fred lives in the left wing mirror.

 

Spiderwebs right! No shortage of spiderwebs in NZ. Fortunately though, no really nasty spiders (like in Aus).

 

Speaking of invertebrates (and while trying to exercise willpower not to scratch my ankle)...

 

SAND FLIES!!!

 

One of the definite bads in NZ.

 

Mozzie bites are one thing. Sand flies (especially down on the South Island) are another. The itchiness can last for a month!

[davetapson]

Talking about disposable income and drive your boat to work day, I saw one of these rock out of the sea at Takapuna, and head off up the road.

I need one. 

[patches]

Talking about disposable income and drive your boat to work day, I saw one of these rock out of the sea at Takapuna, and head off up the road.

 

I need one. 

 

Hahaha, I wonder what a traffic cop will say if you get pulled over while cruising the suburbs like Spongebob in his driving test,

 

 

Those boats also remind me of the Rachel Hunter/Northland Air New Zealand Safety video. There was a snippet in that where they head from the beach into the water on one of those.

[davetapson]

Haha - that's classic.  Had to scratch it out as I've yet to do an Air NZ flight - first time I've watched a safety video through in years - although imagine this would become ignorable after enough times.

 

Hosking with his mouth shut - that's a first!
 

[patches]

Haha - that's classic.  Had to scratch it out as I've yet to do an Air NZ flight - first time I've watched a safety video through in years - although imagine this would become ignorable after enough times.

 

Hosking with his mouth shut - that's a first!

 

 

Oh yeah, the Air NZ safety videos are quite novel... at first. But like you guessed, they get a bit old after watching the same one a dozen times or so.

 

They used to change them every quarter, but between Covid, and some videos not ageing well (like the 2019 RWC All Blacks one, or the one the stupid It's Kiwi Safety one), they revert back to old trusty ones (like the Rachel Hunter/Northland one previously mentioned).

 

They've had all sorts. Multiple LotR versions, MIB, Richard Simmons, Sports Illustrated swimsuit, Antarctica, and many more.

[patches]

Haha - that's classic.  Had to scratch it out as I've yet to do an Air NZ flight - first time I've watched a safety video through in years - although imagine this would become ignorable after enough times.

 

Hosking with his mouth shut - that's a first!

 

 

From what I remember, Hosking didn't make the final cut that was actually shown on flights

[Wayne Potgieter]

From what I remember, Hosking didn't make the final cut that was actually shown on flights

thank the lord for small mercies

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

If you're referring to the episode of Grand Designs NZ where they built one out West Melton way (just out side of Christchurch)... that was pretty hideous!

 

 

 

That's the one yes, those poor people. And, yes, it is hideous......

I take my het off to the guy though, he put in the effort, I just don't think he managed the project well at all. It got away from him pretty quickly!!