So lonely planet just announced that Auckland is the number one city to visit on their best
in travel list for 2021. I've lived in Auckland for the past few years but I've also lived in
major cities of the world like Tokyo, Shanghai, Rome, Paris and I grew up in Sweden. Today I'll
share the pros and cons about living in Auckland and see how it compares to the rest of the world.
The first one is that it's close to nature. So Auckland is in New Zealand, which is a beautiful
country it's quite famous for its nature. Ao auckland although it's a huge city, it's pretty
much surrounded in bush. You just have to go quite far. Number two on my list about the pros about
living in Auckland is there are some gems here. Auckland is very different from other big cities
like London, Paris or Shanghai in the sense that it's not the same hustle and bustle as in those
cities. It's not as busy, it's not as alive and it doesn't have that energy that those cities have,
but instead, it has some little gems. You might have to search a bit to find them, but there
are some really cute cafes and there's some really beautiful restaurants and there's some really cute
places you might just have to look a bit further. Number three on my list and this one is really
important is that, Auckland feels like one of the safest place I've lived in. Personally I feel
like Auckland is one of the safest places in New Zealand compared to the rest of New Zealand. When
I've traveled around New Zealand there have been places where I haven't really felt safe, but in
Auckland I felt safe pretty much in most places. Number four is that the climate is beautiful in
Auckland. So compared to many other places in the world Auckland or New Zealand in general has
a very mild climate especially the north of New Zealand and it's a little bit rainy here but most
of the days it's sunny. I go swimming in the ocean all year round winter, spring, summer and autumn,
I go swimming. I mean my husband is a kKwi and he doesn't even own a jacket.
So I think that says something about the culture and the weather in New Zealand. It's a very mild
climate especially coming from Sweden where I grew up. And the fifth thing that I like about
Auckland as a city, is that there are some lovely beaches. So Auckland is very close to the sea
pretty much anywhere you go you're very close to a beach. There is a problem with the beaches though,
it's quite a big one, but I'll take that in my cons list. And my final point about why Auckland
is a great place to live in, is the language. One of the reasons I think Auckland placed number one
as the best in travel list by Lonely Planet for 2021, is because of the language. Now English is
a very useful language when you travel. If you're a native english speaker and you travel to Europe
it is a bit more difficult, right? Especially if you go to more rural places, people won't
speak english and they might be very difficult to communicate. That's my favorite part about Europe,
because you get to learn other languages. But I understand that's not the same for everyone. So
Auckland is in that sense a very convenient place to travel to and
New Zealand in general if english is your native language or if you speak english.
So those are my favorite things about living in Auckland and now let's move on to the things I
don't like about living in Auckland. One of the biggest issues with living in Auckland
is the width of this city. Sweden is a much bigger country and it has more people but if
you go to a city you'll drive about 20 to 30 to 40 minutes and then you'll reach another city and
in between these cities there will be not a city. Now in Auckland if I want to visit my friend who
lives in the opposite side of Auckland, but still Auckland it takes me about an hour to drive there,
although it's pretty much a straight highway to get there. If you want to go to the city
center you still have to go to the city center, and that for some people might be in between
30 minutes to an hour to get there from where you live but you're still in the same city. So I find
that kind of weird. The second worst thing about living in Auckland is the housing crisis. So New
Zealand is experiencing a housing crisis and this definitely shows in the price of rent. New Zealand
is one of the most expensive places in the world to rent in. If you're a couple you might be paying
450 a week. Yes, they pay per week here, which is again very strange. So about two thousand dollars
a month. If you're single you can pay less than that, but you'll definitely have to share with
other people. As a Swedish person it's very rare to share housing with other people, but I know in
many different cultures this is very common. But the reason the pricing here is so unreasonable
is because the quality of the houses. Majority of houses in Auckland they lack insulation,
they have old carpet floor, and they're not very pleasant to live in. The house I'm living in now
is the first house in New Zealand I visited that has double insulated windows. Which is weird
because this winter was around zero and minus degrees celsius so it was pretty cold. And my
last winter, we lived in the house where we didn't have insulation and we didn't have double glazed
windows, and it was so cold that I woke up crying one morning. Because coming from Sweden it gets
very cold, but I'm not used to being cold inside, so yeah. This is a whole issue in New Zealand.
It affects children and families very negatively because of their health, it affects people and all
ages negatively because their health. So if you're a foreigner visiting Auckland you won't experience
this to such an extent it's more if you move here. If your hourly pay is between 20 and 30 dollars
and then you have to pay 250 plus a week for rent and that's not including utilities such as
electricity water and heating then it soon steps up very quickly and it becomes quite expensive to
live here. Which leads me on to the next point, Auckland is one of the few cities I've lived in
personally, where I feel like you need to have disposable cash. Like you need to have more
money than you think you need. In other cities, especially in Southern Europe and even in Sweden,
it's very easy to live on a budget. You can eat rice and beans and you can stay at a cheap place
and many things are quite affordable. You might just not be able to go to bars and restaurant.
However, in New Zealand, especially in Auckland I would say even as a Swedish person, that I find
everything expensive. Especially in relationship to the salary here. The fourth con about living in
Auckland is you have to have a car. They do have public transport here, but it doesn't work that
great. Of all the people I've met and known in New Zealand, I know one person who lives in Auckland,
who doesn't have a car and that's because she's legally not allowed to drive. And the fifth
worst thing about living in Auckland is water pollution. So although you're surrounded by these
beautiful beaches which sort of make this problem more difficult, is that they're polluted. A lot
of the time every time it rains the government recommends to not go in the water for two to
three days because of sewage pollution. Yeah, there's an issue with sewage leaking into the
oceans and again because of there being so much construction and so much development, this is a
growing problem in Auckland. Water in general is a huge issue in New Zealand and many of the waters,
oceans and inland waters are deeply polluted. And it can be very unsafe to swim there.
There is a resource that I have linked below that you can see if your beach is safe to swim
in. So that is obviously very sad, especially in the summer, or especially like today. It's a
beautiful day, you want to go swimming, but it's been raining for the past three days.
There's not a single city or country I've lived in where there hasn't been both pros and cons. And
in most cases I do believe the pros outweigh the cons because there's nothing like
visiting a new culture and a new city and meeting new people. So that was everything I had to say
about Auckland. These are the pros and cons about living in auckland it's a beautiful place to live,
there are some really fun things to do if you like hiking and if you like nature, Auckland is
a great place to visit. So my conclusion is that yes, there are things about Auckland that I love,
there are things about Auckland that I don't love, but I definitely will be here for the moment. My
husband is Kiwi and that's the reason why I am here, and I absolutely love living here with
him. Would I live in Sweden, if Sweden was warm? Probably, yes. That's everything I had to say
about Auckland, my favorite things about living here, my least favorite things about living here.
If you want to see more videos about culture or cities, or the other places I've lived,
or even the culture shocks I've experienced in New Zealand, please remember to Like this
video and Subscribe and Leave a comment below if you have any questions. Thank you. Bye.