I'm planning on moving to New Zealand for a about a year towards the end of this year and want to know what places you guys would recommend living that have good DH riding and surfing close by. Also I will be working at least part time, so it would need to be some where that has work.

Thanks
Jake

Its a little chilly, but Dunedin has good amounts of both!

What sort of work do you do?

Christchurch and Wellington both have surfing and downhill riding close to the city.

Depends on how close you need to be to both really.
I've just moved to the Bay of Plenty. Surf beaches within walking distance from the house, and Rotorua (one of the awesomest places to ride in NZ - and with shuttled DH tracks as well) is 50 mins drive away. You could easily position yourself to be closer to both as well.

Tama wrote:What sort of work do you do?

Christchurch and Wellington both have surfing and downhill riding close to the city.

depends a lot on what quality of surfing you're after - most of the chch beaches are pretty hopeless (taylors being the exception), for decent surf you're looking at either the peninsula (hickory bay etc ) or driving up the coast (both about 1hrs drive min - at which point you can't really call it 'close')

in real terms dunedin has both better surf and closer to town - though the downside is it's DHing isn't as good as chch, so it'll come down to which is your priority (and how far you're willing to drive to do either)

danose wrote:though the downside is it's DHing isn't as good as chch,

Oh yup. Sure.

I hate to say it, but hamilton ( while it has nothing to offer in itself ) is in easy reach of both coasts ( raglan FTW ), vegas and a little bit further afield is the snow. ( in the years that ruapehu actually gets any )

And

Scotty wrote:

danose wrote:though the downside is it's DHing isn't as good as chch,

Oh yup. Sure.

And bear in mind that everyones opinion is biased towards where they live...
It really depends on which you want to be closer to.
For example Welly has great riding but the most reliable surf spots will require some driving.
Same for Chch, as danose has noted.
Dunedin has both close to town. I've not ridden in Dunners, but Scotty obviously thinks the DH available there is on par with Chch.
Bay of Plenty has good surf on its doorstep, and great surf and riding within an hours drive (two hours to Raglan for surf its happening on the West Coast rather than on the East.

Thanks for the info. I do residential electrical work here in the states, but was hoping to get a job working in a bike shop or surf shop. I'm not opposed to doing electrical, just always wanted to work in a shop but was making too much money in electrical to justify changing jobs just for a fun experience.

I was planning on living in two or three different places. I might go for the place with better biking first and then go somewhere with better surf latter.

Thanks again and any info is appreciated.

slidecontrol wrote:I hate to say it, but hamilton ( while it has nothing to offer in itself )

That's horrible advice.

slidecontrol wrote:I hate to say it, but hamilton ( while it has nothing to offer in itself ) is in easy reach of both coasts ( raglan FTW ), vegas and a little bit further afield is the snow. ( in the years that ruapehu actually gets any )

I hate to agree here but hamilton is close to raglan rotovegas and bay of plenty beaches and has work.Tauranga would have work too further to raglan tho but closer to Gisborne.Really Gisborne,Raglan and Dunedin are the best surf spots in the country.Rotorua could be a good home it's within a couple of hours drive to many good surf beaches on both coasts and has pretty good riding 5 minutes ride from city centre.You'd have to learn to be politically correct tho.

Taranaki = great surf, average DH but lotsa jobs and only a few hours to Rotovegas or Whangavegas.

No one's mentioned Auckland

Conners wrote:And

Scotty wrote:

danose wrote:though the downside is it's DHing isn't as good as chch,

Oh yup. Sure.

And bear in mind that everyones opinion is biased towards where they live...
It really depends on which you want to be closer to.
For example Welly has great riding but the most reliable surf spots will require some driving.
Same for Chch, as danose has noted.
Dunedin has both close to town. I've not ridden in Dunners, but Scotty obviously thinks the DH available there is on par with Chch.
Bay of Plenty has good surf on its doorstep, and great surf and riding within an hours drive (two hours to Raglan for surf its happening on the West Coast rather than on the East.

Ive ridden Dunedin DH and Christchurch Dh. Dunedin is fun but there are only a couple of tracks.

Chch is far superior. A large variety of tracks, more tracks than I ever expected. Have everything from super smooth flowy tracks to steep rough tracks.

Surfing is better/closer in Dunedin tho

surfbum wrote:

slidecontrol wrote:I hate to say it, but hamilton ( while it has nothing to offer in itself ) is in easy reach of both coasts ( raglan FTW ), vegas and a little bit further afield is the snow. ( in the years that ruapehu actually gets any )

I hate to agree here but hamilton is close to raglan rotovegas and bay of plenty beaches and has work.

1.5hrs up the road to Piha/Muriwai/Bethells for teh surfs too.