WellingtonNew Zealand
Wellington is a U.S. Foreign Service post in New Zealand, in the State Department's East Asia & Pacific bureau, with 15% post allowance (COLA). The current U.S. travel advisory for New Zealand is Level 1, exercise normal precautions. Daily life runs on English. Bidders will find summers to 68°F, winters to 46°F, ~136 rain days/yr. This post report brings together allowances, schools, safety, weather, flights, embassy holidays, and anonymous community reviews from Foreign Service families who have served in Wellington.
What stands out
How Wellington differs from the other 255 posts, worked out from the data on this page.
- In its favour: Mild year-round: 46°F to 68°F between the coldest and hottest months
- In its favour: English is a daily-life language
- In its favour: Level 1 travel advisory, the lowest
- Note: Away-from-post schooling is funded at every grade, K to 12
Against Washington, DC
The same measurements, taken the same way, for the city most bidders are leaving.
- Hottest month averages 68°F, 20° cooler than a Washington summer
- Coldest month averages lows of 46°F, 18° milder than a Washington winter
- About as many rainy days as Washington (136 a year)
- Everyday prices run about 14% below US levels
- Air as clean as Washington's, with almost no unhealthy days
Served in Wellington? Leave an anonymous review, the next family bidding on Wellington gets a real answer.
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Climate & weather
Temperature range, F
Rain days
Air quality, monthly PM2.5 (ug/m3)
Green under 12 (good) · amber to 35 (moderate) · red above (unhealthy for sensitive groups)
Real data: Open-Meteo archive (2022-2024 daily, temperature, rain, daylight) and Open-Meteo air quality API (CAMS, hourly PM2.5 2022-2025), aggregated to monthly normals.
Public holidays 202611 national holidays
Real data: Nager holidays API. Local and religious observances vary; the embassy publishes the official combined holiday schedule.
Pay & allowances
Paycheck simulator
What Wellington's allowances actually do to your pay, estimate only
| Base salary | $100,000 |
| Hardship differential (0%)taxable, % of base | $0 |
| COLA (15%)non-taxable, % of spendable income | $7,275 |
| Estimated annual total | $107,275 |
Estimate only, for planning purposes; figures may not reflect the most recent DSSR updates. COLA is applied to spendable income (approximated here at 48.5% of salary, the official tables vary by salary and family size). Grade/step fills from the official Overseas Schedule (includes Overseas Comparability Pay); taxes and premium-pay caps are not modeled. Allowance rates: allowances.state.gov, fetched 2026-11-02. Verify current rates in the DSSR and with your HR office before making career decisions.
Community & mission
Community ratings COMMUNITY-REPORTED
Loading community ratings
What do these categories mean?
- Housing
- Community average (1-5) for assigned housing: size, condition, commute, and how the housing pool compares to expectations. Housing type (government-leased, compound, apartments) is on each post page.
- School rating
- Community average (1-5) of how families rated the schools their kids actually attended: academics, support for arriving mid-year, special needs, and how happy the kids were. Reviewers' grade levels vary, read individual reviews for your kids' ages.
- Morale
- Community average (1-5) for overall post morale, the intangible sum of community, leadership, workload, and whether people would bid it again. Often the number seasoned bidders read first.
- Internet (community rating)
- How livable the internet actually felt (1-5): reliability and VPN-friendliness, not just headline speed. Can diverge from the measured Mbps, outages and throttling show up here first.
- Spouse / partner employment
- Community average (1-5) of how realistic it is for an accompanying spouse or partner (EFM) to work at this post. It reflects three paths: jobs inside the mission (EFM positions), local-economy work (depends on the bilateral work agreement and language), and remote work for a U.S. employer (depends on time zone and internet). 1 ≈ career pause likely · 5 ≈ multiple realistic options.
- Healthcare
- Community average (1-5) for healthcare at post: local care you would actually use, English-speaking providers, and how much falls back on regional medevac, a real factor for families and chronic conditions.
Foreign Service overlay
- Housing
- Family members working locally
- Bilateral work agreement: accredited spouses and dependents may seek work on the local economy in New Zealand.Status changes, and the HR officer at post has the final word. State's list ↗
- Language training
- English is a daily-life language here, so most jobs need no language training.
- Allowances source
- allowances.state.gov (public) · fetched 2026-11-02
Housing and EFM notes are crowdsourced from the community, never from internal systems.
Location
- Local time right now
- --:--:--
- Coordinates
- -41.29, 174.78
- Region
- East Asia & Pacific
- Elevation
- 29 m (95 ft)
Life at post
The parts the fact sheet leaves out
Getting away
Nonstop routes for R&R, long weekends, and getting home
Cheapest weekend round trips · typical fares
Also nonstop
Family visiting? US passport holders need an electronic travel authorization, stays up to 3 months (NZeTA (Electronic Travel Authority)).
~$ = typical round-trip economy fare, refreshed monthly, plan with it, don't book with it. Routes fetched from Wikipedia (Airlines & destinations), 2026-11-01.
Health
Security & context
- Official U.S. travel advisory
- Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions Read the full advisory ↗Real data: travel.state.gov, fetched 2026-11-02
- Earthquake exposure
- High seismicity, 146 quakes of M5+ within 300 km since 2000.Real data: USGS earthquake catalog.
- What crime looks like
- Governance & daily freedom
- Relations with the US
Home & daily life
- Messaging apps
- No blocking measured: WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram connect normally in network tests from New Zealand.Measured by OONI volunteers over the last 60 days, country-wide. A network test, not a legal statement.
- Power & plugs
Plug type: I · 230V 50Hz , US plugs won't fit, bring adapters. Phone and laptop chargers are fine on 230V; only US-only appliances (hair dryers, kitchen gear) need a transformer.
- Household help
- Pets
- Quarantine: at least 10 days on arrivalRabies titer blood test required
- MPI import permit takes 20+ business days; notify MPI 72 hrs pre-travel; banned breeds incl. pit bulls.
- Official import requirements for New Zealand (USDA APHIS) →
Getting around & fitting in
- Getting around
- Rules of the road (and the bar)
- Drives on the leftDriving age 16Drinking age 18Road deaths 9.6/100k (US ~14)
- Language
- English
Tell the posts page what you speak to filter all posts by your languages. It is never shown to anyone.
LGBTQ+ travelers
Official State Dept guidance for New Zealand · page updated May 07, 2026
There are no legal restrictions on same-sex sexual relations or the organization of LGB events in New Zealand. See our LGB Travel Information page and section 6 of our Human Rights report for further details.
Same-sex spouse and MOH accreditation is decided post by post and is not published publicly. Community reviews are the best read on how it works here in practice, and glifaa (LGBTQ+ employees of foreign-affairs agencies) maintains member resources.
Money & prices
- Local currency
- New Zealand dollar · 1.78 NZD/USD. Has weakened against the dollar over 24 months (-6% vs. USD). A weakening currency stretches a dollar salary further; a strengthening one quietly shrinks it.
- Local inflation
- 2.8% CPI inflation (2025). High inflation means posted prices age fast, and COLA reviews chase reality.
- Overall price level
- Local prices run about 86% of US prices overall (World Bank PPP, 2025). Imported and expat-favorite goods usually cost more than this average suggests.US 100%
Schools & reviews
Schools
Education allowance
The yearly maximum State reimburses per child. Office of Allowances, effective 11/01/2026.
- Grades K-5
- $17,350
- Grades 6-9
- $21,050
- Grades 10-12
- $21,550
A higher away-from-post rate of $88,800 applies for every grade. That is the rate that funds boarding school, and the Office generally sets it above the at-post rate only for grades it does not consider adequately served locally.
No school details yet for Wellington. Served here with kids? The review form asks which schools you used and how support needs went; your answer builds this section.
The Wellington directory is brand new. Served here? Pass along the pediatrician or dry cleaner the next family will need.
Free with an account, no Premium required. Recommendations only, never ratings.
Community reviews
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Deep researchCurated links for going past what fits on one page
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