Dunedin

Ōtepoti — Dunedin, the Edinburgh of the South

A guide to living, working and settling in New Zealand’s southern university city — written for healthcare professionals, by the team who help them move.

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15 chapters Updated July 2026 Free

Welcome

The city people rule out on the map and change their minds about in person.

The Scots founded Dunedin in 1848 and built it in stone. Gold money made it briefly the largest and richest city in New Zealand, and the city spent that wealth on architecture that is still standing.

What keeps it interesting now is the university. Around 20,000 students in a city of 130,000 is a ratio no other New Zealand city comes close to, and it shows — in the bars, in the music, in the fact that a small southern city supports a serious art gallery and three good museums.

For a clinician the arithmetic is unusual. A tertiary teaching hospital and the country’s oldest medical school, in a city where a family home costs a fraction of Auckland and the commute is fifteen minutes.

Nau mai, haere mai ki Ōtepoti.

Ngā mihi nui — the Ethicare team

The University of Otago clocktower building in Dunedin — The university clocktower · five minutes from the hospital

Dunedin, in short

The five-second version

~130k

People in the city

~20,000

University students

~15 min

A typical commute

Lowest

Housing costs in the country

Where

The head of a long harbour on the south-east coast of the South Island

Climate

Cool temperate and maritime. Mild summers, cool winters, and proper seasons

Main hospitals

Dunedin Hospital, Wakari, Mosgiel, and rural Otago

Getting home

Thirty minutes to the airport — but long-haul means a connection

Contents

What’s inside

Fifteen chapters in five parts. Nine are written for Dunedin; the rest are national and live once in Moving to New Zealand, so you only read them once.

Part one · Deciding

01 Welcome to DunedinThe city people underestimate — Ōtepoti in nine numbers, and seven things you only learn once you are here Read now → 02 Why DunedinThe lowest housing costs of any main centre, a teaching hospital, and where we’d point you instead Read now → 03 Dunedin at a glanceThe harbour, the hills, the peninsula and the plain — and what the climate is like Read now →

Part two · The city

04 Healthcare in DunedinA tertiary hospital for the lower South Island, bound to New Zealand’s oldest medical school Read now → 05 Where clinicians liveFourteen suburbs sorted by commute, with sun, gradient and warmth — the three things that decide a Dunedin house Read now → 06 Getting aroundOne of the shortest commutes of any New Zealand city, and what the gradient means in practice Read now →

Part three · Money & home

07 Cost of livingSame national pay, the lowest housing costs in the country — and the July power bill nobody warns you about Read now → 10 Renting a homeYour application pack, bond, tenancy rights and the Healthy Homes standards Shared · national 11 Money, tax & bankingIRD numbers, KiwiSaver, opening an account and sending money home Shared · national

Part four · Everyday life

08 Food, shopping & the everydayThe Saturday market at the railway station, the warehouse precinct, and 20,000 students’ worth of good cheap food Read now → 09 Wildlife & the coastAlbatross and penguins twenty minutes from the hospital, surf beaches at ten, the Catlins an hour south Read now → 12 Driving & licencesConverting your licence, buying a car, a warrant of fitness and registration Shared · national

Part five · Belonging

13 Schools & educationZoning, school types, early childhood education and what care costs Shared · national 14 Te ao Māori at workPronunciation, the words you will hear on the ward, and marae etiquette Shared · national 15 Visas & registrationWhich visa, and what your qualification is worth here Shared · national

A wide sweep of empty golden sand at Sandfly Bay on the Otago Peninsula — Sandfly Bay · twenty minutes from the hospital

Sophie’s insight

Dunedin is the one people rule out on the map and change their minds about in person. A tertiary teaching hospital, the lowest housing costs in the country on identical national pay, and a fifteen-minute commute. The wildlife on the peninsula is the part nobody believes until they stand there.

Sophie Careem

Founder, Ethicare Resourcing

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