Choosing a region
Where could we live?
What matters to you, before the map
Tell us what you would want from a place and what you would miss from home — a proper city or somewhere unhurried, the coast or the mountains, a big tertiary department or a broad regional scope, housing you can afford, and who is coming. We weigh the regions against your answers and show you three, with the trade-offs as well as the good bits.
Seven questions, about a minute.
Prefer to browse? Every region has its own guide: New Zealand destinations or Australian destinations.
What differs
Finding somewhere that suits you
These are the differences that show up in daily life rather than in a brochure. None of them makes a place better or worse — they just suit different households, and it is easier to notice them now than after the shipping has arrived.
Housing, and what it leaves you
The single biggest variable in whether a salary feels comfortable. The same pay can mean a small flat in one city and a house with a garden in another.
- What renting is really like, and how bonds work
- Where buying is plausible and where it is not
- How much of a wage a mortgage or rent tends to take
Your hospital, and your scope
A big tertiary centre and a regional base hospital ask different things of you. One has subspecialty depth; the other tends to give you a broader scope sooner.
- Which centres are tertiary, and what that means day to day
- How far a regional post is from specialist backup
- Where your profession is needed
Schools, and the address that decides them
Enrolment is tied to where you live in most places, so in practice the school shortlist decides the rental rather than the other way round.
- How zoning and enrolment work
- When in the school year to arrive
- Whether fees apply on your visa
Work for the person coming with you
A partner’s job market is far more local than yours. A city with one employer in their field is a different proposition from one with five.
- What work rights follow each visa route
- Where their field hires
- Whether a second registration is needed
Where people get stuck
Our advice on choosing a place
We are a recruitment consultancy, so you would expect us to say yes to wherever the role is. Here is what we think, including the parts that do not help us commercially.
Sometimes another city is the better answer
If the role is in the wrong place for your household, the move tends not to last — and a placement that unravels helps nobody. Several of our destination guides say plainly when somewhere else would suit you better.
The big cities are not automatically easier
They have the departments, the flights and the communities. They also have the housing costs and the commutes. Plenty of people are happier in a smaller place with a base hospital and a fifteen-minute drive.
“Near the beach” is doing a lot of work in a job advert
Near can mean ten minutes or ninety. So can “close to the city”. Our guides give real distances and real commutes, because that is what you will live with.
Visit if you possibly can
Not everyone can, and a good guide is the next best thing. But a week in a place tells you something no page can, and it is cheaper than moving twice.
If you are torn between two places, ask Ethicare to compare them.
Explore
Start with a country, or with a region
Each destination guide covers the same ground — suburbs, housing, healthcare, transport, schools, food, weekends and what a week costs — so you can compare places rather than reading marketing about them.
Thirteen regions, from Auckland to Southland
Smaller country, shorter distances, and a difference between the main centres and everywhere else.
Working in New Zealand → AustraliaEight states and territories
Big distances, and pay and conditions that differ state by state, so location changes the maths as well as the lifestyle.
Working in Australia → Still decidingAustralia or New Zealand?
If the country is not settled, this is the comparison — and it changes what “where” even means.
Compare the two →If you are not moving alone
Moving with a partner or family
In our experience the second opinion in a household decides whether a move lasts more often than the salary does. These are written for them as much as for you.
Moving with a partner or children
Work rights, childcare, schools, and what changes for a family rather than for a clinician.
Moving with your family → CommunityFinding your people
Where communities gather, how newcomers meet people, and what the first six months tend to feel like.
Community and belonging →What next?
Once you have a shortlist
Somewhere to keep it, and the two questions that usually come either side of this one.
How do we plan it all?
A plan built around your household and your dates, with your shortlist and budget carried into it.
Build my journey → Also worth askingWhat could I earn?
Pay, costs and the work itself — and where you land changes those numbers more than you would think.
What could I earn? → Also worth askingCan I work there?
If registration is not settled, everywhere is still hypothetical. About ten minutes to find out.
Can I work there? → Also worth askingWhat happens once we land?
The first fortnight, and the part that is harder than the paperwork.
Settling in →