OMG. this is long...!
We moved back 4 years ago in 2011. I’d been living in London for 13 years – met DH there, got married while there (well, we came back to NZ for the wedding, but were living there), had both DC there.
For various reasons, we decided to make the move. We had a great life in London – good jobs, great friends, lovely house – absolutely nothing to complain about. But the pull was there for me, and I did want to give my kids a Kiwi childhood, so we decided to go for it. DC were 2.3 and 9 months. We figured they’d transition well at that age – no school or friendship disruptions, etc. In hindsight, it was a terrible age – a toddler and a baby. What were we thinking??!
Anyway – the original plan was to head to Wellington, which is where I went to Uni (I grew up in a different North Island city which I do love, but it is pretty small, and would’ve been too much of a culture shock for DH). However, at the last minute, a job at the Auckland office of DH’s company came up, he went for it, and got it. So we moved to Auckland.
We lasted a year there. We hated it. Didn’t know anyone, two very young children who kept us very house-bound, I struggled as a SAHM with no support network, and my God, the rain... I also found it extremely discombobulating to be home in NZ, surrounded by familiar things, but in a totally unknown and ‘unfriendly’ (i.e. no friends and family) place. I didn’t know AKL at all, and it wasn’t home.
Out of desperation, we upped and left – me with the job this time, and DH giving his up with nothing to go to. We headed down to Wellington where we knew people, and instantly it was ‘better’. However, I had to completely give up the career I’d spent 10 years building up, because there was no such industry in NZ. This is common. And NZers looking at CVs in industries that don’t exist here don’t want to know you. We’re fed quite a lie about how beneficial it is for us to go off on our OE, get loads of amazing overseas experience, and then come home and waltz into whatever we want to do. Um, no. That’s just not true.
So, I had to move into a whole new industry, and absolutely hated it. Lasted 5 months. DH was home with the DC job-hunting and luckily found something just as I left. Which he hated.
We’re now 4 years, 4 months into our adventure, and only just starting to feel settled and part of it, and that is due to both of us absolutely giving it our all. When something didn’t work out or made us unhappy, we changed it or tried something else. We were very proactive; we didn’t wait for things to get better. We’re both now in jobs we enjoy and get a lot out of (I had to contract for 2 years and prove my arse off (in a different industry yet again), before being offered a permanent position (public sector; no previous experience). DH is in the only company in Wellington in his industry (private sector). The DC, 5 and 6, are now both in school. We were both very, very homesick for London in those first two years, and yearned to be back there. Every day.
Pluses: as a pp has said, Wellington is a cool city. Great restaurants and bars, always something going on, great harbour, close to so many different things, and in the middle of the country, it’s relatively easy to get wherever you need to go. The vibe is great. Most bars in Wellington are underground, or up random stair cases, or around and down an alleyway, and when you get inside them, they’re like speakeasies for the millennial generation. Very cool. The coffee is good. The food is good. The wine is good. Chains don’t do well here.
Schools. Ours is great. Each little local area is served by at least one school, and so this, more than almost anything else, draws you into the community. You get to know your neighbours, and all your DCs’ friends are a stone’s throw away. You get to meet so many people, and in this environment it’s very hard not to find at least a few like-minded souls to be friends with. And then you’re so close by that entertaining, and the subsequent post-wine getting home is very easy.
Houses. They’re cold. You won’t remember how cold until you spend your first winter! We bought an old villa and the first winter was freezing. We’ve since installed central heating, and haven’t looked back.
On the plus side....! While they might be colder, they’re also, on average, a lot bigger. And the sections are bigger. We’re in Welly itself (suburb bordering the city), and the rooms are all big, spacious rooms, high stud (no boxy, low ceiling-ed bedrooms, big enough for a single bed and a bedside table and that’s it, with narrow halls and itty-bitty living rooms that are depressingly prevalent in the UK). We had a lovely, quaint 4-bed home in London, but the rooms were typically small.
Food is expensive, as are (good) clothes, but more than that, there is so little to choose from. Clothes are either cheap polyester, or eye-wateringly expensive. There is very little in the middle. I buy a lot online from the UK.
Summer is great. Beach holidays, beach day trips, barbecues, summer days, sports, music, entertaining – everything you remember about the Kiwi summer, is still going strong. Christmas in summer. But even better – NYE in summer.
Wellington weather. Well, I prefer it to Auckland!! Give me cold over constant rain, any day of the week. It’s windy here, and it doesn’t get the heat that other regions do. However it does get more good days than I think it gets credit for. And as they say, you can’t beat Welly on a good day. You seriously can’t – it’s a stunning harbour city and on a sunny day it’s like the Amalfi Coast crossed with the Riviera. 
Suburbs – in terms of Wellington itself, there are several suburbs that border the city – Kelburn, Brooklyn, Mt Cook, Hataitai, Mt Vic, Roseneath, Thorndon. They’re all a very easy commute into the city (you can walk from all of these, Brooklyn at a stretch, it’s up a steep hill!)). Going further out, you’ve got Kilbirnie, Mirimar (Peter Jackson’s Weta Studios has rejuvenated this seaside suburb), Seatoun, Karaka Bay out east, Karori, Northland, Wilton out west, Newtown, Berhampore, Island Bay, Lyall Bay, Owhiro Bay down south, and Ngaio, Khandallah up north. I’ve missed a few, no doubt. I don’t know the more northern suburbs like Petone, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt, Tawa, Porirua, etc. They’re a train-ride away. There’s also the Kapiti coast for beachside suburbs, but you’re looking at a fairly long commute into the city.
Earthquakes. Yes, we get them, but the buildings are all strengthened to withstand quakes way, way stronger than those we routinely experience.
I’m happy here now, and wouldn’t want to go back. DH misses home, family and friends and if push came to shove, I think he would say he wants to move back. The DC are now Kiwi kids and happy in school. I don’t know what the future holds, but for now, it’s good. I thoroughly recommend Wellington. If you’re going somewhere where you know no-one it can be tough, but if you have school-aged DC, you should settle in pretty quickly.
Feel free to PM me – happy to answer any questions. Good luck with your decision making! :)