I live in Sydney. My commute is pretty awesome: I live in Chippendale which is behind Central Station. From the station you can get busses or trains to pretty much anywhere in the city.
I can leave work and be home in 10 minutes via bus or train or 30 minutes if I choose to walk (Although winter in Sydney can be a little reminiscent of Seattle so its not really walking season). Unfortunately, traffic is horrible because of poor planning. The city sort of just "happened" and you can trace some main thoroughfares in the inner city back to the first roads when the colony was just a camp. Your not a real Sydneysider until you've bitched about CityRail and blamed the State Government. In my opinion, if you choose to live in Sydney and you work in the CBD, ditch the car and rent in the inner suburbs. Sydney is gigantic and paying more rent is more preferable than commuting via bus, train or car for an hour just so you can live in a place that has cheaper rent.
The Atlassian office in Sydney is great. Its a brick heritage listed building with very high ceilings and even though its open plan its still mostly quiet. When you leave the office you don't take your work home with you unless you choose todo so (So there is no company subsidized Internet connections because your supposed to have a life outside of work). Desks are huge and there is more than enough space next to you to pair or have someone work on a laptop beside you if the need arises (Did I mention that the people here are enthusiastic and intelligent and the problems engaging? No, really!). Its company culture to eat together in the staff area or go out to lunch as a group.
Life in Sydney is really good - lots of great places to eat in China Town (Australians in the capitol cities probably eat more Asian food than any other Western country I am aware of) or Thai places in Newtown or Glebe (inner west suburbs which are 20 mins bus or train away from the CBD).
Summer is the best time to be in Sydney. When daylight savings kicks in you can wrap up at the office at 5 and still have three hours daylight at the beach. I love my job but its great not to be your job all the time :)
I live in Auckland and it feels the same as far as planning is concerned - only worse! There's barely any useful rail here, everything is supposed to happen by road and every time a good rail proposal comes by, the road/trucking lobby mobilises and nothing every happens.
I live a good life though. Like you I live in an inner city suburb (St. Mary's Bay) and can walk 20 minutes to my office. Also like Sydney, Auckland is one of the fastest growing Asian cities in the world, so the food is fantastic. It's also on a beautiful harbour and, despite questionable general planning decisions, there are great parks and green spaces everywhere, plus opportunities (well, if you know people I guess) to get involved with activities like sailing (Auckland has one of the highest amounts of boats per capita in the world).
Auckland's funny though, I'd say we're probably 20 years behind the levels of development and confidence that Sydney is reaching now. We'll never be as big, that's a given, but as far as interesting architecture and commercial developments, everything is still quite under-developed here, but I think the climate and pace of life make up for it - though I must admit I'm itching to live in New York for a while, guess the grass is always greener :)
I can leave work and be home in 10 minutes via bus or train or 30 minutes if I choose to walk (Although winter in Sydney can be a little reminiscent of Seattle so its not really walking season). Unfortunately, traffic is horrible because of poor planning. The city sort of just "happened" and you can trace some main thoroughfares in the inner city back to the first roads when the colony was just a camp. Your not a real Sydneysider until you've bitched about CityRail and blamed the State Government. In my opinion, if you choose to live in Sydney and you work in the CBD, ditch the car and rent in the inner suburbs. Sydney is gigantic and paying more rent is more preferable than commuting via bus, train or car for an hour just so you can live in a place that has cheaper rent.
The Atlassian office in Sydney is great. Its a brick heritage listed building with very high ceilings and even though its open plan its still mostly quiet. When you leave the office you don't take your work home with you unless you choose todo so (So there is no company subsidized Internet connections because your supposed to have a life outside of work). Desks are huge and there is more than enough space next to you to pair or have someone work on a laptop beside you if the need arises (Did I mention that the people here are enthusiastic and intelligent and the problems engaging? No, really!). Its company culture to eat together in the staff area or go out to lunch as a group.
Life in Sydney is really good - lots of great places to eat in China Town (Australians in the capitol cities probably eat more Asian food than any other Western country I am aware of) or Thai places in Newtown or Glebe (inner west suburbs which are 20 mins bus or train away from the CBD).
Summer is the best time to be in Sydney. When daylight savings kicks in you can wrap up at the office at 5 and still have three hours daylight at the beach. I love my job but its great not to be your job all the time :)