[dibber and coley]

Hi folks
After been selected from our EOI pool, Alan is now coming out to Auckland on a reccie on 9th June for 2 weeks. I have the dubious honour of staying behind with Toot, Ploot and Twinkle ( aka our 3 gorgeous babes.) You can't really do a quick reccie with 3 under 5s in toe. Anyway to cut a long story short we now need some tips from people in auckland. Where is a good place to stay? - Cheap and central although he will hire a car to get around.
He is hoping to make appointments with agencies and take a look at some possible areas to live.
If anyone out there in Auckland thinks they live in a fab area for small kids let us know so he can take a look.
Does anyone know if he will be able to pick up school info and maybe visit a few? how do headteachers react to nosey poms on a reccie!!!
If your child goes to a fab primary in auckland we would love to hear about it/
Anyway tips for his reccie gratefully received.
Thanks Diane

[swissmissdesigner]

Hi Diana,

I am "walking in the same shoes".. I am looking for a good highschool in Auckland. I wrote to a few schools, but I didn't get any feedback yet.

Cheap car rent: "Ezy" is one of the cheapest
to live in Auckland: I prefer Parnell although is not cheap, but very nice part of the city.

Good luck

Anna

[kanatakiwi]

Hi diane
cant really help re the schools etc, as dont have any kids in school, but was thinking about places to stay...

There are lots of good suggestions elsewhere on this forum about neighbourhoods, etc.

Just want to add that if you plan to rent a car, you might prefer to be somewhere where parking is not so much of a problem as downtown. If you are checking out Howick as a place to live for instance, you might want to try the howick motor Lodge www.howickmotorlodge.co.nz. that would give you a feel for the Howick and Pakuranga area. prices start at $98 for a single

There is also the mount eden motel on balmoral for $90 a night www.mountedenmotel.co.nz which would give you a base for exploring that area. I'm told there are good schooling options there.

Most of these come with kitchens so your OH could make himself a cup of tea when he wanted, parking would not be a problem either.

And one that is close in but very affordable and in a good area is Pheonix Palm Motel in the Greenlane/Remuera district for $80 a night. there are also plenty of motels in Greenlane/Manukau area, fairly close to downtown, and of course right downtown there are all levels of accommodation from backpackers to luxury. Parking is usually a problem with the less expensive options.

Most of these come with kitchens so your OH could make himself a cup of tea when he wanted, parking would not be a problem either.

If you want to be over in Devonport, there are a number of B & B 's http://www.devonport.co.nz/accom.htm

but with a car that might not be too practical as normally people hop on the ferry to downtown which you cant do with a car.

As mentioned by swissmissdesigner, EZY is a good car rental. A2B is another good one. I think you will find both of these on the web. I agree Parnell is great, but not sure about schools for little ones in that area. I live in Orakei and love the eastern suburbs, Mission Bay, Kohimarama, St. Heliers and Glendowie.
Gloria

[Debbie]

As we found out, Auckland is a huge area. We rented a bach in Te Atatu when we arived. PM me if you want the details, owned by a great family who are now great friends. The bach is about $650/700 a week but he would have his own home, kitchen, TV, sky ect. And a drive to park the car on. Big plus is you have a phone that you can use for free auckland area calls which was a god send when it came to job hunting. Gives you an idea of life in NZ rather than holiday. YOu would need to drive into the city,(although there is a bus just around the corner that goes to downtown area every hr). Travel times by car to CBD under 15 mins off peak and under 30 rush hr. Takes about 5-10 mins longer to get to the Northshore from there as well. We used A2B for a rental, older car but good price.
OH is in IT and we wanted to be in possition for him to work easily in the CBD or Albany so we moved to Torbay Northshore. All of those East coast bays have a good reputation as far as schools go at all ages. There are some great preschools here but there are also waiting lists for them.
I just phoned the schools and asked about comming for a visit and all were happy to oblige either that day or within a few days. Got the tel. no. from the where to live in Auckland book. Be sure to ask for a map of their catchment areas as some of them are not as you would expect.
If you need any further info PM me.
Debbie
OH works in IT so