[dibber and coley]

:) Hi Folks
Following the success with EOI Alan is now on his way for a reccie to auckland. He will be there from 11th June for 2 weeks. I have the dubious honour of holding the fort with Toot, Ploot and Twinkle (aka our 3 gorgeous babes). You can't really do a quick reccie with 3 under 5s in toe. I trust his judgement;)
Anyway we now need some advice from the aucklanders outhere.
Can anyone recommend a good place for him to stay out there - quite cheap and central.
He will be hiring a car to get around but his schedule is still quite flexible.
He is hoping to meet some companies and agencies but what els would be good.
I would like him to sus out areas to live - if you live in an area you think is great for little ones please let us know? Which areas in auckland should we be looking at?
What about primary schools? does your child attend a fab school we should take a look at? How do headteachers feel about showing round parents who are just on a reccie?
I want him to do a typical family shop to check out prices?
What else would be useful in helping us to make our final decision?
thanks for any advice you can offer! We would really appreciate it.
Thanks Diane

[Milliemoo]

Hi there,

We stayed in an apartment in the Viaduct Harbour when we first arrived and it was a great place for us because we were using public transport to get around. I guess it depends on your budget, but I'd recomend staying in an apartment in the CBD because it's a good central point. There's even a huge supermarket 5 mins walk from the Viaduct.

We live in Devonport and think it's amazing :D We don't have kids, so I'll let someone else tell you how great this place is for sprogs. Again it depends on budget. We've been looking for 6 months and still haven't found anywhere that we can either afford or is suitable.

There are loads of other great areas in Auckland but a lot will depend on where your hubby finds work, how much he will earn and how much your bringing with you. As you don't really know the answer to 2 of those, your best seeing as much as possible. My faves are:

North Shore:
Devonport
Narrowneck
Milford
Mairangi Bay
Bayswater

City:
St Helleirs
Mt Eden

Manukau:
Howick
Mellons Bay

There are heaps of other great places, but as we rely on public transport we need somewhere with good links and shops, cafes, parks etc all within walking distance.

If your hubby would like to meet up for drinkies and a chit chat, just send me a PM :cheers

Milliemoo

[happymartins]

Affordibility is a problem in Auckland and its suburbs at the moment. We are renting uo in Whangaparaoa at the moment. It is a 60 min commute on the bus to the CBD but this is more than compensated for by the abundance of nice beaches and playgrounds for our two year old. I'm told the schools are good round here as well.


Another advantage of being on the North Shore is that you are only a reasonable drive from nice towns like Warkworth, Matakana and Helensville that are always nice to visit at weekends.

[willowshouse]

Hi Diane,

Can I suggest you get the book "Where to Live in Auckland" and choose places for your hubby to visit. The book not only gives you a general impression of the different areas but it gives you a good idea of prices for rentals and buying and it is that which will largely determine where you live. Once you have selected areas of interest you can search for properties on the various real estate websites and that will give you a better idea of what is available.

The truth is there are LOTS of nice areas in Auckland that are great for kids and schools .. but there will be ONE that is best for you, and that is hard for someone else to advise you on. Maybe once you've had a look at the book (Library possibly?) you could post the details of where you are interested in and other forumites could comment from there? I hope that's helpful..

I live in the Eastern Suburbs so if you want any info on Glendowie, St Heliers, Remuera, Orakei, St Johns, Meadowbank, Glen Innes ... I'd be more than happy to offer my help.

I reckon if you want OH to check out a school, maybe after he has found an area he likes .. it shouldn't be too much of a problem. It rathers depends on whether you say "I just want a look really 'cos I'm not sure if we're even coming here!" or "I have identifed this area as where we will live and so need to check out the local schools". Before we came here I contacted schools (by email) to ask them this and that .. they didn't bother replying because they must get that all the time from people who are thinking of moving and it never comes to anything .. know what I mean? Having said that, if you are reasonably interested in a school they are MORE than happy to show you around (in my experience) so don't be put off! If OH finds an area of interest on his reccy and wants to know the schools to check out .. tell him to ask the local Real Estate Agent, they know all the good schools.

Good luck managing the kids whilst he's away!

Dawn

[gil]

Hi Diane,
We live in Bucklands Beach and have excellent schools nearby, but it is a decile 10 zone, which means school contribution fees and house prices are high.
Our youngest (9) goes to Pigeon Mountain Primary, great school, in the same site as Bucklands Beach Intermediate, where our son (11) goes. That is around the corner from Macleans College where our 16 year old goes. Also great school.
http://www.pigeon-mountain.school.nz (http://www.pigeon-mountain.school.nz/)

http://www.bbi.school.nz (http://www.bbi.school.nz/)

http://www.macleans.school.nz (http://www.macleans.school.nz/)

Please ask OH to PM us of he'd like to come see...
Gil

[Debbie]

I seem to be cursed, I've writen 2 replies to this post and both have dissapeared into cyberspace.
The thing about Auckland is it's huge and every diffent district is very different in style.
We rented a bach from the UK in Te Atatu (W Auckland) when we arrived. Run by a great family who have become great friends. Cost about $650/700 a week but gives you a home so more like living here rather than being on holiday. You get the full working kitchen, sky TV and most importantly a telephone to recieve job interviews on and make free local calls.
I used to get the bus into Downtown from there but you would need a car. Took under 15 mins off peak and under 30 mins in rush hr to the CBD and about 5/ 10 mins more to the northshore.
We used A2B cars, older cars but a lot cheaper than others we looked at and they pick you up from the airport.
We ended up buying in Torbay Northshore because OH is in IT and we wanted the security of him being able to work easliy in the CBD or Albany.
All of the East coast Bays have a good reputation as far as schools of all ages go. They are not the cheapest areas to find a house in though and we struggled to find a place with a garden large enough for our kids. West Auckland seemed cheaper and with larger sections.
The 'Where to live in Auckland' book is great and has the tel no. for all the schools in the back. I just phoned the schools and said we were looking to move to that area and they all arranged visits either that day or within a couple of days. (I was looking at the busy pre xmas time). Be sure to ask them for an up to date zone map as they change and some of the schools cover a suprisingly small area. The higher the decible rating the higher the parent contribution, it doesn't necessarily relate to how good the school is. FYI my son's primary is dec10 rated and we pay $40 per term for 1 child and $60 per term for 2 children.
I found that there were lots of good prechools but they all had waiting lists, of it's a thing of importance to you get names down quickly. State preschools couldn't take my daughter until she was 3yr 8mths so we hav to go private and thats our biggest expence so worth looking into up front.
If you want any more info on Torbay or the details of the bach PM ma and I'll pass them on.
Enjoy your trip. Debbie

[the emery family]

hi there. To add to the last thread, i'm also on the north shore, in browns bay. we have a 2 year old and i think the North Shore is a wonderful place to be with kids. There are parks everywhere, beaches every two minutes drive, cafes, shops etc. We were going to buy but as we are also keeping a place in london we had very little equity and mortgage rates here are horrendous, so although we had a mortgage agreed, we decided against it when we realised how much it would cost each month. Renting here is pretty reasonable, we pay $420 a week for a nice 3 bed place with a good sized garden. The schools in this area are all decile 10 rated so pretty good standard. We have looked around lots of areas in and around Auckland and it really depends on what you want. I'm a real city girl and we were planning to look at areas such as Mount Eden/Ponsonby, but when we arrived here and realised how lovely and chilled it was on the Shore we decided that we wanted to take advantage of being so close to beaches etc.

Also, as someone else here has commented, the Shore is wonderful because of its proximity to lovely towns north of here such as Warkworth and matakana, plus it's really easy to go out west to fab beaches such as Piha, and out to the wineries and cafes in Kumeu.

Hope that helps, Auckland is a great city and i'm sure you'll love it.

[dibber and coley]

Hi folks

Well, the day of reckoning is almost here. My reccie trip to Auckland is happening in 2 weeks and i arrive on the 11th June. I am going to miss the family something terrible but I know I'm doing it all for them.
I am staying in a hotel just off Queen St for the first week and have countless interviews with IT agencies lined up.
I guess I am gonna be bored at night so if anyone of you folks want to hook up for a drink and show me around the place then that would be great. It would be nice to talk to Brits that have actually done it - Real world stuff!!!
Cheers

Coley

[Belmont Babes]

All the best for your trip. Will be heading Auckland way in Sept/Oct so keep us posted. Also need to know about schools. Hope you manage to see as much as possible warts and all :nice1