[ant-in-cornwall]

Zoe has had an informal job offer for surgical nursing with The Lakes District Health Board. Given that the larger hospital within the DHB area is In Rotorua, we're wondering what the area is like to live in. Friends live in Taupo but we understand that house prices are more expensive the closer you are to Taupo. What is Rotorua and its environs like? We fear that a stench of sulphur pervades everywhere.....! :oops:

Any advice or comments?

Ant and Zoe

[Jules]

Hi Ant & Zoe

We have been living in Rotorua now for 2 months and loving it :cool . When we first arrived the smell made me gag, after about a week I got used to it and it dosnt bother me.

We used to live in an area called Glenholme which they class as a thermal area and sometimes in the early morning when we opened the front door you used to get a whiff of sulphur but again, you get used to it. We moved rental on Saturday to a place called Tihi-O-Tonga and it is beautifull, we have a fab view of forests :nice1

Rotorua is a fabulous area with lovely lakes and forest to do some tramping and bike rides.

The town is nice too with Lake Rotorua at the bottom, I think the hospital is near the lake aswell.

Taupo is a nice drive from Rotorua :nice1

PM me when you arrive and we could have some beers :cheers

Jules

[ruthyroo]

Hey hey

We've been living in Rotovegas for 7 months now. Settled in well but it took a while...

Negatives...
Rotorua is not a wealthy place. Probably the highest Maori population outside Aukland, and a lot of associated poverty. It has a reputation for high crime levels (but maybe it is no worse than many towns). There are certainly parts of town the you would wish to avoid renting but your estate agent will set you right on these.

Bit stuck in the 70's, even more than most of NZ. CBD needs a major amount of investment to bring it up to the standard of neighbouring towns e.g. Tauranga, Taupo...but there is a reluctance to invest partly becuase of the poor reputation, see above. Economcally the town has not moved forward for some time - this is obvious in the tatty shop fronts, and the fact that many professionals tend to work here for a few years then move on to somewhere that offers a more middle class lifestyle...

The smell is a bit off putting for a while, but I rarely notice it now - and it's a real novelty for visitors!

Weather - we are 300m above sea levels so there is a lot of rain and it's a good bit colder than just a little further north.

Risk - you are after all living in one of the most obviously volcanic areas in the world - the town sits in a vast caldera, as does Taupo. My OH is a geographer so he loves it!

Positives
Fantastic location - if you have the money and time to enjoy it. We are living out at Lake Tarawera. We have access to the lakes for kayaking, forests for cycling, and many tramping paths.

Benefitting from tourism - becuase it is such a tourist centre, there are a lot of good restaurants etc compared to other NZ towns, whch is great.

Central location for exploring.

Cheap housing compared to much of NZ (becuase of the negatives above).

Thermal pools - excellent therapy after a hard day on the water.

Easy to get good jobs...but you have to ask where all the professionals are??

To summarise (at last!), we are probably going to stay here for a further year, and then move on. We are enjoying the life here, but it's not somehere I would particularly want to bring kids up (pretty rough schools high level of crime and drug use, high unemployment etc.) A friend, who knows NZ well, said to me before I left not to judge NZ by Rotorua. I didn't know what she meant at the time, but having travelled around a bit now I agree with her.