[RachT]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to this site and my husband and I have just decided that NZ is for us. We are concentrating on Auckland as my OH is in IT and it would seem that's where most of his type of work is. We have two kids, aged 3 and 1.

Wondered if you could advise of the best suburb to live with kids. We obviously want good schools but also to be within about 45 mins commute to central business area. We require 4 plus bed house and want to spend about 900 K.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Rachael

[gil]

Hi Rachel, and welcome!

We have settled in Bucklands Beach with our family (19 year old went back to UK, here we have our 16, 11 and 10 year olds). It is a fabulous family area with Little Bucklands Beach, Big Bucklands Beach and Eastern Beach all within 5 minute stroll.
Quick synopsis of good points (suggest you do a search using the button on the tool bar above for more detail):

Great areas - BB itself (Bucklands Beach), Mellons Bay, Half Moon Bay
Schools are excellent. The peninsula has BB Kindy, BB Playcentre, BB and Pigeon Mountain Primaries, BB Intermediate School and Macleans College, plus Mellons Bay Primary a 5 min drive away
45-60 min commute in peak times to CBD by car and ferry from Half Moon Bay into CBD 35 mins$900K should be fine for what you are seeking. Have you looked at estate agents' websites? www.rwhowick.co.nz for Ray Whites and www.bayleys.co.nz (Bayleys, obviously!) are good starters for this area.

Good luck and feel free to ask questions,

Gil

[Tia Maria]

Devonport is a fantastic family suburb but if you want to live in the central village bit then a 4 bed will cost you a million plus.

If you don't mind living a 5 minute drive away in Bayswater, Belmont or Narrow Neck, then you can get a 4 bed in your price range. All the plot sizes in these area are small.

My OH is also in IT and very easily got a job in Auckland but there were also plenty of postions in Wellington. You catch the ferry over to the CBD from Devonport - 15 minutes and then add on any time it takes you to get to work the other side. Driving over the bridge is busy (there is only one road in and out of Devonport) and takes my OH about 20 mins to get to work in Ponsonby.

Devonport is great for families because: (I have 3 kids - 6, 4 & 1)

1) Several beaches within walking distance

2) Library which holds lots of events for kids

3) Community House which has lots of child orientated activities.

4) Excellent schools and kindys

5) Lots of child friendly cafes.

6) Numerous little parks

Here are a few threads about it:

www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=14473

www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12174

www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=11606

I'm sure there is more, just use the search facility to look for 'Devonport', 'Narrow Neck', 'Belmont', 'Bayswater' and 'Cheltenham'

If you want to know anymore details then just ask! :D

Cheers

Tia

[madmungo]

Hi Rachael

I'm hoping to take the family to Auckland in Jan '09. We did a 3 week recce in Feb 07 and loved the North Shore area, Takapuna especially but it seems to be one of the priciest parts of the whole city! Devonport was great and the notion of commuting to work on a ferry appealed to me but the houses are often close together.

I'd highly recommend you get hold of a copy of 'Where to Live in Auckland' at http://www.wheretoliveinauckland.co.nz for an overview of the suburbs. Kiwi friends in London have suggested Titirangi, Remeura and Devonport amongst others and I use Google maps to work out where various places are:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Rotorua,+Bay+of+Plenty,+New+Zealand&ie=UTF8&ll=-36.851604,174.782867&spn=0.26813,0.63858&z=11&om=1

Chris

[andrewandjane]

you'd get a palace on waiheke for that price, amazing beaches, chilled out island lifestyle and only 35 mins commute by ferry best of all you dont have to drive can just sleep on the way in, or get a coffee or even a beer (there is one guy who has two beers on the trip in on the 7:20 boat i get in to work (no its not me!)

[Tia Maria]

madmungo wrote:

Devonport was great and the notion of commuting to work on a ferry appealed to me but the houses are often close together.

This, unfortuently, is the case with a lot of North Shore properties. Often one, sometimes two, houses are built in what use to be someone's back garden. A lot of people see it as a way to pay for their retirement, as they can make extra money by selling the land as well as house.

Surprisingly, this is actually less the case in Devonport than other North Shore places, as it is now under strict heritage zoning. There were some awful conversions and 'selling off of back sections' in the 70's, but luckily this is no longer possible in Devonport.

If you don't like the idea of a sectioned house then when looking at real estate sites always be wary of close up photos and houses with numbers like 24A or 1/34. They often state the plot size or you can look it up here:

www.nscc.govt.nz/your_neigbourhood/property_information/gis.htm

This is a great site for checking out houses, similar to Google Earth but it has plot sizes and CVs, if you click the photo option you can see the houses pretty well.

I think kiwis (well Auckland ones anyway), have a different view of outside space to us in the UK. They don't seem to mind that your window might be less than a metre away from their window. And even with new builds they often seem to fill the plot with a house and have a small garden. Maybe because they have access to so much outside space or maybe because it seems better value? We looked at plenty of houses which didn't even have a fence between and the local kids just played across the back of all the gardens.

Personally I've never got use to this, but with most major cities if you want to live very close then expect a smaller house and 'town garden'.

madmungo - Takapuna is very expensive but you can get very good value places only 5 minutes drive away. Hauraki, Belmont, Bayswater & Narrow Neck (where Tim Finn lives) aren't as established or as attractive (yet!) as Devonport & Takapuna, but being squashed between the 2 they have access to some great schools, beaches and a ferry service (Bayswater Marina). To me they seem very under valued and a great buy for those that don't mind 'up and coming'.

Good Luck with the move and don't forget if you arrive in January a lot of places don't get going until first week in Feb (when schools go back) so it can take a bit longer to sort out rentals etc.

Cheers

Tia

[RachT]

Thank you all for your help

Some food for thought. Think I'll get hold of a copy of that where to live guide and take it from there.

My OH has fallen in love with a golf course that is the top end of North Shore (not sure of name) so he would like to be close to that (I'm not so sure....golf widow springs to mind!)

Thanks again :yes

[Probyn]

Might not be a bad idea.We also looked around the Northshore in Dec.
Logical really,but it did seem on the whole that the closer you got to City the more expensive,for the bay area,s anyway.
I liked Torbay... best value for money,but longest commute,but nice big park and beach in Longbay,and alot of people told us that Longbay collage was as good or better than Takapuna Grammer.
Apart from weekend crowds at the park,pretty quite too

[Silverwing86]

Hi Rachael and welcome to the forum !

My OH has fallen in love with a golf course that is the top end of North Shore (not sure of name) so he would like to be close to that (I'm not so sure....golf widow springs to mind!)


I don't suppose it's the Gulf Harbour Country Club Golf Course (http://www.gulfharbourcountryclub.co.nz/golf-course.html) (home of the 2006 NZ Open), is it :D (not strictly North Shore anymore I guess) ?? We happen to live adjacent to this course and it is indeed lovely ! Although Gulf Harbour is, like many places surrounding Auckland, fairly built up, we have the luxury of beautiful wide swept views (which we know won't change since the golf course isn't going anywhere in a hurry ;)).

Gulf Harbour (http://www.whangaparaoanz.com/html/gulf_harbour.html), situated on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula (Hibiscus Coast (http://www.hibiscuslink.co.nz/index.php)), is a great place to live and has a couple of very reputable schools. These include the Gulf Harbour School (http://www.gulfharbour.school.nz/index.php), Wentworth College (http://www.wentworthcollege.school.nz/) and the Wentworth Primary School (http://www.wentworthcollege.school.nz/primary.html) (which is due to open in February 2008). Besides these there are many more options (http://www.hibiscuslink.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=35&Itemid=525) available on the peninsula where schools are concerned.

The Peninsula has, amongst other things, a great library, a theatre, a well appointed shopping mall (The Plaza in Whangaparaoa (http://www.the-plaza.co.nz/default.asp?action=home.home)) and no less than 14 beaches (!) to offer, not to mention Shakespear Regional Park (http://www.arc.govt.nz/parks/our-parks/parks-in-the-region/shakespear/), which is a gorgeous spot to spend the day with the kids !

There is also a ferry connection into CBD which takes approximately 50 minutes. The commute into CBD by car would be approximately 45 -60 on a 'normal traffic' day.

The amount you mentioned should buy you a more than decent dwelling in this area I'm sure, and the fact that the Peninsula is marked as a Property 'Hot Spot', bodes well for the future value.

Before you get the wrong impression, let me assure you that I don't, in any way, shape or form, work for any organisation that wants to promote either Gulf Harbour or the Peninsula, or anything like that :laugh (I am, in fact, a self employed Webdesigner - in training) ! We've just totally fallen in love with this area since we've been here (one year now) and can highly recommend it.

Good luck with your choice of area and the emigration process !

Silver

[madmungo]

madmungo - Takapuna is very expensive but you can get very good value places only 5 minutes drive away....

Good Luck with the move and don't forget if you arrive in January a lot of places don't get going until first week in Feb (when schools go back) so it can take a bit longer to sort out rentals etc.

Cheers

Tia

Thanks for the tips Tia, I'm going to have a look at rentals in Bayswater now (and use the GIS site) and will keep in mind that Jan may be a quiet time.

[Tia Maria]

madmungo, there are a few of us based on the pennisula part of the North Shore so if you want any opinions about specific roads, schools, shops, parks or kindys just drop us a PM - we're pretty honest and just as happy to let you know the downsides as well as the upsides!

Cheers

Tia

[RachT]

It is indeed Gulf Harbour Country Club....how did u guess?!

Can I ask what the weather is like? It's so hard to tell from statistics. How does it compare to UK? I am reading it that is is similar but a little more mild with a little more rain. Is this correct? Does it rain less there but all come down in one storm?

Thanks for all your replies

[Silverwing86]

Hi Rachael,

I don't know, wild guess :laugh ! Plus this course apparently has such a good reputation internationally, I just thought it might be the one.

It's hard for me to compare the weather to the UK since we came from Holland, but assuming the weather in the UK and Holland is fairly similar I would say that we have found the weather here to be a huge improvement.

I think the major difference is that, despite the fact that it can rain quite a bit (mostly showery with sunny bits in between), the long weeks of grey weather we had in Holland don't really happen here. In fact, we're quite surprised when we have 2 days of constant grey in a row ! Most days you see at least a bit of sun peeping through the clouds at some time or another and when it is out, it's warm, even in the heart of winter.

The weather can be extremely changeable; it can go from grey and showery to beautiful blue skies in very little time ! It really is true what they say about the weather in NZ; "if you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes".

I spent time outside on most days this past winter (although I do understand from Kiwi's it was a mild one), which to me is fantastic. I find that where I used to wear three layers of clothes in Holland even when the temperature in the house was 25 or 26 degrees, here I only wear one with the same indoor temperature ! I suspect it has something to do with my core temperature being higher here due to the much higher amount of sun hours a year.

Also I suspect that we have a bit of a micro climate going on at this end of the peninsula as we find that when we travel more towards the 'mainland', the weather is often less bright than what we left behind at home ! Quite fascinating to see really...

And now in summer we also find that even if it is cloudy or showery, it generally is still quite warm. We've just been away to Lake Taupo and Paihia for holidays, the weather wasn't really great, but we were able to do basically everything we wanted to and in a way it was good that it was cloudy as it might have been too hot if there hadn't been any clouds at all !

Only on the day we left Paihia (Wednesday), it was raining very hard and didn't really let up (well, not until we got back to the peninsula that is, where it was dry and lots of blue bits were visible between the clouds ! Ended up spending a couple of hours in Shakespear Park instead of going straight home :clap !).

Hope the links I posted before were of some use to you. Do let me know if you'd like to know more about Gulf Harbour and/or Whangaparaoa peninsula, glad to be of help in any way I can...

Cheers,
Silver