[Mels]

Hi,

We have just over three weeks before we fly (panic/excitement:exit) to Wellington. Where we live depends on things like family friendly and schools/college for our 10 and 13 yr olds. So which are the nice bits and which are the bits to avoid of the following areas: Mt Victoria, Brooklyn, Karori, Khandalla, Tawa, around Onslow College, Paraparaumu/Beach and Waikanae/Beach. We will of course be looking around and a lot depends on what we find to rent but just to give us a starting point that would be great. Might just calm my nerves too:o

Thanks in anticipation

Mels

[tigerlily]

The feeling of those neighborhoods varies quite a lot! For me, I'd not live in Mt. Vic with 2 young kids. It seems to be mostly flats, and it's close to town. Khandalla is the fanciest of those, very posh and great schools. Brooklyn has nice views and is windy. Karori might be a nice option with kids that age, good parks and schools. Tawa is a good commute on the train. Good reputation on the schools there. Houses cost less than any of the burbs in the city. I don't know anything about the neighborhood around Onslow. But I did meet a substitute teacher who worked all over town, she said onslow had the most polite and tidy students who treated her respectfully. I think Khandallah, Wadestown, Northland are all in the zone for Onslow.

Up in Kapiti, I haven't really been too impressed with Paraparaumu. It just reminds me of Florida, kind of flat and 1960's houses. Great services and train is 1 hour to Wellington from there.
Waikanae has stolen my heart! I would move in a second. It's a cute little beach town. So is Rumati Beach.

Good luck with your move! I know it's a crazy time!!

[JasonS]

hi mels,
good luck with the move...the time will fly by so quickly!

ok, we live in paraparaumu beach, and it is fine here. yes, it is flat and looks like your basic suburbia town, but the thing i like best is many things are very close, and to us that is important with the high cost of petrol. there are plenty of shops for most the items you need, the train station is here (if you catch the train in waikanae, you have to catch the capitol connection which has limited service and cost a bit more, and there is no train station in raumati) the schools here are pretty decent, and the beach is right down the road from us. will we stay here forever? probably not, but for right now, we feel this is a good town to raise our kids (7 and 10) and will probably move on once they are grown.

we did not like tawa becuase it was in a valley and does not get as much sun as other areas. we know one family that moved from there becuase their house got very little sun and was cold a lot of the time. :(

[Kate D]

I vote for Khandallah - but then I'm biased cos I live here:-)

Seriously, it's a really nice suburb, very green, doesn't suffer the same drop in temperatures that Karori is prone to (so a friend who lives there tells me!), has a nice little village centre with reasonable shops, a few reserve areas, it's got a decent sports centre (Nairnville) and park as well as a summer open air swimming pool, schools with a good reputation, and if you find the right place you can be on both bus and train lines which open up transport options enormously.

Kate

[Mels]

I vote for Khandallah - but then I'm biased cos I live here:-)


Kate

We'll be expecting a personally guided tour on Khandallah :yes :D

Mels

[tigerlily]

I think I forgot to say that I'm still looking for the perfect place- but it doesn't exist! Everywhere has good and bad points, unfortunately!

[Lara Croft]

We opted for Waikanae to be close to the beach, but still only an hour from Wellington CBD. And yes, there is only 1 train each day, but Paraparaumu station is only 15 mins drive away, and the trains run from there every 20-30 minutes.

Paraparam is a bigger sprawling town, Waikanae only has 1 row of shops (fabulous butcher, great chip shop and excellent pizza place!) and a tiny precinct, so is much smaller. Also, Waikanae and Waikanae Beach do have a lot of, errmm, crinklies, who have retired to the beach. So it's generally very quiet! But that is exactly what we wanted! Each to his own...

J