[Duncan74]

I've done a few searches and seen a bit about Tauranga, but there's a lot less info as you'd expect compared to the big 3. I've been slightly blindsided by the thought of living in Tauranga by a possible job offer that I thought would be ChCh, or even Auckland, but it seems theres a lot of work happening in Tauranga so in the short and medium term they are keen for people there.

So can anyone tell me about life there, not just the suburbs of choice. Allegedly its rapidly growing, but is that coming at a cost. What's driving the growth. Are the services becoming stretched, or is it a case of there being the infrastructure there now in advance of all the people.

And I know that broadband is a hit and miss affair anywhere in NZ, but any experiences in Tauranga, as chancesa are my wife would at least initially continue to work for her UK company remotely, but that would of course rely on broadband.

I like the location in terms of access to Taupo and the Coromandel, two of our favourite places from the recce. We did stay just outside Tauranga, but stayed at the campsite on the night and drove straight through Bethlehem and the edge of Tauranga the next morning without stopping so didn't get to see anything of what it was like.

Many thanks in advance for any comments.

Duncan

[catt]

Its great!!!!

[janrzm]

We've been here in Tauranga for 9 months now. We love it here.
We picked Tauranga for the climate , it being fairly well placed to get to other places & also for future growth - I believe the Port is due to expand.
All these things will draw people here , much as it did us. Especially given the bonus of fantastic scenery & beautiful beaches.

You soon realise how small a place it actually is though , especially when you don't know many people but you regularly bump into them!
But then the population is a lot smaller than what we were used to in Sheffield
I'd say they are keeping up with the infrastructure - the new Harbour bridge is
due for completion next year.
There's the toll road that goes from Tauriko straight through to the CBD or down to the Mount - costs $1
Also there are talks about building a new 'motorway' from Papamoa to by pass Te Puke through to Rotorua.
Broadband - we had issues when we moved into our new rental at Pyes Pa , no free Port on the exchange... OH had to blag himself a desk in someones office as he also works from home.
Fortunately though we got a call couple of weeks later to say they were connecting us that day.
So maybe just check that out before you commit to an area/house.
We've visited Rotorua , Auckland , Hamilton , Coromandel & Mt Ruapehu - all easily accessible from here.
So far so good!!
HTH

[walshy]

Tauranga is great, Omokoroa is a small slice of heaven, beaches are beautiful, schools are great etc, and we came home !!! aarrrrgghh

[stu & amanda]

We’ve been living in Tauranga now for nearly three months and we love it as well!!
But I think there are a few downsides to living here, so I’ll mention them.
Tauranga doesn’t have a beach, the beach is down on the Mount and if like us you live around the Otumoetai side of town, it’s a 20 minute drive depending on traffic, which can be a bit of a pain when all you want to do is get a bit of beach action after work.
Another thing is that it’s a little bit suburban around here. It seems like they’re selling off every bit of land for sections and people are coming along and putting their kit houses on them. There’s a new development out of town called the Lakes which is just a giant housing estate, we drove around it for curiosity and it was very depressing, a bit Stepford really and not very NZ. We are renting at the moment but the chances of buying here are diminishing, but there again with the exchange rate the chances of buying anywhere may be diminishing.

Broadband? No worries.

[janrzm]

I don't mind a 20 min drive to the beach , given that where we were in the UK it would have been a 2hour + drive to the beaches of Scarborough/Filey/Bridlington - no comparison!
Of course you can choose to live by the beach , however I do agree with the comments about all the houses being on top of each other, as everyone has sold off their gardens.
The Lakes may not be very Kiwi , but I personally thought it had been quite well done. Nothing like a housing estate you would find in the UK.
Possibly a bit artifical , but they have planted 1000's of plants & tree , put in play areas , walkways , cycleways , lakes - all before the houses.

Just goes to show that it's horses for courses really....
Depends what your likes & dislikes are.

[stu & amanda]

Yeah we're from Chesterfield so as you say 20 minutes is better than 2 hours and a slightly better result at the end of the journey, haha. But I think it's something you don't realise until you actually live here. As for the Lakes, i guess when it's matured it will be better and i know that if they'd built it just outside Chessie I'd have wanted to live there.

It's all about what you do and don't want, everyone's different, that's why the forum is so valuable. I've read on here before someone put that one of the advantages of Christchurch is it's Englishness...

[Fern01]

We went to live in Tauranga in 1980, lived there for 20 years, it was a great place in those days, it wasn't as crowded as it is to-day. Traffic was more mangeable.
Auckland became too dear a place for many to live so they sold up and with money in their pocket, moved to Tauranga, where houses and sections were much cheaper, sending Tauranga prices sky high in the meantime.
We moved to Katikati, bought a kiwifruit orchard, stayed there for 10 years on a road that had very few homes, it wasn't long before the locals subdivided their farms/orchards and before long, what once was a quiet area to live, became another suburb.
Liking the wide open spaces, few crowds, Tauranga or the Mount is not for us.

[norma]

Personally I didn't like Tauranga but that's only from visiting for a weekend for a friend's wedding. It was pleasant enough but suburban and didn't knock my socks off in terms of its physical setting. Saying that though I'm not happy with my suburban lifestyle in Auckland. It will again depend on what environment you're coming from and what you're hoping for in NZ.

[janrzm]

It's funny how some places just grab you, something that you just feel but can't quantify as to why...
On our recce we visited Nelson & Napier - on paper we thought , yeah they'll be great , but they just didn't grab us...
Tauranga did.
As has been said before , it's such an individual thing.
Such as the fact that I personally wouldn't like to live anywhere smaller.

[catt]

The name of the game is to try it......rent somewhere first and dont even think about buying until you get the full feel of the place. Its NZ you can always try somewhere else if its not for you :-)

[CjChris]

There are lots of things we love about Tauranga, especially since we lived in Wellington for 4 months when we first got here, and we really disliked the weather there (although we loved the museums and dramatic landscape).

Tauranga has a very different feel weather-wise, and the beach at Mt Maunganui is amazing. But be advised there isn't that much to do culture-wise here (there are things to do, but once you have done them a couple times each, it's like, "Now what?")

Still, overall we have been happy with our choice to live here, I just wouldn't advise coming without a job or a lot of money in the bank. I've heard over and over from people who live here that this is the one place in NZ where people move to without work lined up and spend years trying to get work (OH is living proof of this).

As for broadband, this is a long story but I'll tell it because it might help someone else. We live in Papamoa Beach just outside of Tauranga city in a neighborhood that is about 10 years old. The realtor assured us broadband was available here. We arranged to have our Wellington service transferred here, we had to buy a new router because I left the other one with my girls in Welly, we paid for transfer of service, got billed, but we could never get online. We spent weeks making phone calls trying to sort out why we couldn't connect. It was very hard being in a new country without internet service. We had to go to the local coffee shop and purchase their wireless service one hour at a time to do research and look for job postings!

We made many, many calls to our internet provider and they swore they could see that we were "online". We finally had a technician come out to look at our phone line connection outside the house, and he told us were were NOT wired appropriately for broadband--therefore we could not get broadband at this house (as, apparently, many people in this neighborhood could not). He advised we call Telecom because it was up to them to set us up.

We were told by Telecom that we could not get broadband here because there were "no more spaces available" for this area and that we could be put on a waiting list. The lady on the phone described it like a parking lot (totally odd to me)--she said the parking lot is full and until a car leaves, we could not get a space.

Hmmm...so after checking out this info from a few different people at Telecom (and after two months living here with no internet unless we agreed to dial up, which we did not want) we finally found EOL (enter net online) and --I am not making this up--they told us to go outside our house, stand on a ladder, and if we could see Papamoa Hill and the satellite antennae there, then we would be good candidates for their "wireless" service. So they put an antennae on our roof and it communicates with the one on Papamoa Hill. It's not the fastest internet service but it's better than dial up and the folks who work there are super nice.

Like most folks in NZ, we are charged by how many Gigs we use.

Anyway, just be aware that while the lure of the simple life is a great one, sometimes this can bring about big challenges and frustrations where technology is concerned.

Hope that helps.

Cjchris

[Bunstar]

As for broadband, this is a long story but I'll tell it because it might help someone else. We live in Papamoa Beach just outside of Tauranga city in a neighborhood that is about 10 years old. The realtor assured us broadband was available here.

Hi we also live in Papamoa Beach and had no problems whatsoever with getting broadband. Having said that I knew the girl that lived in the house before us and knew she had broadband, so maybe that's a good question to ask previous tenants before committing to a house?

[Nathan]

It depends on which neighborhood you're in. Some are fine, others (like ours) don't even have the hardware in the cabinets to provide the service. The story gets compounded by people who are on dialup and think it's broadband!!

In my dealings with providers they kept telling me that we were on a waiting list, and the tech finally told me the hardware wasn't there. I asked the customer service rep and was told, "We're not allowed to tell you that. We're to tell you that you'll be put on the waiting list." Truth is stranger than fiction!!

That was also the subject of a feature article in one of the weekly rags they shove in Papamoa mailboxes ... came out a little over a year ago.


As for the wireless service... There are at least three repeaters serving Papamoa. One is at the campground, one is on top of Palm Beach Resort...or whatever the place across from Fashion Island is called, and the one on the hill with the radio tower toward Welcome Bay. You apparently get the best reception if you have direct line of site with the one near fashion Island. We don't, so we use the one on the hill.

Cheers


Hi we also live in Papamoa Beach and had no problems whatsoever with getting broadband. Having said that I knew the girl that lived in the house before us and knew she had broadband, so maybe that's a good question to ask previous tenants before committing to a house?

[Park City Partner]

We live in Papamoa and had no problems getting internet. We decided to live here because of the high percentage of sunny days, the outdoor recreation available and the general lifestyle. I work in Tauranga and it takes about 20 minutes for me to get to work. Having lived in LA for 20 years it is an easy commute. With that said I would say that Tauranga has not done a great job keeping up with its infrastructure needs but it is now addressing it better.

The local economy is driven by several factors, tourism and the port being two large ones. It is the fastest growing city in New Zealand right now with a population of about 110k. It does have a reputation for being "$10 Tauranga" in that wages are not that great. But if you already have a job with a decent salary you are ahead of the game.

We have been here about 18 months I know a fair number of people through work so for example went to the Business Awards dinner last night and knew a fair number of people but still plenty more to meet.

If you want to know more about the economic drivers you can contact the Chamber of Commerce which is very active here as well as Priority One.

I would agree with the culture comment...but would also say that I've lived in a lot of places with a lot of culture and never seemed to take advantage because of the hassle of getting there etc. Auckland is an easy drive from here so you can always pop up there for a week....

We also looked at Nelson but are very happy with our choice here....

[Duncan74]

Just a brief one. I've been reading, but been dashing around this week so not had a lot of time to post, (especially as on my phone it's a pain - too old to type on a numeric phone keyboard ;) ).

Thank you all so very much. Some interesting observations that confirm / change / add to the thoughts we had.

Regarding the fastest growing city part, is there any info on how big the plan is to grow to? As for the infrastructure, well that's why I'm being asked to consider it, as I'm in transport design.

Apologies if this sends people into fits of laughter at the mere thought, but are there offices to rent where someone can take just a single desk? Again, thinking about my wife so if she's 'homeworking' then she can actually get some contact with other people, build a network, but possibly have access to the comms kit she needs and share the cost with other remote workers? Is that happening in NZ yet?

[Park City Partner]

There is a chance that I might have some space available to rent to your wife in Tauranga and I think there are a few other places perhaps out there. As for planned growth, best place to check would probably be City Council and Priority One....but personally I am glad to hear they are looking at a transport planner! Good luck.

[Duncan74]

Cheers, few months off, but good to hear that it's an option to consider.

[TheJezzers]

We love it in the Bay of Plenty we live in the Mount.... all I can say is its the place for us. Check out our blog http://thejezzers.blogspot.com.:raebanana Husband works in IT and broadband is better than in the UK. Excellent.

[ablears001]

We love it in the Bay of Plenty we live in the Mount.... all I can say is its the place for us. Check out our blog http://thejezzers.blogspot.com.:raebanana Husband works in IT and broadband is better than in the UK. Excellent.

Wow, I wish I could say the same! I moved from London to Tauranga a month ago. In London I was paying £12 per month for a 24Mb connection with no data limits (actual download speed was about 1.8Mb). Here in Bethlehem I pay $140NZD per month for 50Gb capped service with download speed of around 400k (sob!). I run a web design company and work from home, so getting a decent broadband connection was essential and I had been forewarned it would be expensive.

That aside, Tauranga is a lovely spot. It has a decent climate, it's well positioned for getting to Auckland, Coromandel and the central plateau, and it has all the amenities of a city but is still safe and clean. There is a lot of development going on though such as the huge subdivision called Tauriko which is going up at the moment. Houses are almost on top of each other. It depends what you're after: my sister looked around it and loved it, but ultimately I'd like to be out of the suburbs and get a bit more land and physical distance from neighbours. Be warned real estate is expensive and Tauranga has the worst home affordability index in NZ (tucked away at the bottom of this article (http://www.bayofplentytimes.co.nz/local/news/big-buyers-hit-holiday-homes-market/3789788/)).

[VileTraveller]

Interesting thread, as I'm also looking at Tauranga now that we're disinclined to go for Auckland. We would probably also want to be a litle way out from the suburbs, but at least with the size of Tauranga that hopefully won't mean we're unfeasibly far away from town.


Be warned real estate is expensive and Tauranga has the worst home affordability index in NZ (tucked away at the bottom of this article (http://www.bayofplentytimes.co.nz/local/news/big-buyers-hit-holiday-homes-market/3789788/)).
On the other hand, that does usually indicate that it's a desirable place to live. I've always preferred to get a smaller place in a nicer area, given a fixed budget.

[PonyGirl]

Interesting to hear all the input. My hubby and I are leaving for NZ tomorrow and will be in Te Puke initially as we are staying with his family there, but we are hoping to settle on our own somewhere in Tauranga. I'll be sure to add my input once I get a little settled.

[VileTraveller]

Is there a local Tauranga internet forum that anyone knows of?