[Skipjack]

Hi, we’re considering North Shore to live. Please could anyone advise on the Shore suburbs? If you live there what’s it like?

A couple of things are important to us:

1. Schools – as we are we have three kids (9, 8 and 2.5). So a good small primary school is a must - and we need to think about secondary, so school zoning is an issue.

2. We love the beach and the holiday atmosphere of a beach suburb with café’s and ice-cream and a supermarket or two (as opposed to rural and isolation). Don’t have to live right on the beach though.

3. We need a good friendly community, especially for Fiona who is at home managing the kids (where do all the poms live?)

Any comments or thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks

[JandM]

Hello and welcome to the forum. :)

I'm sure some of the many members living in that area will be along to help shortly.

[Helsandfamily]

Hi,
Welcome to the forum.

I have two boys aged 9 and 6 and live in Browns bay. Am very very happy with the area. The local schools are fantastic (and I don't use the word lightly) I find it friendly and has everything that we need from community to shops.


If I can be of any further assistance please feel free to PM me.

I don't have any experience of other schools or other areas, but to be honest wouldn't want to move. there are HEAPS of beaches within walking distance, all with great play areas for the kids and good swimming beaches. There are a lot of activities for the kids too like swimming, dancing, cubs martial arts sailing, trampolining etc all within the local area.

Priorities for us were the schools, and I have only positive things to say about the local schools, but I hear that that is the same for all schools on East coast bays.

hth

hels

[Familyofmonkeys]

We've recently left the North Shore and relocated to Canterbury as this was our long term plan. However we spent 2 years living in Albany (after a 6 months stint in West Harbour) and there were many advantages to the area.

Firstly I must point our that Albany is a large suburb and there is some confusion as to where it begins and other areas such as North Cross begins....every map you look at will show you something different. The area we lived has recently been reclassified by the postal service as 'Oteha' and basically the Eastern side of Albany. The park & ride was 10 minutes walk away (2 minutes drive) with very very regular buses into CBD from very early to very late at night....the journey takes between 15 minutes off peak to about 25 during rush hour. We found this to be very convenient and avoided my OH having to get one of the slower suburb buses and we didn't need a second car at all. The Westfield shopping centre and Mega Centre has all of the main shops you would need on a day to day basis as well as a good selection of clothes shops, DIY & electrical shops too and two supermarkets. Brown's Bay was less than 5 minutes drive away and had 2 further supermarkets.

Schools......my daughter went to Oteha Valley School which we found to be excellent on the whole. All of the schools in the area were very good, but we particularly liked this one as it was a bit smaller than most of the others with smaller class sizes and also pretty new (opened 2004) so has warm modern classrooms and up to date facilities as well as a large area for sports. Most of the area is zoned for Rangitoto College which is highly regarded, and there were also a couple of private schools in the area too....Kristin School and Pinehurst School.

Beach....our local beach was Brown's Bay....and I really loved the area. It is the only thing I really miss about Auckland (being a country girl at heart). The beach itself has lovely views onto the Haruki Gulf and Rangitoto Island, but is never crowded. I used to love wandering down the beach first thing in the morning.....the sun made the water glisten beautifully. Understandably the area attracts a lot of Brits...which can be a good or bad thing depending upon whether you would rather integrate into Kiwi culture or feel more comfortable with people similar to you around. There are also a ton on South Africans in the area too. This pushes the price up somewhat which is why we lived in Albany rather than Brown's Bay...but we were only a stones throw away. The suburb also has a nice selection of small shops and plenty of coffee shops plus a fab french bakery. On first sight it can look a bit scruffy....but there is a really lovely friendly atmosphere about the place, which grows on you :)

There are also a ton of activities for kids over the wider North Shore area...everything from playgroups & music groups for toddlers, sports to music & dance, craft classes, science/language classses as well as the usual brownies/guides/scouts etc. There are plenty of free pre-school activities and several friendly kindies about....some better than others so it pays to visit them and spend some time to make up your mind which you prefer....good way of meeting other mums too.

You might be wondering why we left if we liked the area so much......
http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=27473
To sum it up, we didn't come to NZ to live in a city. We agreed 2 years in Auckland as this is where OH landed a job, and then we stuck to our original plan and relocated to our preferred area of Canterbury.

[jent]

We have family who live in North Shore in Torbay. They moved there when their children were 10, 12 and 16. They have had fantastic schooling at Long Bay college and their local primary and intermediate schools. My sister-in-law is a teacher and is a very involved parent. She has been totally happy in the area and is very complimentary about the teaching standard.
The area is very safe and he kids have always gone down to the beach on their own which ,for ex-South Africans , is a big step! Hope you find a place to suit you.

[batgirl1001]

Everywhere on the east coast of the NS is more or less a wonderful place to live. The NS is very much the best city to live in if you are moving to Auckland and right now rentals are quickly going fast and getting a little too steep in my opinion. Ouch....

We live in Devonport on a waterfront suburb called Stanley Point. Pretty much anyone who knows Devonport knows that it is a great suburb and really sought after. Rents here disappear fast and are in short supply. Leafy, with many stunning weatherboard houses, a marina and ferry point, a bustling and complete village for everything you need......

It has several beaches, 2 mountains (North Head and Mt Victoria) for views of the city and bay area. The suburb is convenient if you work in the city since ferry is just 10 mins as apposed to taking the bridge. A couple of good schools Takapuna Grammar, St Leo's, Belmont Intermediate, Devonport, Stanley Bay & Vauxhall Primary, playcentres & kindys.........and yes annoyingly lots of POMS here. :D

I would suggest if you plan on the NS, to start experiencing staying at Devonport first before making your way slowly up the shore right up to Torbay if you want to. That way you can decide which is the suburb you like best and plan everything accordingly.

[norma]

You can't really go wrong anywhere on North Shore for good schools and access to great beaches. Secondary schools Takapuna Grammar, Westlake Girls and Rangitoto College have all appeared in the list of Auckland's top schools (within the top 12) in the past.

We considered Mairangi Bay and then settled in Devonport. It is very pretty and has great amenities but there are drawbacks. Probably too many Brits settle here (and quite a few of them move on or return to the UK so it can feel quite transient). Lake Road - the only road in and out of Devonport - can get very congested. It took me 45 minutes to get to Takapuna yesterday at 11am on a Sat - it should only take 10 to 15 minutes. Also, a lot of the sections have been subdivided so gardens can be very small. This applies to most of the North Shore but if a decent garden isn't on your wish list then it shouldn't be a problem. Having at look at the area on Google Earth would give you a good idea of the housing densities.

If you're going to be working in the city then the ferry is a nice way to commute. We've managed with one car since we moved here as my OH takes the ferry to work.

[nickiware]

I live in Rothesay Bay, near to Browns Bay and we love it. Browns Bay has a great beach and park for the kids, also a couple of supermarkets. Browns Bay school is very good, my kids have settled very well there. Please pm me if you would more specific info.

[Skipjack]

Thanks to everyone for the advice, t's very much appreciated! - I hope you don't mind if I PM some of you for more.

[JandM]

Skipjack, you'll find that you need to make five posts on any thread other than in the Lounge before you can send PMs to anyone. If you haven't any particular things you want to say, just do one-word posts on here to bump up your total. When you've come to the magic 5, click on anyone's username, then you'll see a drop-down menu with private messaging as one of the options.

[Alan]

I guess the only other factor that you may need to factor in is where you are working. We live in Milford and I would recommend here or the Forrest Hill area also. The buses are excellent and frequent, schools great, primary, intermediate and high schools and the beach is not far at all.

Plenty of shops, cafes etc and Takapuna just down the road as well.

[NannyOgg]

Hi - We are in Torbay but reading what you want froma suberb I think Browns Ba is definately the place for you. It's hard to not like it!

[bluesky]

The big attraction of the Shore for me is that it is physically separated from Auckland city, so if you work in the CBD it feels a little bit like you're going off on holiday when you travel home each day.

Devonport has a great village-y, strong community feel, and I'd really recommend it if you can afford it. The fundamental difference in Devonport, compared to the rest of the Shore, is that you can catch ferries from there to the CBD, so commuting becomes a pleasure.

[James 1077]

We also live in Devonport (the Stanley Bay side) and recently bought a house there as it is such a great place to live. There are 3 good beaches nearby (Cheltenham, Narrow Neck and the recently upgraded Torpedo Bay for when the wind blows from the east), decent ice cream places (two gelato places and your normal dairies selling TipTop ice cream) and an excellent community feel.

For commuting into the CBD to work the only way to really make the most of it is to catch the ferry. There are two from Devonport (Stanley Bay and Devonport Wharf) and they each take 10-15 minutes. Devonport runs regularly until 11pm (1am Fri & Sat and when there is a concert / event in Auckland) and Stanley Bay runs during commuting hours. There is also another ferry from Bayswater which is nearby.

School-wise there are a number of good primary schools and a "walking school bus" to get the kids to them. Ours are too young for school at the moment but I've only heard good things about all of the schools. I haven't asked much about the secondary schools but all of the older kids are friendly, chatty and well mannered so they also must be doing something right!

For the OH there is a big "mummy" community in Devonport as it is an affluent suburb where it is common for mums to stay at home with the kids whilst the dads go out to work in the city.

Traffic is light most of the time as it is at the end of a peninsula so you don't have any through traffic but there is only 1 road in and out so at commuting times the roads can be busy (both ways as Devonport is the home of NZ's navy so there are lots of people coming in as well as heading out to work). It is also a lovely place to go on sunny weekends with the cafes, beaches etc so it can get busy at random times over the weekend too!

The other bad thing is house prices are comparatively high, the houses can cost a lot to maintain as they are old and you often need to move fast to get a place as demand is high. We bought our 3 bed 1910 settler's cottage for $606k - which is an absolutely bargain for Devonport but in general you are looking at $800k+ for a 3 bed house in Stanley Bay and around $1m for the same in Cheltenham. Good rentals are also difficult to come by as they are always in demand - when we were renting we paid $590pw for a large, but old, three bed house in Stanley Bay.

Overall though we wouldn't want to live anywhere else!

[Skipjack]

Thanks again - It's reassuring that most areas are good and Browns Bay may be a starting point for us. Just researching Long Bay College for High School.

[mgbridges]

We also live on the North Shore and are very happy here. We started off in Campbells Bay in an unfurnished rental (furnished ones were hard to find) and very quickly decided we wanted to put down roots somewhere in the East Coast Bays. We ended up buying our current home in Browns Bay within a month of arriving! Our ultimate aim is to be nearer to the beach (I want to be within sight & sound of the sea) but in the meantime its only about a 5min drive away.

We had originally thought that Browns Bay was too far north for Martin's commute into the CBD (he works on Queens St), however, with the completion of the bus expressway and our proximity to a bus stop its not been a problem. When the express buses are running his commute is somewhere around 45mins door to desk!

As others have said pretty much all the schools on the North Shore have good reputations and there is a good selection to choose from. In our immediate vicinity I can think of several primary schools - Murrays Bay, St Johns (Catholic), Browns Bay, Pinehill, Sherwood, Pinehurst, Oteha Valley, Torbay, Long Bay - to name a few.

For secondary schools I can think of Westlake (boys & girls), Rossmini & Carmel (the boys & girls Catholic schools), Rangitoto, Long Bay. Some of these schools cater for children from Intermediate age all the way through to finishing school or there is the option of Intermediate school (Murrays Bay springs to mind) for a couple of years before moving on to high school.

It is often said that the North Shore is somewhat crowded as a lot of sections have been sub-divided over the years but we don't feel that it is. In fact we looked at several properties that still have the full section sized gardens (around 800 - 1000 m2). In comparison to the rows of terraced housing in many UK cities I actually think its quite spacious, but thats personal opinion! :)

There are certainly plenty of beaches to choose from, tons of activities for kids and pre-schools seem to be opening all over the place.

Shopping is easy with the Albany Mega Centre for retail and Wairau Park for furniture, electricals, cars etc. There are also several supermarkets on The Shore along with butchers, grocery shops, dairies, restaurants etc.

Good luck with your search for your own little piece of heaven!

HTH
Anneliese

[Helsandfamily]

Thanks again - It's reassuring that most areas are good and Browns Bay may be a starting point for us. Just researching Long Bay College for High School.

Just as a point of info- depending on where exactly you decide to settle, some parts of Browns Bay are zoned for Long Bay college and otheres are Zoned for Rangitoto College - they are both supposed to be very good.

Good Luck with your search

Hels

[canuck-31]

I hope i'm not hijacking your thread SKipjack but my family and i will be moving to the Northshore as well (in Apr 2010).

Since my work is going to be in Birkenhead, we are going to be looking for a rental place in Birkenhead. We are hoping to get a feel for the different districts until we can decide whether to stay in that area or to move to another.

The other reason that we are looking at Birkenhead is because we won't have a car right away so it will be nice to be close to work. We've heard good stuff about Birkenhead so we are looking forward to it.

We've also been checking out trademe.co.nz for rental property and my wife really likes Devonport. I can't seem to find a nice place for $400-450 p/w - so it may a little pricey area for our budget.

My wife and I have a 20 month old and we are pretty excited about the move.
Any input is greatly appreciated.

[nickiware]

Devonport is v. expensive for property, also traffic may be a problem for you if working in Birkenhead, good luck. My advice regarding a rental would be to get one with a woodburning fire or some form of heating. Look for damp patches, have a good old sniff around and look at the curtains for any signs of mould. Winter won't be far away for you when you arrive so keep that in mind.

[canuck-31]

Devonport is v. expensive for property, also traffic may be a problem for you if working in Birkenhead, good luck. My advice regarding a rental would be to get one with a woodburning fire or some form of heating. Look for damp patches, have a good old sniff around and look at the curtains for any signs of mould. Winter won't be far away for you when you arrive so keep that in mind.

Thanks, nickiware! It's a little tough because i think we have to do the rental agreement remotely. Work will help out (in finding a place) I think, but the place will basically be available for when we get there. So hopefully we'll find a decent place.

I'll leave Deonport for after we win the lotto ;)

[norma]

Thanks, nickiware! It's a little tough because i think we have to do the rental agreement remotely. Work will help out (in finding a place) I think, but the place will basically be available for when we get there. So hopefully we'll find a decent place.

There are lots of motels around, particularly around Takapuna, that would have enough facilities to tide you over for a few weeks if you wanted to have some input into your choice of rental.

Some friends stayed at Takapuna Motorlodge when they arrived and found it very comfortable:

http://www.takapunamotorlodge.co.nz/

[batgirl1001]

I can attest to the fact that Devonport is such a hard place to find a rental right now since so many people are quite keen about the area and there is always an undersupply.

We live in Devonport too and had been looking for a bigger rental for the past 3 months and finding nothing that really suited us and our small budget of $450 p/w or so.

Whenever we found something, there was always a line of people in the application queue as well. In one incident, a nice 2-bedroom cottage had 10 applications submitted within 2 days of being listed. We knew our chances were slim.

We tried various ways including listing with the agencies, going up to the offices every day to pick up the listings etc and still we couldn't find anything.......and we were not choosy people by nature.

I am going to predict that there will be fewer and fewer properties for rentals on the North Shore in the coming months. Lately I have noticed not many listings and those which are listed- are not the ones I would find myself willing to live in.

I guess if you want something in or around Devonport- you probably need to work very hard for it, some patience and a bit of luck.

If you are aiming for Birkenhead, I would try to find something within and Highbury area which is much nicer rather than Birkenhead bordering the area of Birkdale. Another place to consider which is a little further away is Hillcrest.

[canuck-31]

Thanks for all the advice - you guys and gals are awesome =)

[batgirl1001]

I forgot to mention that the search for a rental in and around Devonport turned out to be such a frustrating experience for us that we ended up purchasing a house near Browns Bay. ;) So we are moving in about 1.5 months.

Oh well!

[canuck-31]

I forgot to mention that the search for a rental in and around Devonport turned out to be such a frustrating experience for us that we ended up purchasing a house near Browns Bay. ;) So we are moving in about 1.5 months.

Oh well!

We were thinking about Browns Bay as well since it's a great location, but initially it will be hard for me to get to work (no car - office in Birkenhead).
I think once we are mobile, and learn more about the different neighbourhoods, then we can venture further out.

[nickiware]

I live in rothesay bay, next door to browns bay and we love it, also takapuna motor lodge is very good.

[akp713b]

I live in Hillcrest and I can tell you it is a very easy commute from here to Birkenhead. The upside to living in a suburb like Hillcrest is that it is on the cheaper side of the Motorway and not near a beach like Devonport or Northcote Point, so it is more affordable. Hillcrest is a sleepy little suburb with a Decile 8 primary school (Willow Park Primary) that has the traditional walking school buses and a very small-town feel. It is about a 5-8 minute drive to Birkenhead.

There is next to no traffic even at peak hours on this commute because you aren't crossing the Motorway and can use mostly residential roads the whole way. Hillcrest is in the zone for Northcote College, a decile 9 school.

If you are looking around Birkenhead you should know that not all of the Shore is really flash and wealthy. The suburbs of Beach Haven, Birkdale, and Northcote Central, all bordering on Birkenhead, are more working class and have many state houses and the associated issues. I wouldn't mind living in these suburbs at all, I work in Brkdale, but they aren't places you'll find many Brits settling.

[canuck-31]

Thanks, akp713b! I'll make sure that we check out some homes in the Hillcrest area on TradeMe...We currently live in the suburbs in Vancouver so we don't mind the small town feel - we actually look forward to it.

If it's a 5-8 drive to Birkenhead, do you think it'll be about twice as long if i took the Bus. I'll be basically taking transit for a while until we buy a car. My place of work is around Mokoia Rd in Birkenhead.

[canuck-31]

I live in rothesay bay, next door to browns bay and we love it, also takapuna motor lodge is very good.

We checked out their website and it looks amazing. Now we have to see if we can email them about cost. If it's worth it, we could probably move there for a month and in the mean time try to find a place to rent.

[akp713b]

The commute time on the bus, according to the Maxx website, is 25 to 27 minutes, including about 10-15 minutes of walking to the bus stop on Glenfield Rd. (This is timed from Eban Ave., the centre of Hillcrest). It also says it would take 38 minutes just to walk the whole distance to Mokoia Rd and forget the bus.

The downside is the bus stop is at the top of the hill in aptly named Hillcrest, so the walk to work would be all uphill. The bus costs $1.60 each way. You'd take the 955 bus. The closer you live to Glenfield Rd the shorter the commute and the less hill to walk up.

Public transit in Auckland is notoriouly poor, even compared to places like LA. With all its steep hills and ride-lines North Shore is particularly car-oriented. Living on the Akoranga Rd or Hillcrest Rd side of Hillcrest would make it much easier to take a bus to the city, but impossible to commute by bus to Birkenhead without a half-hour walk.

[canuck-31]

Thanks again, akp713b.
My NZ colleague here in Vancouver told me the same thing about public transit in Auckland. But i think it's inevitable for me since it will probably take a couple of months at least, to find a good deal on a second-hand car (i've been keeping an eye at Trademe).

But your post is very informative and it has at least given me an idea of what i should be exptecting.

[kejktfc]

We checked out their website and it looks amazing. Now we have to see if we can email them about cost. If it's worth it, we could probably move there for a month and in the mean time try to find a place to rent.

Looking for a place myself for prob a 3-4 weeks, will be emailing them as well to see what costs are like. Looks and ideal place to start from.

kejktfc

[batgirl1001]

Takapuna Motor Lodge is a good base for temporary accommodations- just ask for rooms not too close to the main road.

It wouldn't take long to find a car at a good price provided you are realistic and don't expect the dealer to bleed too much. Most people end up buying within a week of arrival. Some just days after and for us, 3 days after looking at prices for a week and buying at Turners.

[canuck-31]

Takapuna Motor Lodge is a good base for temporary accommodations- just ask for rooms not too close to the main road.

It wouldn't take long to find a car at a good price provided you are realistic and don't expect the dealer to bleed too much. Most people end up buying within a week of arrival. Some just days after and for us, 3 days after looking at prices for a week and buying at Turners.

Thanks for the heads up, batgirl.
I'll google Turners to find out some prices on second-hand cars. I've checked them out on TradeMe and have found the prices pretty reasonable.
I think finding a dealer or seller that i can trust is key - hopefully i'll post here when i'm there and ready to buy.

[bluesky]

Thanks for the heads up, batgirl.
I'll google Turners to find out some prices on second-hand cars. I've checked them out on TradeMe and have found the prices pretty reasonable.
I think finding a dealer or seller that i can trust is key - hopefully i'll post here when i'm there and ready to buy.

It's worth bearing in mind that although it's more expensive, buying from a used car dealer has a big benefit in NZ, because under the Consumer Guarantees Act they are responsible for any serious problems with the car after you've bought it. They either have to fix itfree of charge, or if they won't you can demand that they buy back the car at the price you paid. So the risk of buying a lemon is significantly reduced. It also means it's probably not worth paying for one of those warranty schemes they try and sell you, as effectively you have a warranty under the law anyway.

You don't get any protection like this if you buy privately or from an auction.

[canuck-31]

Point taken, bluesky. Thank you!

[hedgehock]

We're want live in North Shore, too. I look all suburbs near Auckland city and I think that NS is a better place for my family.

[thewoodies]

we came out thinking Mirangi Bay was going to be for us i even had a kindy place waiting for us !

But a good rental was hard to find that wasnt in someones backyard or had a flat underneath -so we headed up to the hibiscus coast - OH didnt have a job at the time so it was a bit of a risk - so glad we have - houses rental and buying wise was cheaper/definately buying more space !
the further along the pennisula you go the cheaper it gets -

We love it - at first i thought there were too many poms here !! :laugh
BUt THE FRIENDS I HAVE MADE who are fellow expats have been a great source of support and understanding

My OH is from a holiday island in the channel !!!................
so here (hibiscus coast pennsula) is more suited to us the beaches are fantastic - luckily he got a job in Albany

There are Brits that commute either by ferry/bus or drive into the CBD from here - the kiwis like to live nearer their work - when we got here we thought no one commuted ! we were wrong !