[tpagenz]

For anyone moving to Wellington especially those with family you may want to consider the following suburbs. (All are an easy commute by car or train or bus into the central CBD of Wellington)

Churton Park, Johnsonville, Tawa, Whitby, Pauatahanui, Pukerua Bay and Plimmerton

These suburbs are all of a nice quality and have excellent schools, great access to shopping and other services

For anyone moving from the UK and wishing to live 20minutes to Wellington CBD and live right by the sea with kayaking, jet ski-ing, boating etc metres from your door please check out our house for sale at:

http://www.heystack.com/Motukaraka/

PS Would be happy to answer any questions regarding the house or regarding suburbs, travelling times etc into Wellington

[David with a dream]

Hi Tpagenz

One of our places to reccy is Wellington. We are a family of 4 with kids of 9 and 4. We would love to build our own place one day and a view would be great. What kind of money would you say we would need to realise our dream. :o
I was unable to open the link to your house sale :confused:
Look forward to hearing from you :nice1
David............... :cheers

[tpagenz]

Hi David

Can't send you an email so hope you are re-reading the message boards!
Your children are similar ages to ours
In Wellington to build a nice house with a view you would be looking at around $550K to $700K But nice sections especially with water views are very hard to come by so many people are buying existing houses

PS Not sure why my link isn't working but if you go to
http://www.open2view.com (Paste it into your browser if you are having any difficulties and type in the Reference ID# 117474

This site by the way for anyone looking at real estate in NZ is by far the best for looking at any houses in New Zealand. If you are settling in Wellington be sure to look at Porirua, Lwr Hutt and Upper Hutt these are very close commuting distance around 20 - 30minutes and have better weather than central Wellington and really good shopping.

Hope this info helps!

[Debbie]

tpagenz,
Thanks for the info, I may need to contact you for more info on these areas when we finally sell our house in the UK. We were looking initially at Auckland but are now more focused on Welli as think that in Auckland, by the time we move rural enough for us, the commute times would be to much. OH is in IT so hope that he can get work in Welli and Im social services so would need a job with one of the local DHB. Do you happen to know what District health board covers the suburbs you mentioned? and if there is a Where to live book that covers Welli?. We have one for Auckland but nothing as detailed for Welli. Sorry if the first question is a bit denced of me Im struggling to get my head around the geography and district divisions.
We have 2 children 4 & 2 and would ideally love to live close to the sea so OH can windsurf and sail and I can walk our hound but close enough to the CBD that OH can get home before the children go to bed. You mentioned elsewhere that you are moving because of your childrens school change. Is there a range of good schools in these areas. Again sorry to bombard you with questions but as I've said I cant find a good book on Welli area.
lastly, for now! Can you get piped gas in the houses around Wellington. Daft question I know but what with earth quakes I was wandering if it was something that was advoided.

Not quite 40 questions but not far from it. Thanks in advance.
Debbie

[tpagenz]

Hi Debbie

The DHB is this one I think - this links also has staff vacancies listed http://www.ccdhb.org.nz/

The suburbs I mentioned would all see your husband getting home well before the children go to bed and all have excellent schools to choose from which are a very good standard. At the moment with daylight saving we are getting sun until about 8:45pm in the evening. High schools children in Wellington seem to travel a bit to go to the good ones, but again we are only talking around 20minutes. Where we are in Pauatahanui there is a top high school within 10minutes and a lovely country school about 3minutes away

http://parumoana.cmonline.org.nz/
Lamb and calf day is always a huge event, very rural and a lot of fun

I am not sure of a book on living in Wellington - but I am happy to answer any repeat questions. I remember when we were thinking about moving to Australia a while ago how confusing it was to get your bearings online

Many suburbs offer piped gas despite the earthquake risk I think they have automatic shut offs if the line is broken - it appears to be quite safe.

Hope this info helps!

[David with a dream]

Hi Tpagenz
Ta for the info. Managed to open the link tonight and wow what a location you live in. Your home looks lovely can you please adopt me! I'll show this to Lesley (OH) tomorrow just to make sure she is still on my side (the NZ side). Hope you don't mind us firing you questions from time to time.............David.
PS. It was snowing up here in North Yorkshire last night, but now it's all turned to sluch! Great.............

[tpagenz]

David

Happy to answer any questions, sometimes it is hard to get a sense of where everything actually is online. At my childrens' school in Pauatahanui (a small country school of around 185) I know we have had quite a lot of people from the UK moving to the school lately who first came out and settled in Khandallah etc in Wellington and then opted for better weather and a more rural lifestyle by the sea in Pauathanui which is about 20 minutes from CBD. The UK people who have started at school seem to really like Pauatahanui, and Whitby which offers more of the lifestyle I think that they came out to NZ for!
PS NZers are very happy and positive to have British people out here

[Avalon]

Debbie,

A "where to live in Wellington" book was never published - on the basis that not enough people want to live in Wellington to make it worth it (???!!!) Not very helpful!

Also, while ive not seen windsurfing on offer from any of the coastal suburbs such as on the Kapiti coast - I have seen signs for windsurfing lesson at Oriental Bay (where Port Nicholsan Sailing club is. Ive also seen what looks to be a rather good Diving School at Island Bay, and theres another one near "The Basin" in the city which has been recommended to me. I dont know whether they do windsurfing or not - but they may be able to pass you on to someone that does. I havent yet tried any on these myself so Im afrais I couldnt comment on them persoanlly.

And piped gas doesnt seem to be an issue here - plenty of houses seem to have main gas. None of the places we looked at had it - but then we werent looking at the city or suburbs.