[acemoola]

It's possible my husband may be offered a post in Timaru.
Looked at a few website and it does look quite pretty especially Caroline Bay area. I assume parts of it will be industrialised, since this is the nature of oH's business.
What's the place really like? Size? Climate? Sense of community? Things to do? Real estate? I'm from the North-West of England, so use to a mixed bag of areas....
Thanks for any thoughts - good or bad!
Claire

[mossum]

Hi ,

I grew up in Christchurch & I actually really like Timaru . I 'd be tempted to move that way too if we could get jobs there . try www.harcourts.co.nz for real estate .

vic x

[willsken]

Can't answer the question, just wanted to say welcome to the forum :D

[Smiler]

Hi acemoola.

I know nothing of Timaru but also wanted to say welcome to the forum. :clap:clap:clap

[K&CS]

Only stopped once there for lunch on the way to Oamaru. It seemed nice enough - it didn't necessarily grab me as somewhere I'd want to live, but I'm sure Mossum knows more about the place than me.

Kate

[Moorf]

Hmm I wrote a bit of a scathing post about Timaru after we went down for a visit not long after we arrived - we haven't been back!! I'm not a fan of the place, the only good thing to come out of it, imo, is the road back to Chch. The place gave me the creeps and after we followed the "tourist walk" over the sewage pipes being laid, across the grafitti'd skatepark, round "pretty" Caroline Bay (with it's large concrete blocks on the beach and not very pretty working port) and finally around the headland, across a rail track and past a factory belching funny coloured smoke (we thought it was a glue factory!!) and past the 3 headed penguin we kinda wanted out!!

I've been told the first question you're asked by your neighbours is "which church are you with" :uhoh

But hey, that's just the opinion of a newly arrived Brit back when I thought Darfield (near where I now live!) was hicksville and swore never to live near it!! :o 18 months down the line and Darfield's my local :D and I love it!

[pinkpiggy]

Welcome to the forum. I have to agree with K&CS. We went through Timaru on our grand vacation in April this year. There were parts of it that seemed really nice and other parts that didn't. It didn't grab me though, I just wanted to carry on and get to Christchurch.... maybe it was the thought that once we got to Christchurch we would be ditching the campervan and staying in a hotel for 2 nights as it was my OH's birthday . ;)

[David with a dream]

Hi, we stayed at the top 10 holiday park in Timaru last year. Had a walk around the town, found a really 'strange' play park for the kids (not another person to be seen!!) and visited the A&E Dpt of the hospital when the wee chap fell out of a tree in the holiday park (he was ok we where shot to bits). The nurse who treated our son was from Yorkshire and had moved over with his wife and 4 kids in 2002. He told us that they all hated Timaru for about two years but now loved it and never wanted to move any where else in NZ. We thought it was OKish but not a patch on other bits of NZ but each to their own.
As for the climate I can only report on the 36 hour stay we had and that was in mid August - sunny but cold, remember the further south you head in NZ the colder it gets.........Good luck to you......David