[captainxmas]

Hi everybody

We have been given a nudge in the direction of Hamilton, incidently a place we tended to fly over rather than visit.

As Hamilton virgins, can anybody give any opinions on Hamilton life?

:hopeso

[Radders]

Have passed through Hamilton. Seemed nice enough. I'm a water boy so not my cup of tea, but it is close to lots of places! Only an hour or so from Auckland, it's closer to places like Rotarua / Raglan etc etc. Large agricultural community, I would guess.

[jesselyn]

We have been given a nudge in the direction of Hamilton, incidently a place we tended to fly over rather than visit.
As Hamilton virgins, can anybody give any opinions on Hamilton life?


im not sure if this will help however you can request a cd-rom about hamilton here: http://www.b2h.co.nz/ :yes :nice1

jes :angel

[captainxmas]

Cheers Jes, interesting site.

Hope the CD is as inspiring as the Dunedin version!

:nice1

[jesselyn]

Hope the CD is as inspiring as the Dunedin version!


actually bro umm i like dunedin better :oops: (they have a cadbury chocolate factory :clap ) anyways, hamilton is cool, too! :nice1

jes :angel

[Tefal II]

We are going over for a holiday in three weeks - spending 5 days in Hamilton - will report when we come back! :nice1

[jesselyn]

We are going over for a holiday in three weeks - spending 5 days in Hamilton - will report when we come back! :nice1

wtg :clap

jes :angel

[Stu]

..Hamilton is certainly a very good place to live, it is really going ahead right now, as people are deciding to move there rather than to Auckland, which is now very expensive to buy property in.

Hamilton has a big university/tech college element, and is also the centre for a lot of AgResearch, and is the hub of NZs Dairy and Horse racing industries, so there is plenty of money in the area.

It is only about an hours drive from everywhere, rotorua, Taupo, West coast, East coast and Auckland, very central indeed. Great trout fishing on the Waikato river hydro lakes too.

cheers,
Stu.

[Tefal II]

Just back - literally. Took 39 hours inclusding all the waiting around the airports. :wah Sooooo tired. :eek But before I go to my bed had to log in and let you know that my hubby and I are considering moving to Hamilton next Oct - so we were pretty impressed. :nice1

will try to write a wee report when I get back to British time - do we get an extra hour in bed this weekend??? I hope so..... Tooo many hours have disappeared.

[richsadams]

Hi All :cool

Hamilton is a very nice place, one that was on our list of places to live. We ended up on the east coast of the North Island, but that's another story. Hamilton is still very affordable, especially compared to anywhere near Auckland.

Hamilton's weather can put some people off as it is in a valley with the Waikato River running through it. It can be colder and damper in the winter than other places and a bit hotter and more humid in summer than others.

It does have some nice restaurants and other things to do though and as others have mentioned, it is central to visiting other places...so it depends on what you're looking for. They are improving the highway to AKL so there is a good amount of growth on the north end...some folks commute daily :?

When you visit be sure to stop by the gardens...very impressive and take a ride on the paddle wheel boat...nice views of some of the beautiful homes on the river while enjoying some tea and scones or a glass of local wine. :nice1

[captainxmas]

Welcome home Tefal, looking forward to your views.

(Thanks Rich too!)

We picked up some more info at the expo and I reckon we will drive up there for acouple of days in Jan.

:cheers

[Tefal II]

Can't really add much more to what has been said. There seems to be a lot of chance to build your own - various sections for sale (big ones just outside town (lifestyle sections - no-one can get too close) and weer ones in town. Who am I kidding? - they are all HUGE! Our housing estate would fit on one section!)

Loved Western Heights area, that is where we hope to find a house. We'll build later. Has cinema, lots of places to eat (Lonestar is definately worth a visit), rush hour can consist of five cars and a truck (we heard this reported as highly congested!), several good schools and central to everywhere as was previously stated.

We have friends there - moved last year from UK and they love it. We want to be able to have all the advantages of living in a town but be 5 mins from the countryside. We should also be able to buy a house that we could only dream of over here (scotland) for not much more than £150 000. We may be mortgage free in a few years - unbelievable!!!

Just trying to get my EOI completed so that the ball can get rolling properly....

[captainxmas]

Hi Tefal, thanks for the first hand info. :nice1

We have been scouting property and have decided to concentrate on job contacts around Hamilton in Jan.

Especially with the fallout from Auckland it could be a good investment before moving further south in a few years.

:cheers