[piningforthefjords]

Hi Guys,

Just a quick note to say Hi from the Webbs (Tim, Lisa, Harry and Libby). We are off to Auckland on 27th Feb 2007. Lisa will be working as a Specialist Nurse at the Auckland City Hospital and I (Tim) will be a man of leisure for a little while!

Still looking at best place to live, but probably thinking Brown's Bay or even Whangaporoa areas. If anyone has experience of these areas, travel times to the CBD or good primary school reccommendations etc, they will be gratefully received.

Thanks and hope to talk to some of you soon.

Cheers,

Tim

[Trigirl]

welcome to the forums :)

[jubjub]

Hello Tim & family, and welcome

Not lived in those areas, but have visited, and both seem very nice, some forum members do live around there, so hopefully they can help.

Travel time can be up to an hour from what I have heard, but thats from Whangaraparoa, rather than Browns Bay....

Good luck...

[kiwidebs]

Hi and welcome. Which area are you a nurse specialist in Lisa? I work in NICU at Auckland Hospital. We live in West Harbour. Hubby catches the ferry across to the CBD (most accents on the ferry are British apparantly!!) and I drive in, but because of shifts I miss rush hour on the North Western (thank goodness). Anyway, good luck with the move. We considered Whangaparoa - it's a lovely area. We really like Stanmore Bay.

[snailandthewhale]

Welcome to the forum!

We're going 15th Jan and I'll be working in Auckland City Hospital as well. No idea where we're going to live but will certainly check out those ferries when we get there.
Will let you know how we get on.

Karen

[Smiler]

Can't help you with Auckland at all, but there's many who can. :yes

Just wanted to say welcome to the forum. :cheers:cheers

[lollypop]

Hi there

Welcome to the forum. We arrived Feb 06 - rented in Browns Bay but now live in Torbay (though the suburbs all merge into one really). My kids go to the local schools and they are all pretty good in this area, if you have any specific questions about the area I would be happy to help if I can, just PM me. Hope the move goes well.

Sharon

[wiki]

Welcome - I was going to advise you to find somewhere to rent that suits your budget and then once you're working, take the weekends to explore and work out the best place for you to live. If it's only a six-month lease that you take (or even less) you get a lot of flexibility which should make up for the fact you might end up moving two or three times in a year.

Best of luck, and enjoy NZ - it's a great place to be :)

[Tia Maria]

Hi guys,

Good to see you made it!

Cheers

Tia

[scoobydoo]

Welcome to the forum,

:cool:

[piningforthefjords]

Blimey! What a great welcome, thanks guys!

Just to answer a few questions:

Lisa is an Infection Control Nurse, although she has worked in ICU (not neonatal though) in the past.

We will probably base ourselves in short term rented and look from there, I guess the biggest problem is the possibility of having to move the kids school if we decide to locate longer term in a new area. I know they will be adaptable, just feel a bit guilty after uprooting them from a very happy school in the UK!

Just a couple of other questions if you can help?

How long could we wait until we have to start the kids in school? I would expect we would prefer to take about 2 or 3 weeks to check the areas out and get a feel for things. We are coming end of Feb, so realise term will have already started, but don't want to rush school choice.

If we did settle in the Whangapaoraoa area, how long would a commute take into the Auckland Hospital (day would start at 07:30 and end at 16:00)?

Cheers and thanks again for your welcome,

Tim, Lisa, Harry and Libby ;)

[thepiesleys]

Hiyall,

welcome to the best info gathering site eva!, not kidding pose a q. and someone will bother to reply honest, anyway, i can not help you on commute times from where you are planning to settle, but can tell you that, if you have PR before arrival the kids can reg. in school and start next day.

The kids do wear uniform here and it can be really expensive check out the web sites for schools in your aerea and see if you can save on bringing stuff with you, i could have saved a fortune on white shirts and black socks ( pulled up nearly to their knees would you believe, even the 14 and 15 yr old boys( looks quite cool actually oh and they all wear floppy sun hats - school ones- could have saved on shoes for my teenager - not so the younger ones though. On the same subject the boys wear shorts andthe girls skirts, not horrible skin tight low waisted trousers on little girls trying to be grown up much to soon..
We arrived on the 23 Nov this year and have settled in half moon bay, just down the road from Howick and Bucklands, it is a beautiful area, quiet and a little reserved but very friendly the commute to the City is about 30 - 40 mins tops driving and 35 mins by the local ferry which is fivemins down the road, the primary schools here are top class too

good luck with it all

Sue

[marcia]

Can't offer any advice on AKL but wanted to say welcome! :nice1