Taranaki Region

jodie · Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 9:13 am Post subject: Taranaki Region

The mayor of Taranaki sold the area so well at the EMigrate show this weekend that I wondered if anyone had any knowledge of living in the area and what it's like for jobs? We like the idea of being 5 minutes from miles of surfing beaches and the low cost of housing is attractive too!

I think New Plymouth is the main place so if anyone has any experiences or thoughts, I'd love to hear them...

wiz · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2004 1:39 am Post subject:

Hi Jodie,

I've just returned back from a brief tour of NZ, of which Taranaki and New Plymouth was one of the places my husband and I visited. My husband was offered a job there, so we went to check it out.

We've decided not to take the job there, opting for a position in the Bay of Plenty/Waikato region instead. Our main concern was the lack of acessability to and from New Plymouth, it's very out there, and the main road to it is a bit of a nightmare. Once you are actually there it's quite nice. It depends on what you want I guess. We found out that the weather is not quite as good as the rest of the North Island, but like you we heard that it had good surfing beaches. New Plymouth itself is well equipped and would have everything you could expect to find in an average sized city or large town in the UK.

With regards to property prices, you are correct it's really cheap.

If you have no family ties or work commitments and price of housing is not a major factor. I would recommend doing a bit more research, and if you could afford it a trip to NZ. fingers crossed

I hope i've not upset anyone from New Plymouth!