MattKay

Hello me and my fiance are moving to New Zealand next year March. Firstly was thinking wellington city, but now thinking another option is Paekakariki. Doe anyone know anything about this place or lived there?

Matt & Kay

escapedtonz

Paekak is ok. Nothing much there in all honesty apart from residential properties, a train station, couple of cafes and one restaurant (Fishermans Table on the state highway) which we never tried as reviews at the time weren't great. An ex colleague lived there for a few years and liked it but moved back to the South Island for promotion. Another colleague nearly bought the house next door but one to the restaurant - spent 2 nights living in it before committing to the sale and after getting lashed by a horrendous Southerly storm they changed their minds. Views from the lookout are awesome. If you have kids, Raumati Beach is a much much better option if you want Kapiti Coast.

DennisBergkamp

Not lived in Paekakariki but in Paraparaumu just up the road. Paraparaumu is the biggest town on the Kapiti Coast. Paekak (a lot of folk shorten it to Paekak!) is quite small but very bohemian and liberal place from what i've seen and the colleagues at work who live there. Nice beach and access to Queen Elizabeth Park which is huge.

Paekak is the place where some neighbours chipped in to buy a house for a lady who had rented there for many years and couldn't afford to buy a house - neighbours gifted her a house which would have been at least $450kNZD! Made the news here and generated a lot of discussion. They must really love their community to do that - i'd never chip in for anyone haha!

Main services and supermarkets up the road in Paraparaumu. No petrol stations In Paekakariki and handful of cafes. Does have a couple of pubs and a small cinema.

Can train it into Welly in 40 mins which would cost about $240 a month or driving in at peak time can range from 40 mins to 1h 20 depending on when you leave. I drive in from Paraparaumu each day and takes me an hour or so leaving around 7.15am. This will be quicker in the future as an expressway all the way from Kapiti to Wellington is being built. I can get onto the expressway in 3 mins from where i'm based - always a shame when it ends in Paekakariki as that is where they have got to so far.

Traffic can build up on the way home so again, ranges from 1 hour to 1.5 to Paraparaumu so about 10 mins less to Paekak

No hospitals in Kapiti but a health centre in Paraparaumu which has limited services. Main Wellington hospital needed for anything serious. Lots of good primary schools in Paekak and Paraparaumu and 2 good high schools which are in Paraparaumu. No high schools in Paeakakariki.

Paraparaumu is more built up and always things being built, new shops etc - has a main shopping centre called Coastlands and Kapiti Coast airport which flies to Auckland each morning. Kapiti towns in order of closeness to Welly; Paekakariki, Raumati South, Raumati Beach, Paraparaumu, Waikanae and Otaki. But all main services in Paraparaumu, 3 supermarkets, mall, health centre, high schools, airport and 2 business areas.

Summers are nice on the coast, seems much warmer than welly and the wind not as harsh. Wellington is mega windy. Winters, can be a bit wet and some cold mornings and nights.

Hope that helps

Justcol

Drove through the place and stopped for a coffee.
Only looked at the main street where the businesses are so cant comment of the residential area.
I cant imagine how long you would have to sit at the the junction to SH1 at morning rush hour if you need
to get into welly for work

escapedtonz

Ironically our Irish friends who live in Welly spent a few hours there today at the lookout and on the beach

escapedtonz

Paekak lookout and beach picture from yesterday

MattKay

Thank you very much for coming back to me, well we are not sure if we want to live in the city of Wellington down to the weather, well what i haeard with the wind and fog. Both of us will having jobs in Wellington. can anyone advise any other ideas?

Matt & Kay

MattKay

thank you very much for coming back to us. to be honest it seems a small place, well we will both have jobs in Wellington a bit put off with what we have heard with the weather, the wind and the fog. Is there any other places you could advise?

Matt & Kay

escapedtonz

Yeah Matt. When you get out past Porirua the places get small.
A good few of my colleagues live in Whitby which is really nice. It is generally older housing but the subdivision has expanded quite a bit recently to the East of Discovery Drive which is a big valley and now all built on. You can get some great views if on the West side overlooking the inlet. Aotea is also nice and a pretty new subdivision, but you need to be careful where you live as your view from a house in Aotea can be overlooking the low socio economic area of Cannons Creek which is a bit shabby.
If I was living in Wellington again I'd be moving more North. Plimmerton is beaut. Has a really nice community village feel to it and somewhere we spent a lot of time since we were in Tawa. It's right on the beach, the bay is really shallow even after walking out a hundred metres, it is relatively sheltered and there's a couple coffee shops, restaurants, hairdressers, shops, an awesome chippy run by a Greek hubby/wife team and there's a big garden centre next to Plimmerton Domain which also has a decent café and a trampoline for the kids to play on
Another really nice small village is Pauatahanui (pronounced Par-ta-nui) on the East side of the inlet. I'd live there in a heartbeat. Has a really cool tiny cinema, a shop, café, really nice Bistro and in a rural feeling type of place. The only problem is the drive to SH1 is a bit windy but the better option is to hoof it over SH58 East and pick up SH2 at Haywards and go in to Wellington from the Hutt if using a car. If you are on the train then all you need to do is get to Paremata/Plimmerton or Mana for a station.
If you are wanting to live out Kapiti Way then Raumati (pronounced Ram-i-ti) Beach over any of the others as again it's just that right size for the village feel and a nice community but has sufficient amenities, coffee shops, restaurants, a good pub, awesome park and splash pad for the kids and right on the beach.

MattKay

Escapedtonz thank you very much coming back to me, you have provided some great and very helpful information. I really like the sound of Plimmerton seems really nice. Do you know anyone who lives there? looked in google maps and your looking about 23 mins in the car.
Is Wellington really that bad?
sorry when did you move to New Zealand?

escapedtonz

No sorry don't know anyone who actually lives in Plimmerton. We went there often as in our opinion it was by far the nearest best beach in Wellington for kids safety without suffering that much by any winds coming from the South.
May be 23 mins in the car at the moment but that will drop when the new Transmission Gulley state highway is completed....you can view the details of that on the NZTA website. It is a route of National significance and is being worked on now. A section of it to the North in Kapiti has already been completed.


Is Welly that bad for what ?


We moved there from Preston March 2012 and then transferred up to Tauranga November 2014.

MattKay

ah cheers for that, is Welly that bad for the weather, is it a nice place live?

how you finding it living there?

escapedtonz

Wellington is a nice place to live. I enjoyed our time there and I always enjoy it when I'm back there which is quite regular due to work commitments and other events that are going on. Love it in the CBD with all the many bars shops restaurants and the fact you can go for loads of walks/rides right from the CBD.
Although it is Windy Wellington we found the weather / climate to be better than what we 'suffered' in the NW of England. We felt it was drier and warmer in general than the UK albeit much more wind than we were ever used to but it didn't seem to matter early on. The wind didn't really affect us for the first year as it was quite a mild Winter in 2012, or certainly what I remember. It was only the year after when I'd spent some time on the motorbike and did a lot more outdoorsy stuff did the wind start to get on my tits. We did think about moving to Kapiti and viewed a few homes out there with a plan to buy but wasn't the right time for us as we still had our UK house/mortgage/tenants.
I wouldn't let the possibility of living in a windy city put you off....it isn't that bad and you can get away from it by living at a lower altitude or somewhere sheltered. It's all about compromise. If you want views you'll be battered by the wind on a virtual daily basis and you can kiss goodbye to eating outside. If you aren't bothered about a view then you shouldn't be affected by the wind whilst at home.
I also got bored when going out on the motorbike. The only place to go for a blast really is in the Wairarapa and when you've done it 20 times you long for other places to ride, while where I am now I have so many options - Rotorua, Taupo, East, West, over the Kaimai's, Coromandel yada yada. Wellington just felt a bit claustrophobic for me playing out on the bike. Also, while in Wellington and thinking about visiting other places you only have two options for travel/trips in NZ....Go North or South.
To go to the South Island on the ferry it is expensive for a car and 3 or 4 people. You can fly and hire a car but then you end up spending the same money. Not an issue if you have the cash but for a family with rent and bills etc it's always on your mind to be thrifty with the cash.
To go North it is just a long drive to anywhere. 2.5hrs + to Ohakune or 3hrs to Castlepoint. Maybe 4-5hrs to get in to the Naki (Taranaki) or Napier then 8hrs to get to Hamilton/Tauranga and beyond. All good for a road trip or two and we did them all.
The only other thing that we didn't like was the Wellington hype. Everything is bigged up and advertised to death with lots of promises.....all that coolest little city in the world and Wellington is the best place ever....when it's sunny and no wind....it's all bull when in reality you will rarely have a sunny day with hardly any wind and a a lot of the public things we attended could have been so so much better if only someone had stopped to think about what they were doing. But hey it may be much better now I don't know as haven't lived there for 3 years. 20 or so of my colleagues live in Wellington and all love it.


Whilst living in Wellington we visited Tauranga and Mt. Maunganui a few times meeting Wigan friends there as they are North of Auckland. We also took parents there on holiday when they visited. In our opinion the Bay Of Plenty is much more like what we expected of life in NZ....without the wind and great beaches....so that's why we moved here. I managed to get a transfer to our Hamilton office so I commute over the Kaimai's 110km but it's a small price to pay to be able to live where I do and yes we absolutely love it in NZ. It was difficult at first, coming to a new country and not knowing anyone. You'd think NZ is much like the UK but it isn't at all. The Mrs struggled with it for maybe 6 months but eventually after finding friends and going back to work she has settled.

Munchkjn

Pretty good summary. The only thing I'd add is that there really is a lot of coastline to explore in Wellington. If you are "into" the sea, you'll love it, maybe not so much beaches (although breaker bay is pretty stunning and usually empty). I really enjoy exploring the south coast areas of Owhiro, Island Bay and all the nooks around the Miramar. The across to Eastbourne. The views are always changing with the weather and I find it fascinating and atmospheric. There's some nice bush walks around Aro Valley and Karori and others. As Escaped says, you quickly get used to the weather especially if you are from the NW of England. If nothing else, it's entertaining.

Up the coast, you'll find good bush walks in Waikanae and Otaki forks and then there's that long beach. I agree about Plimmerton being beautiful, but we needed to be closer to colleges in Raumati/Param.