escapedtonz

The nearest nicest places are Silverstream and Pinehaven. It is really nice around that neck of the woods and good schools.
Riverstone Terrace is also nice although brand new suburban. Herataunga is really pimp surrounding the Royal Wellington golf course. Depending on what you are used to or happy with neighborhood wise there's nothing wrong with Trentham and many parts of Upper Hutt. If you want rural then Blue Mountains/Whitemans Valley is beaut.
In all honesty if you are happy with a 30/45 minute commute you could live almost anywhere so long as you are not heading in to or out of Wellington during the morning and evening rush hour.
I'd recommend you sticking in the Hutt Valley as it's close to work but you wouldn't have any problems living over Porirua way so long as you used SH58 to get to work and back. Really nice areas over there are Pauatahanui, Whitby, Cambourne, Plimmerton, Aotea and Tawa. We lived in Tawa, high up on the Eastern side of the Tawa valley across from Colonial Knob. Awesome views.

Howie181

Hi, my husband and I have also been successful in passing the assessment. Just awaiting information ref medical, visa etc...etc...feel things are moving slow...

Sect172

Hi guys

I was successful at the assessment centre and have a question for others who were. I am trying to get the pre employment medical done however my own GP doesn't do private work and I have been quoted £480 and £520 by two private firms. I can't believe this is as cheap as I can get it so any other experiences and/or advice would be appreciated, cheers.

Howie181

Hi,
Anybody shipped pets over to NZ?
Had a quote in today for 2 cocker spaniels for £9100...
Any advice would be great.

Kotare

Do a search for dogs - that sounds about £2000 over the top.

MrsFychan

does that include quarantine on this side? if so sounds about right but get other quotes

Pigdog

Things do move slow. We were offered jobs 1st April 2014, started at Corrections 28th October 2014. You will get there in the end. Good luck.

Pigdog

Definitely over the top. We paid £25 for two sets of Doctors notes and nothing for the Corrections Medical forms. Do you have a Medical Teaching Uni near you? Might be worth trying them.

Willo1892

So then, I'm still waiting for my official contract offer and I'll be heading to Hawkes Bay in April. Anybody else on here also heading to that area? I'm still waiting on information from HR to see what the crack is in terms of whether or not they offer some form of relocation package, or if there's some direction that they can point you in in terms of discounted packages. It might sound cheeky but I suppose if you don't ask, you don't get. Still so much to look at and think about, deciding to uproot two kids to the other side of the world hoping for a good quality of life is a decision that cannot be taken lightly. How are everybody else getting on? Have you had any figures about cost of visas, medicals, shipping containers, housing, etc? How much information have you received from DoC or NZ immigration?

Justcol

From what I've seen there are no relocation packages


As long as you come with an open mind and don't expect it to be like the UK, you'll be fine
Personally I don't think there is a better place to bring up kids than NZ

Howie181

We've been offered three weeks accommodation and three weeks car hire, nothing else...
We'll be going to work at Spring Hill, Auckland.
Had GP medical, done police checks, still waiting for physical assessment paperwork to be sent to the Gym for PT to complete the assessment,now ready to book medical by Panel Physician, but not started Visa application...got a start date of 6th March 2016.
Quotes for taking furniture are so varied, we have PSS coming out to give us a quote and Movecorp so hoping to use one of these...

Justcol

Springhill isnt in Auckland, its in the Waikato region.
better to live in Hamilton area than south Auckland area

Dont be frightened about playing the moving companies off against each other
I got quite a lot off by telling all the companies i chose that anther had given a better quote
and asked them to come back with a better one, they all did, I saved heaps.

Check that delivery to your door on this end is included, some deliver to depots and try to charge extra
I used Crown and had no complaints at all

Howie181

Thanks Justcol...Hamilton is the area Mr H has been looking at...

escapedtonz

Spring Hill is close to the Hampton Downs racetrack just off SH1. Could take anything from 1.5 to 3hrs to get to Auckland from there ??? Middle of nowhere really. All very rural within 20-25KM's radius. Few villages but not much there TBH.
Huntly is probably the largest 'town' within 30KM's going South but rough as a bag of spanners. Has a proper rough arse stigma attached to it and one only has to drive through to realise why.
Going North, Pukekohe is the biggest town and not too bad at all. As did most villages/towns they started off as small farming communities that have grown. Some friends of ours lived in Pukekohe for around 9 months but left as the property prices are high and creeping up. He was a plumber/gas fitter and just couldn't afford a 3 bed bungalow on a small section in suburbia as they were then mid $700k so moved down to Palmy and bought a huge section with a 1920's villa as they yearned for land. The property prices are definitely higher in Pukekohe than towards or in Hamilton as it is over the border and classed as Auckland South, whereas Spring Hill and South is all in the Waikato.
The nearest big place to live South that is classed as a city (in NZ) is Hamilton where you could live in one of the Northern suburbs. Horsham Downs is pretty nice for suburbia, surrounded by lush countryside and has a 9 hole golf course which is pretty nice. Good schools and within easy travel to shopping and the city. There's also plenty of access to the mighty Waikato River. That journey to Spring Hill will take around 40/45 mins.
I definitely wouldn't live anywhere North of Spring Hill as it's getting too expensive and you risk getting caught up in Auckland commuter traffic on SH1. It may not be an issue at the moment as it's so far away from Auckland but there's heaps of development around Pokeno where SH2 heads over to The Coromandel/Bay Of Plenty so in the future when 1000's of houses have been built there it's gonna be crazy busy.

Unsure where your accommodation is going to be ? and you'll most certainly need a car.

Howie181

Thanks Escapedtonz...lots of great information there.
Yes at this moment in time not sure of our accommodation...we would definitely want to be semi rural not the big city...