jill stanton

Hi

The OH may have a job offer in New Plymouth/Taranaki, can anyone tell me what it is like to live here.

Just the basics really, like shopping (clothes) and food, house rentals, weather, people, things to do, and whether there is job opportunities for a general office worker/receptionist.

I was hoping that he would get something in the Bay of Plenty/Auckland area as i have done more research on these areas, and i know nothing about Taranaki or New Plymouth.

Help...........getting all panic stricken as this becomes more real

JIll

SarahJane2007

We are in brisabne but have some friends from Uk who have recently migrated to Taranaki near new Plymouth and funnily enough thier initial destination was the Bay of Plenty. Anyway they love it there and have 3 children they have now bought thier 1st house and have settled in really well and have made lots of new friends, husband (cabinet maker) has found work easily and they are right near the beach, we plan to visit them soon.

Tallia

Hi Jill

We moved to New Plymouth last year and for us it has suited us down to the ground and we love it. It's a nice size town, has plenty of shops of all types and all the big supermarkets based close together and with smaller branches on the outskirts of town. House rentals I can't be much help with as we didn't rent at all, but if it's anything to go by we find house prices to buy pretty reasonable so hopefully renting is the same. Weather so far has been a wet winter, spring was pretty nice though with still a fair amount of rain and summer was hot and sunny, it didn't have rain for weeks and autumn was really mild with lots of sunny days and a bit of rain. Schools seem good, our son is 8 and he loves his school and we are very happy with it, plus the intermediate and high school he will be going to have great reps.

People have been incrediby friendly and we have been lucky enough to make some really good friends really quickly and have settled in brilliantly so feel like we have been here for years and not just one! When we first got here so many people where incredibly helpful it was just amazing as it was something we hadn't experienced in the UK before. Things to do, well off course there is the beach and surfing is a big thing, we keep promising ourselves we will have some surf lessons ones day hehe, plus with the mountain going up there on a nice day is gorgeous and you can lose a whole day just going to the different places up the mountain, tramping around and of course in the winter going up the snowfields. All the usual things in town, cinema, bowing, aquatic centre, Observatory etc plus we have Brooklands Zoo in Pukekura park which is a free little zoo and a nice way to spend a couple of hours, Pukekura Park and Brooklands Bowl/Park are beautiful and right in the centre of town and in Summer we have the Festival of Lights which is just brilliant and the park is all lit up and bands play and lots of events organised. Always shows going on at the TSB Showplace (just saw Lenny Henry there the other day hehe) plus in the summert the racecourse is a fun day out. Jobswise there always seems to be plenty of job opps in the Saturday paper and pretty sure there are normall a good few office ones in there

Negative wise, some people find it a bit remote in that Taranaki is quite a rural place with lots of big dairy farms and to get to nearly any other town in Taranaki you have to drive through around the mountain (I personally love the drive but thats just me ), drivewise it is about 3 hours to Hamilton, 5 hours to Auckland and 4 to Rotorua/Taupo area (thats my driving though so some people might be faster or slower hehe), personally I love the feel of the whole region and for me I honestly don't think I would want to move anywhere else in NZ now, it has a real homely feel to us

Sorry for rambling on, hope it all makes sense hehe, any other qiestions please feel free to post or PM me and happy to help if I can.

luvwelly

I live in Wellington and have visited New Plymouth (I flew) - the park and scenery is the best bit I'd say.
I know a family who love living there. However as I find Wellington very isolated compared to the UK, you need to get your head round that degree of isolation and whether you could cope with it...month after month...in such a relatively small town.

So find a similar size UK town with which you are familiar and envision it 3 hours drive from the next nearest place with shops which might be worth a look for a change.....depends on you whether this appeals..it sounds like the upside is good community spirit..so maybe that is worth the isolation....but don't move there..not having considered the geographic isolation because as a Brit it is a very hard concept 'to get'.

I'd realised that NZ was externally isolated but the internal isolation was a bit of a shock.

jimanddebs

hiya

im glad you asked this question, i asked a few months ago and got little response but im glad i checked in again and tallia thanks for all that info. i have a job offer with on the road/vtnz working as a vehicle inspector and got an e mail off my future boss saying live anywere in the city apart from marfell. everything else i have found seems pretty good. look on trade me for rentals, depending on size and location you can rent from as little as 200 dollars a week upto a thousand, it just depends wat you are after. i keep looking at bell block as it seems prett nice and reasonable but i will learn more sooon i hope.

thanks again

jim and debs

CarolineSwan

wooohoooooo my OH recieved a job offer from an interview he went to a month ago ..its in NP so its great to see this info .. we also are looking at bell block as it seems lovely so any info on the area much app.. we will be renting at first then buy if we like area which im sure we will, we were looking at papamoa but i suppose we all need to go where the work is, and the more i read i like NP more and im soo excited to be going

caroline

Fooferfish

Hey Tallia,

Fellow Dorsetonian,we came from Poole and our first choice was NP as when at the expos we came across the NP gang, along with the Mayor Peter Tenant, and the massive billboard behind them of Mt Egmont/Tarinaki, we stopped and spoke to them at 2 expos,but ended up in Dunedin, we will and hope to visit NP soon as it would be nice to see the plce that we initially were going to, i did a lot of research on the place, only to get a job offer in Dunners, we have been in NZ for over 3 years and are back in Poole this Christmas and will go for a few meals and chat about our next move, we def want to move towns but its just where, to me anywhere in NZ will be far from anywhere else, we have rellies in Invercargill but at 2 1/2 hrs away,CHCH is a good 4 hrs, Queenstown again another 3 1/2 .

Tallia, questions about job prospects ?? i started my own business last year as i have skills in alot of trades, and i run my own property maintenance business working for the house rental companies, i have 3 of them on my books and things are going great, my wife is at Polytec doing a course in Counselling and will finish in NOv and possibly take degre next year, so what do you think much about for us up there?? we also have a 11 years old daughter.

Will be walking the Dorset beaches this Christmas day.

Nige, Dunedin since may 05

Tallia

Yes I would agree there, that was exactly what we where told when looking at houses when we first got here dont look at marfel Bell Block is a nice area, it is slightly out of town maybe 5k or so, about a 10 minute drive. I don't know lots about it, but it seems to be a part of town that is growing nicely. As it is out fo town it has a fair few lifestyle blocks and is still near to the sea, and still has the view of the mountain

Nige I will reply to your pm with more detail but it will be Monday now as have a busy weekend

Feel free to ask any questions about NP/Taranaki and will answer as best I can

jimanddebs

hi tallia

thanks for that info, wereabouts in np are you living then and what are the schools like, keep getting told about the decile rating and the differences between each school on that partcualr rating, is it omething we should keep in mind when deciding on an area. thanks for your help.

jim and debs

Tallia

We live pretty much on the boundary between Welbourn and Highlands Park, which is the outskirts of town so nice and near the country but still only 10 min drive from the town centre and big supermarkets.

My son goes to Welbourn school which had a brilliant reputation so we where very happy when we moved into the same area, but that said lots of NP schools have really good reputations. I didnt pay too much attention to the decile rating as was told it is more to do with what sort of area the school is in more than anything, so a school in Marfel which is the poorer part of towns school I think is a 1 or 2 but still apparently a very good school, they just get more funding because of their low decile. Welbourn I believe is a 6 or 7 so they get less funding but still a great school and my son is really happy there, he just loves that you can go about with no shoes on and that the schools all seem to have really cool play areas which you can play on anytime whereas in England they werent allowed anything too big and you werent allowed on it unless supervised because of health and safety.

Intermediate schools in NP are Highlands and Devon Intermediate, and then NP Girls and Boys High schools and Spotswood College (Co-ed) plus all the catholic/christianity schools etc.

I think Bell Block school has a good reputation and from that side of town it would feed onto Highlands Intermediate more than likely with the choice between the seperate High Schools or Spotswood.

Sorry rambled on again, hope that is of some help