Jack The Lad

You related to Bin Laden

What were your thoughts on Tauranga and Whangarei.

Ailsa

I Bin everwhere man

They are both on our shortlist of possible places to 'reside' if we ever get further than discussing the possibility of emigrating to NZ.

Whangarei is the largest town in the Northlands and also supports a number of satellite townships so seems a good place if you don't want to completely ruralise. Seemed clean and busy / thriving when we were there (6 yrs ago). Other main attractions there are cost of housing and warmer climate.

Tauranga & Mt Manganui, well 'firing1' said it, retirement city and that would be our aim, although we did not get that impression . We stayed here 4 days (I think) easy to get around, great beaches, enough shops for our needs on holiday.

Which is a significant fact - On these trips we were 'tourists' though on the 2nd one (2 yrs ago) we were looking at residential possibilities. I think our 'retiree' requirements as to atmosphere, shops etc are different to those of you needing to find work, education for your kids etc.

Being retired, we could / might take up the 6 mths visitors visa and spend a few weeks or even more without being under any pressure. I would start at the local library to see what community facilities are on offer and since we would be self-catering, a couple of weeks is long enough to sus out the main shops.

For choice of enjoying where we have visited, I think I would go to / near Taupo except I suspect it might be very humid. My ongoing research at the moment is to find out about micro climates in the places we are interested in.

Don

Whangarei also has a fast developing marina area in town they are promoting fast. Downside: petrochemical works visible from Whangarei Heads (but not noticeable in town, it's a good 20kms away ATCF.)

Windy: everywhere on the coast in NZ is fairly windy, it's actually not that much of an issue nor particularly unpleasant.

jandjuk

whakatane might be worth considering. possibly get more for your money there than tauranga. smallish place, prob about the same as taupo or thames. coastlands is a nice new subdivision near the beach, or try ohope.

Although Thames is on the coast, I don't really think there are any good beaches around there (might be wrong though) - they're on the east coast of the coromandel.

Don

Not possibly...definitely.

The bit on the hill and Ohope are pricey (but v pleasant) but if you go a few kms inland you can get a really good deal (we checked it out). Whakatane struck us as an extremely pleasant place to live and not really that remote from AKL if need be for the odd shopping trip or to get to the airport, good climate as well.

Copperben

Thames is an awful place (IMO) and I have not heard a good word about it, the coast on that side of the corromandel is very rugged whereas on the otherside there are beautiful beaches, isolated coves etc.

Roger

I live in Havelock Nortth, Hawkes Bay. Excellent climate, not too windy. Cheaper than Welly/Auckland. All the locals (who invariably come from elsewhere) think it is the best place in NZ.

I think there are Operating Theatre positions. My wife works in Recovery.
Roger