Mudplug

Hi I'm looking for honest opinions of wellington good and bad!

Schools, shops, beach, weather, friendliness?

We are hopefully coming out end of the uk summer. Our family consists of 5 kids ranging in age oldest being 20 and youngest is 1, we are generally layed back family not needing the bright lights to entertain us.
Thank you x

MrsFychan

it's bloody windy

simonmarkellis

Hi there,

there are some cracking schools all across the region and kids don't seem to mind travelling either to get to the ones they want to go to (if they can get in), shopping, I think were adequately provided for with North City in Porirua, Johnsonville, big centre in Lower Hutt and Wellington itself. Think we have a mixed bag on beaches, some good, Oriental Bay, Plimmerton, Scorching Bay and Days bay among the best. Weather, yes can be very windy, a lot of the time, typically colder than Auckland, but by and large it's not that bad, still get plenty of fantastic days. Friendliness of people - I think us Wellingtonians are pretty awesome....

moonie2011

I agree with everything simonmarkellis says, we live at Papakowhai where it is far enough out Wellington city that it is a fun trip going into the city. We are very close to some very good beaches, and not much further from good bush walks and mountains. Kids love their school which are graded very well in this area. For us this area has everything we need and more.
Feel free to ask more questions anytime

escapedtonz

I'd agree with the comments. Wellington is a great place to live........good schools, good shopping, a few nice beaches, friendly people and a good social and food scene all over, but after 2 n a bit years living in and around the Wellington area, the weather, or more specifically the wind and the associated wind chill factor has made us look elsewhere to live.

We sat down and decided what we wanted out of life here in NZ and what we had not found yet ?
One of them was a more outdoorsy lifestyle near the beach. We have both of these, but our dream of beach life here was more "Summer Bay" than "Southport Bay"
After a fair few trips up North to the Bay Of Plenty we've decided we want to live near or at Mount Maunganui which is the best beach resort in NZ.
We are moving to Tauranga this November.
Luckily I've been approved for an office transfer at work so can work out of an office in Hamilton.
Yes it's just over an hour away (at the moment) but it's only the same journey time as I used to have back in the UK. I also only work 4 days out of 8 and never drive in rush hours as I work shifts.
If it means we can live out in the BOP I'm all for it.
Always wanted our little boy to grow up at the beach and get into surfing etc, plus there's so much more opportunities up there, many more places within an easy drive away etc.
Much better weather, always at least a few degrees warmer. No issues with wind. Lower cost of living. Cheaper rent and house prices. You get a lot more house and land for the money. Miles more biking roads and options of places to bike to.....Wellington just has the Wairarapa and when you've done it a fair few times it just get's boring.

Would never advise anyone not to go to Wellington, but for us, the place where we initially settled was the place where I got a job - Wellington.
We always thought we would likely move on and try different areas before settling.
Wellington hasn't fulfilled our expectations of life here so we're changing where we live to see if we can find a place that is more towards perfection than Wellington offers us now.

kitti

Come to Kapiti! Easy commute into Wellington, lovely quiet townships with enough to keep us happy, great schools and fab countryside and beaches. We're still part of Wellington, honest! (Even though they're the 'townies' and they think we 'live in the sticks.') lol

Mudplug

kite flying it is then x

Mudplug

Thanks @simonmarkellis @moonie2011 its what i needed to hear we visited NZ a few years ago but stayed in the north, totally loved it.

Mudplug

Well Id like to wish you all the best for your new venture. Im looking forward to the challenges but as it looks like the best place to study for my daughter is up north may only be a quick 6 months stay for us to x

Mudplug

You've sold it to me, apparently with the job offer they provisionally rent a house for us to stay but we choose the area, this is hard as we have never been! But I like what Im hearing x

escapedtonz

Hey thanks.

If we were staying we would most certainly be buying up the Kapiti coast.
We do really like it up there even though the beaches aren't what we would like. They're more for walking the dog, running the kids ragged and having a kick about with a football than sunbathing
The water is damn cold being the Tasman Sea and there is a huge amount of driftwood on the beaches, however even though that's the case we really like Raumati Beach as a place to live. It's a great little village with just about the right amount of shops, eateries, supermarket and pubs/restaurants and has the best kids playground with splashpad in the Wellington area.

It's only problem is it's 40 - 60 mins away from Wellington CBD, and there's only one major road linking it with Wellington which at certain points (through Pukerua Bay) is single carriageway in each direction and a 50kph limit and a bottleneck. One accident blocking the road and you're stuffed.
There is a tiny road the runs through the Akatarawa forest between Waikanae and Upper Hutt which is around 44kM long. It's a beaut of a drive / ride when you haven't got anything better to do but a lot of it is one carriageway as it winds through the valley. Not the sort of road for a lot of traffic and takes a heck of a time to do it but at least it can put you in Upper Hutt and another 45 mins in to Wellington so it is a possibility but a last resort if SH1 is blocked.

One day, probably around the year 2024 or thereabouts Transmission Gully and the new proposed Grenada North / Petone link road will be built which will massively open up the Kapiti Coast as a place within easy commute to Wellington CBD. This proposed new motorway will reduce the time from the Kapiti to Wellington CBD by a massive amount and should prevent major traffic disruption.

escapedtonz

Yeah it was the same for us but generally the employer will want you to be near the office, as did ours.
We chose to stay in a different area, but having never been before it was a bit of an eeny meeny miney mo sort of time
We decided to be in a place that had really good links into the CBD but was walking distance to a town centre for shops and also close to the park and the river for recreation. I also wanted to be able to cycle to work and with Wellington being very hilly I needed a place low lying.
We picked Woburn in Lower Hutt. It was an excellent place to start for us. We were there 8 weeks and it was a really nice place to live initially. Short walk to the train for me to get to work in the CBD or a 40 minute flat cycle each way with the bay on one side all the way, easy access to SH2 and Lower Hutt which has by far the best shopping centre.

MOSO

Of course you could commute from Kapiti Coast by train to the CBD, you don't have to drive

Construction has also begun for the Kapiti Expressway which I understand will be completed before Transmission Gully.

It is also warmer, sunnier, less windy and flatter land on the coast

Boopy

I love Welly, been here 8 years I'll second all the nice things that have been said about Wellington. There are so many suburbs to choose from. I'm also in Papakowhai. Porirua is an awesome city