where to live in nz
 

As i am planning to live in tauranga are there places wherer you wouldnt dream of living like you would in the u.k.
i need a place where its not more than 20mins from industy as this is where i would more than likely be working, not too far from the beach, and where primary and secondary schools are close by

Try Auckland....not a bad place to live, if you can tolerate hundreds of thousands of asians, complete gridlock on the roads from 7am-10am then 3.30 - 6.30, a mayor absolutely hell bent on ripping up every bit of greenery & replacing it with motorways. We have beaches, industry and good schools (you'll have to move into some of the most expensive real estate in NZ to qualify to get your kids into them, though).

I was speaking to an Aucklander recently moved to Aus - he was really moaning about the place too and reckons its really going down hill. Last time I was there (10 years ago) it seemed a great place to live - can it really have got this bad?

What a lucky Aucklander that person is!

I am a born and bred Aucklander, and I completely agree that the place is going down the sh..er. It was once the best place on earth to live, now its just a sprawlling mass of poor suburbs with pockets of "nice" areas. If you want your kids to go to a good school, be ready to buy a $500,000 plus house so they will be in zone. And remember never ever go out at night.

My advice to ratliffe is avoid New Zealand all together and go to OZ.

That's interesting. When you say 'never ever go out at night' - you mean that there's a lot of crime?? I always thought NZ to be fairly safe.

What about Wellington - what's that like these days?

We are looking at moving to Tauranga early next year and have just reurned from a two week visit. We spent three days in Auckland and thought it was great. These people obviously haven't tried a night out in London (or most other british cities) recently.I've just been watching the news from my home town (Coventry) where three 18 year olds were caught on camera mugging another lad. This is more than a daily occurance and I can't wait to go to NZ. Sure there are problems people are people wherever you live and we are going to live out in Tauranga and visit Auckland the same way we visit London. I suppose your choice of town depends where you can find work.
Good Luck.
As for bad area's you really won't Know until you go and ask around.

Yes. Especially violent crime. All of South Auckland is a no-go area at night. The Downtown area is also becoming dangerous.

Wellington City is nice. But Upper & Lower Hutt are as bad as South Auckland.

I have lived in Bermondsey, inner SE London for 2 years. I am not naive when it comes to crime.

In Auckland you are more likey to get beaten up groups of 10 plus!

Tauranga is very nice except arround New Years holidays. This is when teenagers from Auckland & Wellington merge to get pissed / fight / riot ETC

Better visit your friends in Auckland at that time.

living in tauranga
 

I had no intension of living in auckland. Tauranga is the place where ideally i want to go, although i do believe in constructive crititism.I live in Plymouth u.k, which at one time was a thriving holiday type city and i suppose if you were to look at holiday mags it will show you some lovely pictures but there are areas that you dont go even in the daytime let alone the night. i was born and bread in the midlands so i also do have a bit of street sense. it seems that the whole of the u. is going down the pan unless you have a shed load of money where you can live in luxury and holiday when you want and live in nice big houses in the country youre pretty much so buggered.
can FIRING 1 get back to me and tell me about youre trip to tauranga i would love to hear about it as i'm going there in April 2003.Cheers

Hi exkiwi,

i have a job offer at wellington. what do you mean by upper and lower hutt is as bad as south auckland? how bad is it? do you know any nice place to live in wellington?

I lived in Birmingham for a large part of my youth and believe me the image of NZ as a safe place to live is just that..an image sold to you by tourist agencies etc. My wife says she has never felt so intimidated as she does walking the streets of Christchurch in the evenings. A recent UN report stated that as a child/youth you are TWICE as more likely to die a violent death than in the UK. No doubt this refers to rta's as well considering the driving here is the worst I have ever come across. NZ has just as many problems as any other "industrialised" nation in the world. From being top of the standard of living charts in 1950 it has now slipped out of the top 20 and is still slipping. Oh yeah....great views if that's all your after!

woud you rather walk the streets of christchurch at night or solihul,Birmingham?where did you get the statistics from i would like see them.I do respect your views on Christchurch as it is first hand information because you live there , there will more than likely be someone reply to you that doesnt live in nz that would dissagree with you but there you go.How long have you lived in nz ? what abuot the north island ?has it not appealed to you> what about wanganui/hamilton/Tauranga?

Funny you should mention Birmingham and Solihull in particular.....I lived there for years and it's a lovely place! Of course B'ham has areas that are not quite so salubrious (an industrialised city of 1.2 million) but what excuse has Christchurch got? The satistics were published in the Daily Telegraph by the way.I've lived in NZ for 2 years. Parts of the North Island are lovely of course. I really liked Tauranga. Don't know about Hamilton but I DO KNOW that there is a big issue here with teenage drinking/drugs and violence on a pretty large scale. Ask any copper here...I have. The media is full of anguish over it and the schools don't know what to do.

o.k fair enough tauranga has a problem with kids and drink but am i right in sayng this only happens on new years eve etc. as for schools under what scale is there a problem with 'drugs'unfortunately its the sign of the times with kids n drugs in britain there starting at 11 years old in some parts of the country probably younger.What is it that appeals you to christchurch if there is a problem with violence. if i lived somewhere that was as bad as you say it is, i would get the hell out especially if you have children.I must say that is an eyeopener to me because i havent heard of it like that in christchruch!! thanks for the info. Keep it coming
cheers

Re: where to live in nz
 

i've lived all over NZ and the world, auckland is really a fantastic city but is now a lot more expensive to live there than rest of NZ, tauranga is ok, good locale to beaches & coromandel if you like the outdoors, known to be geriatric oriented. nearby mt maunganui is the spot that attracts partying hooligans at weekends/holidays
one of the best places i ever lived recently was dunedin, fun student town, very cheap by any standards, houses start at 30k up to 200k, see the following address for examples from one company
[url]www.harcourts.co.nz "property search"> 1.region=otago 2.zones=dunedin city
there are small towns outside city 10-20-30mins drive with even cheaper property
basically the further south you go the cheaper, safer & colder it becomes
someone said christchurch(chch) is violent, i was raised near chch, it is probably the only place in nz that retained the british class system tho it exists subliminally, the city has a diverse mix of people types with extreme snobs, middle classers, red-necks & no-brain skin-heads living 'side-by-side' - actually not wildly different from some other western cities
i suggest you look beyond the big/popular cities if your skillset permits you