Emilou

Well, at last we have PR. It's been along time but worth the wait. We plan on a move to Nelson, jan 2012, so we can start our son in school at the beginning of new term.
I would be really grateful for some advise please on the top primary schools in the area and also which areas we should look to rent a house.
So as not to offend, pm me with the areas to steer clear on, I know everywhere has them!
I look forward to your help!

BEVS

There is no such thing as a bad area of Nelson and surrounds. There may be a couple of streets but that's it.

Jan n Neil

She,s lying it,s a shithole it,s really rough where she lives altho there is a good pub

Emilou

Ok that really helps! NOT

Jan n Neil

Excuse my husband, he's being ironic ( and if you look at Bev's rant thread about noise, you'll get the pub reference). Nelson is lovely

Jan

Emilou

Thanks for that! We will be trying to rent a house from the uk, so, nice to have an idea of quiet/near to school/stores etc for first 6 months. I have never heard a bad thing about Nelson.

luvwelly

I wouldn't advise you to rent without seeing first....'quality' can be deceptive from pictures - you can't see damp for instance.

BEVS

I would agree with that Luvwelly. I'd say rent a quality holiday home for a month and then go check out rentals. You really do need to see them first hand to ensure quality and location. By location , I am not referring to whether or not an 'area' is good or not. I'm thinking of amenties, drive times, heating etc.

Perhaps think what you want from an area and school & let me know. I've lived in this area for 7 years , although I don't live in Nelson itself. I live 30 minutes away in a coastal village where primary school age kids go to the village school... just like many kids in this area.

You may prefer an area where amenities for kids are reasonably close. A suburb. Richmond for instance. Or you may prefer the idea of living out a wee bit , like us, with maybe a 20/30 minute drive into the Nelson city centre or Richmond mall shops so that you gain a bit on the space and quiet front. Wakefield. Brightwater. Mapua. etc.

There is so much to choose from.

Have you been here?


Oh... and don't worry 'bout Neil. He's been here. We've met. The village is lovely . It's the pub landlord that's the pits.

Emilou

Omg, hadn't thought of the holiday home option. Thanks for that. I agree far more sensible. We had thought to fly my husband out to look around and rent a house, but with flight costs etc it would be an expensive way of doing it.

We have never been to New Zealand, have done huge amount of research, but have moved about a lot in the uk, so fairly used to "up rooting".

We have 2 young children, sold our business, husband on skilled shortage list, and are ready to give it everything we've got.

Lots of planning involved, so finding this website invaluable for all the information necessary. I love it that people tell the truth, good or bad!

Will be here a lot over the next few months.

MOSO

We used www.nelsonholidayhouses.co.nz when we stayed in Nelson on holiday in Jan. They were very helpful and should be able to help you with somewhere.

Emilou

Thanks moso, have given them a look. Will hopefully find something somewhere.

BEVS

I see it's January that you move. Just watch out for Christmas shut-down times. It's big summer hols here & families flock to the area. You might want to book summat well in advance. If you see one on-line , give me a shout back here and I'll try go look at where it is and stuff.

The school thing is a bit of a prob really as I don't have kids. I'll try and ask a few friends about this for you but really, I think the way you should play it is to simply arrive, rent a holiday home for around a month. Then have a good look around the assorted areas to see which one appeals to you all as a family. After that look at the schools for that area.

When you think of being here what do you see in your minds eye for yourself and your family?

Heal

Our little boy who's 6 goes to Mapua school and loves it, I've not met anybody anywhere in Nelson who as complained about any of the schools so my understanding is that they are all good.I know people who live all around the region and they are all happy.
You'll find that kids have more respect for each other here and are willing to help each other,also the whole school do a lot of things together which we like.
Some of the smaller schools have mixed age classes but it doesn't seem to be a problem as kids are taught on a more one to one basis.
Nelson in general is a great place to live ,if you can get over the fact that its expensive and the wages are low.The lifestyle here is fantastic living near great beaches mountains and lots to see and do within 1 1/2 hrs drive,kids seem to have more freedom with less pressure to grow up quickly.
Bevs right it does get very busy in January so I would advice to book somewhere early

Emilou

Ah, thanks, I had thought it would be busy. Hope it may be starting to get back to normal when kids go back to school. I would like to get schooling sorted before we come out but I also think due to the fact my son is 6 it really won't matter if he misses 3/4 weeks of school so we can sort it all once we arrive.

Have found out that alot of holiday homes are actually lived in but just let out during christmas and summer holidays, so going to try and contact some rental agencies and see if we can get short term let rather than minimum of 6 months.

My husband is a vet, so hopefully will get perm work locally or will happily travel to locum. I plan to settle the children into nz life, we have a 2 1/2 year old daughter, then I will look for work. But no immediate hurry. We want to bring our children up in a quieter country, uk is so crowded. We live in Devon now, which is lovely, but come the summer it's packed to the brim with tourists, and "weekend londoners". Can't get anywhere because of the traffic. Also property in uk is so expensive, we don't have a garden, it's more of a back yard, so nz will offer us a house with a garden for sensible money. We love the outdoors, walking, cycling, running.

By the way BEVS congrats on the new position with BE.

Heal

If you need any help with anything else just let us know.