fleety

Moving out to nz hopefully in august!?....still haven't received visa yet......and would like to know of recommended good schools/ places to live in christchurch area anywhere up to one hours commute away from christchurch hospital?

cheers

dave fleetwood

Apple12

Just a quiet heads up...
It is all very well being an hours commute from the hospital, but if you travel by car you will not get a carpark anywhere close, even if doing shift work. There is a carpark building but that costs quite a lot if you are doing it everyday.

We live in Beckenham and my husband bikes into the hospital every day, around a 10 min bike ride, 30 min walk.

If you really do want to be an hours commute, that gives you practically the whole city and many of the outlying towns too, including Lyttleton and Governers Bay. You need to give us more info as to what is important to you and your family: access to public transport, shops, walking trails, mountainbiking trails, the beach, views, city centre, rural lifestyle, etc etc.

Give us a few more details and we will try to help. Fwiw, I love it where I live, so central, close to the hills, everything we need in walking distance.

aarcc

I'm want to move to Chrishchurch too!

Just wondered what docs etc do the school require you to show them to enrole a child at a local state school?

aarcc

Andrew Cross

We didn't need to show our 9 and 7yr olds school anything. We applied online and turned up on the first day with Passports with pr visa - and the kids reports from school. When I asked if they needed to see anything they said no....
The 'secondary schools' though did ask for passports, proof of address and the kids previous school reports....
All the best with your move, and remember the internet is great for just making enquiries and having alook at their websites, thats what we did and they were both really helpful...Sue

CWEMM02

Dave, please see this link from the NZ Ministry of Education web page. http://www.tki.org.nz/e/schools You will be able to search on school names and read about it most recent examination. Also, you may find the school has a website that you can look at. We have previously ordered a Christchurch street map so that we could see where houses we are interested in are in relation to schools and so forth. You can then search the school on the link I have shown above.

We have have been researching the neighbourhoods using www.stuff.co.nz and then looking at the property link. You can receive a neighbourhood description for each house advert by clicking on the link. The information includes comparisons to national averages such as level of education, income, elderly people, rental accommodation and so forth. We use this information along with the social/economic rating for the school to learn both about the neighbourhood and school. You must not get blinded to only picking schools with a 10 on the social economic scale. Shirley Boys High School is a good school, but the students do not come from the highest social economic class.

Michael

jjg

I emailed the education dept in Christchurch about schools and areas, they were very helpful. Please find it below and I hope it is useful for everyone else in our position.

Any comments will be appreciated.

"It's quite a difficult question to answer for you really as it is a matter of personal preference. Working in the city gives you flexibility to live in most areas of Christchurch as Kilmore street is pretty much right in the middle of town. Commuting in Christchurch really isn't an issue, it only takes me five minutes by car to get to work and the longest commuting time would probably be about 20 minutes, unless you lived rural or on the hill. Christchurch is a safe city and I would never even give a second thought to children playing outdoors.

Obviously like any city there is more desirable places to live and this is very much reflected in house prices. I'll try and give you a bit of commentary about the different suburbs in Christchurch but this is very much my view. I would probably suggest having a good look around Christchurch before deciding where to live.

All Hill areas - 15 - 30 minute drive from central city (Includes, Sumner, Clifton, Redcliffs, Mt Pleasant, Cannon Hill, St Andrews Hill, Huntsbury, Cashmere Westmorland) - Lovely properties, with great views, good schools, very expensive real estate, Sumner is a beachside suburb.

North West Christchurch - 10- 20 minutes (Includes Avonhead, Burnside, Harewood, Bishopdale, Papanui, Merivale, Fendalton etc) Nice properties, the 'better side of town' and most expensive - very good schools. Personally I don't like these areas as they are closer to the airport, further from town, the beach and the hills, but again it is a personal preference. Merivale and Fendalton are the most expensive and exclusive.

South Christchurch - 20 minutes (Includes Hornby, Hei Hei etc) Getting a bit more industrial, average houses, good schools.

South East Christchurch - 10 - 20 minutes (Includes, spreydon, Cashmere, Barrington etc) Nice areas at the base of the hills. Good schools and good average/above average priced properties.

North East Christchurch - 5 - 15 minutes (Includes, Shirley, Avonside, St Albans, Dallington etc) Very good schools, nice areas with good / above average priced properties

East Christchurch - 5 - 20 minutes (Includes Aranui and Linwood and New Brighton, South Brighton and North Shore) Aranui and Linwood definitely the lowest price housing, average to poor schools, the perceived rougher areas. Brighton however is the beach and is a lot better.

I hope this give you a bit of an idea. Some website to have a look at would include:

Property - rental and purchase
www.gillmanrentalhomes.co.nz
www.harcourts.co.nz
www.ljhooker.co.nz
www.the-professional.co.nz

Education
www.minedu.govt.nz
www.nzqa.govt.nz
www.mynzed.com
www.educationchristchurch.com

Christchurch Sites
www.christchurchnz.net
www.christchurch.org.nz
www.canterburypages.co.nz
www.localeye.info
www.bethere.org.nz
www.whatsonechristchurch.co.nz
www.ccc.govt.nz

Christchurch Maps
www.wises.co.nz "

fleety

Thanks for your replies!

I appreciate my request was a bit vague so if i could take this oppurtunity to fill in some of the gaps.
I've been offered a job in the operating theatres (I'm an Operating Dept. Practitioner) at the hospital and am due to start there on the fourth of September this year. I hope the parking problems won't be too much of a problem as I'm a keen motorcyclist (come rain or shine) and obviously this tends to help when trying to find a spot to park.
As i said earlier we're still waiting for our visa but should have it within the next few weeks.

We would ideally like to find a home somewhere near the sea/beach and have a budget of approx. $400k. Obviously having two children of school age (girls aged 12 and 14) finding a good school is of the upmost importance!

Any further info you could supply me with would greatly appreciated!

Thanks again!

Max & Steve

Hi Fleety and family,

I have sent you a pm, also an odp looking to work in Christchurch Hospital.

Steve

fleety

Hi Steve,

Don't know what you mean by pm?

If I can be of any help re: job at Christchurch Hospital I'd be more than happy to give you any info I can.

Joshlin

pm = private message. If you take a look at the top right hand corner of the web page you'll see if you have any pm's waiting to be read - click on underlined and it'll take you to them
Vicki