BaNdy

Hello. Myself and my family are considering a move to New Zealand and have read a little about various places to reside, Hamilton/Waikato region, we have a young family who require good schooling. I work in the medical profession and have looked at the Waikato Hospital and my husband works in IT and thought that this area may be a possibility. Appreciate any advice you may have.
Thank you

howden40

You will find the move quite a cultural shock, but on the whole a plesant one.
Family orientated country.

Moved over in Jan 08, live in Bay of Plenty Area, beautiful area, generally very friendly.

Read the forum regularly to get a feel for how people feel, as it gets closer to the time ask advice. People who use this forum appear to have a genuine desire to help, you get some wallies who are 'unhelpful' and negative but you'll soon learn. Wish I'd known about this site before I emigrated.

howden40

Sorry forget, you'll have no problem getting employment anywhere in the country, skills shortage, should also give you up to 50 points.

themoores

We are in Hamilton and moved over in Jan 08. My kids are 9 and 6. There are some really good schools here and some bad ones - depends on where you live. The kids absolutely love school, esp the 9 year old. A teacher at the school ours go to, who is English, said the schooling is much better for the children as its about them and not about the school trying to get the best results through sat tests like in the UK. My son has really gained more confidence which is great to see. How old are you children?

My husband works for a contruction company that is building the new A&E dept at the Waikato hospital. We live in a northern suburb but still ony takes him 15/20 mins to get from one end to the other in rush hour - must better than the 1 to 1 1/2 hours he was commuting in the UK.

If you want any more info about schools and area's let me know.

BaNdy

Hi;

Thanks howden, nice to hear such positive comments.
Such as;

"Sorry forget, you'll have no problem getting employment anywhere in the country, skills shortage, should also give you up to 50 points."

I am fed up chasing rainbows over here, huge mortgage, bills through the roof etc!

Themoores;

Thanks, I dont know why we were looking at hamilton, we just ended up looking - my wife reminds me its bcos of the hospital and houses seemed affordable, we dont want to take out extra mortgage money if we can afford not too. Our children are 3 and 8, so one hasnt started school yet (ideal time) what are good areas/suburbs around hamiltion , and schools pray tell.
and can I still get hold of my luxuries like my Sony 46" TV and xbox 360? I cant live without them, lol.

Or will NZ turn me into a hippy, Im not far off it anyway!

thanks again :

Browner_

Yeah sure, you can have the 46" TV but there wont be anything youll want to watch

j19fmm

Hi there, there's a useful bit on Hamilton in the BE Wiki, top of the page,fourth title in, then follow link through cities.
Good luck

BaNdy

thanks I will check it out.

And I dont need the TV for TV, I hardly watch any pantaloons tv over here.
"you could be nancy" lol no thanks

crap coffee

recently I read news from somewhere that NZ won't have a big TV any more from overseas. it's something to do with excessive power consumption or something

I don't have a TV at home but then I am not sure I will be happy to buy a tiny crap tv in future

my only wish here is I could watch FULL UK tv channels and BBC

when I get home from work in the evening, there's nothing nicer than turning on the BBC and cooking tea -this is what I used to in u.k

BaNdy

Im not really a big fan of the bbc myself! cant wait until the day when the BBC license cannot be justified any more (politically that is) its not justified to the ordinary people already, but then thats like most of the lovely taxes in the uk.

themoores

We brought over our 37inch lcd tv from uk and it works fine. But the portable we brought doesn't, so its just used for the playstation - that works too. We brought most things over and apart from the portable, it all works ok. But the tv is pretty porr, mind you it was in the uk when we left, so doesn't really make any diferrence. Just brought a 42 inch over here - hope that we will still be able to watch that after what I just read about big tv's. They are still selling them in the shops here.

Sorry, was suposed to be talking about Hamilton. The best areas are probably, Rototuna (would say that first as we are there), Flagstaff, Hillcrest (but some area very popular with Students), Western Heights, Pukete, Chartwell, Glenview there are others that are ok too. The best places to avoid are Enderly, Melville, Whitoria, Fairfield, Dinsdale, Frankton. They are not all bad (some of whitoria has some nice places - popular with professional couples) but the school is not that good. There is a webiste that gives the decile ratings of schools. I will find the link and send it to you.

We really like Hamilton, wasn't our first choice but that was where my OH was offered a job. It was that or Auckland, Welly or Christchurch. But as its central we are not too far from anywhere - hour to Auckland and Bay of Plenty. About 40 mins to Raglan on the other side, 2 21/2 hours from the skiing in winter - can't wait for that one!, Taupo and the coromandel. Still exploring the area at weekends, but so many places to go!

Good luck with your decision!

paulst30

I keep making the mistake of judging NZ size as the same as the UK, but i wouldn't travel to London from Glasgow everyday to go to work

I use Google Earth to look at location and i must say, in conjunction with rental sites, job sites and google earth you can build up a almost real picture of where you would like to settle and realistically where you'll end up, based on the job.

My wife started out with looking at Tauraunga, then it was Auckland, and then Christchurch (more Rolleston due to the beautiful houses) and now we're looking to maybe Wellington or Lower Hutt.

I also rented the Billy Connolly DVD World Tour of New Zealand and i quite like the boy Connolloy so it was a laugh for me, however, he does paint a very clear picture of the place and if it was based on that alone, i wouldn't know where to go, it all looks so nice

j19fmm

One of my cousins lives in Beerescourt,Hamilton, just one road in from the river. There's a walkway down to it and then a lovely area of grass. Loads of people down there in the evening running or cycling, and all very friendly! Lots of ducks to be fed too.

paulst30

I must add something about using Google Earth that i found quite useful.

Look at where you live now, and how far away your work is, and zoom out to a distance of about 80m, using the Alt Eye measurment on th bottom right corner. I measure the screen in cm and then zoom all the way over to NZ and measure the distance of a prospective place to stay in relation to jobs. Keeping the same Alt eye distance from NZ, and you will see the difference, and it can help you make a decision on where to stay and work.

It does work, roughly for most areas At least you can tell what i've been doing for the last 4 weeks hahahahaha

BaNdy

ah thats lovely mrs moore!

every little bit of info helps, thanks.

I was planning on selling everything this end but need my big tv! not for telly but for gaming/movies etc. I may well have to import mine if I am not allowed to buy one over in NZ. I am not familier with the legislation, what exactly is it? any links.

And hamilton (geographicaly) sounds ideal, almost like being in the midlands (lol I hope not) Schools will be important for us for sure, also job considerations. I am in I.T and wifey in medical proff.

You sound like you really enjoying it too, I guess your not missing the uk yet?
what about broadband over there, what speeds are typical?