johnht

Hi,
One place we're looking at is near Dargaville, so I'd welcome your opinions on the town, schools and surrounding areas - particularly to the north of town.
Would you live there? Would you go there for a holiday? ...and why (or why not )
Thanks,
John.

j19fmm

Stayed at Baileys Beach a few times, great holiday site if you like a huge beach, a cute restaurant - Funky Fish - but not a lot else around

Browner_

I dont think you will find Dargaville is on many immigrants lists of places to live. Access to beaches - yes. Not much else to recommend it

Bo-Jangles

Dargaville itself is pretty rough, it has one more thing going for it that Helensville doesn't, it has one good cafe and a Warehouse store. Yep, that's about as good as it gets in Dargaville. I would say similar to what I said about Helensville it's definitely horses for courses and not much actually wrong but also not much right with it. It's a functional working town but if you'd like a nice meal out or a wander around 'nice' shops every now and again Dargaville wouldn't be the place to go. It's a fairly typical Northern town with somewhere to get your tractor or ute fixed, a butcher, bank, pharmacy, a 'Hotel' and somewhere for the unemployed to get the necessities of life; lotto ticket, liquor store and a plethora of dubious looking takeaways.

The local hoons do like to cruise the high street a million times a night and they in turn attract a particularly high police presence after dark.

As to your question, being uninitiated we did stay there once for a couple of nights on the way to somewhere else. Would I go there again? I doubt that very much.

dorrick

Bayleys lovely beach much to dangerous for swimming

Bellasmum

John by "place" do you mean house/property or is it another small town ?

I worked as a nurse in Dargaville when I was young and single. It is a small country town (mainly farming) that has a very brown river running through it.

It has some great west coast beaches close by and is about 75ks from Whangarei and about 65ks to Opononi/Omapere Hokianga where there are more great beaches.

These links may give you a feel for the place

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/nort...ille-districts

http://www.dargavillehighschool.co.nz/

http://www.dargavilleprimary.school.nz/

http://www.baylysbeach.co.nz/index.htm

http://www.eske-style.co.nz/areas/farnorth/opononi.asp

johnht

Hi, thank you all for your replies. We're looking at buying a camp site and for one on our list Dargaville is the nearest town - good to know its got a Warehouse
So the general opinion seems to be that the town is just an ordinary smallish NZ town with pretty much the usual issues for any relatively isolated town e.g. not much for the older teens to do except do-nuts in the supermarket carpark in their souped up cars.
Any further comments welcome!
John.

sirplug

There's one thing that the area is known for and it's camping! There are plenty of places to see near Dargaville, including the lakes, the Kauri and the beach but as a permanent destination, there is very little else going for it......

Bellasmum

Dargaville is on the "Twin Coasts Discovery" route in Northland.

From memory I think it is approx 800ks that takes you up one coast and down the other (east and west).

As far as I know there are plenty of bus tours that still do the trip.

j19fmm

Care to share a name? Might get some more info on it then No pressure x

yorkylass

There are so many lovely places to live / visist, but Dargaville is not one !!!

j19fmm

I've had great holidays at Bayleys Beach

johnht

As it's not difficult to find on Google with the details I've already given, I guess there's no harm in saying it's the Top10 site about 30km or so north of Dargaville.
John.

j19fmm

Looks great and as a visitor to NZ I've always found the Top 10 Parks to be well thought of.
I noticed - in my nosying - the Swiss Cafe and Restaurant in Paihia is also for sale.....hmmmm I love that place!! How tempting

sirplug

Been there!!!!! Nice site and one we'll be using again