Emigrating from Kent to Auckland
 

Hi,
I have been offered a job in Manukau City, South Auckland.
I have a wife and 2 children, 3 and 5.
Does anyone know the area and whether it would be a nice place for me and my family to live?
We are emigrating for a better lifestyle and safer place to raise our children.
Any advise would be great.
Thanks

Re: Emigrating from Kent to Auckland
 

Best to look around Howick and the surrounding beach areas or go rural in Franklin ie Waiuku

Re: Emigrating from Kent to Auckland
 

Hello there, and welcome to BE :)

I'm not familiar with Manukau (other than the airport!) but I do remember some discussion about it on here recently. You could try using the forum search function - you can set it to show you entire threads containing the search terms or individual posts. I find it more useful to set it for individual posts and then I can open a duplicate tab and click through to read relevant threads, if you see what I mean. Here's a link to the results of search for 'Manukau' posts in the New Zealand forum:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/searc...archid=8007228

Hope that helps; just ask if you need more help :)

Re: Emigrating from Kent to Auckland
 

Stay in Kent

Re: Emigrating from Kent to Auckland
 

Why don't you take the time to expand on that instead of giving a smart aleck one-liner?

Re: Emigrating from Kent to Auckland
 

Hi there,
We live in Manukau, and have a 6 year old child.

Before I give any opinions on where you should live, first and foremost we should know what kind of house you're looking for, how much land do you want, are you looking to live walking distance to the beach, will you be renting or buying, etc. There's been some good threads recently on the (very) high price of housing. Also, I've been reading the rents are going up. I'd suggest you do some internet searches on the quality of NZ housing too. What you find may surprise you.

School districts might be very important to you? It's very near impossible to find an affordable house in a good school district these days. Depending what you think is affordable, that is.

I wouldn't dismiss Barnsleymat's comment as just flippant. After investigating your options, you *might* agree with him.

Re: Emigrating from Kent to Auckland
 

I know Kent pretty well and I'm inclined to agree with BarnsleyMatt - I think you would have to live in an exceptionally shitty bit of Kent to find any improvements in South Auckland to be honest.

There are of course some pockets of South Auckland which are more desirable to expats and suitably expensive to boot. No doubt some will get up in arms because I dare to say so but most of South Auckland you wouldn't want to touch with someone else's bargebole.

Pukekohe is further out south and said to be one of the more desirable / affordable category but listening to local media and opinions it has still a reputation of being a bit rough. Personally I would save any such decisions until you're here and have seen it for yourself.

Re: Emigrating from Kent to Auckland
 

Thank you all for your advice.
Bo-Jangles... Thats basically what ive read online which is making me think more than twice about making the move.
The whole idea is so my children live in a safe country with a better lifestyle and to be honest i am starting to realise Auckland is definately not the place for that!
From what ive heard there is a big problem with gangs and crime in South Auckland.
Also the quality of housing is really bad too 😖

Re: Emigrating from Kent to Auckland
 

Sounds like you already knew the answer before posting. Lol. There are many a Brit expat family living in South Auckland who are very happy. Suffice to say, you can buy a nice detached house with section in a good area, and in my opinion they are more than just pockets, for the price of an averagely priced house in Kent. That whole Howick/ Botany peninsular, for example, are great areas to live, I believe. For some of the Manakau immediate surrounds, a lot depends on whether youre comfortable with multi culturalism. If not there are other areas further south like the Karaka/Pukekohe area, even parts of Papakura, that are more anglicised.

Re: Emigrating from Kent to Auckland
 

Seriously BJ you need to go and have a think, to believe South East London is some sort of paradise and somehow Pukekohe is a bit rough is ridiculous. I know people that thought Woking is a bit rough, but it's not something that I would subscribe to at least publically

Re: Emigrating from Kent to Auckland
 

No one can tell you whether youll have a better lifestyle by emigrating to Auckland because no one here knows you, or your interests, or your current circumstances etc. What I do know is that its a quantum leap from a query on a message board about Sth Auckland to your conclusion above about the whole of Auckland, in my opinion. Definitely is far too strong a word. There are (many) Brit expats who feel their lifestyle has been improved by moving to Auckland, even from Kent. Others perhaps not. I dont think you would know until you experience it for yourself. What was the job you were offered in Manakau?

Re: Emigrating from Kent to Auckland
 

It is so difficult to really know what to write for the best when an OP asks such a general type of question isn't it. Although I can quite see why it is asked. We are each of us so different.

I've always thought of Kent as being a reasonable place to live. Not too much by way of extremes.


My question to you would be, what are you coming from?

Do you currently feel your children are unsafe. If so, why?

What is preventing you living a chosen 'lifestyle' now? From a personal viewpoint, I've found nothing new here that I could not have had or done in the UK.

and finally that all important question....

Money!

Re: Emigrating from Kent to Auckland
 

Dont worry about it. I was just trying to recall whether I had ever read a post of Bo Jangles that had said something nice about a town, suburb ... generally anything NZ related actually? Lol.

Re: Emigrating from Kent to Auckland
 

It's her humour & her nature . I do ID with it as it has something of my wry nature too. I find it hard to wax lyrical yet I am no pessimist.

The key with something like this really is 'where you are coming from' and 'what you could be going to'.

Kent has always seemed a reasonable area to me. Whereas as inner city Wolverhampton, for instance, is less so.

So, I suppose one should wish for a like for like or an improvement in some aspect of one's life.

The OP has not mentioned his line of work. That is a huge consideration in terms of income, satisfaction and re-location opportunities .

Re: Emigrating from Kent to Auckland
 

Bevs, it is a concern though that whenever I see a new person come on here looking for a view of moving to NZ, (as has happened here) and with no prior experience of the forum, that the pack seems to round on them very quickly and negatively without balance.

I know that some people aren't happy, believe me I've had my moments and continue to, but this poster was seemingly put off something that they had taken to the point of getting a job offer, that is a pretty sad outcome because there are plenty of people that do have an improved lifestyle and come nowhere near the forum, just as there are people that aren't happy.