sueh

Hi, we are moving to Tauranga in October and will be living in pillans point.
our family is me and husband, and two children a daughter age 7 and son 16 months, would love to hear from anyone who has moved to tauranga, especially with young children.
As the flight with our 16 month old is looming- any advice on surviving with sanity intact welcome!.

Am Loolah

Hi Sue,

There's loads of us around, many in Papamoa/Mount and also a fair few over Tauranga side.

Our youngest was 4 when we came out so not too much of a problem.

I suggest you also look on www.nzemigrate.co.nz as they are over that side and very helpful.

What are you hoping to do when you get here?

sueh

Hi, thanks for you quick reply! I will be working at the hospital as a cardiac physiologist (I do ultrasound scans mostly) my husband is in IT and is looking for work in the area. What do you do? A very helpful future colleague helped us to rent a house in pillans point, which belongs to friends of hers, not sold the house in the UK yet so not in to much of a hurry to buy!.
We visited Tauranga in May and spent a lovely afternoon on the beach in Papamoa-I think all the locals thought we were mad in swimming costumes in those temperatures (it felt warm to us!) Would love to hear any advice, especially regarding 'settling in ' our children, our seven year old daughter is very exhited about the move-(and the beach) but I am expecting a few tears along the way until she makes some new friends. Anyway lots of jobs to do! will keep in contact and perhaps see if anyone interested in meeting up once we have settled in a bit! , bye Sueh

Am Loolah

Pillans Point is lovely, a colleague of mine has just bought a house there so we're off to her house warming next month!

We were on the beach with our kids in May, it was a glorious extended summer really and we thought it was like July in the UK - not bad for Autumn!

Your 7 year old should be fine. Most schools seem to give them a "Buddy" when they start and they are all used to ex-pats kids starting all the time. Ours made friends very quickly and settled in in no time at all. We have 4 kids aged from 15 to nearly 5 and the 8 year old was the one who settled the most quickly. Kids are remarkably adaptable and seem to cope with most things thrown at them. It's a good age to move them. It was our eldest who took the longest to settle, about 4 months, which is nothing really!

Sue

Hi and welcome to BE