Spacecake799

Hi,
We will be arriving in Wellington in November and i am trying to work out where to look for houses in relation to the centre of Wellington. Is the Kapiti coast miles away? We don't want to live really close to the centre where it will be more expensive, but we do need to be near junior and senior schools. I don't want to be in a rural area aswell as i want the kids to have chance to make lots of friends. Any help would be greatfully recieved.

Also, i have 2 red headed children who use factor 50 sun cream. I'm sure there is plenty of choice but do you know if i will easily get sun cream this high. Thanks in advance for any help.
carole

theguitardoctor

Hi thre, Somebody asked the same recently...look here for some info...

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ght=wellington

Sun cream...not sure, but there's always the net....although when I was there they had a big thing ... slip, slop, slap advert about sun screen and the dangers of non use, so I would imagine you'll have no problem.

cottageinthesky

The sun screen you get in NZ will probably knock spots off most of what you get in the UK - I always warn my UK visitors to buy here, rather than in the UK - NZ in terms of the ozone layer is like nothing you've ever encountered in Europe - and I have, albeit an adult, red headed child.

Where do you want to look for houses - depends where you are going to be working - if you're working in Wellington City, then you probably need to be in a Wellington suburb or Lower Hutt/Johnsonville/Tawa furthest - depends on the age of your children.

poppets

we live on the Kapiti coast- huibby works in wellington (1hr 20 min drive rush hour there , 55 mins home , the views are lovely & he quite enjoys tha jounrney) i'll pm with some stuff later but we love it here. Try sending Biddy a pm he's full of info & been here of about a yr with 3 kids

danny.f

You are us!! 3 kids,2 quite fair,me a baldy burnt slaphead (its Danny,not Donna!). Cottageinthesky will be able to help too,she knows the business.
We looking for somewhere close to the hospital,but are good for a half hour drive. Anyway,keep in touch and good luck.

uk+kiwi

Can't help with areas, although Biddy & Poppets live on the Kapiti Coast. Also, if your children are used to factor 50 sunscreen, they may need to go even higher in NZ as the sun is much stronger due to the reduced Ozone. Having said that, we used the NZ Cancer Society's factor 50 suncream (gives me the creeps a bit) when there over Xmas and none of us caught the slightest amount of sun so I'm not sure you will need to go higher. Anyhow you will have no probs finding suncreams there.

poppets

have pm'd as promised, but just had a thought that you could also PM Winnie as ahe was in welly & is moving/has moved to paraparaumu, legde is in paraparaumu too

Spacecake799

Thanks for the replies. Finding the right area is really hard. Danny, how old are your kids? I just want to find the right schools so my children are happy, we can sort everything else out later. That said everything seems stressfull at the minute as we are in the process of moving out 21st sept. When we arrive in NZ we will be travelling from Aukland to Wellington trying to find where my husband might get a job. We could end up anywhere. Let the adventure begin!

danny.f

Hi,
if you access wellingtonmap.co.nz you can get a pretty good idea of the suburbs and the distance from the city centre. Our kids will be 10, 8 and 3 when we come out and to be honest I've tried to stop stressing about the schools as we intend to rent in the first place and may not end up living in the same suburb as we initially rent in so the kids may have to move schools, which would not be ideal but may be unavoidable. We are hoping to live in one of the South Wellington suburbs as will be working at Wellington Children's hospital. Have you looked at the schools on the government site (ERO)? How old are your kids? Let us know how you get on!
Donna

Winnie

Thanks for that Poppets. Indead we have just moved to Paraparaumu and have finally found my lap top in one of the many boxes lying around!

Spacecake................we lived in Tawa when we first arrived. We wasn't sure where we wanted to live and Tawa was central to our needs. We enjoyed it there but having been here for 8 months we decided we loved the Kapiti coast, its so beautiful and has everything we need. The house prices are cheaper here too and you get much more for your money. I can't believe what we've managed to buy for about the same price that we sold our modest terrace in the UK for, it's like a mansion! I work in Porirua and my partner in Wellington. It takes me about 1/2 hour and the OH about an hour, but as someone mentioned earlier the scenery is beautiful and gives us time to chill out after a days work. It certainly beats the M62! I'm not sure about schools, although work colleagues (is that spelt right?) live in Kapiti with their children and are happy with the schools here.
If you have any questions don't hesitate to get back to me.
Now back to unpacking those damn boxes...................!!!!!!!!!!!