gina and danny

hi, been looking at johnsonville as a place to base ourselves when we get there, me oh and 1 eight year old, i see it has an okay school,football teams and a pub ( yay!!), but hat else does it have??? and size wise what place in the uk would you say it is similar size to?? and what are the pubs like there

thanks gina

Littletoe

J'Ville is very much a 'family suburb.' There are a lot of kindergartens (preschools), parks and convenience type places. McDonalds, Buger King, various take out places, a large supermarket and a small mall which has just about every shop you'd need. Sounds big, but really it isn't, its all pretty much centered along one high street. Its contained, bar the housing areas, which gives it a nice small feeling, but not crowded. We lived there for six weeks while we looked for a longer term rental elsewhere, so we became quite acquainted. Its an easy commute into the city along the motorway, approx 25 mins. In rush hour coming home the off ramp is incredibly packed, so traffic home isn't especially kind. There almost always seems to be roadworks along the high street as well, which merely adds to the delays. We found the people especially friendly in J'Ville and with kids, its easy to make friends and acquaintances. Everyone seems willing to help you out. The supermarket is mostly full of Fijian Indians and I suppose a poorer looking class of people - so it depends how you feel about that. Not sure why that is to be honest, or where they come from. J'Ville isn't especially affluent ,but its certainly not like some of the rougher parts of the UK. It is very much geered towards the families and has a strong rental market. Investors tend to buy family homes there to rent out and your money goes a bit further in J'Ville then most places in Welly. Quinovic has a strong handle on the J'Ville rental market, so have a look at their website for prices of rentals and the sorts of houses you can expect. Also, check out trademe.co.nz, for private and property managed houses. Having an off/on ramp the motorway means most places are accessible. I couldn't comment on the pub culture, I didn't experience it. NZ as a whole doesn't have much of a 'pub culture' like you'd know in the UK. Apart from bars where British Expats frequent - which tend not to be that nice! But there is a nice dining out culture here in Welly. I would be inclined to travel into the city or somewhere like Khandallah for dinner/drinks and take driving in turns! Also, try googling J'Ville, have a look at their council website for information about population and local services. Good luck!

irnbru14

To add:

There is a regular train service (and buses I guess!) to central Wellington from J'ville, there are two supermarkets (though both in the same groups of companies!),a branch of The Warehouse etc. Its also fairly handy for Porirua, as well as Wellington, for shops.

Pub scene in J'ville, no, not really, many bars and stuff in central Welly though...

And it does have Nada bakery

RobClubley

J'ville has one half decent pub that I know of. Well, nice steaks anyway. It's never been busy though!

Browner_

Hmm, well I wouldn’t live in Johnsonville if you paid me, but I suppose everyone has different opinions. From Wellington CBD, its about a 10 minute drive, but at peak hours that could be significantly increased. Johnsonville is right on top of the hill, so can get some dicky weather.

Also, when there is a southerly wind, the planes fly real low right over Johnsonville on their way to the airport. Its right on the flightpath

As for pub culture, this is so different from the UK. Certainly there are quite a few options in Wellington CBD, but out of town there really aren’t that many pubs. And what pubs there are tend to be TV sport type bars with a betting shop in one corner and a pokies (gambling machine) room in the other corner.

dreamfish

I think for 6-12 months while you find your feet you could do a lot worse. We lived in Khandallah for a couple months and I probably visited J-ville 2 or 3 times a week. It was very convenient for shopping, has lots of varied shops, and yes just a ten minute drive into the CBD. I like J'ville for shopping but doesnt appeal to me to live directly in the centre.

However you might want to get in touch with KnightM (Dave - a member on here). He lives in a quiet area in J-ville.

The train service is excellent imo.

I dont see anything wrong with the place to use as a base whilst you look around and determine where your future home will be.

To compare to somewhere in the UK? A little bigger than the shopping available at The Scott Arms, junction 7 of the M6. Or perhaps a little more like Kingstanding, Perry Barr (Brum). Although I would say Jville is a darn more friendlier than Perry Barr

The main High street linking the two highways is about a mile long. from that is a triangle area, couple hundred yards on each side? You got warehouse, woolworths, countdown, two book shops, two lingerie shops, a few banks (asb, westpac, kiwi and the national i think), kids lothes shops, toy shop, coffee, pizza takeway, restaurants, jay's pub and another pub, resene paint shop, sewing machine shop, other clothes, gift and nic nac shops. Whilst I lived in Khandallah, never had a need to go into the CBD at all.

You are 15 minutes from Porirua if you want to check out this side of wellington, or you can nip down the highway, across to Lower Hutt, 15 minutes or so you are heading to Hutt if you want to check out Hutt Valley.

Hope that helps.

gina and danny

hanks for your replies, we wont we travelling into the cbd(well oh wont be) but we will need to be within reach of lower hutt, i liked the look of the kapiti coast but oh said its to far out he only has a ten minute commute at the mo as do i so dont want to be going far to work, did look at the hutt itself but i would rather be somewhere inbetween hutt and cbd as oh already has a job to go to but i dont, im a florist and most jobs seem to be in the city, im finding that the rents get a lot more expensive though as you get near the cbd and i may be being stingey here but i dont want to pay anymore than $400.00 a week.

thanks a lot guys, any inspiration for areas within my bracket would be great.

gina x

rockape

Hi Gina,
Have you not looked at Upper Hutt, as if Danny can talk to Peter up there, he is a regular at the local Cossie club and he has some good contacts.
regards
Me.

Browner_

Its not far from Johnsonville to Lower Hutt, but its probably the worst journey to do in Wellington. In the morning rush hour, traffic queues right back to Johnsonville trying to get on the Hutt motorway going north. There is NO alternative route, thats NZ for you! Lower Hutt traffic is also very,very busy , particularly at the moment as there are major roadworks going on for sometime in the future I think (they are building an overpass, which takes years in NZ)

gina and danny

i have looked all over the show!!! know i wont know till i get there but, i just want to have an idea of the okay areas for us and the not so okay! i could tell people all the good and bad areas of manchester and where to steer clear of i guess im just trying to find out the same about wellington.

irnbru14

Oh and there are plans to upgrade/enlarge J'Ville shopping mall coming into the pipeline now too