sandybob

Hi everyone,
We are a family looking to move to the Cambridge area. We have a 6 year old son and are basically looking for advise about good schools, property prices and jobs for myself in Hamilton. ( I am an electrical engineer.) We have Vistited the area briefly and liked it, so any info. & advice about the area would be great.

Thanks BoB

Roger

Sorry only passed through but seems like a nice place to live. Bought our cars at the Nissan Garage there. They delived them all the way to Havelock North. The manager (who was from Napier) said that it was an excellent place to raise a family. The river looks really good for watersports, and seems a good place to get into Horse Riding. Imagine it has a certain amount of rain though as very green in February and it was parched in Hawkes Bay.
Roger

sandybob

Thanks for the advice Roger.
Regards BOB & Sandy

javajive

Cambridge is a nice place and a pleasent commute to Hamilton.

There is a private school there (might be secondary school age) which had a very good reputation - my wifes friends children when there and are now doing very well. Although I'm not to sure if this is also the same school where there has been some trouble with the teachers giving the pupils answers for exams.
If you listen to NewsTalkZB over the internet http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/ they were talking about it.

sandybob

Thanks for the infomation very useful.
Regards BOB.

firn

Hi We recently moved to Cambridge in Jan. this year and we have found it to be a nice place to live in. There are many activities and clubs available to children and adults. Our overall experience of the school that our eldest son goes to has been positive. The youngest son goes to a local montessori but there are many nurseries to choose form. Cambridge is well placed for Hamilton, about a 25 minute drive away.
The schools mentioned in the earlier posts, the private school is a middle and high school and the other post about the dodgy exam results was Cambridge High school, but they got rid of the headteacher.
So far so good for us.

sandybob

Thanks for that infomation it is very usful. Another question is we are looking to rent a property in the area when we first move out there, but there dosn't seem to be much around. Did you do a similar thing when you first arrived? If so can you give us any advice or contacts.
Thanks Sandy and BOB.

firn

Hi, When we arrived we were given 2 weeks accommodation at a motel in Hamilton with husbands job so that enabled us to look around locally. There was a little choice in terms of rental. We went through the estate agents in town to see what they had available. There is also a local free paper on Wednesday's which have private rentals in it. We looked some houses and settled on our present house as it was close to a school and in walking distance to town.
Rachel

cornerofsilence

Please can you tell what you think of Hamilton. My husband has a job offer there and we are coming out in June.

Many thanks

javajive

Nice small city. Large enough to have facilities like a University and some cultural events but small enough to be easy to get around. You are within 1-1/2 hours of Auckland, Rotorua, east and west coast beaches. Nice riverbank walk and the rose gardens are really worth a visit.

Going back some years I remember the rush hour and traffic jams between 17:00 and 17:10. If I ever worked late and came out at 17:20 the main street was empty :scared:

sandybob

Thanks Firn for the infomation.
Sandy & Bob.

firn

Hi, Hamilton seems a nice small city like javajive has mentioned. It has many amenities, we went bowling last weekend. There are plenty of shops around and activites which you would find available in any small city. There are many cafes and places to eat, something for everyone, a musuem, art ctrs,kids play ctrs and more.There's also Hamilton gardens which is very nice to walk around and picnic. Its a university town so has many young people around.
I go to Hamilton quite frequently but preferred to live in a "town" rather than a "city" I'm not sure on housing, but would'nt think that you would have much of a problem renting. There were 8 rental houses available this week in the Cambridge News newspaper for families.

tom's mum

Hi,

We came out to New Zealand in November 2003 and have been living in Cambridge since. When we arrived there was very little in the way of rental properties. Beware there seems to be no such thing as furnished rentals and it can be quite hard those first few weeks with nothing.

We have two children. Their ages are 16 and 6. Our eldest attends the infamous Cambridge High School and our youngest attends leamington Primary. The high school has had its fair share of bad publicity but things seem to be improving now the principle has gone. Both our boys love it here. The private school is excellent. It costs approx. $10,000 per child per year. We have friends whose children attend. The cost appears cheap when you convert into £ but when you earn $$ it is quite expensive.

Cambridge is a great place to live (Im biased) Houses are selling here really quickly. If I can help at all please email me:
[email protected]

Helen

sandybob

Thanks for the advice, it seems to be a good place to live and we are looking forward to moving out there later this year. Do you know anything about the Goodwood school?
Thanks Sandy and BOb.

cornerofsilence

My husband has a job in Hamilton and we will be staying in Cambridge while we are looking for a house.

regards

Susan