Moving to Pukerua Bay - hopefully
 

Hubby is staying with friends until our PR visa comes through and we are looking to buy a house in this area.
Husband, Phil, is working in Wellington.
Myself, Sue and the kids girl 10 and son 6, hope to be out by or just after Christmas so we have a little "lets have a look around" time before the kids start school in February.
Would love to get chatting to anyone in the area

Re: Moving to Pukerua Bay - hopefully
 

Hello and a big welcome to the New Zealand section of BE from the Consierges in Spain.

You will find excellent information in the BE Wiki, not forgetting the Living and Moving Abroad forum that will help you, another set of great help is the permanent threads at the TOP of each forum, they are very pertinent to that particular forum and makes sensible reading.

BE Moderators deal with any problems that arise such as inappropriate posts, spammers etc, you will find their names at the bottom right hand side of each forum's index in bold font. Also there are Consierges who can support and guide you.

Please contact me if I can give you any further help.

Rosemary

Re: Moving to Pukerua Bay - hopefully
 

Hi

Welcome to this part of the world. I live in Paraparaumu about 15 mins away. it is alovely part of the world and I am sure thatyou will enjoy it here when you arrive.

Re: Moving to Pukerua Bay - hopefully
 

well offer on the house has to be made by midday tomorrow so looks like we will lose out on this one :(, so maybe widening the search area now. Think we will have to stop looking for buying until me and the kids get out and start looking harder for rental which may be more successful now that the rugby is over.

Re: Moving to Pukerua Bay - hopefully
 

We're 10 mins south of Pukerua Bay in Whitby, loads of nice areas with good schools up and down the coastline if this area is what you want... Happy to meet up for a chat when you get here, always nice to meet people and have a coffee...

Re: Moving to Pukerua Bay - hopefully
 

Thanks for that, well seeing as we haven't got our PR yet and the survey on the house has come back with a "few" things need doing on it we have decided to tell the estate agent we cannot put an offer in atm as we need to get estimates on putting the problems right and 1/2 a days notice isn't sufficient to do that.

Simon - husband has also said Whitby looks lovely so might look there as well as Aotea. Hopefully won't be to long before myself and the kids are joining hubby out there and hopefully making lots of new friends :thumbup:

Re: Moving to Pukerua Bay - hopefully
 

Hi,
we also live in Paraparaumu, looking to buy but not much around at the moment in the area we want. Whitby is lovely, just check the secondary school zones. I could be wrong but I think you may zone for porirua college (not so great, apologies in advance to anyone who's kids go there). I may be wrong you could poss get into kapiti college but not certain. I do know quite a few people bus their kids into Scott's college and Hutt International (both private) from Whitby.
good luck
Kaz

Re: Moving to Pukerua Bay - hopefully
 

Secondary school zoning in Whitby is Aotea College. You can get into Kapiti College as there is no Zoning. We just got our son into Tawa College which is zoned, but we got in via the ballot system they run.

Re: Moving to Pukerua Bay - hopefully
 

There is also Samuel Marsden, but that's private and expensive...

Re: Moving to Pukerua Bay - hopefully
 

we are a bit stuck on what year of school our daughter will go in. She is 10, 16-07-2001, Pukerua Bay primary didn't seem to sure and said she may have to do a test. Easier on the 6yr son he will just go into year 2 we have been told, so ideally need a full primary where ever we end up

Re: Moving to Pukerua Bay - hopefully
 

Well our son was born 15/7/1998 and is in year 8, so assuming she is exactly 3 years behind my son, i would say she'd probably be starting year 6 in February, when he starts year 9.

Re: Moving to Pukerua Bay - hopefully
 

I'd agree with the school years above based on my kids too, although there is parental choice. The cut off is usually April or ocassionally May. Parents can push at some schools and get their kids up/down a year but obviously that has implications. One problem a friend has encountered who did this with a child born in July is that local sports teams are based on age not school year so he can't play with his friends. As they get older things like learning to drive etc come into play.

Pukerua bay has amazing views over Kapiti Island and is usually the turning point for the weather - it's much better further north towards Paraparaumu and turns colder/cloudier at Pukerua Bay. You do realise it has SH1 running through the middle of it as well as the train line, you'd need to check houses don't suffer too much from constant highway/train noise.

As for colleges I'd agree with above. Kapiti College has a reasonable reputation and isn't zoned, schools in Porirua/Aotea have poorer reputations but you'd need to visit them to be sure. Whitby has Samuel Marsden which is private and has a great reputation to match it if you can afford it, there are plenty of kids commuting from Kapiti/Pukerua Bay to it. You'll have to decide how much of a commute you want your children to have. Also Whitby/Aotea don't have their own stations so you'd have to bus/drive to Paremata which obviously takes time and you'd probably be just as quick to go to Wellington from Pukerua Bay where the station is in the middle of the town.

Good luck with the house sale. There are loads of ex-pats on the coast as they don't mind the commute as much as Kiwis and you get more for your money house wise and noticely better weather as you go north which is slighly surreal that 30 mins drive can make such a difference. Hope you get here soon and enjoy Christmas on the beach!