jads

Have just bought the 'Residents Guide to NZ' by Explorer, its a refreshing change to all those 'general travel' books that are far too glossy etc.
It has some good honest descriptions about areas to live in the 3 big Cities.

Anyway there was a small description on 'Nelson', Good Climate, Good Beaches with all the facilities of a City but with a more 'laid back' feel and apparently is a popular holiday resort for everyone.

Just gets you thinking about if youre heading to the right place in NZ or not!

Anyone been, anyone live there, lets hear it!!

Cheers Jads

nelsonpom

Myself, my wife and our 2 cats moved here 2 years ago after a year in Wellington and love it. Everything you said is true.

teebrown

When we went out for a holiday we travelled to Nelson and stayed 3 nights and it felt really good there, very up and coming and we did put it on our list of places to live. Lovely beaches.

brussels_sprout

All my rellies live there, great , lots of wine growing, fruit, veggies, very very sunny, gets cold in winter but it is still warm in the sun. The only bad thing is in winter it seems to get lots of pollution, the air is thick some days, also all the shops close at 12 on Saturdays , but both are minor points of course

nelsonpom

Saturday has a great market till 1.00pm and the larger shops don't close till 4/5, although some smaller shops will close early or not open at all. Depends where you live with pollution as its caused by peoples burners which are all being made clean air by 2012/13.
Darren

P2L

We live over the Whangamoas but we love visiting Nelson, especially for a better choice in shopping.

My DH has been working in Richmond for the past 4 months and has made some good mates over there.

If you keep going, you get to Abel Tasman and Golden Bay that are pretty much paradise itself

janek

The market is indeed fantastic, such a lot going on and real value for money fresh produce. Lots of other interesting bits and pieces too.

The beaches are lovely, even in the winter for a good brisk walk.

The town is not without an under-belly though, it does not affect me as such but it is there, along with too many second hand car sales yards! Just little things I notice I guess.

Real estate can be a bit 'over the top' price wise, I think it may be the second most expensive place in the country to buy a house out-side of Auckland, but I may be wrong there......and there are one or two valleys to be avoided when choosing a place to live, they lose the sun by 3.00pm in the winter and thats not good, and the problem with the log burners - but as the previous poster said we all have to have brand spanking new ones very soon.....or heat pumps.

The easy access to the Abel Tasman park and its surroundings is a huge bonus too,

I find it a very easy place to live all said and done

Heal

We've been here since August and love it , for us it has just about everything within a 30 minute drive, and I think the smaller shops closing early on a Saturday is a little strange at first but is kind of nice it feels like spain when all the shops close in the afternoon for a siesta, only difference is they don't open again, the truth is there's far more to do than go shopping on a Saturday afternoon and this is coming from someone who loved shopping in the UK.
The beaches and the mountains are stunning and although the locals have been complaining about the weather,compared with the UK, we think its been nice.

pixi-dust

Nelson ( of the places I've been) is my second most favourite! I love where I am, but I adored Nelson. We were there for only three days on our travels round the SI and it was brilliant. To us it seemed really friendly, had a great vibe, but hippy, bit arty, lots of young families, a fantastic market that I wish we had , well big enough for us, nice shopping bit if that's what you like, some lovely restaurants and cafes. Abel Tasman National park right on your doorstep, lovely.

jads

I presume because Nelson is alot smaller than ChCH, the employment and education options are less to choose from, is it more of a good holiday place or can it be a good place to settle for an expat??

Cheers Jads

Sandi Bloss

We've been in Nelson for over a year and love it. All the schools are good from what we can gather as there's no troube attracting good teachers. Employment opportunites are of course not so good as it's a small ish place. You wont get any real career progression but unemployment is very low. But hubby is a builder and doing fine. It's a lovely place for families, friendly, relaxed, with great scenery and beaches. Abel Tasman is an hour away and is stunning. You can even ski about an hour away.

Sandi