Paladin

Well we got back to Blighty on Friday and boy what a shock to the system after a month+ in NZ!
What do you notice first? Its crowded, its dirty, people look miserable & depressed, the weather is grey and damp, petrol & latte's are damn expensive, the roads are really crowded and drivers are damn rude, the scenery just doesn't compete, you can't see many stars cos of the air pollution and amount of light from towns. But I suppose being down on the UK was somewhat inevitable so on to what we really want to talk about - NZ and the highs and lows etc of our reccie trip!!!

I was able to get online a bit in NZ so some of you have an idea of the whirlwind tour around the north island but i didn't really update much here on our visit to the South Island so here's a quick review of our tour, towns we sampled, positive AND negative thoughts etc:

Auckland: OMG! Its a sprawling mass of residential areas with shedloads of traffic and a nasty rush hour coming out of downtown and over the Harbour Bridge. Apart from the sea it could have been any mid western city in the USA - it never floated my boat at all. Downtown AKL?? Whats the fuss about? Wellington harbourside is much better! And if coming from the north why is the airport so damn hard to access driving thru loads of residential areas FGS - very odd!

Titirangi & the Waitakere Range: This is west of AKL about 10 minutes from New Lynn(the western most suburb of AKL) and its a world away from AKL - set in indigenous bush that is pretty lush and mostly protected, nice cafe culture and houses set in the bush - REALLY nice feel BUT BUT BUT you need to interact with Henderson or New Lynn for all your shopping etc needs and they are not very nice at all. Shame really as Titirangi has an excellent Steiner School which we are after. It makes it into 3rd place for where to live for our needs due to the bush, setting of houses, Steiner School, people; but is let down by the need to interact with AKL traffic and western suburbs! Titirangi is also on the way to Piha Beach where they filmed The Piano, which is a nice spot, very rural LOL! Locals were very friendly too.

Orewa: North of AKL nice beach town with long beach and residential population ie not all holiday makers! However the population is very slanted towards the retired community. Whangaparoa peninsular to the south of Orewa is more family oriented and has good beaches and shopping too. We found the people in this area to be very genuine, friendly, helpful and positive.

OK thats ya lot for AKL area, next up Northland/Rodney district.......

Paladin

Warkworth: A nice rural town heading north on SH1, small but friendly with access to the nice beaches on the east coast at Snells Beach, Goat Island etc where theres decent enough diving too! No Steiner School and a bit too small for us/ too far from larger population for OH business possibilities.

Whangarei: too industrial for my liking, felt dirty and over run with hoons in their "fast & furious" cars LOL!

Kerikeri/Paihia/Bay of Islands area: Ok so we only did a brief visit here and hence no visit with Laura - sorry sweetie! OH just wanted to leave asap and it just didn't float my boat either! - OK so the sea is there but Paihia is just a holiday town felt very odd to me not like a town you could call home at all. KeriKeri immediately jumps out at you as the place where the money is in Northland: clean, sharp shops etc so if you are looking to open a business up north keep it in mind!! So why didn't this area do it for us? Well, mostly due to the fact that it may well be north and supposedly sub tropical BUT they have deforested almost the whole damn place so its just miles of rolling grazing land alot of the time, the sub tropical bush I was hoping to see near KeriKeri is virtually non existent and it just felt like you were miles from civilization. This is fine if thats what you are after as the coast looked great and the diving & fishing are superb BUT for us it just felt too isolated for our needs with the kids and OH's business ideas. If the area had been way less deforested and felt more sub tropical it may have been different... maybe!

Coromandel: Wild, lush forest and loads of pine forest, nice beaches and Hot Water Beach was great fun but this peninsular is holiday ville not really for settling down in - it feels VERY remote and like no one lives there but it IS pretty!

Tauranga/Mount Manganui: Tauranga felt pretty nice and there's a Steiner School at Welcome Bay but the Mount just felt like a seaside town to me and not a place to have a home in for us with our needs. Tauranga prob makes it to 4th place for me!

more to come.....

Paladin

OK just had a thought! Before i upset anyone living in any area that didn't appeal to us personally; remember my comments are based on our needs and desires as a family so just cos one town/area was not for us, my comments are not meant to be any offence to anyone that lives there! Anyone emigrating to NZ has to find the right place for them based on their circumstances etc!!!

Ok onwards....

Napier: The art deco buildings didn't give me a "wow!" feeling and sitting outside a cafe trying to have luch was spoiled by the hoons in their cars with noisy exhausts going thru ALL the time!! It felt really isolated to me too.

Rotorua: Very interesting place and when we went thru for the second time we didn't even notice the smell. I'd bet that would be the case if you lived there. OH like interacting with the Maori there and the thermal areas are all very interesting too. She would live there but its not on the coast so a no no for me!

Taupo: Nice setting next to the lake and with the volcanoes the other end of the lake but for me it just felt like motel-ville for people passing thru etc. Plus too cold in winter for OH!!!

Hamilton: If you don't like the binge drinking in the UK you'd hate Hamilton downtown on a Friday night!!! One evening there was enough for me! Again not on the coast so a non starter for me LOL!

Palmerston North: Seemed like a fun up for it college town but again not on the coast/close enough to the coast for us.

New Plymouth/Mount Taranaki: The volcano is stunning to see and the bush walk from the visitor centre is very nice too. We even got to see it without clouds covering the top LOL! New Plymouth felt quite nice downtown but again just felt too isolated for us.

Kapiti Coast: This is a REALLY nice area with some lovely beaches and nice residential towns although some of the beachside towns felt a bit deserted with the main holiday season having finished. Was great to meet Poppets(who is lovely btw! Hi Rachel!!!) there and there's lovely sunsets over Kapiti Island and long beaches for walks. Personally I wouldn't want to commute to Welly from there though, a bit too far out for me and alot of the road is single carriageway and bottlenecks badly at the bottom/top of the hill going into Welly on SH1 at rush hour.

OK next up Wellington & nearby residential towns and then Nelson/Motueka on the top of South Island and then a general NZ review..........(after I've had lunch LOL!).. be back soon!!

Mandie

Ok you must of had lunch by now...more please

TYPE FASTER

P2L

Lunch ??????

Who said it was time for lunch???? Not me!!!!

Waiting for the next bit (please)!!!! We're off to Blenheim & haven't been there, so be interesting to hear your opinion of the top of South Island so........

Type & eat!!! Eat & type!!! whichever way works best but bl**dy hurry up

uk+kiwi

Dave,

Great read. But did you fall asleep in a jet lagged nap after lunch? Perhaps putting the little one/s down.

P2L

Wake Up you Wimp!!!!

We want more!!! We want more!!!! we want more!!!!

Paladin

Ok had my lunch - my you lot are hard task masters!!

Wellington & surrounds: ok this area makes it to number 2 on our list of where we will move to!!! Windy?? Yeah well we had a "light breeze" one day downtown and it was fairly windy LOL!! BUT Welly has a wonderful feel to it. The harbourside downtown is great, Te Papa Museum is brilliant, cafes and shops are really cosmopolitan, the surrounding suburbs around the city all feel like communities rather than just commuter dorms. It has nice beaches close by. We hit rush hour after the flight back from Nelson and it still only took 25 mins to get from the airport to traffic moving freely just north of downtown. you can fly to pretty much anywhere in NZ AND to Oz from Welly.

Lower Hutt & Upper Hutt both seemed ok to us but we did prefer the towns out up SH1; Johnsonville, Tawa etc however just 5 mins further on and you get to Porirua, Plimmerton, Whitby, Papakowhai etc and then a bit further on Pukera bay before you have reached the top of the hill before running down to the Kapiti Coast towns. Theres a decent rail service all the way up this stretch so good for commuters who do not want to drive in to Welly centre. We rode the train one day and it was real easy and drops you right into downtown Welly and it was cheap too.

Our favourite area was Papakowhai as it sits up on the hill with views of the hills, the bay and the ocean; its nr to major shopping at Porirua and 5 mins from getting over the top of the hill on SH1 to go down to Kapiti Coast so best of both worlds. The views are better than further down SH1. Theres a good mix of older and newer housing so take ya pick, schools are good and if you want Steiner School its just over the hill down SH58(?) from Whitby to Lower Hutt, ie the back route avoiding SH1.

This is a VERY strong 2nd place for us and if in the end we decide Nelson isn't quite big enough for us then we will head here is my guess; although the pull of Titirangi due to the bush, Steiner School etc is there too.
Wellington may have wind but in the end it has a hell of alot going for it that outwieghs the wind IMHO!!! Its just a nice size with something for almost everyone, easy to get in & out of doesn't have a "big urban sprawl feel" like AKl does.

Plus there are some great expats in this area!!! OK you guys know who you are!

next up: Nelson area on top of South Island - our potential new home!!!

Paladin

Nelson to Motueka Area - top of South Island:

Ok first off Nelson is actually further north than Wellington and it has the highest number of sunshine hours in NZ - approx 2400 hrs per yr!! Whats the deal with the weather? Well you realise when you arrive that the area seems bounded by almost 3 sides of hills/mountains so the weather fronts are often pushed over the hills to the south and east and up on to Welly!! thus Nelson tends to be dry, sunny and in winter early morning frosts are burnt off apparently. Snow in winter tends to be on the hills without getting it in Nelson. Welly is a 20-25min flight away and the weather can be very different there due to the whole geography thingy!

When you first step off the plane in Nelson you immediately feel different, dunno what it is, it just feels more relaxed and laid back; I guess its some kind of energy thing and apparently there is some large convergence of ley lines or something in the area - who knows maybe thats it BUT I also think there is a generally different attitude in the people in the area too. for us we just immediately felt at home in the area.

A word of warning to visitors - Nelson is VERY visited out of season by international visitors so motels/hotels/car hire is VERY booked up; I suggest pre booking if you can. We didn't and struggled to get a car and our first nite in motel BUT the car hire people were VERY helpful calling all around to find us a motel - a trait we found through out the area = VERY friendly and welcoming people!!!

Nelson has a really nice feel, an interesting mix of people of different incomes and lifestyles from people with obvious money to Welly commuters to alternative lifestylers and it all feels very natural mixing together. It feels very cosmopolitan, has a very leafy downtown, several parks, hills behind, a great beach at Tahunanui. there's a great Saturday morning market where you can see all the different people out and about and it all seems to gel well for some reason - hard to really explain but just felt right for us!

The airport is funny, when you get off the plane your luggage is not in a baggage hall, they bring it out to the street next to the taxi rank and car hire bays LOLOL!!! Made me laugh - talk about laid back!! We had lovely hot/warm sunny days even when the hills/mountains were cloud covered and the front coming from the south was giving Welly crap weather!!!

Nelson has alot of older weatherboard looking homes but plenty of more newer builds too. There are more residential areas in Stoke and richmond before you head along the north coast towards Mapua, Tasman, Motueka, Kaiteriteri, Marahau, the Abel tasman Nat'l Park, then up over Takaka Hill to Takaka and Golden Bay. Motueka is a small town that is VERY alternative, alot of smallholding farms/lifestyle blocks up the valley inland and a major national Park behind that. Theres a really good Steiner School in "Mot" too. The Sunday market there is small but interesting LOL! motueka is 45km from Nelson and approx 35mins by car along very pretty coast road, past Mapua, until you hit Richmond.

Kaiterirteri has a gorgeous beach but this area is seriously expensive(in NZ terms) due to that and has too many holiday homes for my liking - not really a community feel enough for me.
Marahau has a really nice alternative feel but you'd have to live up the valley a bit as the main drag has tractors going up & down taking Kayaks & boats into the water for trips to the Abel tasman - would drive me mad! This town is last stop before the nat'l park.
Over the Takaka Hill things get more isolated, more alternative and generally quieter although Golden Bay is beautiful. If you're real alternative/hippy type you would love it over there!
I tried to get my OH to stick around for a big outdoor music party on Takaka Hill called Stardust but I wasn't allowed LOL! OK so it was a bit of a rave BUT it was set up to be family orientated with camping and under 12's free entry. I talked to the people running it and apparently its great fun for kids as the music areas are away from the camp site in different bush areas! Next time!!!!

Mapua is a nice small residential community with some cafes and little marina in the bay. Nice spot if you want to be between Motueka & Nelson!!!!! Rabbit Island near there has a really long beach in protected forest area which felt nice but was a bit windy the day we were there.

We fell in love with the feel of the top of the south island and are 99% sure to move there, rent for a bit and figure out exactly where we want to build/buy a house. Nelson is lovely, although Motueka is where the Steiner School is = we may well live in between as that means the drive to the school is not bad and the drive to Nelson is ok too. May well be Mapua or Tasman if we decide to be in between. OH is now not as hell bent on the Steiner School requirement as she was so we may well be in Nelson itself!!!

We'll see when we move I guess!!!!!

Next up: NZ - The Summary!!!!

Paladin

Finally!!!!

NZ - The Summary:

I'm really glad we went to visit before emigrating as we thought NZ would feel a certain way but you just can't get it under your skin til you are there. Its a VERY beautiful place! OK so you have to get used to certain areas having swathes of pine forest cut down but as I said on other thread I should have expected that really as its NZ largest export - duh!! And the Northland area is just not the sub tropical post card view I thought it would be BUT its still pretty!

The feel of the place is one of space - space around houses, space between towns, space for people! The people are very genuinely open and friendly and very hospitable. I like the outdoors living attitude, the feeling of kids being able to play outside without you stressing they are gonna be stolen away by some paedaphile. We saw kids every night out on the beach and jumping off the bridges into the water not sitting indoors playing computer games! The climate, at least in much of the counrty, allows for that.

The speed limit at 100km/hr sucks ( yeah i got at least one ticket that i know of LOL!) as does the fact that theres no quick motorways between major towns BUT the speed limit is appropriate for alot of the country roads I guess and at least at that speed you can take in the scenery! On the other hand the countryside is not spoilt by a huge ugly motorway either!

The thermal/volcanic stuff is all very interesting.

We had a good look around at housing and there is plenty of new/newer housing so if you want a place with central heating then you can get it. The older style housing looks quaint but obviously you have to be sure what you are doing re winter heating in that case.

Shopping is fine in any decent sized town as far as we could see and the cosmopolitan attitudes with cafe culture etc all feels much better than in the UK as we don't really have the weather for it do we!

Petrol is cheaper as are Latte's LOLOLOL!!!!

We found specialist stores selling UK goods/foodstuffs in a few places if you want your Birds Custard powder!

The big negative:
thats always going to be that friends and family are back in the UK and the flight is lets face it HORRENDOUSLY LONG. Our two girls were fine on the way out as we kept them awake to LA and then they did night time sedated to AKL. On the way back though we screwed up royally. We did an 11pm departure from AKL so they naturally crashed out to LA and then when we wanted them to sleep from LA to London the sedative just had way less effect - result they have been up at 2-3am for the last 3 nights!!!

My feeling was DEFINITELY that our two girls would have a better environment to grow up in in NZ and overall that outwieghed leaving behind the grandparents. But who knows, maybe they will follow us out there!

Personally I loved the place and wish I was still there!!!!

Dave

P2L

Ok!!!! You win !!!

It was worth the wait

Great postings. Good to hear other peoples opinions of NZ. I was surprised by your perception of Northlands. IMO it's beautiful, although I think the West Coast is more spectacular than the East but hey if we all like the same thing, what a boring world we'd live in

So have you got any timescale in mind???

uk+kiwi

Great! Glad you enjoyed it. And well done for keeping us all out of our misery so quickly!!

Re: leaving grandparents. We first contemplated the move about 4 years ago now (yikes!) when our girls were the same age as yours - eldest almost 3 and youngest 15 months. But decided to move within the UK instead. Good in some ways - we love where we live and it has prepared me well for starting over with young children, BUT makes a move much harder. In hindsight, it becomes harder to leave grandparents. My eldest is almost 7 now and I would/will feel so guilty with the loss that my parents will feel when taking them away. The bond and relationship naturally gets stronger with time and makes a move increasingly difficult IMHO. Then by the time kids are teenagers and into doing their own thing, I think that is another good window of opportunity. Just my two pennies/cents worth.

Off into town now - speak soon - Carmen.

SirEglamore

Good call Dave, South Island rules. We went looking at Nelson but the industry along the front/dock area put us off. fussy, YEAH!! but hey ho.

Tasman and Golden Bay takes some beating though.

When are you going then

Maz

Excellent write-ups, well worth the wait, thanks so much, Dave! So when do you think you'll be off?

Paladin

yeah I agree the west coast north of Dargaville where that national park is with the biggest Kauri tree was lush but the towns up there are tiny and not for us - its a bit "Deliverance country" up there isn't it!!! And it rains alot too!