gags

Yotty

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1586512.htm

Genesis

No beach. Rotten town hall municipal 1970s concrete carbunkle of a building RIGHT on the square (which is gorgeous) and it had a crap review loooooooooooooong before Cleese put us on the map, I guess being non beachside is the main downer aye? It also does not have the chic of bigger cities like ChCh, Well etc. but then again its not small enough to be quaint. So its lumbering in the middle with less things to do than the big places, no beach and its too big to be 'friendly Feilding' just down the road. Anyways its Nirvana compared to Northampton!!!! We really love it here. But then I am easily pleased and not all that proud!! Personaly I care not what others think if I am happy here that will do. What others think? Do I look bothered...do I?

kiwinow

Yes, John Cleese is the culprit.
However, it does rain a lot, and when I was trying to persuade my family to move there, they would pont out the weather forecast each day. It can be under a big black cloud for a while but it's gorgeous and I personally love the windmills on the hillside

gags

Thanks, get it now

Could be a positive thing dissing Palmy as it keeps all those people away

Cheaper housing and great views and .......PEACE!

Persephone

Yes the rain can be quite persistent at times but don't let that put you off. When it rains it really does RAIN. We got used to the birds using our lawn as a birdbath I'm not a sun worshipper so it really didn't bother me.
I was a fan of the windmills as well, they do have a certain gracefulness and we need to get electricity from somewhere...

Craftsman

Palmy is a great place, Aucklanders, wellingtonians and the like are only jealous, because it has a 80,000+ population of which 40,000 are under 25! Student city, it lives up to it's name......More eating places than any other city, great cinema, great theatre, and a good attitude.Palmy is definately up and coming, rather live here than Tauranga or Hamilton, as for no beaches, hey what about Tangimoana, Himatangi, Waiterere and Scotts Ferry, all great for boaties, fishing 4w drives and mostly deserted all year round, ok black sand not golden but that adds to the beauty of the place and all withing a short car ride.... was on Scotts Ferry the other day fishing watching the fur seals play heaven!!

Anyway wouldn't John Cleese have a go at most places he visits, a last attempt at press attention for a career passed!! Maybe no one laughed at his jokes.....we have been bombarded so much with them on UK TV people have become immune!!

Genesis

You need to work for destination Manawatu! You make the place sound even better than my rantings on how much we love it here. Whereabouts are you guys in the Manawatu? Its good to know 2 of us out of 80k are happy.

love30stm

Wanganui urgh! i would rather live here than Palmy, and especially now Ive found some lovely friends at last! its not too bad, and btw they are making lots of improvements in the near future.

Craftsman

I think all NZ cities, towns etc have their own merits and do the best they can on limited income, I simply want to encourage people to move to these areas where they have far more chance of seeing the real NZ instead of the usual destinations. And I don't think debates like this helps with that idea hahaha, excuse me I slipped back to being too English there for a minute in a previous post and diss'd Hamilton and Auckland, shouldn't have done that, thought that after 15 years I would have forgotten that bad habit.

BTW I don't live in any city I'm in the Rangitikei, didn't see much point coming to New Zealand and ending up city bound, I'll stick to my house in the rural community.

cheers

BEVS

Oh I dunno. New Zealanders have a pop about Aucklanders all the time. They also make jibes about the Southlanders so it's not an English thing at all .

The real NZ? I think we all live in the real NZ as the NZ we live in is real

Migrants need to go where there is work for them, unless they have enough money to live without full time employment. Not all can choose to live rurally in practicality..

crap coffee

Personally I'd rather live in Hamilton or CHCH than Palmy or Welly. at least Hamilton is quite pretty. I like Welly the least - in terms of landscape.

beach? I do not want to live nearer beach or waterfront location at all - dislike gusty wind, a hilly area, water view (cos we always lived in a house with a water view in nz - mum loves it but am sick of it), and salty air/wind ruin your skin - make you ugly. It's a rough place to live in overall.

I prefer countryside - tree lined avenues, park, flat area, like England so that I can ride a bike.

cardigan2

thanks genesis and craftsman for your positive comments, as for john cleese well whatever he's just a bumbling egit ! anyway we are really willing to give palmy a go, the more i read about the place the more i like it and it sounds like it beats leek, and stockport hands down, its just a case now of waiting to see if justin gets a place at ucol. Who knows this time next year ...........

cardigan2

that sounds fab!

teeym

We go diving at The Rez near Leek and when passing through it's always struck me as an alright place.

Strangely enough that is exactly what we thought about Palmy too. Can't offer the in-depth experience of others as we literally just passed through (and it was absolutely throwing it down at the time so we didn't go mad on exploring), but it had a pretty good feel to it and the square in the centre was really nice. Seeing as we had driven up from Welly that day the housing leaflets we had picked up made for pleasant reading - you could definitely get a lot more for your cash. It certainly struck me as somewhere that - on first impressions at least - I would be pretty happy living in.

As for "Nirvana Compared to Northampton". Isn't that the advertising pitch for Kabul Tourist Information?