Originally Posted by danny.f

Is she pretty-with perky boobs?

Originally Posted by lardyl

yep, NZ is a great place to raise your kids and I could go back to the UK pretty much tomorrow if I wanted to (some would say I am lucky in that regard) and I choose to stay in spite of many aspects of life that are worse here than they were for *us* in the UK.

Good for you mate! The only aspect of life that's worse for us here is that we have a bit less wonga, but given that we are doing more 'free' activities it kind of balances itself out.

There are things that need to be aired and there needs to be balance here, pretty much anyone who lives on the North Shore will say its a great place to be but anyone who drives either as a commute or around Greater Auckland on a regular basis will bemoan the years of under-investment in transport infrastructure (you will tell from their posts and locations, sorry Kate but Northland doesn't count as the "same NZ" as Auckland wrt traffic/transport although Warkworth is in the throes of deciding what to do ablout all the extrad traffic that will shunted north as Auckland expands!!).

No, Northland has it's own transport probs, just not big enough to moan about regularly - jeez, you should see the state of the metal road that my house is on, it's scratched my car to buggery! Besides, I have friends on the north shore and (sorry to offend anyone here who thinks otherwise) I don't think 'pretty much anyone who lives on the North Shore will say it's a great place to be' - those I know who did settle there are desperate to be out - more fool them for buying before trying.

If you thought the UK was bad NZ is worse and looking at the AKL area it ain't gonna get better fast - *but* most of us just take it as part of life. However, there are some things that are way behind UK and you will find out what they are when you arrive, some people will be really bugged by them and some will leave as a result but if no-one posts about them then you may not at least be aware of the issues.
Of course nowhere is perfect and all of life is compromise, just dont come to NZ and assume that it will be everything to everyone - I for one miss many of the luxuries that we took for granted in the UK, but hey I'm not Kate or you.

Yeah. I doubt the luxuries I miss coincide with yours - Topshop, Warehouse, Oasis, Oxford St, Camden Market, Portobello rd (I could go on but you get the drift) aside from all that, I had no other luxuries in UK - aside from massive tax breaks, but hey ho, no-one comes here for the money!!

One conclusion to draw is that there are at least two NZs, Auckland and the rest.........and you pays your money..............

Originally Posted by lapsed kiwi

This must be that parallel universe Auckland again. I live well out of town (near you I think). I can drive into Albany and be on a bus within 20 min of leaving my house, in rush hour. I can park at the station for free, and 25 min after that will be in Auckland CBD. Once they finish the bus lane, it will be better still. If I was living south of the bridge, I could even catch a train. If I'm silly enough to live in a northern suburb and try to work in a southern one, then I'll have to take my chances.

Originally Posted by Bo-Jangles

No, not a parallel universe you must be just one of the early birds who can manage to get one of the 300 parking spaces, to enable yuo to get on the bus. What a laugh it, has to be the most pathetic, poor excuse, of an attempt at a public transport system in the whole wide world. It doesn't take much more than an abacus to figure out that a bus leaves the station every fifteen minutes all day long with capacity for 50 + people - so why do the majority of buses leave the station practically empty? Somewone forgot the one key point of the 'Park' bit of a Park & Ride system. How exactly does taking 300 Cars off the road fix the immense transport problems of North Auckland anyway? Within three weeks of opening they announced that there was not enough parking and people should be encouraged to 'kiss and ride' - too funny.

A sheer waste of a few hundred million dollars, endless roadworks and disruption to the motorway for how many years and it's still not finished.

Originally Posted by mickey_d

& it will just get worse & worse.
Don't know if anyone else experienced it, but 3 weeks ago at Saturday lunchtime there was a total gridlock around Devonport, Takapuna, Northcote & Milford, took us 1 3/4 hours to get to Glenfield Mall from Devonport......a sign of things to come????

Originally Posted by lardyl

BTW, is the big area of land being remodelled at Albany just north of the car parks due to be more car park space or more industrial units? Anyone got inside info??

Originally Posted by Bo-Jangles

Not sure which bit you mean as there is so much building going on around there, new roads have been there for quite some waiting for prospective buyers of the land. I think most of it is residential apart from the Westfield shopping centre which is well underway for opening this year. They just released a further phase of Harrowglen whole new subdivision north side of Oteha Valley road which will bring hundreds more ticky tacky boxes and people to the area.

Originally Posted by BartonThink

Aha, so you ARE allowed to post negative stuff about NZ?