Steffy84

Hello!

Can any of you lovely folks give me some more info about Tauranga and surrounding areas (Papamoa, The Mount etc...). I am currently in the UK and used to live in Auckland but my family and I have decided that the Tauranga area potentially offers us better lifestyle / affordability of housing etc but we have only ever been to the Mount area which is stunning. Is Tauranga as nice a place as it seems? Are there any area's or schools to avoid? Are there any area's that should be top of our list? What is the traffic like (bear in mind I am used to an Auckland commute, lol)

Any info would be appreciated! I know Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch really well so a move to Tauranga is the unknown, which is exciting but I also a little scary! Haha. Thanks all.

escapedtonz

Hiya.
Can tell you anything you wanna know about Tauranga and the Mount plus all the places in between and around.
We've lived in Tauranga for over 3.5 years now but spent a lot of time here in the few years before we actually moved.
Tauranga is a great place to live. It is as nice a place as you understand. We love it here. It has a great climate with lots to do and also has great access to many places within a couple hours drive - eg Rotovegas and The Lakes, Taupo, Hamilton, Ohope/Whakatane, South Auckland etc
However, it's not a bed of roses and just like anywhere it has its niggles.
You won't find property much less expensive here. Tauranga has been labelled as the fastest growing city in NZ for years and the median house price has risen sharply but unlike Auckland infrastructure isn't good and it's not the place that holds many vacant jobs and the $10 Tauranga label still sticks today. Council rates for Tauranga Council and Western Bay about the highest in the country.
I've been fine work wise as I managed to get a transfer with my employer to our Hamilton office after working in Wellington for a few years. I did attempt to get work in the Bay Of Plenty but although it was easy to find the work and get the interviews in my particular niche industry the salary just isnt there so I stayed put. Many employers here sell their jobs with a benefit being lifestyle when in all honesty lifestyle doesn't pay the bills and doesn't make the cost of living any cheaper.The wife has struggled to find permanent hours here as a practice nurse even with NZ experience as she worked as a practice nurse in Wellington. She had to make do with casual work across 3 or 4 GP's over a couple years before getting any offer of permanent part time hours. I suppose it all depends what your industry is ?
Property wise, rentals are difficult to secure. There is a serious reported shortage of rental properties in the area and nowadays many families / individuals / couples are turning up at rental open homes in a desperate bid to secure a property and rental prices are rising. You will struggle to find a decent modest 3 bed 1990's era property for less than $500 a week.
We rented a modest 3 bed single level home in Bethlehem between 2014 and 2016 $450 a week and one of the neighbours put their house up for sale at offers over $866 000 WTF!!! That was the kick we needed to get out of the rental game and buy before we were priced out of the market. We actually couldn't find what we wanted for what we could afford and refused to up the budget in to the $800k''s and in the end bought a semi-rural section over the Wairoa River in Te Puna and built our own. Paid the same money but got so much more.

The closer you get to the Mount the more expensive property gets and during summer living there has its drawbacks as it is a very busy place with many tourists, lots of traffic, cruise ships each week. I'M talking probably Hewletts Rd then heading West all the way to the Mount. Stunning place all year round but it'd drive me insane living there through summer.
I wouldn't recommend living East of Hewletts Rd heading towards Bayfair as it's a bit rough in my opinion. We did consider living in Papamoa (Pommiemoa) briefly and there are a few really nice areas but there's so many Brits it's insane and it's just a little bit rough around the edges and has quite a bit of petty crime as it is interleaved with low socioeconomic areas.
I wouldn't worry about schools. I've never heard a bad report about any schools in and around Tauranga.
Areas wise I'd personally steer clear of Merivale, Parkvale, Gate Pa, some parts of Welcome Bay and Greerton....Difficult to say as I don't know what you have now or what you're after here.
The nicest subdivision in Tauranga is Bethlehem then probably Otumoetai / Matua / Bureta - all very suburban. Pyes Pa, Oropi, Tauriko and The Lakes fine although The Lakes close to a lot of industrial units. If you want semi-rural but still within an easy commute or distance to Tauranga you can't fail with Te Puna or Whakamarama where we are and it satisfies the saying of West is Best!
Traffic isn't a major pain. Sometimes it can be bad for an hour or so between 7.30 am and 9.00am on SH2 going in to Tauranga and then for an hour in the evening. All depends where you are travelling to and from. Nothing like Auckland traffic. There are other places to live that can look really attractive but being on the wrong side of the State Highway can cause nightmares getting out on to it.

Ask anything you like or PM me.

take it easy

Justcol

Thought you were going to Wellington. It was only 5 minutes ago you were asking the same questions about there.

Steffy84

It was back in March / April that we came to New Zealand thanks to the BBC and Wanted Down Under. The trial week in Auckland was amazing, and so were our few days in Mount Maunganui and my partner has agreed to the move to one of these two cities. The week in Wellington demonstrated that although it is a cool little city it isn't for us permanently and after making this move previously I want to make sure I have done as much homework as possible, hence my posts on this forum, as I don't want to end up coming back again. The decision is now back to Auckland or Tauranga. Apologies if my change of mind has caused an annoyance.

Steffy84

Thank you so very much for your thorough and patient reply. The one aspect of Tauranga / The Mount that concerned me was employment as my partner is flexible with IT however I am less flexible with my tourism degree. Yes, tourism covers a wide range of things (restaurants, hotels etc) but I am more the business side (Marketing, Business Development etc) and there are so many options for me in Auckland but I don't see many in Tauranga. I don't want to end up just behind a reception if you get me (no dis-respect meant by that by the way...it's just not why I studied at degree level). Myself and my partner have a big decision to make I think...with me having made this move before, I want to get it right this time as there is alot more riding on it with our two young children. I will certainly be in touch again, we aren't moving out until May 2019 but want to make a decision on location before this so we can get stuff sorted ready for the move.

katie8383

Hi Steffy,

my partners sister lives in Papamoa in Tauranga and I must say it is beautiful. Mount Maunganui is stunning too - would probably be our choice of location if we could pick ourselves!!

There are quite a few episodes of Wanted Down Under where they show Tauranga and also there's an episode of Coast New Zealand specifically on Tauranga.

Can't comment on the schools obviously as I don't live there. We did commute out of Tauranga a few times during the rush hours and traffic didn't seem bad...definitely nothing like the m60 in Manchester at rush hour lol.

Justcol

I have lived in Auckland but not in Tauranga although I do have several very close friends (that I met through this forum) there and have spent a fair not of time there as a visitor. Of the two I would choose Tauranga, hands down every time. It is a truly beautiful place to live where as Auckland is . . .well its just another featureless city. Massively overcrowded, terrible traffic and congestion. Apart from more people it has nothing that Tauranga doesn't have.
just my 2 cents

Steffy84

Your 2 cents makes perfect sense! We are definitely thinking Tauranga is the best decision considering our circumstances! To be honest making the decision feels like a weight lifted already so I am confident it is the right decision!

escapedtonz

No worries. Glad to help.
Yeah know a few people who work in IT here in the BOP but do so remotely (from home) working for NZ employers and Overseas employers.
Can't say for certain whether you'd struggle to find the work you want here but my guess would be it wouldn't come easy.
That happened to a good friend of ours who migrated here from the UK 18 months ago. She struggled for months to find a Senior Administrator / Senior Assistant role....a role way more involved than just the standard payroll and HR work and after months of looking and getting nowhere settled for an office job in a local family run garden centre doing all their accounts, payroll, HR and orders etc. She hated it with a passion, the employer wasn't very nice so pay and conditions not great but the hours suited perfectly and only 5 mins in the car from home. Now, a year later she's finally found a Head of something or other role working for a local company that she can get her teeth in to, starts end of the month and when she's set up can work from home.

escapedtonz

Papamoa is huge now. The 'old' Papamoa stretches from approx Bayfair Shopping Centre going East past Domain Rd and for years that was pretty much it, but nowadays a whole new subdivision Papamoa East has been constructed and is still growing and extending further East as far as possible and it is moving in land to surround part of the new TEL (Tauranga Eastern Link) toll road. If you lived way out Papamoa East you could have a 45 min drive to Mt. Maunganui.
I agree, there are some really nice leafy parts to the 'old' Papamoa, especially around Palm Beach Boulevard / Santa Monica Drive / Monterey Key etc - i.e. the streets that surround the Papamoa Stormwater Reserve which is really beaut. If I had to live there then that's where I'd be looking for a place, but the 'old' Papamoa as a whole is just a bit rough around the edges in our opinion. It's not all million dollar properties as we first thought and there is a lot of petty crime reports and police presence. You only have to watch episodes of NZ Police shows and whenever Tauranga is featured the coppers are always in and around Papamoa. The Mrs also worked at the local GP Practice for a while and 90% of the people coming in where British ex pats which was another reason why we didn't move there as we didn't migrate to the other side of the world to live next door to a Brit.
The Coast New Zealand episode featuring Tauranga or the Bay Of Plenty is awesome.

Steffy84

Could I ask, would a commute to Rotorua be realistic? I know you commute to Hamilton, but wouldn't want to be travelling more than an hour each way with me having very young ones at home. In theory the route planner is telling me just over an hour but with New Zealand roads being as they are it's not always the case. We did travel from Rotorua to The Mount back in April but I didn't pay any attention and we stopped alot for the girls. I suppose there might be better areas to choose to live if a commute to Rotorua was an option.

escapedtonz

Maybe.
It's an hour via SH36 - 65kms but it's a very dangerous road and often closed because of accidents and slips through the gorge so wouldn't recommend that commute. Its been closed twice in the past couple of weeks alone. There are a couple alternative routes but both extend the journey in distance and time (1hr 20 mins) although the roads are better. Yes you could tailor where you lived to make the journey easier. A pilot mate of mine lives in Papamoa and commutes to Rotorua Airport where he flies out of. He uses the SH2 and SH33 route. If you put Tauranga to Rotorua in Google Maps it'll give you the three options. The middle one the least distance/time but the worst road.

MrsCakey

Hello, we moved to Tauranga from the UK at the end of last year with a young family.

The tech scene here is good with lots of meetups around tech and digital, so do check them out as it will be a good way of seeing if this suits your OH. As we know IT covers lots of areas so depending on their area of expertise it should give you an idea of what is currently available.

Job market here is tough, I know that a part-time office job advertised can get up to 100 applicants, but as someone has already said, perseverance is the key and sometimes it's about making connections and not just about having the right CV.

There are certainly areas to avoid but that goes with any large town/city. Once you are closer to the move just shout out about an area that interests you and I am sure you'll get some feedback

Traffic within the city at peak hours is rubbish but nothing compared to London, so it's all about perspective.

Hope that helps.

Kiwijock65

Hi folks,
I am also looking to move to Tauranga area from Scotland with my wife, son and daughter hopefully January 2019. (Would be tomorrow if I could!)
I was born in Rotorua, but have lived in Scotland for 40years. I have always yearned to move back to NZ and now my family have decided they would like to give it a go living in NZ and after research and a holiday in NZ north Island last year we are quite drawn to Tauranga area. I have a brother in Cambridge, a sister in Taupo and nieces and nephews in Rotorua, Wellington.
We have been looking at Rental houses as we are planning to rent out our house here initially. Does anyone know what it is like in Omokoroa?
I was interested to read the posts from "escapedtonz" and will have a look at Te Puna.
I work overseas- currently offshore Dubai in the Oil and Gas industry on a 28/28 rotation so not really looking for work in NZ unless the right job came up of course. But for my son 22 and daughter 19 we would not want to be too far away from the city as they are planning to do courses at a Polytechnic and of course at their age they want access to some night life.
they wanted to be in or near Auckland but are quite open to trying out Tauranga/Mt. Manganui as they have been there before and loved the place
My wife has always worked in retail and would just be hoping to find a part time job, probably doing the same.
I read somewhere that Papamoa is prone to flooding. Is this quite regular and if so should we look elsewhere. I am not too happy hearing about the petty crime rate either around Papamoa - lots to think about - any advice appreciated.

escapedtonz

Hi,
Omokoroa peninsula has always been a place we like. Didn't look at buying that way though as just too far of a commute for me to get to work. Te Puna was our limit.
We tend to spend a lot of time at Omokoroa Domain (Omokoroa Beach) as there's everything there you need - cafe, dairy, playground, beach, huge grass area, walking track, ferry to adjacent islands, boat ramp, fishing etc.
There's also a newish skate park about half way in next to the playing fields where our eldest does soccer school and rippa Rugby.
Only bad thing about the Peninsula now is the huge residential construction project which is for 3500 houses over the next few years including infrastructure reinforcement etc. It's gonna be one really busy place and only one way in and one way out. Traffic can be a bit of a nightmare unfortunately.

​​​Yes Papamoa can be prone to flooding. It is also an area very much at risk of Tsunami since it is so low lying and at or slightly below sea level in places.
The crime thing is also quite a regular occurance if you care to check out the local crime programmes on TV. Inevitably if Tauranga is featured on any of the NZ police programmes the fuzz will be razzing around Pap trying to catch the bad guys.There are some really nice areas to Pap but on the flip side there's also a few rough areas intermingled. Never really experienced any issues out Pap way and we do go there every now and then but generally stay over the West side of the BOP.