CharlesMacLeod

The family and I are moving out to Welly come February (NZQA willing), and one of the HR people at my new work recommended Tawa as a suburb to settle in. I had a quick look when I was out on recce, but I was wondering if there was anyone out there who might be able to give a better idea of what it is actually like to live there?

Kimi-Deacon

I would give Rob Clubley a shout im pretty sure thats where he lives and im sure he would give you lots of info on the area.

When we were out to validate our visas i quite liked the look of Tawa, but one of the estate agents in Porrirua told us that as it was in a valley, some of the houses were quite damp, how true that is i dont know, cant always believe estate agents (sorry if any of you are estate agents) Anyhow im sure Rob wont mind if you PM him, he always gives great advice.

Steph.

RobClubley

Hello!!

Thanks for the vote of confidence

Yes we do live in Tawa. We think it's a good place to live. 15 minutes from town on the train and the same in the car outside rush hour

It's a nice little suburb with a row of shops, Woolworths supermarket, close to Porirua for more shopping.

It has several schools which we're told are good, two parks where you can exercise your dog off the lead.

It tends to have different weather to Wellington central with it being in the valley - sometimes warmer, sometimes cooler. I've seen it 6 degrees cooler in Tawa than town!

You definitely need to be careful where you buy as there are houses in dips which must get hardly and sun and hence will be more susceptible to damp.

Overall it's nice - lots of decent sized houses and not too many subdivisions with tiny gardens. Houses are still selling fast there, presumably because they're usually in a quite affordable price bracket.

One of the parks

Tawa seen from the railway station


Our house

The rugby club

Autumn

Town centre

Fire station

Kiwiprincess

I like it. I grew up there and until i left I don't think I ever really appreciated the fact that I grew up there. Most people i went to primary school with were only there a couple of years because banks, embassys, government departments owned a lot of the houses and used them for staff properties. When I say embassies I don't mean the High Commissioner stayed there, but rather the assorted staff (I think now they just get local staff). So it was very family oriented but transient in some ways. By the time i finished school in 1997 (actually even by the late 80s this was changing apparently, though I was too young to notice) the group of people living there had become more permanent rather than the more transient bank workers.

Nice. safe. quiet. good schools etc. Not the most bustling happening place (though the community centre is having a pot luck dinner at some point soon so maybe thats when the blue rinsers will really start tearing up the main road in their Daihatsu Mira's) but like i said, i never quite realised how nice it was until i left.

Ok yes the old fashioned ladies at the doctors office who get flustered when two phones ring at once can drive me to distraction sometimes. But that is more a quirk than anything else!

But apart from that, I think it is fine. Some people I work with in Wellington City express surprise if I say I live in Tawa and think it is ‘so far away’. When I point out that my train takes less than 15 minutes to get into town (from Redwood) or that it is quicker for me to get to work by public transport than them living in Miramar they soon realise my point!

I should point out that while I am happy that the train takes less than 15 minutes I can still moan quite happily about the train service. But that’s a different thing entirely

Ted Logan

Thats so very true, but than again it is Tawa and they do have a piddleing pool

pumpkinlou

Don't think I fancy taking a dip in that Ted

Don't they have public loo's there??

Lou