Damson

Just wondering what people's opinions are of Torbay. We probably wouldn't be over for another 12-18 months so no rush. We are looking however at coming down for a reccie next summer and are trying to focus on areas to base ourselves.
We are a family of 4 (the kids are boy age 11 and girl age 14.5), so good secondary school/college essential. Long Bay college looks good.
About 30 minutes drive from city for dh.
Not extortionate house prices (big ask in itself!)
Not interested in the big city life/nightlife but a bit of a centre with some cafes not too far away would be nice. The kids at the moment are into: daughter - ballet and karate and son - karate and sports that involve lots of running.
Any other suggestions would be most helpful.

Spacecake799

Hi I lived in Torbay for 6 years, my children went to primary, Intermediate and High school there. I would ask, why are you leaving the UK?What standard of education do they have now?How much money will you be bringing for your affordable house in Torbay because your looking at upwards of $1million to buy there now!

Damson

Hi. The kids are both at single sex grammars (one in yr 10 and one in year 7). We wouldn't be moving until after eldest's gcse's by which time the youngest will be in year 9. I had looked at house prices just based on a few searches on real estate sites. In just one exercise I saw 7 houses within budget that looked really nice, whereas everywhere else within the 30 minute drive to Auckland was way more expensive. We want to leave as we all fancy an adventure. I'm craving space as everywhere around here has been filled with new houses and the wildlife has fled/died. There are just so many people now where we live and everywhere we visit seems to be the same. If we don't leave at this stage we will lose the opportunity and in not too many years time the kids will have left home and we are "left behind". Obviously the timing isn't great but dh (main visa) hits the magic 55 in 2 years after which, emigration anywhere is no longer an option. I take it NZ didn't work out for you; how come? Did you like Torbay or is there somewhere else there you would have preferred to have lived? Cheers.

Bo-Jangles

And you chose Auckland because...??

Charismatic

When I first saw the thread title I thought "I can't bring myself to recommend Devon" but now I know it's about Auckland I'm very happy to recommend Devon.

Happy to help.

Justcol

Torbay is a dull little place surrounded by slightly less dull other places.
Its remarkable in that its such an unremarkable place with nothing going on.

I wouldnt say don't come, I would say if all you want to do is live in a suburb then go to Auckland
If you want to live in New Zealand find somewhere else.

Spacecake799

Hi Im going to give you my opinion. You have not said a single thing there that makes me think your doing the right thing. The grass is not greener. If you want space Torbay is not for you. Honestly NZ has lovely views, great weather at times. If you can live off that and its all you want you will be just fine.Picture long driveways with five houses lining them. No gardens because they have all been sub divided.We left for NZ with 3 children for an adventure. Six years later we returned. Three reasons. It was way to expensive. We would never have seen our very small families again because we would not have had the money and third and the biggest of all to me....the education.Good luck

bearskin

We moved from the suburbs of Bristol to NZ and settled in Torbay, after looking around pretty much all of Auckland's northern and western suburbs. We like it. Probably the other places reconsidered were: Albany, Greenhithe, Browns Bay and somewhere central like Freemans Bay or Grey Lynn.

Our eldest is at Long Bay and is doing well. They are quite academic and into drama - so don't know too much about sports there. I believe the school is on the up. Have a friend who works in the office, and she says it is improving all the time, from many aspects. Your kids will have missed Intermediate School, which for Torbay residents means NorthCross school. That is an excellent school. I have nothing but praise for it. Both of ours have been at Torbay Primary, which I would describe as below-average. Mrs B is a primary school teacher BTW. Torbay being a large suburb there are other Primary Schools as well. We know people who sent their secondary-age children over to Rangitoto College and also Westlake Boys. We prefer to have our kids at the local schools.

Do you mean in commuter traffic? I would say probably add another 20mins to that. At the weekend or for an evening out you can be in the city in 20mins from Torbay.

The last 3 local auctions I rubbernecked at (all within 1min walk) went for 910K, 931K and 866K. All family homes with about 700 sq. land, so decent gardens.

That would be Torbay. There is a nice little village centre with shops, cafes, takeaways and restaurants, a Plunket (baby care facilities), a tennis club, doctors, pharmacy and even an Amateur Dramatics theatre. Torbay also has three of the nicest beaches around - although these days you would probably call Long Bay a suburb on it's own. Waiake Beach is gorgeous (and has a lovely little cafe/restaurant) and there is a hidden cove called Winstone's Cove that is idyllic.

Just down the road (we walk most weekends) is Browns Bay which is quite big - about the size of Takapuna.

There are lots of martial arts classes within 5min drive of our house - we could walk up to the one at Glamorgan School, or Torbay definitely has Judo classes. There is a Sea Scout Troop at Waiake Beach - next to the sailing club... There is an Athletics club which uses Long Bay College grounds. Otherwise, the athletics/sport facilities down at the Millennium complex (7km away) are the best in NZ. The local surf lifesaving club (an excellent summer sport) is a couple of bays down at Mairangi Bay. Sports/Scouts etc usually cost about $100-120 a term or season.

Torbay "a dull little place". Not

bearskin

The view from our front window is 90% greenery with he odd house roof popping up through. Torbay has a few little pockets of native bush where you can go a for short walk - the local school use them a lot for studies. Torbay even has a (small) waterfall over in Awaruku Bush. Of course, Torbay neighbours Long Bay which then extends to Okura, and is largely open land. You'll get a lot of birdlife - we have Tuis and Fantails which love our pohutukawa trees in the backyard. A Morepork can be heard most nights hooting away out the back. There's quite a colony of ducks down at Deep Creek (most of the roads around here have "Duck Crossing" signs). One of my mates on Glenvar watches the kites (small bird of prey) circling about from his deck. There are seals down at the Tor at Waiake Beach and you'll watch dolphins from Long Bay.

I'd say ALL of our friends have a back garden which would be the envy of anyone in England. Our garden has figs, apples, lemons, loquat, oranges, damsons, feijoa and even Bananas (which is a sign of a sub-tropical microclimate).

Sparkleydiva

Torbay is a nice enough area on the shore. It is, however, getting quite built up when you look at all the houses being built at long bay. It does have a small village like centre with all the basics you need. It is also a fair commute into the city. I have colleagues who live there and it can take them 30-40 mins just to takapuna in the morning. Auckland traffic is pretty awful. I have no idea about schools as my girls came here for their tertiary education.

I work right across the shore in my community role and Torbay, although still suburbia, is a liveable place, but being in the suburbs it may not meet all your expectations.

Also hiuse construction seems to be filling up many of the green areas. Where i live in red beach there were beautiful open fields for our view, but now we have 3000 houses at millwater... In the space of a few short years.

Housing is very expensive with little to be bought under $800,000 if you were lucky, more likely to be the $million mark.

Bo-Jangles

I really don't think that's going to cut it, when considered in context with the OPs current location.

Damson describes Gloucestershire as built up (population of the whole county 871,000) and devoid of wildlife. Last time I looked Gloucestershire was an area of outstanding natural beauty and pleasant place full of stunningly beautiful scenery, countryside and gorgeous chocolate box villages; the home of Slimbridge wildlife and wetland area, the Forest of Dean, Moreton-in the Marsh, borders on the Wye Valley and the Vale of Evesham, is home of the Cotswolds, mesolithic monuments and all topped off with the Rivers Severn and Avon meandering through.

So in that context of wanting more space, wildlife and places to run around it just does not compute why anyone would consider moving to the suburbs of Auckland. I thought I better check my facts in case they have in fact built over vast swathes of the county but nope it seems pretty much still intact.

Find a nature reserve | Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust

bearskin

Do we know where in Gloucestershire the OP is living now, to compare it so much more exactly with Torbay?

We prefer Torbay immensely to Brislington. We might feel differently if we'd lived in Clifton. However, Painswick would be a different habitat to Yate. TBH had overlooked their current location and was just focussing on the detail of what living in Torbay is like.

Damson

Certainly doesn't sound dull to me! Sounds like there's a lot going on there.

To be honest I was thinking 30 mins on a clear run with probably another 15-20 in a rush hour so distance not an issue there.

Someone else who escaped Bristol then. My parents still live in Kingswood and we visited them earlier today. Traffic bad even on a Sunday.

Damson

Many thanks for all of your replies - much appreciated.

As background we are in Cheltenham where we have been for 18 years. Our house was near fields but over the last few years we now have a supermarket, large pub, hotel, 500 houses, a car showroom, a fast food place, hotel, business park and a retail park. We do have some fields left but with farming the way it is I don't know how long the farmers will hold out before selling up. In short it's all pretty depressing and like the world is closing in on our little community. I realise though that this is happening pretty much everywhere now, it's just a case of identifying the least worst if you know what I mean.

As with moving to any country you need a starting point, which is where a forum is useful to help hone in on possibilities. I picked out Torbay as it seems to fit many criteria, but was interested in other suggestions too if someone wasn't keen on it as an area. Ref prices, $1million would be the top end of our budget based on the current exchange but we all know the vaugeries of that particular matter.

If we didn't have kids and possibly dh having a job in Auckland our choice may well be looking at a rural location but we are where we are. For the time being convenience has to be top of our priorities.

Our current view is of rooftops so 90% greenery sounds really lovely as does the description of wildlife in those parts. I can't remember the last time I saw birds in our garden - they've all just disappears. Even the sparrows have buggered off. We had a couple of deer in the field now occupied by a car showroom; God knows where they went when the diggers moved in.

Justcol

Im confused, what area of torbay are you looking at that doesnt have views of rooftops??
Have a rummage around on google maps street view, all you'll see are houses, houses houses and more houses.
from memory (i've not been there for a couple of years) the only real bit greenery is the 10m wide foreshore in front of the beach

you might want to consider the Lucas Heights, coatesville, Paremoremo triangle, much nicer, much greener but not really much further away