Originally Posted by jjg

Moved to Christchurch 12 years a go and still here even after all the earthquakes and rebuilding.
The city is slowly coming back together and starting to get that good feel again.
I am also from up north, used to live in Westhoughton, Bolton before the move here.
What is it that you do in Construction?

Originally Posted by escapedtonz

Ah I had an auntie lived in one of those cottages
It is a really nice area of Wigan to live. I get what you mean with the feel of endless rolling countryside. I didn't live far away and why I spent so much time around there. It's a shame Standish has grown like it has. It was a great little village before all the development but I suppose lots of places like Standish are growing as the population increases and there's demand for housing. It's the same here but on a much much smaller scale. My Dad lives on Whitley Cres and my sister across on the old Whitley High School estate. Dad was over here in April visiting. I recall he mentioned Standish GC had closed and it was going to be residential.

Don't really know much about the schools in Christchurch sorry. A move could have been on the cards for us this year but it didn't pan out so we didn't get that far in the research. Yes friends have children of school age. I could ask their opinion but they'll only have experience of the few schools where they live and there's so many more than that. If you live in a nice area with a high decile score school you won't go far wrong really. The decile score doesn't reflect how good the school or teachers perform but it does give an impression of the affluence of the surrounding areas, families who attend etc. Our friends there with kids are UK ex. pats and currently live in Amberley which is North of Christchurch and over the river (Waimakariri) in the Hurunui District. We also have friends South in Rolleston but no kids.
Flight time to Wellington is 1 hour. Just enough time to get a complementary small cup of water, a mini cookie and a coffee or tea with a flick through the in-flight mag before its landing time. Yes domestic air travel is very common for a lot of companies in NZ. There's no flights much longer than 1.5 / 2hrs and in a car a lot of those journey's would take 8 / 10 hours.

Tauranga is awesome. We love it here. It is way nicer than Wellington.......in our opinion anyways. Climate and weather much more appealing. The beaches are stunning. There's just that extra bit of brightness and happiness to it. Wellington always had a lot of hype but never really delivered on any of it. It is a great little city with loads of restaurants, good shopping and bars but very rare we ever got to sample that with young kids and the weather wasn't great. It isn't called Windy Wellington for nothing. It really was a huge factor for us.
Yes loads of construction in Tauranga, especially roading and shopping precincts. It is claimed to be the fastest growing city in NZ. There's a few major roading projects planned for the near future which will take a few years to construct. Also sure the airport will be expanding in the future as the passenger numbers grow. Mt. Maunganui right next door is the best beach resort in NZ. Stunning place. very touristy and only 15 / 20 mins drive for us. Has 1 really safe beach on the harbour side (Pilot Bay) which is usually very calm. Perfect for SUP's etc then the opposite side of the Mount Peninsula - Mt. Maunganui main beach is crashing waves and awesome for surfing. That beach goes for miles all the way down to Papamoa East. Regularly people surfing and kite surfing etc. There's a few schools always set up shop on the promenade offering lessons etc.

Originally Posted by chc4me

Christchurch has a good number of primary schools for children up to age 12. In general, schools in the 'well off' areas are considered of good quality, while the lower social areas are less likely to appeal. You mentioned that you are currently semi rural - will you want similar again? If so West Melton might be something to look at, or north of the river such as Rangiora or Ohoka gives a country aspect but still close to airports, city etc. (both about 25 minutes to the airport.) The flight time to Wellington is 45 minutes to an hour, while Auckland is just 1 hr 20m. Earliest flight to welling is 6am and departures hourly with Air NZ or Jetstar. Christchurch also has International links from the airport, not as many as Auckland, but direct to Singapore and on to Europe.

The Christchurch City centre is alive and well with renewed energy. Yes, there is still work to be done such as the Farmers market due to open in the next 6 months, Conference centre in 18 months, etc and a number of inner city living options are coming to the market currently.

Surfing, my cousin heads over to Taylors Mistake. I think a wetsuit is necessary, but plenty of surfers around Christchurch or Kaikoura is popular (about an 2 hours north).

Originally Posted by AdinoHignecino

Thanks for this. I read a blog last night which talked about Taylors Mistake beach - looked and sounded lovely! As mentioned above, I suppose we are looking for something with a bit of greenery and space - certainly not city centre living, but equally not out in the sticks. By the beach would be brilliant, but I'm assuming that comes at a price. Up in the hills somewhere within a relatively easy commute would probably be perfect. I'll certainly check out those places you've mentioned - thanks!

Originally Posted by AdinoHignecino

Really appreciate the response. Currently, with my limited knowledge of the area, we would be looking at potentially being close to the sea (Sumner) or perhaps in the hills. Something with a bit of interest and a bit different. I'll see what I can glean about the schools closer to there. Is there an online register of all the schools with their decile ratings? We're not rich and not looking to splash all our money just to live in an affluent area, so obviously will take those ratings with a pinch of salt given what you've described, but I suppose it's a good start.

I'll certainly have to investigate future opportunities in Tuaranga. You're not the first person who has said nothing but good things about it. And with highways being my bread and butter, it sounds like there could be some future in it for me. Work is work at the end of the day - what matters to us is to provide the kids with the best possible experience and environment, and it sounds like Tuaranga and ChCh are both good options for that.

Originally Posted by AdinoHignecino

Oh great that's good to hear. You read so many conflicting reports, though it does seem the more negative comments about ChCh seem to come from those unfortunate people still struggling with the after effects of prolonged insurance claims. So I suppose it's all about finding the balance. As long as progress is evident that's the main thing. It's a hell of an ongoing project.

I'm a civil engineer specialising in planning (construction and forensic) including a little bit of arbitration. Mainly on large infrastructure projects. It seems that the NZ market is catching on to the value of it as there's been a lot of interest from some of the bigger players. Do you work in the industry?

Originally Posted by AdinoHignecino

Thanks for this. I read a blog last night which talked about Taylors Mistake beach - looked and sounded lovely! As mentioned above, I suppose we are looking for something with a bit of greenery and space - certainly not city centre living, but equally not out in the sticks. By the beach would be brilliant, but I'm assuming that comes at a price. Up in the hills somewhere within a relatively easy commute would probably be perfect. I'll certainly check out those places you've mentioned - thanks!

Originally Posted by escapedtonz

No worries.
Maybe you're going about this wrong?
I remember being in the same position. We decided on NZ. We applied and secured visas without the need of job offers so it was basically sticking pins in a map of NZ, making a list of all the places we'd like to live and whittling it down until we had a short short list of 2 or 3. It doesn't ever work like that. You will migrate to wherever you secure a job and those things tend to be offered with some compromises so I'd say relax a little on the place, the area and schools as you could be wasting your time. We initially decided on Auckland as we have family friends there. Booked flights October 2011 for arrival March 2012. Booked shipping to arrive in Auckland. End of Nov 2011 I was offered 2 jobs with different companies both in Wellington, so that stuffed up all our plans. I would have been insane to decline both of those offers and stick with the Auckland plans. We must have spent a solid 3 months researching Auckland, places to rent, places we could work, commuting, thinking about schools for the future and all that jazz.

Have a look here for Decile Ratings :- https://www.education.govt.nz/school...-ratings/#Find
There's a spreadsheet you can download which is a few years old but they don't change often. I hear the Decile ratings are to be abolished but unsure when that is likely to happen. It is simply used to calculate the socio-economic level of the area or zone that the school serves and the rating determines how much funding the school can claim per student.
If you want to know how well a school performs you need to read the ERO Report. These are conducted every 5 years so bear this in mind when reading as it could be old and may not reflect current performance.
We actually used school decile ratings to select the areas of Wellington that were likely to be good. Didn't need it at the time for our child as he was only 13 months when we arrived but it is an excellent indicator of a nice area to live.

Yes I couldn't recommend Tauranga enough. It has the climate, the weather, the great outdoors with lots to do, awesome beaches and surf but it's location provides opportunities galore unlike Wellington and Auckland and maybe even Christchurch ? I can be in Rotovegas in 45 mins, Lake Taupo in 2hrs, Whakatane and Ohope in 1hr, entering The Coromandel in 1hr, the outskirts of Auckland in 2hrs etc
If you came here you'd probably be the 5th migrating family's arm I've twisted to live here
A friend of mine is an Operations Manager for Fulton Hogan here in Tauranga. He's all to do with major roading construction projects. I could ask if there's any scope for a Civil Engineer ?