John&Nic

Hi there, we are planing to move out to Christchurch,(hopefully within the next couple of months, if we can sell our UK house!!!! another story there!!)
and was wondering if anyone living in or around Christchurch, can advise on any areas to live (pref away from the coast) but an area that would be suitable for a 5yr old aswell, which brings me onto my next question any information or recommendations on primary schools would be a great help.
look forward to hearing from you all xx

Apple12

Do you have work lined up, if so where, or do you have any ideas as to which industry you are likely to work.
It is no good recommending Governor's Bay if you work at the airport, or Sumner if you will be working in Lincoln.
Also, what is most important to you - local shops, access to a mall, proximity to hills for walking, 10 min walk to the city centre, newer houses, bus routes etc etc. We need a little more detail. If you substitute Christchurch NZ for Cardiff UK in your question above, I think you will see what I mean.

My major piece of advice is to rent first maybe for a year, get a feeling for areas/house types before you buy.

sky

Good advice there, I would agree if you can afford to rent for the first year. In hindsight that's what we should have done

I found actual Christchurch not to my liking so we live outside of the city now and it's much better. Depends where your jobs are like apple12 says and whether you're prepared to commute (no passenger trains here for commuting).

John&Nic

Yes sorry, we should of been a bit more clearer, we do have work lined up in Harewood for which hubby will be in the engineering industry,our main concerns will be to find a suitable school for our 5yr old.If we could find this area we would rent then would purchase a house around the school. It would be a bonus if we were to be in an area on the outskirts of Christchurch aprox 20/30mins drive from Harewood which has local shops,hill views, newer houses, bus routes- just dont want to be in the town centre, on the outskirts would suit better, hope this gives you something to go on, many thanks.

Apple12

OK, that helps heaps.
Harewood = north-west edge of the city, close to the airport. This is the outskirts of the city. Suburbs in that area are Avonhead, Burnside and Bishopdale, all are on that edge of the city. Depending on where you are in that area, you are talking a 20-30 min drive into the city centre. You are miles from the sea, so that fits, and also around 20-30 min drive to the Port Hills, which has lots of recreational walking/mountainbiking etc.
I have never lived on that side of town so can't give you any school or housing advice. However, closeby you have Jellie Park - a swim/recreation centre, big parks and golf courses. Views out to the Southern Alps are possible.

Many schools have websites, try googling for Merrin Primary School, Westburn School, Burnside Primary School, Royvale School, Kendal School, Isleworth School, Cotswold School, Bishopdale School, Harewood Primary School. Library resource http://library.christchurch.org.nz/R...yIntermediate/

There aren't too many small towns out north or west from there, the Waimakariri river takes out a bit of land. Maybe Belfast, Yaldhurst, West Melton? Maybe someone else has a better idea of that. If you choose to live out of the city you are unlikely to have public transport, or a variety of shops, I would imagine you will end up in town regularly.

Hope this helps, any more questions, post them up.

Apple.

sky

Burnside Primary is a really good school and your child would then move on to Colburn intermediate and if you stayed in the area eventually Burnside High School, a very desirable school and difficult to get into if you live outside of the area.
We rented in Burnside when we first arrived and the area is horrible IMO but like I say I didn't like any of the city in Particular, (the bits I did like we couldn't afford lol) I just wanted to get away from all that. I wonder if Halswell might be a place that might be good for you as you don't get the horrendous traffic travelling into Christchurch on a morning like you do from say Tumara Park (a posh new housing estate) or Lincoln may be good for you it's quiet but very nice.

We moved out to Kaiapoi after the rental and the town does have a bus into Christchurch centre but I've never had to catch it. Kaiapoi is about a 35 min commute to Christchurch in a car and then you would have to pay for parking unless you are lucky enough to have free staff parking.
It's a nice area but I wasn't impressed with the primary schools.

We now live in Rangiora, well just outside the town really ... even further out than Kaiapoi so I don't know how practical it would be to travel to and from Ch.ch every day to work .. I suppose it depends on how much your salary is as to whether it would be worth it.
My youngest attends a wonderful rural school and is in a class of eleven and has blossomed in the time he's been there.
The high schools for Rangiora are Kaiapoi and Rangiora high both schools have in the last couple of years really improved, in particular Rangiora which has a fairly new school principle and she's making lots of good changes.
Rangiora is lovely but the houses in the area have gone up a lot, probably due to the large amount of Britishexpats moving to the area.
I should really keep quiet about Rangiora lol the prices will go up even more won't they it's a little gem of a town I feel and we really are lucky to have moved here.

sky

Just a thought

If you wanted to move say about 20 mins out of town there is a little cluster of houses in Kirwee (no one ever mentions Kirwee) it's on the road going out to Arthurs Pass and is a long straight road which I have driven on and timed the journey and at 100k solid driving it takes exactly 20 mins. If we had just arrived in NZ now I would buy a house there as they are cheaper and I bet the rates are too ... there's a church, a pub, a primary school and a garage there. Would mean a commute to work though.

Joshlin

we've just bought a property in Halswell - moving in beginning March - although we've not moved in yet we're pretty taken with the area and we've had good feedback from others - it's got 2 primary schools - Halswell which has a very good reputation and then Oaklands which seems OK too. It's pretty self contained with a New World supermarket plus garages, diaries, liquor store, bank (Westpac), bakery, hairdressers, chip shop, deli etc etc - also has a nice domain, summer open air pool, quite a few parks and then the quarry just up the road which has been landscaped and makes for a great place to take the kids. It takes about 20-30mins to get into town and then another 10-15mins to get out to North New Brighton beach. It's got a variety of homes - from brand new on Halswell on the Park to the more traditional older style - price range I would guess from about $250k up to $500k - there's also a new suburb across the road called Aidenfield which is all new and has some big houses if your money can stretch that far!!
Situation wise it's pretty good - it links direct onto Lincoln Road which runs you straight into town and you can also link on to 2 of the key State Highways pretty directly so you've got an easy run southwards to Akaroa etc and then Northwards to Rangiora and up.
If you need anymore, just give us a shout.
Vicki

sky

That quarry is really nice isn't it Vicki we came across it by accident but it's lovely and we said we should go back when we can for a picnic

Lenmil

I really would recommend renting first just to give you a real idea as to how well the houses are made. Insulation for the cold in winter is very important. Once you acclimatiseto the weather you may find you feel cold in the winter. Double glazing is not a common sight either. We rented in Avonhead for a year and liked the area with many parks for the kids to play. Only took me 20 mins to get to work in Cashel street. We liked the port hills too and were going to buy in governers bay area. But our house did not sell and we are now back in old blighty, for now.

John&Nic

Hi Apple,
Oh THANK-YOU,your reply has helped loads & reassured me too!!!! We will definitely be looking into the areas you have advised, hubby will be based in Harewood(however will be travelling around with his job,) so I think the location side is more for me and my daughter in the respect that we are able to fend for ourselves with local facilities & still have the village community rather than being isolated with no neighbours and always heading into CH.Ch, this in time shouldn't be a problem because I do drive. As for the school yes, will also look into them & see how I go about enrolling my daughter, I liked the sound of Burnside but after reading what Sky had replied I think I will leave that one, shame because the schools sounded ideal. (but will advise you on my out come.)
Can't thank you enough for this advise - and I will most definitely have more questions and would be grateful for your advise.
Many thanks

Nic.

John&Nic

Hi Sky,
Thank-you to for your advise very much appreciated, & I thought we had it all in the bag with the information on Burnside until you mentioned that the area was horrible, (I'm new to this website so a bit slow on the Lin-go not sure what IMO means- but guessed just not nice to live there!!!) which did seem a shame because it sounds like the schools were of a high standard. Which is my main aim & worry at the moment, like my reply to Apple Hubby will be working away most of the time, so ideally it would be nice to have some facilities available, for which from my replies, I have got lots to go on and look into which is great because up until now I didnt know where to start, and its all very daunting as I have not even been to the country!!!
I like the idea of Lincoln but would this be to quiet with a 5yr old? - where we live at the moment I have access to few basic shops, nurseries and schools, & approx 20mins from the nearest town so guess I'm just after the same thing over there and of course with a nicer house to,ha,ha, so Kirwee maybe ideal?
Many thanks Sky

Nic.

John&Nic

Hi Vicki,
Thank-you to, for also replying- I know Ive been given loads to go on which is wonderful and a BIG help, but after reading your response it sounded perfect - then I looked it up on the map to see where you actually are, to find that it might be a bit to far from Harewood (Hubby`s work), I know in one of my reply`s to either Apple/Sky I said that the location would be more for myself & daughter as hubby will be traveling a lot with his work, but my first response was this might be a bit far out in the means of maybe heading towards 1hr traveling time to and from work! this might be a problem for John? however I could always work on him, due to what you have written about Halswell does sound very appealing.. Will let you know how I get on
Many thanks

Nic.

John&Nic

Hi Lenmil,
Thank-you for also replying, yes you brought up a good issue, Insulation....when Hubby visited last yr, it was the start of your Winter and he told me that it wasn't that cold out there compared to what we are use to over here in the UK. But like you said once we are acclimatised to the weather yes we will feel it more, I'm taking it then that then we do leave rented accommodation and we eventually buy our house Double Glazing will be hard to find? does this also apply to Central Heating?- I'm asking these what probably sound daft questions but I'm a person who really does feel the COLD..(wimp I know!!).
Many thanks
Nic.

Lenmil

I think you can get central heating but its expensive and probably bottled gas. You may find it in newer houses but most don't have it. We were going to update any house we bought with insulation and heating options. And a lot of people dream of starting up business's to sell heating sysytems. Won't work there, at least in the South Island. I do not miss chopping firewood or waking up with my ears hurting as they were frozen. But i do miss NZ. Our house was an old rented one with hardly any mod cons, but that was all we could get at the time. A woman who i worked with bought a new house and it was double glazed with a heat pump, nice and warm it was.