dithering pom

Hi

We (family of 4) are in the process of moving to Tauranga and wondered if anyone has any opinions (good or bad) about Welcome Bay.

We have looked in Bethlehem and to the North west of the city but you seem to get more for you money in Welcome Bay. On the face of it I'm not sure why...road links?

We are currently in Tauranga and looking around at the different suburbs (noticed the total absence of litter!) and Welcome Bay seems fine. What, if anything am I missing?

If at all relevant we are looking to buy a section (3000 square metres) and get G J Gardeners to build our dream house! At least that's the plan today. As for tomorrow who knows?

Grateful for any replies.

Rob

MrsFychan

maybe have a read through this thread:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/new-z...uranga-846813/

dithering pom

Thanks. Had actually already seen that but anything else appreciated.

escapedtonz

Personally speaking we steered clear of Welcome Bay as for one it makes my commute a bit too far. For two, the wife found details that the gang culture there was growing and there also seems to be issues with traffic at certain times of the day.
If I needed to be in or around that area I would seriously decide on Pyes Pa over Welcome Bay. It's far nicer and a lot of money is being pumped in to the place. New shopping centre being created as we type etc. Lots of places to live, house prices fairly decent as are land prices. Semi-rural and a lot more spread out so if you want the rural living you can have it.
We're in Bethlehem but considering Pyes Pa as a place to buy or build as the cost of property noticeably less than Bethlehem and doesn't make the commute any different.

Harrist

escapedtonz

Where is this gang culture in Welcome Bay?

escapedtonz

Hi Harrist,
Didn't say that there was a gang culture in Welcome Bay, just that we had read articles etc relating to the topic that quoted gang related violence and crime was growing in Welcome Bay.
No idea if this was true or if there is any gang related crime there at all ? Never spent any time there other than driving through but the research we did and the articles we read made us decide to steer clear of Welcome Bay.
Originally we looked at moving to Tauranga around Jan/Feb 2013 so did a lot of research on possible areas to live and also spent quite a bit of time looking round the areas before putting in the work transfer request.
One particular article from March 2012 stated that in a poll, Welcome Bay was considered the second most dangerous suburb of Tauranga. The poll was a multiple choice poll, I assume conducted on the streets of Tauranga ? Merivale was first with 69% of the vote, then Welcome Bay with 14% then Gate Pa (9%) and Papamoa East (5%) then the rest.
Poll asked people's opinions related to the presence of gangs, gang related violence and crime, youths on the streets, drugs, presence of the police etc.
As I say, no idea if these people's opinions was a true representation of Welcome Bay but having had no experience of the area it was enough for us to decide against it.