Ash Brown

Hi there, new to the forum, so hello all.
I am moving to NZ with my wife in the next six months and am in the fortunate position of having a choice of location. I would greatly appreciate your opinions, we have no children so not worried about schools. However, the usual amenities like doctors, restaurants, basic shopping are important. We like the outdoors, gardening, walking and horse riding, really not into water activities much. Anyway we have the choice of Hastings/Napier, Wellington or around Hamilton. looking at real estate websites there is not much difference in prices of homes, but really looking for some local knowledge on what these places are like to live in. We have spent some time travelling from Wellington up as far as Hamilton and have friends in Wellington and Napier and at a casual glance in holiday mode, Napier is top of our list, your opinions would be appreciated.

Justcol

Not Hamilton is all I can add

annier

After living in both Hastings & Cambridge many years ago I would say cambridge or near there, beautiful area,

BEVS

So Cambridge ? I've been givent he impression this is expat land.

Mind you these days where isn't.

Northern Henry

I didn't create this, it was on the internet, don't start bludgeoning me to death....
It popped up in Google searches during background research.....

kingacat

Have to confess I am not a fan of Hamilton, not even sure why!!

Bo-Jangles

It is a bit rough and not the sort of place you would choose to go for a day out or weekend away - its just always seems like it's en-route to somewhere else rather than a place to go and even then apart from Hamilton Gardens it's not attractive enough to even think of stopping off there for something to eat far less have a mooch about.

Read this earlier on Stuff:

The haves and have nots - a tale of two streets | Stuff.co.nz

whitesand

Having lived in a few places around NZ I could only live in Auckland. The other cities don't do much for me and Auckland seems like a country town at times.

Justcol

You say that like its a bad thing, yes there are plenty of us here but its not as if its some kind of ghetto.
Its a lovely town, far nicer than any of the others near it (matamata, te awamuta, tirau, morrinsville)
I lived in auckland for a while and there are places up there with a much much higher ratio of expats.

Justcol

Its shows how diverse we are on here, I've been a city boy all my life but I hated everything about Auckland during my 2 years there

moonie2011

Lots of horses in Hamilton. Wellington has some but more just outside in the Kapiti district.

nzneville

Why not simply defer any decision until you are here and then consider which of the cities you wish to settle in? There are plenty of other towns and cities which you may find more attractive to live in. However, do you have friends here already? If so, do you want to live nearby and renew the friendships, or start off not knowing anybody? Are you looking for jobs too, as this may play an important factor in any decision? None of us here can really make any decision for you by promoting or running down any particular city.

SplitOz

We have been in Napier for 3 years and absolutely LOVE it. Great weather, a wonderful art deco CBD, plus proximity to Ahuriri waterfront restaurants/cafes/galleries etc. We are surrounded by wineries, and the shopping is really good. There is a small weekly farmer's market, a good theatre and all the usual supermarkets etc. There isn't really a thriving night life - but the restaurants/clubs down at the Ahuriri waterfront do a great trade well into Friday and Saturday nights if that is your thing! Also being so close to Hastings is great - anything we don't have here you can usually find there. Best of luck with your move - do message me if you arrive here in Napier!

SplitOz

PS: even the kiwis seem to have a low opinion of Hamilton - I don't really know why. I have only passed through, but it looked quite pleasant to me ...

Builder UK

I stayed in Hamilton for a few weeks, in fact I was based there while I was in NZ.

There is a main strip in the centre which has a few bars and restaurants, obviously the gardens, a few decent golf courses and te Rapa (the base), there will be more things to do but it depends on what your looking for.

It's not a bad place, but it does get boring once you have been there a few weeks, I found myself driving to te Rapa just to have a walk round and do something, you have raglan about 45 minutes down the road but again after a few visits this becomes rather samey.

You have Rotorua the other way and Cambridge near by, and apart from that your looking at a 2 hour drive.

Having said that, whilst I was there I saw a fair few construction sites so possibly things have expanded