Hi Grinch

We are emigrating early next year and we are starting out by living in a small town call Matamata, which is about 40 minutes south east of Hamilton. We really love the Waikato region and while we are not city people, we find that the closeness of Hamilton a bonus. It is not our intention to work when we get there and that has some bearing on where we wish to live. However I feel the Hamilton area is an ideal location for all sorts of reasons. Firstly it is near enough to Auckland for travel purposes, without "suffering" from Auckland prices. In fact property prices in the Matamata/Piko district are extremely good.

Hamilton is also ideally placed between both the east and west coast and near enough to all the major resorts ( both inland and on the coast). Can't give you a great deal of info on Hamilton City as I have only made a couple of quick visits. Suffice it to say that it has everything we want and certainly does not suffer from the traffic congestion like Auckland.

There are many small towns in the area and they all have all the facilities you need. The region is very green with rolling hills and plenty of great walks, thermal pools and sport. The population is very mixed and crime seems much lower than some regions, with a good detection rate.

We have researched the area and it is certainly tops for us. In fact we researched and visited most of New Zealand as my mother lives there. She lives on the southern part of South Island and that did not make our list. Our short list was Matamata/Piko region, Blenheim and Napier.

Napier seems too far out on a limb for us and when we were last in NZ there was a growing problem with youth gangs in that area. Blenheim is very nice, with plenty of sunshine, but again it is a little out on a limb. So Matamata/Piko region it is and this time next year ( if not sooner) we will be there.

Of course we haven't looked at the job front as we both intend to retire (one of the reasons for going as it allows us to do so). Nor have we looked as schooling as it is not necessary for us. That said there seem to be plenty of schools.

Hope this has been some help; let me know if you want any detailed infom


Dave