Hi Nonie,

We went to Upper Hutt briefly last week, and it seemed like a nice area (although we didn't visit Stokes Valley and haven't heard any comments about it I'm afraid - I'll keep my ear out tho...), the only thing I would say is it's quite a trek into the city from there, especially in rush hour as there's really only one way in/out from that area. I think its about 25km from the city, maybe slightly more, and would probably take 1/2 - 3/4hr to travel there in the height of the rush hour. This isn't out of the way I know, but NZers seem to like very short journeys to work and back.

We've just rented a place in Johnsonville, about 10 mins drive from the City outside of rush hour, about 20 mins in rush hour apparantly but we've yet to try...

We were talking to a couple last week and they said that people from the Hutt would happily move into the Wellington central area, but 'Wellingtonians' don't want to move out to the Hutt Valley - make of this what you will!

Hope this helps,

Jod