Lake Taupo area info pls.

hi everyone. I am planning to settle in the Lake Taupo area and work for the tourism industry. Are there any info regarding nice places/ places to avoid in that area in searching for a house.
i have a child aged 5 so would be looking for a family friendly area with good schools
thanks

Hi jandals,

I dont know too much about Taupo unfortunately, we've only driven through it once or twice. Certainly looks like a lovely area, and a member, dan-ish, says thats the place he wants to settle. Try sending dan-ish a private message, he's spent a lot of time there and might be able to advise you a bit better than me.

Spent 2 weeks in July/August down in Turangi (about 70km south of Taupo, on edge of National Park - http://www.turangi.co.nz/). Very pretty down there, LOTS of tourism etc, BUT very small town, small supermarket (New World) and local housing not quite as cheap as you'd like because of proximity to Ski resorts etc. As we were not considering it as a possible immigration spot, I didn't keep the property details, but we did look in the windows! Good if you like quiet and/or are very self sufficient. Local primary school, but I didn't notice an upper school (would imagine that older children would have to travel into Taupo). Not sure if the large size of the "jobcentre"/Ministry of Work [?] is a good sign! Is not too far from Taupo for travel - took us approx 45mins-1hr depending on "traffic"(slow logging trucks). Taupo itself is much bigger, more shops etc and again LOTS of tourism going on. Lots of new housing development going on. I could see that it might get "crowded" (NZ style!) in high season, but of course if you want to work in Tourism you have to go where the tourists go!

This link will give you a small amount of info on Taupo but maybe not about everything you wanted to know. There's another link further down on this site which takes you into the District Council's site as well.

http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?...linktext=Taupo