Wellington here we come...

[Jodie]

Hi Amy,

Renting in the city and scoping out the suburbs is a fab idea. When we first got here we lived in a cabin in the Hutt Park holiday campground for just over a week ?:o (we were on a budget!) and had a real good drive round the city to get a really good feel for the 'burbs. Depending on how far out from the city to want to be (and what commute you want) is probably the deciding factor for you, but here are my views - starting from the city and moving outwards.

(It's gonna be a long one so get comfy and maybe pour yourself a glas sof wine :) )

Mount Victoria/Roseneath - blimmin gorgeous! :) Right next to town and gorgeous views out over the harbour and city one side (the sunny side) and great views out over the airport and Cook Strait the other side. Although you will probably get quite a bit of airport noise being so close - you're higher than the planes half way up and can almost see in the cockpit window as they come into land!

Aro town/valley - apparently this can be quite damp so beware. V close to town (a 5 min bus ride I reckon) and within walking distance too. Quite expensive tho because of this.

Newtown - about 5 - 10 min bus ride out to Newtown/Berhampore. We looked at renting here when we firdt got here and while it's v close to town, I just didn't get a good 'feel' for the place. Don't get me wrong, my boss lives there and a few otehr people from work, but I just can't put my finger on what I don't like about it. Maybe it's still to 'city-fied' for me or something... :)

Haitaitai - cute little 'village' feel and lovely views over the water from properties up the hill. Quite expensive tho I think. Very close to town - 5 min bus ride I think (and within walking distance from Courtenay Place which is always handy after a few bevvies!)

Wadestown - great suburb on the side of the hill facing towards the harbour (so look out for the lack of sun and damp in some properties because of this). tend to find lots of flats or bigger properties here.

Kelburn - university suburb cos it's v close to the uni and town. Lots of students, a few nice restaurants and 5 - 10 mins from town.

Northland - great views out over the harbour but very steep and narrow roads in some parts! Quite expensive. 10 mins from town.

Then moving a bit further out...

Miramar - on the peninsula the other side of the airport - quite a nice area but very close to the airport (I was in a phonebox there once and a plane landed and I couldn't hear myself think! seriously! it was sooo loud!) so just something to watch over there. 15 mins drive to town probably?

Seatoun/the bays on that side - lovely seaside village feel to the areas out that way. slightly further on from Miramar and right on the coast. Great rugged beaches and quaint little cafes. Expensive though because of this..

Island Bay - lovely seaside village type suburb the other side of Newtown on the south coast (so watch out for the southerlies!). again, 15 mins bus ride out there I guess? really nice area,

Karori - quite family oriented with mini shopping malls and eateries. Has a reputation for being up in the clouds when the weather's bad though, but so is where we live! probably 15 - 20 mins bus ride out there? Quite affordable to rent/buy.

then moving a bit further out again...

Ngaio - nice family suburb to the North of the city. About 15 - 20 mins bus ride into the city. It straddles a lot of hills and valleys so be careful which way you face and look out for damp/lack of sun. Some nice places here though. On the Johnsonville train line and probably 15 mins into town on the train (and about $3 each way in peak times, $1.60 off peak!)

Khandallah - the 'posh' suburb of the northern suburbs. great views out over the harbour and a cute little shoppingvillage with pub, restaurants, small supermarket etc. Quite expensive. Quite a lot of newer housing. a few mins further on the train from Ngaio, about 15 - 20 mins on the bus.

Newlands/Johnsonville/Churton Park - this is where we've always rented and we bought a house here a year ago. It's a 15 min drive into the city outside of rush hour, but at 8am it takes me about 35-40 mins to drive into town, drop Daz off and then get across to Courtenay Place. Only takes about 20 mins to get home tho (work that one out!). Quite family oriented suburbs with a shopping mall, restaurants, bars and supermarkets. The Johnsonville train line ends at J'ville and it's a 20 min ride into town from here. the bus services are pretty good and the bus to Newlands is about 20 - 25 mins (maybe 30 - 35 mins in rush hour). Well priced rentals. But we are up in the clouds SOMETIMES when the weather is real bad (especially Chrton Park and Woodridge) :)

Lower Hutt/Petone - Petone has some really nice houses along the waterfront, and Jackson Street is a really nice street of shops, bars and restaurants. The train from town takes about 10 -15 mins to get here i think, and slightly longer to get to lower hutt. Lower Hutt has a great shopping mall (that opened last year) - it's HUGE! It's also got cinemas and bars/restaurants too. To drive to the city would probably take 15 mins outside rush hour, but a lot longer in rush hour - maybe 40 - 45 mins? the motorway gets quite stacked up that way, especially going home at night (we fly by them all queued up on that motorway to go up SH1 towards J'Ville :) )

[Jodie]

Had to start a new post cos I ran out of characters!! :-?

So, further out up the motorway from J'Ville you've got Tawa (family suburb about 15 mins from town by train - quicker than J'Ville cos it's the first stop on that line!), then Porirua (which I'd avoid personally - it's got a great mall and big furniture shops etc, but the housing area is apparently a bit rough), then Paremata/whitby/papakowhai - all pretty nice places about 20 - 25 mins drive from town (outside rush hour)! but bit of a trek from the train station in Paremata - you would need to bus/drive from the station to any of these places. Then you've got Plimmerton which is really nice but the traffic gets quite backed up from the paremata roundabout so anywhere north of here is a nightmare commute by road, and probably 30 mins or more by train.


I don't think tehre's any areas I'd say to necessarily avoid (apart from Porirua) but there's a few places I wouldn't be keen on living myself, those being Berhampore, Newtown, Miramar and parts of Lower Hutt. It's not because they're particularly rough (although Berhampore has quite a 'rugged' feel to it to me) just that they don't really take my fancy. Parts of Lower Hutt are quite industrialised - like the houses were built around the factories so this aspect doesn't really appeal. And I don't want to be any further from the city than we are now so that rules out the further suburbs for me.

Anyway, like I said - it's such a good idea to take a drive round everywhere and get a feel for places. I don't know if you're planning on buying or not, but I would certainly recommend renting in a few houses in the area that you like if you are, cos we rented 2 places in J'Ville/Newlands and found out great things (like don't live in the wrong side of the valley or on a busy road on the side of a hill cos it's SOOO noisy with the acceleration up the hill from cars!).

Anyway, sorry for the 'brain dump' here. Just realised how much I've babbled on! Hope some of this is useful info - even if it is just a list of suburbs to google or find on RealEnz! :)

Give me a shout if there's anything else you want to ask.

Good luck with the move and maybe we can catch up for a drink when you get here?

Cheers,
Jod

[Jodie]

Oh yeah - and don't worry about the earthquakes. They're pretty infrequent (although I've sat here through one while I've been typing this!! :o ) Just buy/rent a wooden house - less to come down on you when the big one strikes! ;) ;D

Also shy away from anything overhanging the side of the hill like a lot of the properties here do - a couple in Eastbourne and LOwer Hutt had the side of the hill slip away and the houses went with them a few months ago! Not good so something else to watch for! :)

Anyway, I'm really going now! Must get home at some point tonight ! ;)

[MotherBear]

Brilliant post, Jodie. Very informative.

[Debd]

Hi Amy,
I haven't kept up to date on your whereabouts lately. I hope you are feeling optimistic and happy about your move to Wellington. Congratulations on the job front too. How far is it from Auckland then? I hear Rotorua is really nice so it'll be on our list of places to visit!
We live on the North Shore and have only managed to visit Owera as the weather has been iffy and not much spare time for venturing further afield just yet. I feel the need to see more of the beautiful country though as Auckland suburbs can become a bit 'stifling' at times!
All the best
Debra

[LilAmy]

Hi Jodie,

Wow thanks for that I really appreciate it. I thinbk I'll need to print all of that off. Did you rent a Fully Furnished place? We're struggling to find FF anyhere to be honest.

We need out of Cuba Street we are walking Zombies too many pubs and drunkards at 2am!!! Great location during the day but man its noisey.

So far in Wellie we've experienced torentual rain and winds although today is wonderful and sunny. Power Cuts on Labour Day and some lil flooding. We still really like it tho weirdly enough. Wellie has an awesome feel to it and loads of opportunities work wise and living wise.

If anyone needs to know any info on Wellie as well like Recruitment agencies, short term rentals etc just drop me an email as we're on WIFI at the mo and some days it works and others it doesnt??? Go figure....

Will try and catch up on the other posts today as well

[pianist1]

Hi Amy,
I feel for you....we had a hard time finding a furnished short-term rental as well. I am sure you have done what we did...but in case....check out the classifieds in the newspapers, look up the realtors and tell them to call you if they find something that fits your needs. If you have a pet, it makes it even harder. good luck!

[hatter5]

We are in J'Ville and find it a very good place to start as you are in quite a central location. Easy commute into CBD by train,which was a factor in choosing our rental, but I accepted a job in Porirua instead so haven't tried the journey into CBD during rush hour. I have to suffer a 10 minute commute heading north ;]

Jodie has been quite concise on her post as it is diffcult to offer advice without knowing exactly what you are looking for and your personal cirumstances. Trying different suburbs is good advice unless you find a good rental on your first attempt.

Porirua (boo hiss) has a reputation far worse than it actually is - although I'd personally avoid Porirua East, Ascot Park and Cannons creek as the Demographics make grim reading indeed. No worse than the area I grew up in and if you are sensible you will be fine

Most the kiwis I have spoken to think of the place as bandit country and to be avoided at all cost as the place is overun by "Islanders, Maori and Beneficaries".

In other words these areas are full of state housing and hardly a crime to live there.

Don't forget that Whitby (I dont think it's pronounced as Fitby though), Paremata and Papakowhai are actually a part of Porirua and the Demographics are very different to that of their neighbours.

Has it been windy recently??

[hatter5]

Youth gang fears in Porirua
30 October 2006
By MATTHEW TORBIT

Simmering gang tension in Porirua has prompted a concession from a senior Mongrel Mob member that someone could die unless rival youth gangs put an end to tit-for-tat violence.

Calls for calm have been issued by a local politician and the gang leader after a man was savagely stabbed in his Cannons Creek home recently.

Porirua city councillor Litea Ah Hoi ? backed by senior Mongrel Mob member Dennis "Deimz Rogue" ? said the situation was so bad they feared Porirua could erupt with the same level of gang violence which has left seven people dead in South Auckland since July.

The youth gangs, modelled on the American Bloods and Crips gangs, each have about 20 to 30 core members, aged as young as 13.

Ms Ah Hoi said the gangs were operating unchecked by police.

"These are just kids who are running around targeting anyone, old, young, in a gang or not. They are out of control and if it doesn't stop someone is going to get killed."

Ms Ah Hoi said weekly acts of violence, much of which was never reported to police, involved people being deliberately run over by cars and attacked with broken bottles.

On October 15, a man suffered multiple stab wounds to his head, abdomen and back after a group broke into his Calliope Cres home.

The man's two children, aged two and four, were in the house while the attack took place.

While an arrest was made after the attempted murder, Rogue said if youth gangs did not back down then it would see a return to the "bad old days" of rival gangs openly fighting it out in turf wars.

Rogue has made efforts to talk to the parents of the kids and was hopeful it would go some way toward cooling the tension.

Officials were ignoring the fact that there was a growing youth gang problem in Porirua, which was fuelled by a lack of constructive things for young people to do in the region.

Detective Sergeant Andrew Saunders confirmed youth gangs were regularly causing disorder in Porirua, but the situation was not as serious as the violence in South Auckland.

Mr Saunders said he was perplexed at suggestions the youth gangs were involved in the Calliope Cres stabbing as the arrested man was a patched member of the Mongrel Mob.

Wellington gang intelligence officer Senior Constable John Goddard said the youth gangs were involved with serious crime, such as burglaries, car thefts and drugs.

However, he believed there was no more gang tension in Porirua than usual. "The thing to remember is that Porirua is a one gang town and it has been for years. In South Auckland you have a huge number of rival gangs squeezed together and that's the basis of much of the problems up there."

Mr Goddard said he had noticed a trend around the county of established gangs coming forward claiming there was a youth gang problem on their patch as a ploy to get funding for youth initiatives.

Not new news as such.

In the my old town there stabbing incidents most weekends (along with the usual other attacks) and hardly made half a column in are local free newspaper.

Do not become affilated with gangs.

[Dawn]

Hey Lil Amy, heading to Welli now then? Sounds great! That's where we're headed eventually so all this info everyones giving you is really helping us out too. Keep us posted on where you end up and fill us in on what it's like. We want to be close enough to town but not in it, close to the sea would be good but we can't decide whether we want land instead so something has to give. Don't think we'll be able to afford somewhere with land close to the beach, it'll have to be one or the other I think. Let me know if we're wrong though.