Move to Auckland this weekend! Looking for advice on the best areas to live.

[xgx]

Hey, we are newbies to this board.

My husband has a job in the city, and we have two children, aged 5 yrs and 17months.

We leave the UK this Friday and arrive in Auckland on Sunday :-O Our company will be arranging hotel accomodation for an initial period, but we are yet to make a decision on which area we will be residing! This is very difficult as we have not been fortunate enough to visit before.

We have done some research and Northshore / Devonport sound nice (and expensive), but we would like to consider other areas. It would be great to hear about your experiences if you've made the move, or if you can offer some advice. We don't expect to be able to make a decision until we get there, but we will have to make the decision fairly quickly, so we would like to try and narrow down the search.

Here are a few key things that are important to us.
*Good schools are important! We are yet to decide on whether we will go for state or private education.
*Good transport links. We'd like to keep the work commute to under 30 mins.
*Family friendly - We'd like to be in an area where there are lots of groups and activities for children and parent/toddler groups.
*A good rugby team:-)

We would like to find a pre-school/ nursery place for our toddler, so any recommendations there would be appreciated.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Gina and Chris

[BigRed]

We've only been here a month so I can't give you a lot of info about more than our little corner of Auckland, but I can say that we love the eastern bays. We live in Glendowie and the area around there includes Meadowbank, Saint Heliers, Kohimarama and Mission Bay and they are all lovely places to live in my opinion and should be within a 30 minute commute to the city, although I usually get the train from Glen Innes so I can't comment on the traffic if you're planning on driving.

If you want things to do with a toddler make sure you are near to a library or community centre. Near us St Helier's library and Meadowbank community centre both do lots of activities for toddlers. Also, Meadowbank primary school has a very good reputation.

That said, we have been to the north shore and Devonport is absolutely beautiful and a very easy commute to the city. Takapuna has a very good reputation too but if you went further north than that I think you would struggle to stay within your 30 minute commute limit.

[Manks]

Although I don't live in Auckland, if I did I would second BigRed's suggestions. Our friends live in St Heliers and it's a lovely area. The bus takes around 30 minutes to get into the city along the coast road or there's the train from Glen Innes as BigRed says. We used it to get to/from the city for the game on Saturday and it was very good and took about 10-15 minutes to get there. Not sure Glen Innes itself is the best area, but our friends' house in St Heliers was about a 15-minute walk. They have a 20-month old and there seems to be plenty to do.

[dharder]

We live in Glendowie, and I guess if you are into this kind of quiet suburban life, then this is a good place.

There are a number of primary schools in the Eastern bays that are okay from what I can tell, and all rather samey in decile and style. But they are all zoned quite strictly, so you have make sure your house is in zone. If you are going for private school, then of course zones don't matter, but there are't any around here (girls going to private school from here go to St Cuthberts or Dio, boys St Kent's or King's, all in town-ish).

I don't work in the CBD but if I did, I'd cycle to work there from here. Well under 30 minutes. Buses are okay as well. From where I live, I wouldn't bother with the train into town, much easier to cycle. I sometimes take it to go the other way though, to Middlemore.

Of course I am personally not enamoured with any part of Auckland, but I really don't understand that obsession with the North Shore. Especially if you are working on this side of the bridge. But that may be just me

Daniela

[Duncan74]

Hope your company has already got a hotel booked for you......

[Kea]

I second (or third) the Eastern Bays. We love it here although I do understand why Daniela finds it quiet. It can be difficult to get a takeaway after 8.30pm.

A good place to get info for your wee one is Plunkett. I'm not their biggest fan but I did get a leaflet from them which listed all the childcare facilities in the area. I waited a year to get DD into the nursery of my choice but it is fab. I know there are others in the area which have places. I have heard bad things about one near me so if you PM me when you have 5 posts I can fill you in.

I also use Orakei community centre a bit for kids groups. NZ has a bigger proportion of young people and kids so there are a lot of facilities here.

[Janey]

you need to read 'where to live in Auckland' it describes each suburb.
I live in torbay I for my conveinence leave for work at 6.30 am which takes 20 mins to the Hospital in Grafton (the other side of DHB) I then leave anytime from 3-4.30 again 25 mins My OH uses the bus lane into the CBD from Albany again 25 mins lots of good schools and Nurseries as well as shopping at Albany, cinema and the good beaches. Everybody on here from Auckland will gve you an opinion but you need to look at the book and travel around and get a feel.

[BigRed]

Oh yeah, I did hear you can commute in quickly from Albany because they have an express bus from there. People drive to the bus station and park and ride. The buses then run down the motorway bus lane, which is not really a lane but a whole dedicated road for buses.

[dharder]

Oh yeah, I did hear you can commute in quickly from Albany because they have an express bus from there. People drive to the bus station and park and ride. The buses then run down the motorway bus lane, which is not really a lane but a whole dedicated road for buses.

This is rather unrelated to where to live in Auckland, but generally, I don't find the actually train/bus/whatever type of commuter transport except bike to be the issue. Those times are often quite good. In my personal experience, it is normally the time it takes to get to the mode of transport, the waiting, and how far away on the other end you are working.

For example, you might be superquick to get into the CBD, but if you don't work directly there, you may have to wait for another bus, which goes every 30min or so... you get the idea.

Length of commute really is difficult to judge and can vary greatly.

Daniela

[noodles3]

Hi,

Parts of the Northshore are lovely but be aware that getting over the bridge in the mornings (into the CBD) can take some time, unless traveling outside of rush hour (before 7am). I am sure that other's on here will give you some more info on times etc..

Remuera is a very popular location with access to arguably the best schools in the area and its very central, although this is generally reflected in the price of property.

As others have also said, the Eastern Bays are very nice and local to the CBD, with good transport links.

Agreed about the book ' Where to live in Auckland' as a good pointer, but take it at face value, as you will have to spend some time looking around and exploring places before it becomes 'real'!

Well, good luck on your search. There are plenty of people on here who are/have done just what you are about to do, including us!