areas to stay in Christchurch

[fifijane]

Morning to you all

Hubby moving out in the next couple of months, can you suggest a decent area to stay around Christchurch. Happy to commute 30 mins to the city centre? Happy house share as well.

Fifijane

[sophiedb]

Welcome to Chch!

The city is full of decent areas tbh, but it's probably worth spending sometime in a short-term let to allow yourselves the time to explore and get the feel of each community before committing to anything longer term. I found this site useful for finding somewhere to stay when our house was being fixed - the place we picked was cheaper than a motel or hotel.

Also: Halswell rocks

[Mamee & Co]

Sumner rocks too...but probably more literally than Halswell

I'd agree with Sophie and find yourself somewhere to stay temporarily which will let you tour the town. I literally cross town for work in about 30-40 minutes...only 25 mins to get home after rush hour though.

It really depends upon what you are looking for. Some areas have less muntedness than others. In general the north and west came off best, but rentals there are in high demand. The east came off worse and so while easier to get a rental you will be living,potentially, with more damage. Having said that I have lived in the Eastern hill suburbs for almost two years and love it. We are trying to find a house to buy here now.

Good luck and look forward to meeting you soon.

[JennyV]

We're in St Albans which is nice, shops etc to walk to, and only just north of the CBD. Generally west of Columbo St is less munted than the east of it, but saying that, we're on the east side and our road is generally fine and it's easier to find rentals this side! (You could do with a 4x4 to drive up Madras St at the moment though!) Plus our supermarket just reopened from after the earthquakes and we have a great butchers and greengrocers that we can walk to.
We stayed in a motel on Blenheim Rd when we first got here so we could find somewhere to rent, Riccarton Rd has lots of motels, as does Bealey Ave and Sherborne St (which is St Albans), all handy to be able to walk to places if don't have a car when you first get here (which we didn't).
Halswell is nice, very suburban, know a couple of people who live there who really like it and the schools. Also not much earthquake damage at all.
Suppose it all depends on what kind of facilities you want!

[KiwiMel]

Hey Fifijane, how are you? I gather you must be in Christchurch by now? What suburb did you pick?
Brrr chilly wetaher this week!

Keep safe

[edw123]

If you can afford it, Fendalton, Merivale, Bryndwr, Papanui, anywhere around there is generally not damaged as much, roads better, infrastructure in place.

As a rule of thumb, the more you go west from the CBD, the less knackered it is. I'd steer well clear of Sumner and New Brighton. Sumner is nice to visit, roads will destroy a car on a daily commute (they're like a carpet slightly pushed forward) and you've got rockfalls to worry about, and New Brighton was a sh*thole before the earthquake. The quake hasn't made it any better.....