Tauranga Advise Please

[Tony&Kathryn]

Hi guys,

We are considering moving from Auckland down to Tauranga and we were wondering if anyone could confirm a few things please:

1. Is Tauranga a nice place to live and bring up children?
2. What would be the best place to buy a house (for a young family) and where should we avoid?
3. Any schools that could be recommended. The kids are only toddlers at the moment but trying to futureproof by buying in the right area.
3. My wife is a stay at home mum and would like to meet any other mums in the area, are there baby/coffee groups/expat community that she may be able to join?

From what we've seen property prices look a lot better than Auckland and we'd just like to buy a nice family home in a safe neighborhood.

If anyone could offer any advice it would be very much appreciated.

Cheers,
Tony

[pear]

Hi Tony
Welcome to ENZ!

I've heard Matua School is the most sought-after school zone, with Bethlehem School second. I think these, along with Otumoetai Intermediate and High are generally the most well-regarded public schools.

There is also Bethlehem College (no affiliation to Bethlehem Primary), which is an integrated non-denominational Christian Year 1-13 school; And Aquinas College, which is the relatively new Catholic intermediate and high school. Also note ACG is building a new Year 1-13 private school. These last two are all kind of out of the city.

You can check out the school zones here http://nzschools.tki.org.nz/ to give you an idea of some of more popular suburbs.

Sorry no one else has replied, I hope this helps!

[Karen Phillips]

Hi. Sorry - been on holiday! Tauranga is an amazing place to live and a great place to bring up kids. The above advice is good but Tauranga Girls and Boys Colleges are also good and if you choose to live on the Mount/Papamoa side, the new Papamoa College and associated primary are also good. Green Park school in Greerton has a good reputation and, although the area is not necessarily the best, so has Selwyn Park School in Welcome Bay. We loved living in Bethlehem. There is a Montessori School with Kindy there too. It used to take me 7 minutes to drive into central Tauranga at "rush hour". There is quite a bit about Tauranga on my website http://www.workstudylivenewzealand.co.uk/living-in-nz/. Not trying to sell you anything - but feel fre to ask for specifics. I lived and worked there (mainly in Higher Ed) for 11 years and my daughter went to school there.

[Tony&Kathryn]

Thank you both for the information, very much appreciated. There may be a couple more questions that come to me over the next few days, we are very much looking forward to the move down there. Thanks, Tony

[amy71]

Hello there and welcome,

Tauranga has got great schools. I have 2kids age 11 and 14. Both went to Bethlehem Primary and are now in Otumoetai Intermediate and College. No major concern about these school. But if I had the hind sight i have now as compared to 2011 when we moved from Auckland to here, I would have my kids in Pillans Point school.

However we live in Bethlehem and absolutely love it here. Great place for kids to grow up and hang out with their friends in the area.

I work full time and my kids are all grown up but we know of friends who are very involve in morning coffee groups and mums coffee get together.

Wher will work be? That will probably influence area of living but then again, it's Tauranga. There is no traffic. My OH and I both work at the Mount and our commute everyday is only about 20min max.

Feel free to ask anything and will be glad to assist.

Cheers,
Amy

[Tony&Kathryn]

Cheers Amy for the advice. We have kind of narrowed the area's we'd like to live down to either Papamoa, Otumoetai or Bethlehem. We are quite liking to sound of Bethlehem. I guess we'll need to have a short break down there to see what area feel right. Out of the above areas would you have a preference (taking into account good place to children etc). Thanks for the school info, is Pillans Point a primary school or secondary? Does Pillans Point have good grades/reputation etc. I'm guessing we'd probably have to live in Otumoetai to go to that school or would bethlehem still fall into the catchment (sorry for all the questions).

Thanks, :-)
Tony

[Tony&Kathryn]

Hi Tony
Welcome to ENZ!

I've heard Matua School is the most sought-after school zone, with Bethlehem School second. I think these, along with Otumoetai Intermediate and High are generally the most well-regarded public schools.

There is also Bethlehem College (no affiliation to Bethlehem Primary), which is an integrated non-denominational Christian Year 1-13 school; And Aquinas College, which is the relatively new Catholic intermediate and high school. Also note ACG is building a new Year 1-13 private school. These last two are all kind of out of the city.

You can check out the school zones here http://nzschools.tki.org.nz/ to give you an idea of some of more popular suburbs.

Sorry no one else has replied, I hope this helps!

Thanks for the school zone link, that is a great help!

[amy71]

We love the sound of Bethlehem too and if you send mail out of the post shop here, the postal stamp says Bethlehem. People from all over Tauranga quite often drop all their Christmas mail here just to get the postal mark.

As Pear has given you the link, each of the area you mention has a primary school assigned to it. Pillans is a primary school and the catchment area is Pillans itself. Otumoetai has it's own primary school.

Just to clarify my personal conclusion on the school are base on the kids at the intermediate school and college. The schools mention ( Bethlehem, Otumoetai, Pillans, Matua and a few other ) are the feeder school to Otumoetai Intermediate and College. From what my kids tell me about the happenings at school and personal observation, i think the kids from Pillans are academically motivated. Then agan I may be wrong.

Do take a weekend and drive down. So much easier when you can see and feel the place.

[Tony&Kathryn]

Thanks guys, does anyone know much about the schools in Welcome Bay? Is Welcome Bay a good area?

[Megomanu1]

Hi Tony and Kathryn,
I'm a Tauranga (well Mount Maunganui) local - and stumbled onto this forum randomly. So I thought I'd have a go at answering some of your questions. (My husband is from England and he moved over here 10 years ago.)
1. For starters Tauranga is obviously a lot smaller than Auckland and the pace of life is a lot slower. I'm not totally biased or anything but I would say it's an excellent place to live and bring up a family. I suppose you would have visited before since Auckland is not far away. One thing I would say is that in my opinion Tauranga can lack a little bit of spark - but life is what you make it I suppose and there are lots of good cafes, restaurants, watering holes etc.

2./3. As for best place to buy/schools - I'm probably not the best to recommend as we are just renting a place at the Mount at the moment. So these suggestions are based on what I know.
For family - areas such as Otumoetai, Brookfield, Matua, would be good places to buy as are close to good primary schools (Good schools in these areas Pillans Point School, Matua Primary, Otumoetai Primary) I know are good. These are the more central places.
A bit further out (but in Auckland terms not far) The suburbs of Welcome Bay and Pyes Pa offer good lifestyle options. x
Cheaper areas to buy - would be perhaps Greerton, Gate Pa. (Greenpark School is very good)
I'm a bit of a Mountie so I would probably look to buy at the Mount - but I believe it's more expensive and maybe you get less for your money.
I do know Papamoa seems to be a place for young families wanting to be near the beach and they a rebuilding the highway so it won't be so much of a pain getting out there.
4. There are loads of young families living here so you're wife would easily meet other mums - good groups like Active mums (I think their on facebook?)

All the best!!!