Wellington area

[herseymusic]

I'm now living in Highbury, which is directly above Aro Valley, close to Kelburn. Great views of the sparkling harbour, Mt Matthews dominating the Rimutaka range, and the snow capped Tararua mountains rising jagged to the north. Plus the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary is just over the hill, so we can see and hear the native weka (duck-pheasant) and kaka (parrot), and hear the occasional call of Kiwi at night. Plus many Tuis clucking and trilling outside my window. They sound like a cross between R2D2 and a talking parrot.

Jodie - Yes, Johnsonville is a great little self-contained suburb. The Countdown grocery store there has the best deals in the region. Plus commuter train service to town! I taught guitar at the Johnsonville School for half of this year, and it seemed like a great school (and I've seen quite a few in the area).

I first came to Welly in 2000 to study music at Victoria University. After returning to the States to finish my degree (Middlebury College in Vermont), I hot-footed it right back over to Wellington in early 2002. I'm not really a city person, but the relaxed vibe and stunning views here have converted me!

My name is Tyler, btw. I guess I should have made my username tylermusic.

So glad to hear from others in the region (and prospective wellingtonians!). This town is amazing!

[Raeven]

So many neighbourhoods to investigate, so little time on our scouting trip!

Hi, cat,

As a matter of interest, when are you heading out on your scouting trip? How long are you going over for?

All the best, Rae

[coastcat]

So many neighbourhoods to investigate, so little time on our scouting trip!

Hi, cat,

As a matter of interest, when are you heading out on your scouting trip? How long are you going over for?

We're going over sometime between late April and late May (still working out the details), and will be on the ground for 10-12 days. We're going to check out Wellington in "prospective emigrant" mode, and other bits of the North Island in "gawking Yank tourist" mode. Dunedin is our second choice (at the moment), and we'll check it out the following year.

[Jodie]

Hi Tyler,

I think we struck lucky with Johnsonville! We obiously didn;t know much about areas when we first arrived and after looking at a few in different areas (Newtown, Melrose, J'ville), we found this place which was the nicest house-wise and we thought that the area had a noce feel to it.

Are you renting or have you bought? We've just put in our EOI cos I've just landed a job, and hoping to start looking to buy somewhere in the beginning of next year. We've been looking at Kandallah, Wadestown, Brooklyn and Thorndon, but it'll be good to start work and get a bit of local knowledge about the areas near to the city! Your place sounds lovely - I'd LOVE to have a view of the sea, and Darren would love a view of the mountains, so maybe we'll check out Aro Valley then!

Are you working now? I agree with you about the stunning views and relaxed vibe here - we love it!!

Jod

[coastcat]

Jodie - What is Brooklyn like? The location is excellent, but I can't quite figure out its character.

Thorndon is near the top of our list, having everything we want except a sea view (or should I say, an affordable sea view). And now I'm starting to think about Petone...

[Jodie]

Brooklyn seems quite nice from what we've seen (only a little so far!) and as it's on the side of a steep hill, good harbour views.

As for Petone, it seemed OK when we were in that area (stayed in a campsite for a week or so near the area when we first got here), but personally I don;t think I'd have it on my short list. One thing against it for me is that the only way to get from Welly to the lower hutt area (and Petone) is on SH1 which gets REALLY busy at the end of the working day. (It's a bit of a bottleneck really...)

Sorry I couldn't be more help with Brooklyn - maybe Tyler can chip in on this one?

Jod

[coastcat]

Thanks for the info, Jodie! Petone and some other areas of Lower Hutt are tempting because of the (slightly) lower prices and seaviews, but a major traffic bottleneck... no thanks.

But what about the train? There's a stop at Petone, and it's a 14 minute commute from there to downtown. Or is the Tranz Metro service not reliable? (in theory Washington has an excellent public transit system - the reality is not so rosy)

[Jodie]

Don't know about the trains ervice from Welly out that way I'm afraid, but kiwi's don't tend to use public transport very much. (Not the ones we've met anyway!)
Theres only 1 stop in the centre of Welly tho, so depending on where you worked in the centre, it could be a long walk or another bus ride to the office..... (That's if you're planning on working in the city that is.)

My advice (and somebody disagree if they have other experiences by all means!) is to stay away from areas off SH1 cos of the traffic. SH2 is much quieter (we live the 2nd exit off SH2 from Welly - about 10 - 15mins drive), or closer into the centre where the better public transport links are if you can. (Obviously the prices go up here but you get what you pay for as they say - in this case the location!)

Hope this helps, Anything else, give ne a shout.

Jodie

[coastcat]

Where does SH2 run?

The official Wellington site claims that 28% of the city commuters use public transit. We'll have to see what the reality is. You know how optimistic government estimates can be... :P

[Jodie]

SH2 runs north of wellington - basically there's one motorway out of wellington heading North, and it splits into 2 - SH1 and SH2 and each road goes either side of a big 'hill' I suppose! SH1 towards the Hutt Valley, and SH2 up towards the Kapiti coast. The first few exits off of SH2 are Kandallah, Newlands, Johnsonville, Grenada, Tawa, Porirua (don't live there tho - not too nice!) and by then you'd probably be travelling about 1/2 hour in rush hour so don't go any further!

The good side of living off SH2 instead of the SH1, is that you can get to these areas by going through the town too, so if the motorway is busy for whatever reason, you can still get home by going the 'back way' across town - something you can't do to the Hutt Valley.

Jod