Kapiti coast info please?

[jo lois]

Hi All

just received blue stickers and offer on our house - what a week!!

OH and I have done a lot of reading on NZ and have decided that we'd like to emigrate to the Kapiti Coast but we are worried about whether there is enough employment opportunities there or whether we'll need to move closer to Wellie.

Any info from you folk living and working in this area would be really welcome.

OH is design / mechanical engineer and I'm an HR manager (plus two young kids requiring a nursery)

Also what sort of property can we expect for around 315k NZD? (we've been looking on the internet but would like the views of folk actually living there!!)

We're hoping to be there in Jan 07 (if the house sale goes ok) so it would be great to meet up with any expats in the area.

Any advice or sources of info would be gratefully received !!!

Cheers!!

jo lois :

[Trigirl]

can't helop but i wanted to say congrats and good luck! that is in fact one hell of a week.

we're off to wellington in december.

[jo lois]

Thanks Trigirl - good luck with your move !

[jess]

Hi Jo Lois -

I live on the Kapiti Coast and love it here. You may want to read this thread about Kapiti.

We were originally going to move to Wellington. We love the city. But I lam a sucker for living in a more rural area (and at the beach). Once you get to Pukerua Bay and north, I think you can really tell that there are fewer people, and it feels a lot less busy. (That doesn't mean there isn't a ton of traffic at rush hour or after an accident though.)

I can't help you with jobs. I work via internet, and my OH is working part time as a barista at the moment. I'm guessing you might have an issue getting work in your particular field. Everyone I know here either commutes to Welly for corporate work or works with the public in some way - there are a couple of pharmacists on the forum who live here.

I think housing is cheaper here. We looked as far down as Plimmerton and Whitby when we went from renting to buying, but were seeing much better houses in kapiti for our budget (which was incidentally the same as yours). Even in Kapiti, we found that houses in Raumati South were more expensive than those in Waikanae, and that Otaki was cheaper still. Makes sense since you are getting further and further from Welly.

The train if you wanted to commute runs to Welly from Paraparaumu several times a day and from Waikanae it runs in in the morning and back after work. It takes about an hour I think from Waikanae. (By car it takes us 50 minutes outside rush hour).

The towns: I haven't been into Paekakariki, the southern part of Kapiti. I hear it has nice beaches and is a nice little place though not a lot there. It borders the enormous Queen Elizabeth park on its southern end. At the northern border, there's Raumati South - artsy liberal community as far as I can tell (I go to a meditation group there so I might be biased, but when we were looking at houses, in half the homes the art on the walls was by the owner). The immediate acces to QE Park is very nice. Then there's Raumati which is similar except it's further from the park and closer to Paraparaumu, the hub of Kapiti. Paraparaumu has the largest shopping area in Kapiti. See the Coastlands site. There are other shops as well though. (If what you need isn't in Paraparaumu, the next largest shopping area is down in Porirua between Kapiti and Welly) Then there's Otaihanga - a lovely stretch of the highway. Like Paekakariki, there were very few house for sale in my price range there, and I don't know much about it. North of that (10 min north of Paraparaumu) is Waikanae where I live. Great swimming beaches and a gorgeous estuary too. Known for having a lot of retirees, but more young families seem to be moving in. Then rural Peka Peka and rural Te Horo, then furthest north is Otaki which is about one hour and fifteen minutes north of Welly by car when there's no traffic jam. Several maraes there, and a Moari language college. It's less rural than Te Horo - it has a New World, Woolworth's etc. - and is about half way between Welly and Palmerston North.

If you'd like to know more about housing here, I looked at a ton of houses that were pretty much at your budget. Just PM me for details...

Hope that helps. We just had a nice meetup, so if you do come in January, we'll probably be ready for another by then.
J

[Kiwi-In-Texas]

Hi jo lois...

I lived on the Kapiti Coast (Waikanae) for many years (35 approx) before moving to U.S.A. last year.
As far as house prices go they are very expensive compared to other areas on the Kapiti Coast. There is a small shopping area in the shopping mall Waikanae and then there is a large shopping centre called Coastlands Shoppingtown, Paraparaumu which is approx 7 minutes South of Waikanae (depending on the traffic).
As far as work goes, you will find that your OH may have to commute to Wellington daily for work. There is a local weekly newspaper called "The Kapiti Observer" which is delivered to households on a Monday and Thursday. This paper does advertise job opportunities on the Kapiti Coast.
We are returning to New Zealand to live permanently next year and so we are keeping a very close eye on house prices in Waikanae and Paraparaumu. To date we have not noticed any reductions in house prices in this area.
Weather wise, the Kapiti Coast is a great place to live and you have good shopping facilities at Coastlands.
Good luck with your move in January 2007.

Cheers,
Suzanne and Ron.

[k-k]

Hi Jo Lois,

Although you've not had many replies to your post, there are a good few of us on the Kapiti Coast. I think we're all either in the midst of moving, having containers arrive or generally hard at work.

We've been here since January and knew at first sight it was the place for us. We arrived without jobs lined up, I found work quite quickly (I'm one of the pharmacists Jess mentioned) but Alan my OH took several months to find the job he wanted (he's in IT) and has to commute into Wellington. I don't know exactly what type of work you both do, but there isn't a huge choice around here. There may be things suitable, and as Kiwi-in texas mentioned the local paper has a job section.

With regards to housing, the prices vary depending on the area and how close to the beach you are. As Jess said the further out from Welly you are the cheaper. There are loads of sub-division type housing (what they call brick and tile houses) in Paraparaumu, but they do tend to pack them together sometimes. There's some nice places in Waikanae, but it's not quite so easy to commute by train from there. We're moving out to Otaki because we could get the type of property we wanted alot cheaper. Poor Alan though has the extra travelling to deal with, but we thought the sacrifice was worth it.

I'd say just come out here, find somewhere small and cosy to rent and have a good look around for jobs and houses. You can never get a true idea of things till you are here. There's plenty of us to give you advice and help when you get here, so don't worry, it'll be sunny and gorgeous here in January and you'll be so glad you made the big move.

If there's anything specific you want to know now PM me, I'd be glad to help. In the meantime have a look at the photo from the Kapiti Coasters meet then you'll at least know what we all look like. We met in one of the many lovely cafes at Paraparaumu Beach, you'll love it here.

All the best with the move
Karen