Suggestions please????

[nzkronky1]

Hi All,
I am a NZ citizen but have spent most of my life in the UK I intend to return to North Island NZ once my house is sold. My husband is about to retire early I will probably work part time but and this is the thing, I am originally from Carterton which is gorgeous but too quite for my 19 year old son plus I have to consider him being able to find work etc. I need North Island suggestions for areas to consider where the lifestyle will be nice ie countryside or coast and there is enough life so that my son can find work and friends etc. We all lead very active lifestyles we like the gym and running outside etc. Also anyone out there who has done this already and has any tips for finding our feet in NZ??? We have a great social network here and I know I am going to have to work hard to establish another one. Any advice gratefully received.

[Kay]

Hi

Sorry I don't know the answers but I thought I'd say hello and welcome to the forum anyway. I hope someone else will come along soon with the answers.

Good luck with your plans!

Kay

[nzkronky1]

Hi thanks for your welcome and reply, I am totally new to the site in fact I haven't used forums before so I am still trying to find my way around. Cheers.

[Toonster]

Hiya!
Welcome to the forum

I'm a Welly girl myself - my husband and I moved to Lower Hutt (and have recently bought a house in Upper Hutt).

The lifestyle here is great - I seriously have difficulty keeping up with everything that I do!
I'm in the Hutt Valley Orchestra (and on the committee)
I'm in the Upper Hutt Hockey club
I'm part of both the Phoenix and the Upper Hutt Sci-fi societies
I'm an ad-hoc member of the Wellymoot (Wellington Tolkein society)
I used to be part of the Lower Hutt Tae-Kwon Do group, but had to give up due to ill health and general taking too much on!

I love the Hutt Valley because it is perfectly positioned in terms of balance between the countryside and town - we have quite a bit going on culturally in the Valley, but for 'big' (never as big as in the UK...) things, Wellington is only a short train ride / bus journey / car trip away. We have the beach either in Petone (20 minutes drive) or the Kapiti Coast (30 minutes away). If you are prepared to live a bit away from the commuter belt (we needed easy access to the train station for our trip to work in Welly), you can get a good size block, too.

Wellington is reasonably good for jobs - mainly in the government sector, of course!

For me, the main piece of advice for getting settled is to find those clubs and societies - they are the best ways of making friends (particularly outside of the ex-pat loop)