WHERE'S BEST TO LIVE IN NZ AND WHAT DO WE NEED TO KNOW: PART4!!!

[AngryBeaver]

Arrgh,had to start a new thread!

Yes,you can get more land in Tauranga. Well,somewhere like Omokoroa or somewhere.Wouldn't want to live much closer than that. And I woulkdn't want to live at he Mount. Lovely as it is. Too touristy,imo.
We would like enough land for a pool (eventually) maybe a sleepout and still enough for a veggie patch and garden for kids. Don't neeed acres +. Wouldn't say no though,if we could afford it! Be nice to have a few sheep or something/

I think Mum would have to fly to Tauranga. So that would be
Manchester-London,London-Singapore, Singapore-Aukland,Aukland- Tauranga
Bad.

justa howws the back? Hope physio was a help,we may have driven past you!
Your house sounds great.
My mums friend lives in Silverdale.She has about an acre with some sheep etc
Wasn't overly impressed at but didn't give it a proper look I suppose,just stopped to buy flowers for Mums friend! Always worth another look

YIKES shelscrape - good luck! And have a wonderful meet-up girls - wish I could be there BTW I tried running last year with those barefoot shoes, the one that has crowds gathering and pointing and smirking bcs you look SUCH A TOSSER - I soon gave up (again). Though I still rather like my shoes ...but I am just NOT a runner. I am, however, a recently-converted squash fanatic!! So please could at least two of you reveal yourself as keen, ardent but Not Actually Very Good squash players to match me in time for my arrival next year
...and thanks SO much for those really helpful web links. I immediately found us a gorgeous house in Browns Bay - guess it might just have gone by July 2013
One final word about the weather please - is there really an awful a lot of rain ?!? One of our principal reasons for plotting an escape from the UK is the sodding, fricking, endlessly dispiriting rain - please don't tell me it's just as bad in NZ! Dunedin was pretty dry from my recollection - with loads more sunshine especially in the winter, though a disappointingly overcast summer...I gather it DOES rain rather a lot in winter in Auckland then? But it's better than England, right?!?
Bye for now- have a fab meet-up!

GOOD LUCK SHELS WHOOP WHOOP! You go girl!
meerkate Oh god, the shoes that make you look like you have monkey feet?? You didn't!
Sorry, can't play squash, although dh loves it? And he is quite nice, if a bit grumpy! I can play badmington?
Does rain on and off but it is usually followed by lovely sunshine. I suppose you wouldn't have the beautiful green views if it wasn't watered regularly? It's definitely better than the UK!
Tauranga has the most sunshine hours and the least rain.( I think it's there and Nelson)
Part of the reason I want to move there!!!

ps enjoy your mini meet up. I am a bit, [evny]!

oh,

that's better

meerkate I'm Irish, so I'd say no, it doesn't rain a lot

Seriously - from what I can tell it rains a fair bit, but it generally rains heavily for a while then stops. None of these endless grey drizzly days. And the weather has rarely stopped us doing what we want to do. (and after the last few winters at home, having winters that don't involve freezing temperatures & getting snowed in is a bonus )

Warm rain - and monsoon style for 5 minutes and then it clears up, sun comes out and the slide and swings dry. Not the constant grey drizzle like the UK.

Okay guys, I feel suitably reassured ... I personally love lush greenness a la Ireland/NZ/Herefordshire (where I am now - an utterly gorgeous part of the UK!) and am definitely prepared to put up with SOME rain to achieve that loveliness! Thanks for the helpful description namechange...Don't mind bursts of heavy rain - it's the endless bland drizzly greyness that is so wrist-slitting, isn't it! vvviola - my family is from Scotland so I know what you're saying
YES AB the dreadful monkey shoes - in this appalling, eye-watering PINK, too, bcs they were in the sale! Definitely not my best buy ever...I am totally on for badminton, was playing this morning with the kids, in fact - love it too! Only racquet sport I really can't get on with is Bloody Tennis, though I recently had a couple of lessons with a 21-yr-old Adonis of a coach, who did make the whole thing slightly more palatable I chose not to inform him that I last played tennis the year he was born, or thereabouts...

Ok, I have to admit now, I am actually a bit shit at badmington! Dh gets cross with me!

I agree about the rain, it tends to be short bursts of heavy rain. Spring is the rainiest season imo. Summer was a bit rubbish this year but that's unusual - usually it's a guaranteed 3-4 months of mostly very nice weather.

minerva if you are looking into kindies the Auckland Kindergarten Association wil have details of the ones near you www.akkindergarten.org.nz/Akainternet/templates/Home.aspx?siteId=2&menuItemId=81

They are very reasonable, $10 for 20 hours a week at ours and my eldest loves going there and is getting some fantastic teaching too.

Hey, was lovely to meet you today.

Organised? Well I am trying. My whole life in the uk was complete chaos. .

Am definitely up for meeting again. but I you think my children are adorable, you can't see them now

Had a drive around the area after we left. Was lovely, popped down to the beach for half hour. Will definitely be looking that way once we have to leave here.

Hope to meet more of you soon. Oh and thanks for the link WSS am on it now.

Meerkate - LOL at the wrist slitting from the greyness of Scotland. I hail from Edinburgh. It was the 4 months of snow in the winter of 2010/11 that finished me off and we moved as a result

lolly - I went to uni in Glasgow, then eventually returned to Scotland to spend a couple of years in Edinburgh (Bruntsfield) - left in 2000, i think - love Edinburgh and still go up every year or two to see all my pals up there! But MAN that February wind - argh! I am NOT good at being cold!!! Eek - school run beckons - back soon!! So glad your meet-up went so well, girls!

It's chuffin' cold. I have got the wood burner on again...the romanticsm of that soon wore off, let me tell ya!
Re cake making justa...I found this recipe for a Rainbow cake I think the kids will love, looks easy peasy too www.be-ro.co.uk/f_insp.htm
Telly talk: is anyone watching that freaky show after Grimm,I think it's called An American Horror Story?

Bruntsfield was my old tramping ground. DS1 started school there. They've just opened a sainsburys central there in place of Peckhams

Must be colder in Cambridge, AB, it's 21 degrees in my house and we've no heating on. I haven't watched American Horror Story, not really into vampire/scary stuff ... I have set Californication to tape though.

Well that does it, I'm moving up to Aukland! My toes are cold!

Is Californication the one with Mulder in it?

I've been watching it AB...it goes from being totally freaky, to being quite lame. It's had moments of real promise, but I'm not sure that it is going to take me on the journey that I'd like. I've been enjoying Grimm also. A bit different to what I usually watch.

Yes, Californication has the ageing but still quite lovely Mr Duchovny :)

I do hope not. I might end up missing Californication and I've no emergency kit.