Alas no wellimum, stuck in London. Curse marrying an Englishman!!!
earthtomummy, I grew up in Upper Hutt, though I was born in Auckland. The Hutt valley extends from Petone, on the harbour, up through Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt, and peters out at the foot of the Tararua Ranges. It is very common to live in the Hutt Valley and commute to Wellington. It takes about 50 minutes on the surburban rail from Upper Hutt to Wellington central. Obviously it takes less time the further in you live, but correspondingly the house prices go up. Whe I lived in Petone I had a flatmate who cycled in to work in Wellington, though I wouldn't recommend this all the time as there is nothing between the South Pole and New Zealand, so when the Southerly wind blows, it can frequently get up to storm force. Wellington is notorious for it's wind.
Up in the top end of the valley it is very high and can get cold in the winter. It has one of the highest lung disease rates in the country,(due to cold and inversion layers) so don't move there if you suffer from asthma. On the other hand, my sister lived in Island Bay (one of the sea side Wellington suburbs) and claimed she never suffered from hay fever the entire time she lived there, the wind blew all the pollen away. Eastbourne is a lovely suburb around the harbour, but is becoming quite expensive. A friend of mine bought a ridiculously cheap house in Petone and did it up. There are still plenty of those type of properies still avaliable. Remember, Kiwi homes, especially in the suburbs, usually come with a detached garage, laundry room and a large back yard - the kiwi quarter acre pavlova paradise they used to call it.
My parents have just retired to Tauranga. It's a fabulous place, the weather is warm, the beaches are great and the delights of the big city (Auckland) are only a couple of hours away by car. I wouldn't stress too much about ending up in a land locked town, you are never more than 70km away from the coastline in NZ, and remember the roads aren't crowded and the speed limit on the open road is 100km per hour.
The education system is decidedly better than the English one. I'm not just being a biased Kiwi, I've worked in both! Health care is subsidised. So it's not free to all like the NHS, nor is it outrageoulsy expensive like the US. You are expected to contribute, based on your income. The best bet is to get private health insurance.
I'll agree the beaches in Wellington aren't the lie in and sunbathe type, but especially along the Kapati coast there are miles upon miles of sand and dunes. You can wander for ages without encountering another person. Excellent fun, even in the depths of winter for windsurfing, running and rolling down the dunes (happy childhood memories)