Thread: Where would you live?

Quite an accurate list you have compiled there @308, Palmy and the bloody wind. I spent an entire career, some of which was Linton Camp based, bicycling to and from work and ye gods the wind pissed me off. Blew against you cycling to work, and blew against you on the way home. In the end I gave up cycling and just jogged down to the Manawatu river and swam to work. Was about 15 minutes faster. September to November were the worst months for wind.

Had a mate who was borne in Northland and ran a Kiwifruit orchard, then a charter boat fishing the 3 Kings etc, and he moved to Taupo as he had had a gutsful of the crime up there. And that was 30 years ago.

Its a bit too late to up sticks now (not mentioning the absolute shite ton of accumulated gear that some of us types 'gather') so we'll just go on holiday a bit more frequently to places south of the Cook Strait and soak up the lack of people and the wild places while we can.

Nelson became the retirement town of choice for Aucklanders after they priced the locals out of Tauranga

Originally Posted by XR500

Quite an accurate list you have compiled there @308, Palmy and the bloody wind. I spent an entire career, some of which was Linton Camp based, bicycling to and from work and ye gods the wind pissed me off. Blew against you cycling to work, and blew against you on the way home. In the end I gave up cycling and just jogged down to the Manawatu river and swam to work. Was about 15 minutes faster. September to November were the worst months for wind.

Had a mate who was borne in Northland and ran a Kiwifruit orchard, then a charter boat fishing the 3 Kings etc, and he moved to Taupo as he had had a gutsful of the crime up there. And that was 30 years ago.

Its a bit too late to up sticks now (not mentioning the absolute shite ton of accumulated gear that some of us types 'gather') so we'll just go on holiday a bit more frequently to places south of the Cook Strait and soak up the lack of people and the wild places while we can.

I can just imagine some survey person asking you - "so what mode of transport do you use to get to work?" - hmm, I don't have swimming on my list of options

Originally Posted by 308

Ok, not North of Auck because of crime levels
Nice climate, good fishing, too many thieves

Hastings, Wairoa, East Coast margins - too Gang-ey
Hastings is the home of the Mongrel Mob and sometimes that shows
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Hamilton (esp the areas around there) is underrated and has some really good bits
Taupo cold and prone to tourism but good for outdoors types - still some cheap land around but that elevation gets you some chills
Wanganui - jobs pay shit, if you have one
New Plymouth/Taranaki rains a fair bit and gets the odd tornado but good soil and farming - places like Urenui and Mokau can be very cheap land to buy - pretty country
Palmerston North as pointed out upthread it's got it's share of scrotes (and bretheren, which are basically scrotes off the drugs) but underestimated as a place to live cheaply with central access to lots of areas but still, they put a windfarm there for a reason
Otaki full of thieves, Wellington overpopulated with business analyst type civil servants still
Wairarapa full of old boomers (esp Greytown which rivals Waikanae for the smuggest bunch of arseholes you'll come across on a daily basis) but nice country esp around Gladstone

Well that's the North Island bit, I don't know the South well enough to say anything beyond the obvious that it rains like fuck on the west coast but having visited Southland briefly I reckon that it may well be chronically underrated

Moving this whole thing along, I'm interested in the demographics of people moving in the last 5 or 10 years - I reckon lots of Aucklanders looked at their million-plus valuations a few years back and said to their other half - why not cash out 8 to 10 years before retirement age and buy a freehold place in Gisborne/ Chch, etc?
I Know a bloke from Welly who cashed up and went to Chch and told me he got more of everything - land, size of house, etc

Any stories from folks in that situation?



Edit to say, hopefully that pissed off lots of people but if I haven't covered your specific area, please PM me and I will endeavour to insult your neighbourhood on an individual basis

Haha great analagy, very brave, I really like central , but don’t think my bones could handle the winters , we have been seriously looking at shifting , I like Taupo but it’s probably as cold as alot of the South Island .

much of the North Island has a cold that creeps in to your body and wont leave. It isnt a crisp , Central Otago cold - it is a soul-destroying , body sapping cold that just fucks you over all day long .

If you can handle that - and it gets much harder as you get older , then you probably can find somewhere to live thats suits you.

Originally Posted by Lucky

Haha great analagy, very brave, I really like central , but don’t think my bones could handle the winters , we have been seriously looking at shifting , I like Taupo but it’s probably as cold as alot of the South Island .

Yeah I noticed the elevation one summer years ago kayaking around Lake Waikaremoana, the days were clear but even mid-summer the nights had that extra bite to them

that Waiouru would take some beating for cold used to do the cold kiwi motorbike rally based not far from there probably have to spend entire night by the big fire they used to have now

Biggest cold snap mid winter we had in the late 1980's in Waiouru, the Chewing gum factory split heaps of galvanised pipes. INSIDE the building. Was a right cluster to fix. Thermometer said minus 14. Pretty cold for the North Island.

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

that Waiouru would take some beating for cold used to do the cold kiwi motorbike rally based not far from there probably have to spend entire night by the big fire they used to have now

I moved from Waiouru to Burnham in the early 80's and found the cold wet Christchurch misery much harder to live with.

Gotta laugh at 308 from Southland saying Paradise by the Lake is cold..... otherwise close enough.

Taupo in the North Island and Nelson in the South but am unlikely to ever live in either.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Geraldine is now where I call home and love it... But I still miss Taumarunui

It's a pretty sweet spot alright. Not exactly high street shopping but excellent out door options. Shot a deer and caught 14 trout last weekend

']I will put in a plug for Whakatane - sort of a mini Tauranga great fishing trout close and deer close- cheaper house prices but make sure you are up in the hills - great climate

January brought a house in Blenhiem and renting it out with the aim of moving down there when I decide to retire “in the next 3 to 5 years”
Nice and handy to Pelorus Sound and our bach and boat and sounds like some good hunting opportunities in Marlborough. We’ve stayed a couple of weekends just to explore a bit and get the feel of the town and what it has - we both grew up in chch then lived and worked there Wellington and now Auckland so moving somewhere much smaller will be a bit of a change. Liked what we saw in Blenhiem people very friendly and it’s got good services and some nice reserves like Taylor river to walk the dog. It just feels good to us so spotted a Mike Greer Homes special deal and thought they build a good house 10 year warranty that will do us. Just gotta stick to my timeframe…

North Island pick would be where I am now. South islands a tricky one.
Somewhere between Haast and Hokitika would be awesome but far from services and shops. The Geraldine area would probably be good too.

The problem with Geraldine, no decent chamois country thats handy. Oxford, handy to chch but far enough away from the lost souls that live there, handy to lewis pass, arthurs pass and tahr in the heads of the Rakia, and the big reds.