family friendly suburbs

We live in pukete hamilton. I love this area as it is close to the base and on the town side of the river so traffic isn't a problem. Also if you need to go to akl then it is at the north end of hamilton so a bit closer. (My husband commutes) Another recommendation would be flagstaff or rototuna where you can get a newer house but you are over the river which can add a bit of time onto getting to town but compared to akl commute times it is a breeze. The only problem with these areas is the high school. We are zoned for not the best but since there is high growth in these areas a new high school is on the agenda I just don't know when. I also love pukete kindy where my daughter goes. Mixed feeling on the primary school and we are trying to get into te rapa primary as it is a great school. It is just down the road but we are not zoned. Pukete has been fine but it ends at year 6 and then the intermediate we are zoned for is not great. If you buy in zone for terapa it goes thru til highschool. Houses range from $279-700K+ in pukete and due to houses being newer in flagstaff they are a bit more pricey. Go on TM property to get a feel for what your money could buy.

As for walking distance it is all very close to what you are wanting and there is a bus route around the area too.

Edited by kiwi2

just wanted to say on the community thing - cause i know nothing about either place LOL! - we just recently moved to manurewa and while i was walking back from taking the kids to school i bumped into a lady who had just dropped her son off at school too and when i asked about the school and told her we had just moved to the area she welcomed me to manurewa and said i am sure you will love it here!

so i guess i am saying the feeling of community can be got anywhere, even auckland.

We live in Fairfield and love it here. We are so close to everything and have never had any issues with the area. Like TaliP said is it s a bit rough but the area has changed a lot in the 3 years we have been here with a lot more young families moving into the area.

We live in Pukete, but from the sounds of things at the other end of Pukete. Our area used to be called Churchill, but is kind of merged with Pukete. We have been here 2 years and love it!! We are zoned for Te Rapa school and also Te Kowhai school (both going from new entrants to year 8). I'm not sure of kindy's but there are a few daycare's in the area. Playcentre is a 5 min walk from my house. There are lots of families in my area, especially in my culdasac, with young children. Good luck with your decisions hun, I can totally recommend this area of town. Prices are similar to Pukete - but property in this area sells really quickly, have a look on TM and see what you find xx

I've lived in Whitiora, Fairfield, Pukete and Dinsdale/Aberdeen (where we currently live).

Whitiora was great, however I was young and single, so being close to town was awesome Not so sure it would be particularly family friendly anymore.

Pukete is a great family friendly area and I have a friend who's youngest recently finished at Te Rapa school. She had nothing but great things to say about the school. I also have a single, childless friend who lives in Pukete and she is always commenting about how many families are in the area and how she thinks it would be a good place to raise kids.

Parts of Fairfield are really good. I was never really comfortable with where we lived though, it was on the border of one of the rougher parts of the suburb.

I living in Dinsdale. We are really close to a few really good primary schools and the kindy Ollie attends is wonderful. There are loads of young families in the area, a supermarket and small shopping centre. As far as housing, most family houses in the area are older. Parts of Dinsdale are zoned 'high residential' so you have homes being demolished and 5 or 6 townhouses being built on the section, somehting to bear in mind if you don't want to be overlooked. For $350k I think you'd be able to find an older family friendly home in the area.

I really like living in Hamilton. It's a decent sized city without being too big. You never have to travel for long to get anywhere and the public transport system is getting better all the time.

Best of luck with your decision

I'll be your first Tauranga rep

We're in Brookfield (well, Judea, if you're going by the mail centre).
We're in walking distance to New World (has a cafe attached) and a small shopping complex with a 4 Square, pharmacy, bakery, FnC shop, stationers, Post Shop, gift store, Video Ezy, Liquor King, butcher and a vet.

As for kiddy stuff in walking distance, there's a Plunket, a kindy, two primary schools, two playgrounds, and if you're a bit more adventurous there's a swimming pool about 20 mins brisk walk from here.
*edited to add: There are also lots of duck ponds and pram/bike friendly walking tracks surrounding them

The area's nice, and it's a hop onto the expressway to get you into town in about 7 minutes.
15 minute drive from Bayfair shopping complex, The Mount and beaches.

Not sure what rent is like, as we own. But when we first moved here 7 years ago we were looking at 3 bedroom rentals before we decided to buy. From memory, for something nice, we were looking at $300/week. But I imagine those prices are different now.

Weather is great (for the most part) and the people are friendly

Edited by MamaPickle

Aww, thanks queenbean

Good luck

I have just looked thru a house in ronald court. It is lovely and has a huge back yard. There is a walkway straight to te rapa school off that road too. Price was $329K and it is empty so probably room to move on that. It was a little bit small for us but immaculate with a great gas fire. Its on trademe with the three queen palms in front.   We are on a culdesac and the kids are out playing all the time. In summer you just open the doors and let them run.

ETA we need 4 bedrooms and it was 3. My youngest is 4 years old so she is supervised in the culdesac but the older two have free range. 9 and 13. Just thought I would explain myself as it sounded a bit too carefree letting them run and play on the road if they were littlies.

Edited by kiwi2

yummymummy2 wrote: Making friends with the neighbours and everyone growing up together. I know it sounds like neighbours! ( the t.v show).

Lol...just as long as you don't get pregnant to your best friends ex husband and pretend to be pregnant to your BMF friend who goes along with the lie and marries you to make it all seem realistic......