# places to live in / around Hamilton?



## shammy

We have been researching areas which might suit us to live, and have come up with Hamilton. Can anyone advise on nice areas to live? We'd be happy with about a 30 minute commute or so. I am a midwife, so would be working in the hospital or one of the maternity centres, and hubby is an engineer with a ton of railway experience, so he's hoping there will be prospects there. Obviously it may all be dependant on if / where we find work, but we'd like to have somewhere to aim for. And somewhere to go if we need to get out there in order to land a job.

We are not city dwellers, and here in the UK we would prefer to live in a village within a reasonable drive of a town. A little closer to the sea would be nice, also.

Thanks for any advice you can offer


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## escapedtonz

shammy said:


> We have been researching areas which might suit us to live, and have come up with Hamilton. Can anyone advise on nice areas to live? We'd be happy with about a 30 minute commute or so. I am a midwife, so would be working in the hospital or one of the maternity centres, and hubby is an engineer with a ton of railway experience, so he's hoping there will be prospects there. Obviously it may all be dependant on if / where we find work, but we'd like to have somewhere to aim for. And somewhere to go if we need to get out there in order to land a job.
> 
> We are not city dwellers, and here in the UK we would prefer to live in a village within a reasonable drive of a town. A little closer to the sea would be nice, also.
> 
> Thanks for any advice you can offer


Hey.....me again 
Haven't you decided the timing isn't right ha ha 

Yeah I personally like Hamilton. Do spend a bit of time there regularly due to work commitments.
Nice village / small towns to live within a reasonable distance.....
Cambridge is a really nice small town to the South East.
Matamata (Hobbit film set) is a nice village to the North East.
Morrinsville also supposed to be a nice place although further North West.
If you want to live on the coast Raglan to the West is 45 mins.

Tauranga is further away in the Bay Of Plenty but a gorgeous area to live. It is a small city with an airport and harbour etc and very close to Mount Maunganui which is just a stunning beach resort.
Unfortunately travel time around 1.5hrs to Hamilton over the Kimai's.


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## shammy

Hehe, thanks. Yes, we decided it's not practical right now, as I'm on maternity leave and would have to pay back some money if I didn't go back to work, plus we have a house full of stuff to sort out, but we still plan on making the move, some time next year hopefully. So we're researching now and will start the residency application in a few months time, allowing for it to take months, but also knowing that if it did go quickly we would still have a year to get there. Will have a look at the places you suggested, thanks. Are there any not so nice areas we should avoid?


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## escapedtonz

shammy said:


> Hehe, thanks. Yes, we decided it's not practical right now, as I'm on maternity leave and would have to pay back some money if I didn't go back to work, plus we have a house full of stuff to sort out, but we still plan on making the move, some time next year hopefully. So we're researching now and will start the residency application in a few months time, allowing for it to take months, but also knowing that if it did go quickly we would still have a year to get there. Will have a look at the places you suggested, thanks. Are there any not so nice areas we should avoid?


Not too sure about Hamilton itself and the areas not far from the city, or the areas that make up the city limits.
All I've seen really is areas that I have driven through between the city, the office which is through Glenview in the country on the way to the airport or when I've driven out to places like Cambridge, Matamata etc.
If I remember rightly the area around Hamilton Gardens is fine and the area called Dinsdale where the zoo is situated. 
There's also a golf & country club out that way which usually relates to a better class of area - certainly does in the uk. I've also found that place names with 'Heights' in the title are quite nice!!!


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## topcat83

shammy said:


> Hehe, thanks. Yes, we decided it's not practical right now, as I'm on maternity leave and would have to pay back some money if I didn't go back to work, plus we have a house full of stuff to sort out, but we still plan on making the move, some time next year hopefully. So we're researching now and will start the residency application in a few months time, allowing for it to take months, but also knowing that if it did go quickly we would still have a year to get there. Will have a look at the places you suggested, thanks. Are there any not so nice areas we should avoid?


Good plan. It will give you a bit of time to get everything sorted out too.
I can ask at work if there are any dodgy areas to avoid - but my recommendation would be to rent for 6 months anyway so you can suss out the areas that you like personally.


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## Liam(at)Large

Tamahere is a reasonably nice suburb of Hamilton and is where my sister-in-law and family live and is near Hamilton Gardens, the highlight of Hamilton, IMO. I find Hamilton to be a little soulless personally. Many people who live there do so as a result of employment needs and not desire. My SiL, BiL and most of their friends all say they'd move back to a coast ASAP. I can't understand why you'd move to NZ and want to live landlocked.


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## shammy

Thank you 

We plan to rent for at least 6 months until we really know where we want to be. We kind of arrived at Hamilton because hubby got freaked out by all the volcanoes and earthquakes etc everywhere else! I agree, actually, I would rather be on the coast and will try to find somewhere we can agree on. Hamilton does seem like somewhere we could hopefully both find work, though.


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## topcat83

shammy said:


> Thank you
> 
> We plan to rent for at least 6 months until we really know where we want to be. We kind of arrived at Hamilton because hubby got freaked out by all the volcanoes and earthquakes etc everywhere else! I agree, actually, I would rather be on the coast and will try to find somewhere we can agree on. Hamilton does seem like somewhere we could hopefully both find work, though.


lol! As NZ is on the Ring of Fire, are you moving to the right place? 

Seriously - don't worry about them. We've been here 7 years and have never felt or seen a thing. Everything is comparative. Yes NZ stands more chance of a tectonic event happening because of its location - but that still makes the possibility extremely remote, regardless of where you live. It could be 1, 10, 100, 1000 or longer years away! A better life is worth the risk!


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## shammy

Lol, we live in Lincolnshire, and about 6-7 years ago we had an earthquake which was about a 6 on the richter scale, so more tectonic action than you, eh? It was in the middle of the night, woke us up and freaked us out. Hubby thought the house was falling down!

Seriously, I think it's just a little attack of nerves - we've talked abolut going for years and only just got really serious. When we find the right place and/or job I'm sure it'll all fall into place.


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