Anybody from / live in the Hawkes Bay area?

[Looonie]

I'd like to learn a little more about the region, things like unemployment, pay rates for warehousing/forklift work, good/bad suburbs, affordability of rental properties with garaging in those suburbs etc etc...

Thinking about relocating to the outskirts of Hastings/Napier... as nice as Waipukurau would probably be, its a little bit too far from the city centres for commuting and I imagine might be a little colder?

Any information or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers

[Dell'Orto]

Wouldn't consider Waipuk an outskirt! Its ages away. Avoid Hastings Napier is pretty decent I think

[Looonie]

You forget, I'm in Auckland so 40 minutes drive is just between suburbs for me

Whats wrong with Hastings??!??

I'd be happier living with 20-30 minutes drive of a CBD but still being surrounded by farmland and having an acre of two to myself, than being in a city...

[Mr.Phreak]

Whats wrong with Hastings??!??

Mostly the people...

[wde_bdy]

Flaxmere, it's where you want to be....
Realistically you will get a little sick of travelling if you expect it to be anything like Auckland. Might take you 20 minutes to go across suburbs but there is so much more local in each suburb you don't HAVE TO go 20 minutes to get what you want. I love living rural but I have a pub 500m down the road and am in town every day, big transition from Auckland to do that though.

Callum

[moses]

nothing wrong with hastings been here all my life 27years and never had any problems

[touge_ae101]

If you're looking for lifestyle living maraekakaho, puketapu, otane and raukawa offer good location to town all within 15-20mins.

Obviously some parts of Hastings are better than others but personally i get sick of the bay as everyone knows everyone and people tend to be quite small town minded which can be frustrating.

Also not a lot of good garages or support for car stuff also but 2hrs to manfeild/taupo is always good. Two good beaches 30mins from town as well with ocean beach and waimarama.

hope this helps..

[Looonie]

Cheers guys.

From some research it seems the only "affordable" places to start off would be Flaxmere and Mareaenui... neither of which I understand to be particularly "nice".

The appeal of Hawkes Bay is supposed to be nice dry warm weather, good beaches/water/views, smaller than Auckland, 2 hours to Taupo or Manfield, and ability to hopefully buy a bit of land not too far out of town. Staying in Auckland means going at least an hours drive from work to buy a run down "starter house". Hour and half minimum to get some land.

Also considering Whangarei, but then its 3 hours to Hampton... probably warmer though?

I don't mind so much the "everybody knows everybody" thing. I did most of my growing up in Whitianga so prefer the "small town" atmosphere/environment to Auckland. Too many people, 99% of which seem to be assholes.