New Plymouth?

[kwak34]

a BIG HELLO to all you kiwi bikers!
my wife has been offered a post as a nurse in new plymouth,west coast,north island.
please can anyone give me more info bout this place???
what are the roads like in this area?
how far away is the nearest track?
what is the weather like there?
housing costs/rental/general living compared with other places in nz?
do you have a domestic race series/competition and how many tracks is there?
all advice and info would be much appreciated.

[Pussy]

Hey Kwak34... you'll like it here. Great motorcycling roads, nice scenery, closest track is Manfeild (approx 200km away), and Taupo is about 300km from here. House prices are about average for NZ. New Plymouth is a good town, and I believe there are less than 200 registered unemployed ( I had a bugger of a job employing a candidate for a specialist driving job recently).
Weather is pretty good, can get a bit wet and windy at times.
Good place

[BiK3RChiK]

Gets all the prevailing weather but if you can cope with that then you'll love the place! It has the mountain with a ski field about 25 minutes away, is obviously on the coast so has black sand beaches and fishing aplenty at the port. Nice roads for riding around the mountain. New Plymouth is probably a small city compared to England, but is only 3 hours away from Hamilton and 4 hours from Auckland Cities. I've heard 'outsiders' say that it is a bit difficult to find ones way around there but once you get used to the One way systems you should be sweet. It can get a bit cold in the winter too.. I grew up there, but have moved to the East Coast although all my family still live down there.

All the best with the planned move.

[sels1]

Welcome to KB
There are a lot worse places to live.
Being English, you wont mind a bit of rain, thats why its so green there.
It helps if you like cows, they have a few around the place.
And you get a nice mountain thrown in as well.

[ynot slow]

Man you'll love it,your wife will enjoy the hospital,great staff(the nurses)and after 10 days in the place they got used to my humour.

Housing market is cooling down sort of,rents ok and good beachs for miles.And a bloody big hill named after one Lord Egmont to walk around.

Can surf and ski in the same day if brave enough.

Just do it as nike says.About 4 hours from Auckland airport,same from Wellington,Taupo to fish 2&1/2 hours.

Oh and according to various websites the most googled place is Coronation St and then porn sites from New Plymouth so the base of this is a bunch of geriatric porn viewers lol.

[pritch]

and fishing aplenty at the port.

Ummm that's a bit out of date. The port is pretty much off-limits to fishermen now, due to some international anti-terrorist requirement... Boating is OK, but that's pretty serious water out there.

I must like the place, or at least not actively dislike it, because I'm still here :-)

There are some nice motorcycling roads.

There is some info here: http://www.newplymouthnz.com/

A Google image search should produce some pictures, try New Plymouth NZ or Mt Taranaki.

[Bren]

Hey Kwak.....any part of noo zilind has got to be good....(well most parts anyway)....West coast is an awesome area ...it has character!!!

[Jantar]

And take no notice of the comments made on the weather by others in this thread. Weather forecasting in New Plymouth is easier than anywhere else in the world. There are just two simple steps....

If you can see Mt Egmount then it is going to rain.

If you can't see Mt Egmont then it is already raining.

[Pedrostt500]

New Plymouth is one of New Zealands hidden gems, it gets its share of good and bad weather, like every where, Road riding it has so awsome roads, around the mountain, or the Forgotten highway, if the weather aint good for the bike there is always somting else on.

[martybabe]

mate coming from Scarborough you'll think you've won the lottery, no offence meant, I'm a pom myself. Here's why.

Firstly the wife, gotta keep the ladies happy: My wife works as a nurse at that very Hospital, she's been a nurse for 22 years and has worked in several establishments all over the place, the midlands, Jersey etc. In short she thinks it's the best hospital she has ever worked at. There will be a learning curve, a lot of things are the same but different as you'd expect, little things but hundreds of em. It took the bride several months to tune into new practices and terminology, but over all she's the happiest I've ever known her at work. Wages are poor though, expect maybe 2/3 to 3/4 of pommy salary, however, the cost of living is cheaper than England for the most part.

Housing whilst fluctuating at the moment, is much cheaper in New Plymouth and NZ than the UK.
We have a 5 bed detached mansion on a hill with sea views for the same price as a three bed semi in Brum. Rents would average out at $300-$400 a week for a decent 3 bed detached house.

Climate and countryside: We've only done a year so what the average state of affairs is who knows, I read somewhere that NP is the second sunniest place in NZ, last summer was a blast, almost non stop sun with the temp usually 20 - 27 deg. Winter has been wet but daily winter highs have been 13-17 degreesish.The place seems to have a bit of a rep re weather but that's from a kiwi perspective, the shite that you and I know is thankfully a distant memory, maybe not the best in NZ but bloody good compared to Your neck of the woods. That's a massive generalisation but a fairly accurate one.

10 minutes in any direction and your in the Yorkshire dales on steroids, much bigger much warmer and all kinds of weird looking plants and birds Dominated by a mount Fuji looking mount Taranaki, which is an awesome sight from all over new Plymouth, your good lady will see it most days from the hospital.

Motor cycling is brilliant here, all the roads take you to amazing places and there's enough twisty bits to keep anyone happy, if it's not the best place on earth to ride it can't be far off.

There is some bad news though. A lot of the road surfaces around here are awful, especially in summer, tar and chip every where, so you will encounter loose gravel corners, melting tar slicks and double rig 40 tonne trucks coming the other way through gravel fields, some rides it's like blooming sand blasting for you and the bike.

Gotta go ride now it's Sunday, the equivalent of your Jan/Feb it's sunny dry and 16 degrees and writing this has give me an appetite for a scoot around.

I can't speak for you obviously but I doubt you'll regret moving here, my family don't, it's a great place with great friendly laid back people. The weather and life style someone from the north of England can only dream of, Honestly, come on down and call me a liar.

Finally, get yourself a phrase book of kiwi speak, prepare to repeat almost every sentence at first till they tune in to your coronation street or royal accent and develop a taste for cold lager stuff, eww. Good luck

[sels1]

mate coming from Scarborough you'll think you've won the lottery, no offence meant, I'm a pom myself. :

Good post - sometimes we need to be reminded how good we have it here, often we take things for granted.

[Swoop]

Watch out for the water in NP...

It does something to the female population there... that makes them bloody attractive.

Not that you will need to know that.

[BiK3RChiK]

Ummm that's a bit out of date. The port is pretty much off-limits to fishermen now, due to some international anti-terrorist requirement... Boating is OK, but that's pretty serious water out there.

Heh! Okay, then... Off the breakwaters! You can still fish there because I did last winter with me bro and we even snorkelled for paua at the breakwater rocks.

I like going 'home' to the Naki but I love living in the Eastern Bay of Plenty!

[SPman]

New Plymouth - Westy capital of NZ!

[MIXONE]

Man you'll love it,your wife will enjoy the hospital,great staff(the nurses)and after 10 days in the place they got used to my humour.

Housing market is cooling down sort of,rents ok and good beachs for miles.And a bloody big hill named after one Lord Egmont to walk around.

Can surf and ski in the same day if brave enough.

Just do it as nike says.About 4 hours from Auckland airport,same from Wellington,Taupo to fish 2&1/2 hours.

Oh and according to various websites the most googled place is Coronation St and then PORN SITES from New Plymouth so the base of this is a bunch of geriatric porn viewers lol.

Only since martybabe shifted there.