Moving from Auc to Gigatown (Dunedin) - Advice/comments/suggestions please

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Blurtie

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#180803 22-Sep-2015 14:18

Hi All,

As per the subject, me, my partner and our wee boy are going to be moving from Auck to Dunners at some point in late Jan 2016 (dates to be confirmed). Has anyone who done this (recently-ish) able to fill me in on what to expect? I've never lived in the south island, but have heard various comments re the cooler climate...

We're looking at shipping our stuff down using a furniture removal company, so any suggestions/recommendations on who to go with would be greatly appreciated. Also an indication as to what a reasonable quote to expect for this move would be good too. We're currently living in a small 2 bedroom Greenlane flat and at a rough guess we would possibly look to move around 15-20m3. To complicate things a bit, we're from Wellington and have a few things there that we would possibly like to include in the move, if this is possible.

We'll book temporary accommodation for the first month we're down there, while we look for a place to rent or even buy. Any suggestions on where to live? My partner will be going back to Uni, so would like somewhere close where she can walk or take a bus to uni, but also want to avoid the student areas if that makes sense. I will be working from home, so a family friendly area where I can take our boy for walks would be a bonus. I'm guessing most places down there will have UFB with 'gigatown' plans?

At present, our rough plan is to have movers move most of our stuff and we'll load the car up with our bare essentials and drive/ferry down. We will have roughly a week or so to do this trip, so will need to store our stuff somewhere down in Dunnes.

TL;DR

moving from Auck to Dunedin, after recommendation on movers with reasonable price to expect for 2bedroom flat move.
recommendation for suburbs to rent or buy in Dunners, pref close to uni, but not in student areas.

Any other comments, suggestions or recommendations re an inter-island move would be welcomed.

Cheers all!

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#1391948 22-Sep-2015 14:30

My choice of suburbs would be Brighton, St Clair or Dunedin south (in order).

trig42

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#1391958 22-Sep-2015 14:49

Re. Relocation costs (furniture movers).

It will be expensive. I'd be surprised if you got change from$6-7k, possibly even more. Some may pickup from Wellington on the way through, some may load your Auckland furniture into a larger trailer here in Auckland (with other stuff they need to move to the South Island).

If you know someone (or you yourself have) a class 2 license, you can hire a 40-cube truck for 3 days for less than $700 (may cost more than that for a one-way trip). That will easily fit your stuff.

Another option is to look for an operator who needs a backload - I used to use this website when I was moving furniture: http://www.backloadmoving.co.nz/ to pickup backloads. Free to put a request in there, and it sits there for truckers looking for a backload (they pay the website a small fee for every backload they pick up from them).

afe66

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#1391966 22-Sep-2015 15:03

Flat hunting in Dunedin can be more frustrating than you would expect because students can drive prices up and the competition can be result in poorer flats still being offered.

Downside of looking in January will be students may have picked the better flats the year before so pickings might be slim... Might be worth looking online now to get feel for things.

Agents can be lazy because they have captured market. I was staggered by the number of rental places that were either closed on weekend or closed at mid day.

Accept it is cold. You will need more layers and you will spend more on heating. Always funny seeing the Auckland female students arrive at the beginning of the year in their trendy minimalist clothing then after a fortnight they are al wearing puffer jackets.

If you want beach then St Clair is far enough away from students but can be more expensive.

Like most places, you get what you pay for.
Probably avoid Brockville pine hill.

Have you considered a coming down for the weekend and having a look round in advance ?

A.

lxsw20

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#1391967 22-Sep-2015 15:07

nakedmolerat: My choice of suburbs would be Brighton, St Clair or Dunedin south (in order).

Really... :S Brighton is a fair way out and not exactly convenient for Uni. St Clair is nice, South Dunedin is probably one of the worst areas of town.

My picks would be:

Waverley, Highcliff, Sheil Hill, St Kilda, St Clair, Andersons Bay, Musselburgh, Tainiu Mornington, Fairfield (A little way out of town), Maori Hill. - These are pretty much all middle class family areas of town. I personally grew up in Waverley and rate it, it's on the other side of town to the uni, so about 15 mins drive. Currently own a house in Musselburgh 3 bed 1935 103m2 place that I rent out for $350pw to give you an idea.

Avoid:

South Dunedin, North East Valley (Close to uni, but does not see the Sun for 6 months), Leith Valley (Same as NEV), Ravensbourne (Same as NEV but also features a fertiliser plant).

I can't think of much that is close to the uni that isn't full of students...as you would expect.

afe66: Flat hunting in Dunedin can be more frustrating than you would expect because students can drive prices up and the competition can be result in poorer flats still being offered.

Only if you're silly enough to want to live in the student part of town (North Dunedin).

Blurtie

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#1391969 22-Sep-2015 15:10

trig42: Re. Relocation costs (furniture movers).

It will be expensive. I'd be surprised if you got change from$6-7k, possibly even more. Some may pickup from Wellington on the way through, some may load your Auckland furniture into a larger trailer here in Auckland (with other stuff they need to move to the South Island).

If you know someone (or you yourself have) a class 2 license, you can hire a 40-cube truck for 3 days for less than $700 (may cost more than that for a one-way trip). That will easily fit your stuff.

Another option is to look for an operator who needs a backload - I used to use this website when I was moving furniture: http://www.backloadmoving.co.nz/ to pickup backloads. Free to put a request in there, and it sits there for truckers looking for a backload (they pay the website a small fee for every backload they pick up from them).

Ouch, sounds exp, was hoping for something under the $4K mark to be honest.. But will have a look at the link. Would prefer movers to come in and do it all for us rather than the DIY and renting your own truck approach due to our wee one. Seems like a lot of hassle, I presume you would also have to return the truck? I'm thinking, hireage, petrol and the ferry alone would quickly add up. Not to mention the time it takes to do that trip.

graemeh

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#1391975 22-Sep-2015 15:12

trig42: If you know someone (or you yourself have) a class 2 license, you can hire a 40-cube truck for 3 days for less than $700 (may cost more than that for a one-way trip). That will easily fit your stuff.

If you go down this route then you also would need to add probably $400 each way for diesel. It will take two days to drive the truck from Auckland to Dunedin so if you can't get a one way hire you'd probably need five days hire.

As long as you've had a full car license for a few years and meet a few other criteria you can get a class 2 license for about $1k and 10-12 hours work if you decided you wanted to do it yourself.

graemeh

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#1391981 22-Sep-2015 15:17

Blurtie:
trig42: Re. Relocation costs (furniture movers).

It will be expensive. I'd be surprised if you got change from$6-7k, possibly even more. Some may pickup from Wellington on the way through, some may load your Auckland furniture into a larger trailer here in Auckland (with other stuff they need to move to the South Island).

If you know someone (or you yourself have) a class 2 license, you can hire a 40-cube truck for 3 days for less than $700 (may cost more than that for a one-way trip). That will easily fit your stuff.

Another option is to look for an operator who needs a backload - I used to use this website when I was moving furniture: http://www.backloadmoving.co.nz/ to pickup backloads. Free to put a request in there, and it sits there for truckers looking for a backload (they pay the website a small fee for every backload they pick up from them).

Ouch, sounds exp, was hoping for something under the $4K mark to be honest.. But will have a look at the link. Would prefer movers to come in and do it all for us rather than the DIY and renting your own truck approach due to our wee one. Seems like a lot of hassle, I presume you would also have to return the truck? I'm thinking, hireage, petrol and the ferry alone would quickly add up. Not to mention the time it takes to do that trip.

Depending on how attached you are to the stuff you are moving it might be cheaper to just buy new stuff when you arrive in Dunedin and take the rest there in a trailer towed behind your car.

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Blurtie

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#1391982 22-Sep-2015 15:18

afe66: Flat hunting in Dunedin can be more frustrating than you would expect because students can drive prices up and the competition can be result in poorer flats still being offered.

Downside of looking in January will be students may have picked the better flats the year before so pickings might be slim... Might be worth looking online now to get feel for things.

Agents can be lazy because they have captured market. I was staggered by the number of rental places that were either closed on weekend or closed at mid day.

Accept it is cold. You will need more layers and you will spend more on heating. Always funny seeing the Auckland female students arrive at the beginning of the year in their trendy minimalist clothing then after a fortnight they are al wearing puffer jackets.

If you want beach then St Clair is far enough away from students but can be more expensive.

Like most places, you get what you pay for.
Probably avoid Brockville pine hill.

Have you considered a coming down for the weekend and having a look round in advance ?

A.

Thanks for that. Yes we did consider heading down for a weekend, but looking at flights and our schedule it was just going to be too expensive to do that. So we decided to take the plunge and hope for the best.

I have heard that flats do get advertised early and are usually locked in already, but I was sorta hoping that the landlords do this mainly for the students? As I'm not going to be competing with students, surely there'll still be rentals available for us come Jan/Feb next year? or should I re-think that?

I don't mind the cold personally - having live in Wellington for a good chunk of my life, although I'm suspecting the Dunedin cold will be something else!

afe66

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#1391983 22-Sep-2015 15:20

When I transferred to Dunedin, students were turning up to house viewings I was looking at in Maori Hill, Roslyn, Bellekowes too.

Not just the Northern suburbs of NEV, Opoho etc.

A.

Blurtie

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#1391992 22-Sep-2015 15:27

lxsw20:
nakedmolerat: My choice of suburbs would be Brighton, St Clair or Dunedin south (in order).

Really... :S Brighton is a fair way out and not exactly convenient for Uni. St Clair is nice, South Dunedin is probably one of the worst areas of town.

My picks would be:

Waverley, Highcliff, Sheil Hill, St Kilda, St Clair, Andersons Bay, Musselburgh, Tainiu Mornington, Fairfield (A little way out of town), Maori Hill. - These are pretty much all middle class family areas of town. I personally grew up in Waverley and rate it, it's on the other side of town to the uni, so about 15 mins drive. Currently own a house in Musselburgh 3 bed 1935 103m2 place that I rent out for $350pw to give you an idea.

Avoid:

South Dunedin, North East Valley (Close to uni, but does not see the Sun for 6 months), Leith Valley (Same as NEV), Ravensbourne (Same as NEV but also features a fertiliser plant).

I can't think of much that is close to the uni that isn't full of students...as you would expect.

afe66: Flat hunting in Dunedin can be more frustrating than you would expect because students can drive prices up and the competition can be result in poorer flats still being offered.

Only if you're silly enough to want to live in the student part of town (North Dunedin).

Thanks for the recommendations! Appreciate it! I also like your list of places to avoid! I have be told not to go near NEV also, so it's good getting further confirmation! Further to this, does your list include the suburbs that were affected by the flooding recently?

I did have a look at Brighton (after your suggestion), and it is a bit further out than we'd like to be. Ideally we'd like to be near the city, if not, then somewhere with good public transport links (I'm assuming that this exists in Dunedin?) to the uni/city. We've sorta been 'city folk' our whole lives, so would prefer to be close to the action, rather than a quiet semi-rural location.

Blurtie

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#1392003 22-Sep-2015 15:33

graemeh:
trig42: If you know someone (or you yourself have) a class 2 license, you can hire a 40-cube truck for 3 days for less than $700 (may cost more than that for a one-way trip). That will easily fit your stuff.

If you go down this route then you also would need to add probably $400 each way for diesel. It will take two days to drive the truck from Auckland to Dunedin so if you can't get a one way hire you'd probably need five days hire.

As long as you've had a full car license for a few years and meet a few other criteria you can get a class 2 license for about $1k and 10-12 hours work if you decided you wanted to do it yourself.

Ouch, guess when you add it all up it's similar to getting movers in (if you include your own time). I'm just weary of the fact that I'll have to do all the packing/unpacking etc with this option, while my partner looks after our wee one.

Depending on how attached you are to the stuff you are moving it might be cheaper to just buy new stuff when you arrive in Dunedin and take the rest there in a trailer towed behind your car.

Can you get a one way trailer hire? Didn't think of that. We're not overly attached to our stuff, but I'm a firm believer of: if it ain't broke... so the hassle of selling, then going shopping and buying new stuff I'm sure would excite my partner, me on the other hand, not so much!

lxsw20

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#1392005 22-Sep-2015 15:35

I haven't used bus transport since high school, but it does exist! Some of them go to the Uni but most terminate somewhere in the city area, which tbh is only 3-4 blocks from the uni anyway. It's a pretty compact city.

http://www.orc.govt.nz/Documents/Content/Information%20Services/buses/2015/ORC%20Bus%20Timetable%202015.pdf

As for the flooding, it was mostly just South Dunedin. Remember this was a 1:100 year event so they say.

afe66

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#1392008 22-Sep-2015 15:42

Bus routes are on Google maps. (i started nagging the council several years ago)

Coming down in January is possible but you might find it more difficult to find a nice place because students are such a large part of the renting economy.

Maybe reach out to property managers and look on trademe.

A.

Lias

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#1392009 22-Sep-2015 15:42

Blurtie:
Ouch, sounds exp, was hoping for something under the $4K mark to be honest.. But will have a look at the link. Would prefer movers to come in and do it all for us rather than the DIY and renting your own truck approach due to our wee one. Seems like a lot of hassle, I presume you would also have to return the truck? I'm thinking, hireage, petrol and the ferry alone would quickly add up. Not to mention the time it takes to do that trip.

It cost me over 3k to move a ~50 cubic meter household from Hamilton to Kapiti a couple of years ago, and that was the cheapest of half a dozen quotes, most of them being closer to 5k and some even higher. That's just them loading the truck and moving btw, no packing etc. You're moving less stuff but going much further, and crossing the strait which always ramps the price up. I'd brace yourself for it being well over 4k.

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meesham

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#1392015 22-Sep-2015 15:51

Time to sell my suburb...

Opoho's great, it's popular with more mature aged students and academic staff as it's more expensive than the student areas but you're still really close to the uni. The main problem with it is we're not getting fibre until July 2018-June 2019, so no gigatown for us (it ends Feb 2018) and there's no VDSL.

It's also excellent if you have kids, depending on the age there's a Play Centre, Opoho Primary is excellent and there's quite a few kindergartens down in NEV. You're also very close to the botanic gardens which my kids love spending time in.

As mentioned previously the main thing is getting the sun, even being on the wrong side of the street can mean getting a decent amount of sunshine each day or living in a dark miserable hole. Opoho's at the top of a hill so most houses get lots of sunshine.

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