nice place to raise a family?

[Nibikwe]

hi--

my man and our little 14 month old Andraeus and I are moving back to NZ in December (my hubby's a Kiwi) and I'm trying to seek out a lovely art-filled, happenin, free-thinking and free-spirited, musical kind of town to live in-- somewhere there's a supermarket with organics and a chemist with homeopathic remedies, you know the kind of place I'm envisioning... dreaming about, trying to visualize it... but I need help! Do you live in such a place? We're in Toronto, Canada right now (my extended family's the main reason we're here) and I know there are pockets of beautiful people but I'm having a lot of trouble with the general feel of city life, trying to not be affected by it all, and the $$-grubbing mentality, the busyness, and the overcrowded, competitive vibe that's forever pulsating. You shouldn't even swim in Lake Ontario for goodness sake! I think the "dos" and "don'ts" here are very flipped around: DON'T swim in the lake/ DO work your self ragged and then come back for more stress on Saturday and Sunday. Anyone living the opposite scenario (a.k.a bliss!)?

[witt]

that's funny cos I always thought Canada was a much better place to live! I think the crime rate is lower etc etc.....

don't get me wrong NZ is beautiful but it's no island paradise. I live in Wellington and I guess it's a slower pace of life, pop 500,000 but still life gets busy. You could try Nelson, kind of a hippie, free living sort of town and beautiful but work would be a problem depending on what sort of job you are both looking at.....
what does your partner think in terms of where to live?

[Nibikwe]

Darren's happy to just go back to NZ.. really open as far as town/city/north/south island.. we're both looking along the same lines though, somewhere there are beaches and mtn bike tracks and bush.. he's a sparky so that keeps his options pretty open. Actually Toronto is SO high on the crime thing at the moment-- not the way it used to be at all. I know no place will be paradise but I love the island feel of NZ and the closeness of the ocean
Nelson sounds nice from what people are saying..

We'll have a look around when we go, just doing a bit of prep looking before we land on the doorstep, KWIM?:wink

[witt]

Hawkes Bay or Nelson, both places more small town feel if that's what you want!

Good Luck!
happy moving!:thumb

[sproutbabe]

Hawkes Bay or Nelson, I second that! (grew up in Hawkes Bay, attended Waldorf school age 4-18, now living in Zagreb with Croatian hubby).
Weather is great in both places. Napier (HB) is a lovely little town, really nice mix of city conveniences (good coffee, shopping, busy centre) and easygoing country life. Both places are next to the sea, are great wine-growing regions ;) and have large hippie communities! :)
Let me know what you decide, and if you have any more questions feel free...

[aussiemum]

I'm an Aussie (well, okay, originally a Yank, but anyway) who last year spent 4 weeks on the south island of New Zealand. In my experience (very limited, sure) Nelson had the best stocked supermarket that we found anywhere. Organic for many products was not an issue. And the red wine was very nice, & the beaches looked pretty swimmable (ie. calm waters without big logs floating in the surf- see west side of of the sorth island in storm for that particular experience....

Anyway, back to the north side of the south island. Stay the hell away from Takaka, ime. Horrid place, full of nasty ratbags who are looking to make a buck. (Again, ime.) We ran out of water & stopped to ask if we would fill up our bottles at a tap- we only wanted a two litre bottle full to get us over to the west side of the beach for a daytrip & back again. We were refused water everywhere in Takaka, even tho we had none. We had to drive an hour back to Nelson to get water, & we sure as hell weren't going back to Takaka after that! One woman at a campground in Takaka told me that it never rains there (as I was standing in a steady drizzle, chatting with her)..... and she was serious!! ***snort*** surely the Kiwis know about rain-tanks...... :eyes:

[bronwenclaire]

i'm sorry to bud in...i live in a suburb of toronto and i could not resist because the lake comment killed me!!!LMAO:lol
so true...it's so bad.
however i have swam in it many times.hehehe
it's too bad you are not happy in t.o.
i live in the suburbs and miss toronto....but the crime rate is nuts these days!
and people can be nastier and while $$here it's killer in BC!...:wink
good luck with your move!