Pegasus Town

[airedale]

" But coming in and outout of ChCH on north road is terrible."

Hi Percy, if Footsie is used to dealing with the Akld motorway system, then getting in and out of Chch is still a breeze by comparison.....even on the northern side. I left Akld nearly 10 years ago and much prefer it in Canterbury........not quite one-eyed yet, but getting there.

[jmsnz]

Hmm, thanks .
I have young kids and also a desire to have some land or be near land for horses. Mrs footsie was a competitive rider and wants to get back into it.
Also sick of the Auckland rat race and if you want a decent 4brm house in AKL its 1m+ and if you want land with 4brm well again its $1m+ and you will be as far north as warkworth before prices decline.
To get horsey land in Cleveland/Kumeu/Coatsville. its $2m

So with that in mind any more ideas? Perhaps I could be CHCH fringe , near some grazing land? I do need to be reasonably clsoe to schools of course.

Footsie,

It really does depend on what you want/expect. I can appreciate all of the 'negatives' posted here, though for me personally I can also negate all of them.

I live in Swannanoa and have a 20 minute drive to the office, mostly on open roads. Many of my co-workers commute much longer times and live in town.

The local primary school is a 5-10 minute bike ride away, the high school bus is at the gate, the community sports facility (Rugby, Cricket, Netball, Tennis, Squash, Archery, Pony Club, Kennel Club, Rodeo, Western Riding, Touch Rugby) less than 10 minutes drive and Rangiora and Kaiapoi both about 10kms for swimming, shopping and BMX.

At home the kids have their go-kart, mum her donkeys and chickens and dad his sheds and cars. I can play force-back with the kids on the front lawn and the boys can go exploring around our place or the neighbours.

It isn't all roses, and certainly can be a lot of work, but the trick is to relax, don't sweat the small stuff and get the place organised to minimise the amount of work.

If you are looking to move, there are several key things I would look for, some specific to Canterbury:
- Wind protection
- Water. Anything will grow, but everything will die in summer without water
- Proximity to the services your family needs/uses the most
- Accept you aren't 'in town' and get involved local so you are living locally

Hope that helps.

Cheers

jmsnz

Disc: Moved out to Swannanoa 10 years ago and still enjoying it

[Footsie]

thanks everyone
I think the best thing to do is come down to chch for a visit. drive north and see what its like for myself.

as for traffic. I cant see that being an issue.

as a teen my parents did the queen st farmer thing for a few years. It was good fun having all the land and space but after a while the drive to get milk the drive to see friends to school etc became a serious pain.

my personal preference is to be city fringe and have the wife commute to her horses.

anyway i'm just keen to check out pegasus out of interest.

[ratkin]

Footsie, avoid pegasus like the plague, dont even think of moving there.

If you must live off the northern end of chch then woodend is better, fairly cheap and a little piece of land for a horse would be cheap enough.

Better still is to live somewhere like haswell , much closer to town and it avoids the northern routes which have terrible traffic problems at peak hours.
Another good option is to just graze a horse on someone elses land , plenty do that

[jmsnz]

Footsie, avoid pegasus like the plague, dont even think of moving there.

If you must live off the northern end of chch then woodend is better, fairly cheap and a little piece of land for a horse would be cheap enough.

Better still is to live somewhere like haswell , much closer to town and it avoids the northern routes which have terrible traffic problems at peak hours.
Another good option is to just graze a horse on someone elses land , plenty do that

Footsie,

Agree with Ratkin re Pegasus, but also anywhere coastal in Canterbury has exposure to the dreaded easterly wind - which is nasty, so Woodend doesn't avoid that.

Don't agree with all of these negative comments re the northern routes, people make it sound like some sort of permanent gridlock. It really depends where you are coming from and going to, you can't generalise. My commute is about 20kms and takes 20-25 minutes - where is the issue in that? Prior to that my office was 5km further away and my commute was 40-45 minutes. The difference being it went past 3 schools in 'better' suburbs and so you have to navigate through the mums and their tractors.

If you are serious, you REALLY need to come and look for yourself.

Good Luck!!!

jmsnz

[mikeo]

I'd go for yaldhurst out of all of the areas discussed. Nice and close to town, avoid the bottleneck to the north (I would avoid like the plague - it is bad enough now, if pegasus etc ever take off it will get worse), close to riccarton showgrounds which I'm guessing would be an advantage to horsey people, and probably much better resale for the future. Probably more expensive than the likes of Ohoka etc but you get the best of both worlds and on your budget you should be fine. If you are into skiing then it probably shaves a bit of time off the run to the skiifields too...

[mikeo]

also - don't think anyone has mentioned tai-tapu. Personally I don't see the appeal and seems extremely expensive for what you get but there is a nice winery out that way and cyclists seem to love it. Might be worth a look still?

[percy]

also - don't think anyone has mentioned tai-tapu. Personally I don't see the appeal and seems extremely expensive for what you get but there is a nice winery out that way and cyclists seem to love it. Might be worth a look still?

I forgot Tai Tapu.Good school.I think the Old Tai Tapu Road properties are still expensive,but there are a lot of Lifestyle blocks between Tai Tapu,Lincoln,Ladbrooks and Halswell.
Some on it is low lying land and can be damp.Well I suppose everywhere is damp after all the rain we have had.

[minimoke]

but there is a nice winery out that way

If its a nice winery your after then we are back to Pegasus Town. Only a bit down the road from Pegasus Bay winery which I'd rate as the No.1 winery in Canterbury.

[airedale]

If its a nice winery your after then we are back to Pegasus Town. Only a bit down the road from Pegasus Bay winery which I'd rate as the No.1 winery in Canterbury.

I don't rate living close to winery as something desirable when the frost machines and bird scaring guns are going full blast. They are nice to visit occasionally, but the supermarkets have got plenty of good wine,reasonably priced. Which bring us back to Rangiora where there are two....soon to be three....such sources of good wine.