Looking at moving to Cust/Oxford

Hi All
I am a long time reader so thought it was time I joined up! Currently have a 10 acre property in Rolleston, but are looking to move maybe to Cust area. Would love to hear the good and bad things of the area. Looked at a piece of land yesterday in Davis Road on the hill, but am a bit suspicious, as I know these blocks were all sold up about 5 years ago now they are all coming up for sale again, anybody know the story (if there is one)?
Cheers

We aren't far from Cust...I don't know anything about the actual piece of land your looking at, but I can say that both Cust and Oxford are wonderful areas to live. Plenty of things to do, great communities, good schools in both towns.

Oxford gets a bit more snow than Cust does. It also gets drier quicker as it's closer to the mountains. I guess a lot depends on what you need around you. Schools? Pre schools? Is it imprerative you have shops close by? Travel to work?

Hi Trace, thanks for the reply. No don't have kids (hence why I can buy a lifestyle block! ) only need good off-lead dog walks (and a good vet!), shops being close is no biggee maybe for the forgotten milk/bread and occassional fish n chip night out would be all. Big grocery shop would be at Rangiora? Work at the airport and from home so think travel will be ok? looking for something a bit different from the run-of-the-mill flat block. I have heard Cust is a bit drier than Oxford, how bout windy? We were there yesterday and it was beautiful calm day. Thanks again.

We are in Okuku and its a lovely place to live but very windy! Rangiora vet centre on Rangiora woodend road is very good. We can get home with Pizza Hut still hot from Rangiora. New world and 2 countdowns in Rangiora and endless talk about pak n save being built. Airport from Rangiora 30mins in morning on a good run, max 40. Good luck, it's a nice area all round here and less shakes than town!

We're in Oxford, which is probably by far the coldest, driest and windiest of the areas mentioned above. But there are SO many microclimates around even a few kms apart, you really have to do your homework. Davis Road up there above the Cust downs is very wet soil from what I've heard, foots problems in livestock and areas of unusable land from being so wet. But then there are areas on the Ashley River side of Oxford (east end) which have similar issues. We're out on the flat, west of Burnt Hill, free-draining (read VERY STONY) soil, but for our purposes (running goats) it works well. Just be wary of shingle roads that look peaceful and end up being VERY dusty during a NW. When we shifted to where we are, there were not many homes or dairies. Nearly 9 years on and there are many subdivisions, trucks taking shingle out of the river, stock trucks, milk tankers, log trucks.... it's been a very dusty summer so far.

Thanks for the comments! The soil up there did look a bit puggy but hard to tell as everywhere is drying out fast, we (in Rolleston) are nearly burnt off already so think it gonna be a dry summer! We are also very stony and would like to get away from that if possible as I would like to do some work around the place that doesn't constantly require heavy machinery to dig a hole! But being stony has its benefits too. Would love to hear more about these micro-climates, would love to get me a block of that

paws4life;448046 wrote: Hi Trace, thanks for the reply. No don't have kids (hence why I can buy a lifestyle block! ) only need good off-lead dog walks (and a good vet!), shops being close is no biggee maybe for the forgotten milk/bread and occassional fish n chip night out would be all. Big grocery shop would be at Rangiora? Work at the airport and from home so think travel will be ok? looking for something a bit different from the run-of-the-mill flat block. I have heard Cust is a bit drier than Oxford, how bout windy? We were there yesterday and it was beautiful calm day. Thanks again.

Lots of great off lead dog walks (though Rolly's dog park is far better than Rangiora's). The vet mentioned in another post, is the one I'd recommend too - though no doubt there are lots of opinion's on good vets [] Oxford has more shops than Cust - Cust has a not very busy at all pub, a lovely cafe and the service centre which is great for bread and milk etc. Then there are the hidden things, like both places have swimming pools etc. We are only seven km's from Cust and hubby works in Johns Road, so not far from the airport and yep, it's an easy commute, though be warned, Tram Road does get icy in winter on occassion.

If you don't want stony then I think you'd probably need to look at Summerhill or the areas within the flats of Cust. We are stony, but the paddocks have a good covering of soil so it works well. All the best with your search.

We just down the road from Cust, on Poyntzs, and sometimes it is windy. I know the spot of land you speak of, but I didn't realise it was sold recently and then re-sold, as we are quite new here also.

I like it here, it's not far to Rangiora and there IS a pak'n'save going in (my brother is doing the refrigeration for it) .... and lots of other shops etc, the ashley gorge is AWESOME we go there all the time.

Oh, and by the way, we have 3 young children and we manage the lifestyle block