All major towns in New Zealand have a Citizens Advice Bureau. They provide free information and assistance on matters such as the law, translation services, social welfare, health, education, housing, budgeting, employment rights, consumer rights and personal and family issues. There are three CAB offices in the Hutt Valley: Lower Hutt, Petone and Upper Hutt. Visit http://www.cab.org.nz/ for more information.
Post offices http://www.nzpost.co.nz/Cultures/en-NZ/Personal/ provide services like mail, bill payments and car registration. For the location of post offices in the Hutt Valley visit http://www.nzpost.co.nz/Cultures/en-NZ/OnlineTools/PostShopLocator/. Some newsagents also offer limited postal facilities.
Hutt City Libraries are free to join for Hutt City residents. Most items are free to borrow, all children’s items are free. There are eight different branches through the Hutt Valley area – Central, Eastbourne, Moera, Naenae, Petone, Stokes Valley, Taita and Wainuiomata. All Hutt City libraries offer library users high-speed, unrestricted internet access which is priced from just $2 an hour. Visit http://library.huttcity.govt.nz/ for more information.
Wellington City Libraries have a migrant communities guide http://www.wcl.govt.nz/languages/ on their website. This explains the library webpage and services in different languages. They also have a variety of books in different community languages such as Tongan, Samoan, Chinese, Tamil, Tigranya, Khmer, Farsi/Persian, Somali, and Hindi. If you are not a Wellington ratepayer, it costs $2 to get a book out from the library. This charge is added to any lending fee.
Groceries are generally cheaper from supermarkets. Supermarkets can be found in the central city in Westfield (Woolworths), Waterloo Road (New World), High Street (Countdown), corner of High Street and Brunswick Street (Pak 'N' Save), Naenae (New World) and Petone (Pak 'N' Save).
The Riverbank Market has a wide range of fresh produce for sale every Saturday morning throughout the year. The market is in the Riverbank carpark, opposite Countdown.