Papamoa was getting more crowded and the traffic worse.
So Glen and Maureen Fraser decided to cash up and move out, trading city bustle for country lifestyle.
They sold their home for $587,000, having bought it for $330,00 nine years earlier, and, in April, bought a 1.2-hectare lifestyle block outside Whakatane for $369,000.
Read more: Tauranga and Bay homeowners 'running' to cheaper towns
With a fully-renovated three-bedroom 1950s home, an American-style barn, a "giant" vege patch and a sheep, the Frasers struggled to think of any negatives.