After 14 years in Wanganui, artist Julie Greig is leaving for Australia for two reasons - to be near her daughter and take up new work opportunities.
Greig, her husband Jasio Zyzalo and their cat intend to leave New Zealand on August 15. Their destination is Toowoomba, a Queensland city of 130,000 that is 1.5 hours away from her daughter in Brisbane.
"We're country people. We couldn't imagine living in Brisbane," she said.
She joins an increasing number of Kiwis living across the ditch.
Statistics NZ said yesterday that 53,400 people left permanently or long term for Australia in the year ending May 2012.
The net loss of Kiwi migrants over to Australia, when compared with the same month of the previous year, has been steadily increasing since May 2010.
In May 2012, there was a net loss of 3200 migrants to Australia, compared with a loss of 3,300 in May 2011.
However, net migration from all countries showed a positive inflow of 160 people over May.
The number of New Zealanders who have decided to live in Australia has jumped by a significant 24 per cent over the past five years.
The results of the 2011 Australian census, released on Thursday, show that the number of New Zealanders living there reached 483,000 last year, up from 390,000 in 2006. The five-year increase is almost as big as the surge in the previous decade.
Immigration expert Professor Paul Spoonley of Massey University said the figures were not surprising, especially in the context of New Zealand's relatively flat job market. "The important push and pull is the job market, on both sides of the Tasman."
He said the figures also reflected an increasing trend in New Zealanders moving across the Ditch to be closer to family members. "This is an increasingly important reason for [those] moving to Australia, especially as the number of New Zealanders living there continue to grow."
Before she leaves Wanganui, Greig has 15 paintings to sell in an online auction, two art workshops and a marketing workshop to give and three commissions to complete.
In among all that she's heading to Toowoomba for a five-day workshop in early July. It's on impressionistic oil painting and taught by one of her heroes, artist Colley Whisson, at the University of Southern Queensland's McGregor Winter School.
When they arrive in Toowoomba to settle, Greig and her husband will be staying with friends and renting until they see whether they like it. But she can see opportunities there already.
She has applied for a $30 a week studio which also comes with a one-month exhibition and paid teaching workshop after three months. She's also been booked to show her work at the Jondaryan Woolshed during a Golden Shears event later in August.
It could be a challenge to establish an artistic reputation in a new country.
"I will be a small fish in a big sea. I will have to swim like mad," she said.
Toowoomba sounds good to her, because it is between the beautiful Darling Downs and a winery region. It's a horsey place and she won a substantial award there for a racehorse painting in 2007.
It was only after deciding to live there that she discovered Toowoomba was also a sister city to Wanganui. She's now been enlisted to liaise between the two cities and she also understands a hook-up with UCOL has been suggested.
Greig even looks a bit like Wanganui Mayor Annette Main, and could deputise for her.
"She'll write the speeches, and I'm not allowed to embarrass her."
She will be able to continue designing windows for Wanganui District Council's official meeting room from afar, and has five of the remaining 12 designed and ready for making.
"It's been a pleasure to be part of the project. Those windows will survive Greg Hall and I," she said.
An artist in both oil paints and pastel, Greig is proud to have made a living from her art since 2001. That's when she quit a well-paid Wellington job as a children's book designer.
"Maintaining that [income] through the recession has been hard. I've diversified, taught a lot of workshops and I have royalties coming in now."
She said she was not leaving because she disliked Wanganui.
"It's been a fantastic life living in Wanganui. We will be back regularly."