Small-town living lures big-city refugees

Greg and Nickie loved Martinborough so much they bought a vineyard. Photo / Supplied

Sick of traffic jams, obsessing about money, paying high prices for distinctly ordinary property and feeling that time is passing at warp speed? It could be time to escape the city. Jaded with the urban jungle, Aucklanders and Wellingtonians are looking for refuge in provincial New Zealand and finding smaller town living has never been better.

New Plymouth

Steve Brown, manager of Geon Print in New Plymouth, moved from Auckland with his wife Sharyn and their two young children 14 months ago.

Steve was already working for Geon in Auckland. Sharyn is from Taranaki, so the couple had visited family there frequently.

When Steve's company took over the New Plymouth printing premises, the family jumped at the opportunity to transfer.

Steve is Australian and the couple met in Brisbane, then settled in Auckland 12 years ago. "I'd been working flat out in Auckland for years doing the hard yards, living on the North Shore and travelling to work in South Auckland," says Steve.

The couple saw New Plymouth as a better place to raise a family. "There's hardly a bad school here."

While Steve works more hours in his new role, he also gets more time at home since the travelling has been cut - he gets home in six minutes. The lack of traffic also makes it easy to see clients and give "the personal touch" instead of sending emails, which he says they appreciate.

Steve and Sharyn took a 30 per cent pay cut with the transfer, but there are compensations. In Auckland, he says he never stopped thinking about work, but in New Plymouth "you go hard out for five days and take the foot off the accelerator in the weekend. You can escape to a remote beach with the family, and you can't put a price on that".

The couple live within their means and focus less on material things since they moved. "You have more activities here that don't cost anything. You don't have the huge shopping centres to meander around on a wet weekend."

His less-busy lifestyle gives him more opportunity to give back to the community, Steve says.

And New Plymouth is not the "hick town" it used to be. "It's up and coming, there are no more banjos in the main street."

But he says Air New Zealand needs to get smarter with its flights. "At the moment I can't fly direct from New Plymouth to Napier". Aside from that, he says there is unlimited opportunity and support for business start-ups, and this will only increase as baby boomers retire.

The trick is to keep the energy that big cities breed once you relocate to a more relaxed place, Steve says.

Ultimately, making the move is a leap of faith. "The more you get ingrained in the Auckland lifestyle and working situation, even though you complain about the traffic, it takes a concerted, team effort to make the decision to leave. It's huge."

Hawke's Bay

Birgit Himme-Thomson and Wolfgang Himme immigrated to Auckland from Hamburg 13 and 26 years ago respectively.

Wolfgang had protested against nuclear power plants in Germany and "didn't see much future there". In any event he wanted to escape Hamburg's dense urban living for somewhere he could have a garden.

"New Zealand seemed a perfect choice. I have never looked back and never regretted it," he says.

Wolfgang spent 20 years in Auckland and Birgit seven. The couple knew each other in their youth in Germany, and reconnected in Auckland. For the past six years, Hawke's Bay has been home.

In Auckland the couple ran an appliance rental business, but they wanted to live in a smaller town. Flat enough to get around by bicycle, and with a superior climate and better-value property prices, Hastings met their criteria.

On moving, Wolfgang returned to work as a nurse, while the couple set up a new business as property managers, in which they now work full time.

They have found it easy to make friends and settle into the community. "People are proud to live here and you would be hard-pushed to find anybody who doesn't like it."

Wolfgang says there's plenty to do, from film festivals to the annual Art Deco weekend.

Last December, Rod Drury, chief executive of Xero, moved from Wellington to Havelock North in Hawke's Bay with his wife Anna and their three young children, motivated by the good schools and lifestyle on offer.

"I grew up in Hawke's Bay and wanted our kids to ride bikes and have an outdoors lifestyle."

He says his Wellington-based software development company geared up to support its executives to live remotely and commute, although he estimates it costs him $10,000 to $15,000 to do so.

"We have a lot of customers through the regions as well, so rather than getting a big-city bias, it puts us closer to our customers and we can see some of the real issues going on in the provinces."

Rod usually spends Mondays and Tuesdays in Wellington and another day in Auckland. Every six weeks he also spends a week in Sydney. He says the travelling is "worth it for the sunny weekends, and I can 'power work' on the nights away".

Rod has found a large and stimulating commuter community of people who have their work-life balance right. "Technology means you don't have to wait until the end of your career to get lifestyle, and you can build a sustainable business."

He says there is plenty of small business opportunity in the province - "I think people look after their own destiny more in the Bay. It's quite entrepreneurial."

The family plan to stay in the Bay for good, although Anna still needs a "city fix", so they spend a week in Wellington every three months.

Martinborough

Born and bred Aucklanders Greg Sheehan, a chartered accountant, and wife Nickie, relocated to Martinborough in the Wairarapa, via a short stint in the capital city, where Greg's career took him.

One weekend while they were based in Wellington, they "drove over the hill" and into Martinborough, and immediately fell in love with the area. They kept coming back and, in mid-2005, they sold their Auckland property and bought a home in Martinborough - complete with small vineyard.

Property is "dramatically cheaper" in the Wairarapa, says Greg.

Initially he commuted to work in Wellington, then set up his own practice in Martinborough, where Nickie is one of the team. "Because technology is as good as it is - and you know it's going to continue to get better - being based in a place like Martinborough is not an inhibitor to doing business," he says.

Direct flights from Masterton to Auckland facilitate Greg's visits to clients, and he goes to his Wellington office twice a week.

"You can set up a business anywhere so long as you can meet the needs of the customers, wherever they happen to be. It's very much a mindset about where your market is and what you're prepared to do to get to your market."

His office is two minutes' from home, and he's home by 5.30pm every night at the latest. Corporate life in Auckland meant Greg saw much less of his kids. The couple miss family in Auckland - and the beach - but they love the community feel that Greg says is tough to get in Auckland.

"Martinborough people were incredibly welcoming - it didn't take us long to feel part of the community."

Greg says they are busier with social activities than they were in Auckland because "you tend to get more involved with school life, what's going on around the village and sporting events".

They found great support from the wine community to help them manage their hobby vineyard - "it's very much a communal approach to making wine in Martinborough - everyone pitches in to lend a hand," Greg says.

Nelson

Thirty-one year old Aucklander Mark Sheehan met his fiancee Nicki van Asch, who hails from Marlborough, when they were both working in the travel industry, Mark in Auckland and Nicki in Wellington.

A year ago the couple settled in Nelson and Mark started a financial services business.

"We're here because we wanted to live in the best part of New Zealand," Mark says.

Doing business in Nelson is more personalised than in Auckland. "You tend to know the people you are dealing with, or know someone in common. A lot of business comes that way. Your friends become your clients and your clients become your friends."

Mark expected to miss city life. He says they are "still at that stage where we go out a lot", but Nelson has enough vibrant local restaurants, bars and cafes to keep them busy. "There is plenty to do here. We know enough people now to have a good time."

All of the couple's friends have also moved to Nelson from other parts of the country, for similar reasons. "It's easier to make friends because everyone's more open to it. They're not in established groups like in Auckland."