IT IS very easy to sit here in Wairarapa and watch Auckland tear itself into conniptions over rate increases, $2 million suburbs and the concept that foreign investment is squeezing the life out of the ordinary Kiwi family trying to buy their first home.
One's first thought could easily be:sucks to be you, Auckland.
I also note the NZ Herald's Peter Calder and his excellent, and very angry, column entitled House Rage - we're right to be angry, which spits out a feeling of raw betrayal at this Government's failure to keep the Kiwi dream intact, if it happens to be in Auckland.
It would also be easy for me to say there's plenty on offer in Wairarapa, property is cheap and the air is clear.
In a simplistic sense, that's true, and we are seeing people taking advantage of it.
In yesterday's Times-Age we read about a family moving to Greytown because the lifestyle and clean air was better for their child, who had cystic fibrosis.
Yes, the property angst doesn't exist here.
There are probably many in Wellington - or Auckland - who could walk into their half-acre first homes right now in Wairarapa and pop their kids into the nearest school. But what about jobs?
It is too simplistic to simply say: move to Wairarapa.
Firstly, I don't think the jobs are here for everybody.
I hear, anecdotally, of nurses driving to Palmerston North hospital because there are not enough vacancies here. I suspect you could arrive here with a family, with one partner getting a job, and the other hunting around for a while.
For those who are ambitious in their work plans, you have to also weigh up what Auckland can offer - and what the provinces can't.
There is a passion and a drive that comes with the cities, and people can miss it.
If Aucklanders are angry enough about their state of affairs - and it sounds diabolical to me - I hope we see a shift to the regions.
But it is not that simple.
Wairarapa might seem like a paradise, in the sense that moving to Cornwall might seem like an escape to a Londoner.
But I suspect that in terms of work, Wellington would have to provide the drawcard.
