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Anita and Siva Affleck went from spending up to an hour in Auckland traffic to getting where they need to be on just three songs on a playlist.
The couple, who together run Global Baby, Ooh Bubs, as well as the New Zealand distribution of Australian brand Babyhood, moved to New Plymouth, where Anita grew up, in July last year and have been running their businesses remotely. since then.
“Every time we came to visit my parents, Siva always had a list of properties to see and I would say ‘no, no, no, no.’
“And then we got here on Boxing Day and it was a beautiful quiet day, probably the only quiet day of the year, and we loved the place.”
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They bought a one-acre section in Oakura, a small seaside town 15 minutes south of New Plymouth, and built a beautiful, modern home, planted 163 trees, and are raising their three children Priya, 7, Remi, 3, and nine. – One month old Sonny.
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They had built in Auckland, but they say it wouldn’t be possible to build there now, nothing like what they have been able to do in Oakura anyway.
According to Stats NZ, Auckland’s population grew by approximately 2.2% in June 2020, 37,000 residents more than in 2019.
The population increase reflects the gains of around 37,000 international migrants before Covid and 12,800 more births than deaths, but was partially offset by people who moved, out of the 12,600 who moved to other parts of New Zealand.
Paul Spoonley, Professor at Massey University and author of New New Zealand: Facing demographic disruption, says the number of Auckland residents who leave the city each year to live elsewhere in the country has risen by about 50 percent from a few years ago.
Housing availability and affordability combined with traffic, as well as debt and work overload, are encouraging people to look elsewhere, Spoonley says.
“I think Auckland’s rapid growth and population size is one of the driving factors for some people, particularly those who are thinking about starting a family and want a more affordable and quiet place.”
Last month, median house prices in the Auckland region hit the $ 1 million mark. Median house prices for the rest of the country excluding Auckland increased 15.4% in the 12 months to October to reach only $ 600,000.
David Unwin / Stuff
Professor Paul Spoonley says that more Auckland residents are looking for lifestyle opportunities that cannot be found in the big city.
Then there are the pull factors. “Sunlight is a big factor, but also cheaper housing and lower cost of living,” says Spoonley.
Most Auckland residents go to Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and tend to fall into two categories; young families looking for a better lifestyle and baby boomers about to retire.
For Anita, managing businesses remotely has presented some challenges, but she says that as long as they have a good internet connection, it works.
Global Baby, which they bought in 2014 when Anita decided not to return to work after maternity leave, runs a retail store in Epsom with five employees. Anita says that she can monitor the store remotely through regular FaceTime chats with the store manager.
“It seems to work, trusting people is the biggest challenge.
“Let them do their job and accept that they won’t do it like you would, but that’s the way it is when you’re the boss anyway. You can’t micromanage remotely. “
Before Covid, the couple tried to return to Auckland once a month, but Siva says that with the reduction of flights from New Plymouth it is no longer so easy.
SIMON O’CONNOR / Things
Siva and Anita say running a business remotely has its challenges, but overall, the move to Taranaki was worth it.
The last few times they have driven, which usually takes about five hours, but with three children in tow takes much longer, they said.
Anita said it got to the point in Auckland where their social lives had become dictated, not by their children, but by traffic.
Since most people didn’t come home until 6.30 p.m., doing something after work was often ruled out, he said.
“Here you can do things every night of the week and three things on Saturdays, so here it is much more social.
“I like meeting people I know.”
The couple said it took them a while to find a doctor, a bank and a dentist.
But the move had been worth it, the lifestyle was more relaxed, and although they noticed some major differences at first, they had now adjusted.
“We go to the YMCA on a Monday for the kindy gym and that’s $ 6.20 and when we first moved in I thought ‘woah, this would be like $ 20 in Auckland.’ But then after being here for a while, you just adjust and now I’m like woah $ 6.20, ”Anita laughed.
They both say they don’t believe they would have moved to Taranaki had it not been for the family connection to the area.
“People don’t know, he’s not on his way anywhere,” Anita said.
SIMON O’CONNOR / Things
The Miller family moved from Auckland to New Plymouth. Paul Miller with his wife Kirsty and their daughters Lucia, 9, and Cora, 6.
For Paul Miller it was traffic.
Spending between 90 minutes and two hours a day in his car, just to get to and from work, had become too much.
He had lived in Auckland for about 15 years, but being stuck so much on the city’s roads was a factor that drove him and his wife Kirsty south to New Plymouth in 2014.
“It was not just the displacement. You would arrive on the weekends and you would want to go to the beach and you would be standing in your car and you would feel like a hamster in a wheel.
“Then you would look at the other hamsters in the other cars and think that it doesn’t have to be this way.”
With a toddler and another on the way, the Millers decided to reach out to family support in Taranaki.
They had a house near Greenlane, Auckland, and they sold it, obtaining a house twice the size in New Plymouth.
“What you could get here [in New Plymouth]Compared to Auckland it was huge. “
Miller works for TSB Bank, while Kirsty is an attorney for a local firm.
He says Auckland is “a lovely place to visit”, but couldn’t imagine moving there.
“When you’re there on vacation or long weekends, it’s great. But if you go up almost any other time, it can be pretty hellish. “
SIMON O’CONNOR / Things
The Miller family moved from Auckland to New Plymouth. Paul and Kirsty Miller with their daughters Cora, 6, and Lucia, 9.
Life in New Plymouth with Kirsty and her daughters Lucia, 9, and Cora, 6, meant “much more quality time.”
The city was full of opportunities for the Millers’ daughters, who participated in a number of sports and other extracurricular activities.
Miller also has time to be part of a band, Rusty Az, that performs concerts in the region.
He said that in Auckland you tended to meet people across a dimension, whereas in New Plymouth many interests intersected and you saw familiar faces at different places and events.
“That makes things a little closer here.
“The people here are proud and welcoming, and it doesn’t take much to be a local. It is not an isolated place at all. “
For every person leaving Auckland, about four head in the opposite direction, Spoonley says, in search of work, education, cultural and sports offerings. Auckland has between 50 and 60 percent of the new jobs created each year.
While previously Central Otago and Queenstown were major draws for internal migrants, that has completely disappeared as Covid reduced the tourism industry and job opportunities in the area.
Spoonley says that traditionally the payoff has always been that you can get jobs in Auckland that you can’t get in other parts of the country.
But with so many people discovering during the confinement that they can work from home, the appeal of the laid-back Kiwi lifestyle could become even greater.
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Whakatāne’s Judd Family: Parents Hayden and Sarah, with their children Sophia, 9, Noah, 13, and Lyla, 11.
Hayden Judd was running along the beach with his son Noah, during a Christmas trip to Whakatāne, when a spark of inspiration struck him.
“We ran a little bit and then we stopped, and I was like ‘how good is this?’, Judd recalled. “And he said ‘why can’t we live here?'”
“I didn’t have an answer for him, and that started the conversation.
“It was the first time any of the kids had said anything about moving from Auckland.”
Judd had gone to school in the Bay of Plenty city, but had spent most of his adult life in Auckland. He and his wife Sarah, a teacher, and their three children (Noah, Lyla, and Sophia) had a home there, and the children settled in their schools.
“We were doing well in Auckland, house prices were excellent and luckily we had bought at the right time.”
The big move happened in April 2018, but not without some apprehension.
“The way the kids were going to handle it was what scared us the most. We had been looking for properties for a while, but what worried me the most was the children.
“We knew there was going to be a transition to come to a regional school, but we thought it was the same as we did. We grew up in those same schools, I literally grew up in the same school. “
Judd said he and Sarah “got the kids ready a bit” before we went downstairs.
“The transition was strangely easy because we had relatives here. They gave us their house for a month.
“Noah [now 13] I really wanted to get here, the two girls not so much, because they really loved their lives and where they were, they were very nervous about it. “
But those feelings faded shortly after the change.
“They just loved it. You don’t feel like you’re on such a big machine. Even when they go swimming, they literally walk into the pool. “
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Judd said he has no regrets about the move.
“We are like in the middle of the city where we live, but five minutes away and we are in the mountains. We can go for a walk, run or ride a bike ”.
He said that there was an unexpected advantage in living in Whakatāne, instead of Auckland.
“More friends have come to see us and stayed with us than all of our time in Auckland.
“Instead of seeing someone for an hour on a Saturday, we see them for an entire weekend.”
While the work is mostly done from home, Judd travels to Auckland a couple of times a month, so he calculated that he got “the best of both worlds”.
“I love Auckland, I really love it. However, I am very happy not to live there. “
Additional reporting Bevan Hurley
