Kate Hawkesby: Don't be surprised if more people join the stats ditching cities for the country

Getting to live across both city and country gives me good insight into what’s happening in both places. I can tell you first hand, rural living is where it’s at. And now stats back that up. We’re leaving the cities. In the year to June this year, Auckland lost almost 9,000 people. A lot went overseas; it looks like the rest went North or into the regions - and I’m not surprised. Our cities are a shambles, Auckland in particular is just an assault of congestion, crime and cones, if you had the option to work remote or from home – you’d be mad not to take it. Suburb-wise it was downtown Auckland from Westmere to Newmarket which had the biggest population decline, the biggest loss in the country, down 5.8 percent. Drive through the inner city Auckland suburbs one day and you’ll know why. Auckland wasn’t the only city people bailed from though. Christchurch and Wellington had net losses, so did Dunedin, but many of them didn’t go far. Christchurch’s Selwyn district saw an increase in population growth of 4.8 percent – which was the country’s highest rate. Again, not surprising if you’ve been to Canterbury lately, it’s a magical part of the world and Christchurch is turning into an extremely desirable city to live near, if not in. Likewise those in Dunedin may have headed to Central Otago. While Dunedin’s population declined, Central Otago’s grew by 2.7 percent. People aren’t just bailing to the regions; they’re also bailing overseas, with our natural increase in population the lowest since World War II. The country’s net international migration loss was 11,500. Again, who can blame them? With a country in the state ours is in, and having been closed off to the world for so long and seemingly going to take so much longer to bounce back, it’s not surprising people have left. But the allure of living rurally or regionally here in New Zealand is huge. It’s stunningly beautiful, it feels less frenetic, and it’s more peaceful.  I thought maybe my love affair with rural living was just down to getting older, but I’m seeing more and more young people and younger families moving into rural areas like ours. It makes sense. Quality of life is arguably better, it’s cheaper, you get more bang for your buck, you’ll get more space, and you’ll probably feel a hell of a lot safer than you do in inner city suburbs.  I used to think when we first bought a house in the country four years ago that it was a bit slow out there and I may slowly go mad. But the opposite’s happened. It’s stolen my heart in a way that I worry I’ll never be able to give it up. There’s something quintessentially New Zealand and calming about living among trees and hills and paddocks and birdsong. It’s good for your mental health, it’s good for your physical health, it’s lovely to reconnect with smaller communities where you know all the locals and you feel like you belong. I think that sense of belonging is gone from the cities, we all co-exist in our bubbles side by side, but there’s very little connection. I love country ways of living too. More sustainable, more homegrown, low key. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, I just know I’d love to be able to live there full time and join the stats of people waving goodbye to the city for good.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.