KEY POINTS:
City slickers considering a quieter life in the country be warned: farmers are not going to stop their early morning milking or their dogs from barking so you can get a good night's sleep.
Figures show 18,000 Aucklanders gave up the traffic jams and city conveniences for rural life in the five years to 2006.
The dairying boom, technological advances, a decentralising of the manufacturing sector and lifestyle choices are all considered factors in the growth of areas such as Waikato and the Bay of Plenty in the North Island and Canterbury and Otago in the South.
But some farmers say people expecting vistas of peaceful rolling hills, the "occasional" moo from a cow and wheat swaying gently in the breeze need to think again.
Andrew Fenton, who is the president of HortNZ and runs an avocado and kiwifruit orchard near Te Puke in the Bay of Plenty, said growers were now defending practices they had followed without any problems for years.
"Their [city folk's] expectations are pretty high of a different lifestyle but we want people who are shifting here to be aware they are moving into a commercial working environment in which growers are working the land and that is part of the business."
Mr Fenton said fruit and vegetable growers _ who begin work in the early hours of the morning and at harvest time can work all day and night _ had been the target of complaints from former city dwellers miffed at the noise.
And growers are increasingly finding themselves in council hearings defending their practices "when a new subdivision pops up next door".
"Since the Resource Management Act has become stricter, consents are required for a number of activities and there have been many situations up and down the country where urban people have attempted to restrict the business activities of rural people."
North Waikato farmer Peter Buckley, chairman of the Environment Waikato regional council, said those moving to the countryside generally amalgamated well into the local community.
"But there are always the odd few who do cause a bit of grief. I've heard of complaints around people spraying but this is a part of real life out here. There was a complaint about a farmer using silage."
Figures from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand show that of the 14 districts surveyed nationally, only four had seen a reduction in the median property price of $450,000.
Mr Buckley said lifestyle blocks were increasingly prevalent close to State Highway 1 between Auckland and Hamilton. But councils would eventually have to provide more protection for farmers.
Waikato Federated Farmers president Stew Wadey said he had fielded a number of complaints from newcomers unused to the smells, sounds and sights in the country.
"We've had a straight-laced person from higher society move into a lifestyle block and she was appalled that we had a bull servicing the cows, which is obviously a natural process. She complained it was provocative and pornographic."
