When Martin and Leanne Lambert realised they could never afford to buy a house in their home city in Auckland, they set about doing some research.
And Rotorua came out tops.
"We did the process of working out what we wanted out of where we lived."
Martin, an osteopath, and Leanne, who works in a funeral home, needed to live somewhere where their careers could develop and their 4-year-old son, Ben, could go to school and make friends.
They hopped on the Stats NZ website and researched populations, median incomes, investigated fact sheets on different region's industries and job opportunities.