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As fast as immigrants pour into Auckland and other main centres, jaded city dwellers are heading for the country.
In terms of laying it on thick, Feilding has the market cornered. Just as Auckland cinema goers are settling in with their popcorn and chocolate-dipped icecreams, having crawled through traffic and spent 15 minutes looking for a carpark, Feilding comes in low and hard with a pre-movie promotion.
"Some days there's heaps of traffic," croons the voice to a shot of V8s racing round Manfeild autocourse. "Some days there's not," to views of a nearly-deserted main street.
The lifestyle is great but things cost less, the promotion reassures viewers, as the camera pans a range of tidy houses.
Moviegoers in Wellington and Palmerston North are getting the same treatment after the picturesque little Manawatu town decided to take action in the face of signs it was dying.
Feilding saved furiously for three years for the $20,000 marketing campaign to persuade jaded city dwellers that life in a small town would be the answer to their woes.
The urban drift of past decades sucked the guts out of small towns as people headed for the main centres looking for work, but the provinces are starting to fight back. And there's nothing like country zeal to convince townies they would be better off out of the big smoke.
The lower cost of buying a home is the biggest attraction for many. With the Auckland housing market inflated beyond the reach of many first-home buyers and tying up the capital of those who do own homes, the lure of affordable housing and freed-up capital is hard to ignore.
Add to that free parking, no traffic lights, no rush hour, dinner out for the price of a cocktail in Auckland, and the target is well and truly hooked.
In the case of Feilding, it's been voted "New Zealand's Most Beautiful Town" 13 times.
Aucklanders Ray and Angela Scott are counting down the days before they move to their new home there next month. The Scotts, originally from Christchurch, moved to Auckland five years ago and rented a house in St Heliers. Shocked by the housing prices, they bought a house in Waiuku last November.
Back then, the trip to work in South Auckland took 40 minutes, but Ray Scott now thinks the traffic was light because of the school and university terms finishing. By February this year the journey was taking an hour each way on a good day - 80 minutes on a bad one.
Scott, a car salesman, hates Auckland's traffic "with a passion" and resents the daily travelling time. He and his wife leave just after 6am every morning. Scott drops Angela, a senior nurse, at a renal dialysis unit in Manukau then drives to Pakuranga.
It was son Ian, based at Ohakea with the Air Force, who suggested they take a look at the pretty town of Feilding. After one visit they were sold. They bought a three-bedroom house on a 950-square metre section for under $300,000 - less than half what they would have had to pay in Auckland - and found jobs in Palmerston North almost immediately. The 12km trip from their home to work will take about 10 minutes.
Ray Scott is looking forward to an extra hour in bed every morning while Angela, a keen walker, enthuses about the green rural views around Feilding.
Those who have made the move to a small town advise going with an open mind and without expectations.
"If you don't like it, you can always move again," says Arrowtown resident Cerise Walton. She, her husband and young son moved south from Auckland eight years ago. Now an estate agent with the newly formed Queenstown branch of Boulgaris, Walton has watched towns like Gore, Clyde and Twizel expand in the past few years. Gore is now almost an extension of neighbouring Alexandra. Geraldine, an hour out of Christchurch, is booming.
Murray Cleland, president of the Real Estate Institute, says people moving out of the city look for cheaper housing in a small town not too far from a major centre. Access to good health services and specialist care is a concern for older people.
Cleland, based in Hamilton, says older people are increasingly selling up valuable properties in Auckland and moving to towns like Morrinsville, Te Aroha and Matamata. The towns near Palmerston North are also benefiting from newcomers moving into the area.
Those who move get a decent house and a lump sum to invest. "They are debt-free and they can have a lifestyle. For many, all their capital was tied up in their Auckland home."
The cost of living in small towns is lower than for main centres and cities, and belonging to clubs like golf and bowls is cheaper. People feel safer in small towns and, once they got to know people, more friendly.
"You can be lost in a big city. You can live in an area for years and never know your neighbours."
Feilding's promotions manager Helen Worboys says in the early 90s, Feilding decided to start its fightback. "We've since basically put a bomb under the town."
The town centre and streets were upgraded and a thriving cafe culture established. "We copped some flak from ratepayers who said nobody will sit out on a footpath from a cafe," Worboys says.
"Six to seven years ago you couldn't have a choice of cafe, or eat out in Feilding seven nights a week. That's changed now."
Worboys says the idea was that if Feilding showed people "we love the place" the private investment would follow. "We are now seeing a surge in commercial development. The minute a building comes on the market it's snapped up, often by out-of-towners, especially Aucklanders."
Worboys says after a period of decline, Feilding is showing a "slow but steady" population increase and hits on the promotion's website indicate it is on target.
Leaving in droves
Aucklanders are leaving for the provinces in droves.
Census figures show the Auckland region had a net loss of 16,662 residents between the 2001 and 2006 censuses. Most moved to Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Northland, Otago or Canterbury.
Net migration flows between 16 regional council areas show Auckland had the most losses (13). It recorded net gains from only two regions - Wellington (1884) and Manawatu-Wanganui (48). Canterbury gained the most resident New Zealanders (8103).
Auckland recorded the largest net outflow (13,848) of people aged from 25 to 64 between the 2001 and 2006 censuses. Bay of Plenty had the largest net inflow (6213) followed by Waikato (4059) and Northland (3546).
However Auckland had the largest population growth, at 12.4 per cent, due to immigration.
- Additional reporting by Alice Hudson
