David Curry-Wood is loving life in Rotorua after selling his Auckland home.
The former teacher, who now works as a bus driver, sold his house in Beach Haven for $905,000 in March last year and moved into a modern "mansion" in Rotorua, which cost his family $694,000.
Curry-Wood shares the home with his wife Louise and four children, including a 3-month-old, and said there were many benefits to ditching the big city for a place in the regions.
"We love it down here. There's less traffic, that's the obvious one, and there's 70,000 [people] in Rotorua and they get to know you. All the stores, it's not too long before they get to know you by first name."
After selling their modest three-bedroom place in Auckland, Curry-Wood's family now lives in a two-storey, five-bedroom home in Lynmore.