KEY POINTS:
Still dreaming of a move to the country now that you're back in the city traffic? A new study warns the dream may not be as realistic as you think.
Urban Kiwis are streaming out to the countryside, reversing a century of cityward migration.
The 2006 Census shows that, although the population of the main urban areas has risen 8.9 per cent since the previous Census in 2001, the fastest growth has been in rural areas with either moderate urban influence (9.5 per cent) or strong urban influence (12.3 per cent).
"Most of New Zealand's so-called 'seachange' is focused on small communities, villages, towns and cities," says economic consultant Phil McDermott, now based on a lifestyle property at Omaha.
"Over the next few years, we will see ... the appeal of small towns in Auckland's hinterland and the other cities of the northern North Island are likely to cater for increasing shares of the region's and the country's population growth."
But an Australian study by Queensland University of Technology social researcher Nick Osbaldiston has found that many of those who have left the cities for a quieter life in rural Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales have had trouble finding work in country towns.
He found some people were forced to commute back to the cities for work and others with specialist expertise had to take jobs in other fields.
Some found their new districts already "overpopulated" by other refugees from the city.
"There's sort of a romantic ideal after watching TV shows that you'll be able to move in and open up your business and everything will be smooth.
"But these areas ... aren't necessarily well employed areas."
In New Zealand, the founder of a website for "lifestyle blocks", Gordonton goat-farmer Kate Brennan, says most lifestylers who have made her site the country's third-most-visited agricultural website are "making a really good go of it".
"In New Zealand, most people find somewhere within commuting distance of their job so it isn't such a big move shifting everything," she said.
"A lot of people would like to make enough money from their lifestyle blocks to give up their town jobs.
"That doesn't happen easily but you do achieve a half-way goal of having a really good lifestyle."
Hamilton real estate agent Leo Koppens, who has sold lifestyle blocks for 25 years, says most people who have bought them are "extremely happy campers". But a handful from Britain are "threatening to go back".
Auckland accountant Paula Levett, who moved to a lifestyle block near Waiuku with husband Angus McColl 12 years ago, tried at first to work in the local area so she could look after her pigs, goats and cows, but now commutes back to the city.
"I did have a couple of local jobs ... but everyone in Pukekohe had a parochial small-town view that didn't fit with my view ... and, at that stage, they didn't pay Auckland wages."
A 2004 study led by Lincoln University researcher John Fairweather found there were 140,000 lifestyle blocks of between 0.4ha and 30ha occupying a total of 753,000 ha - or 4.3 per cent of New Zealand's farmland. The number was growing by 6800, or 37,600 hectares, a year.
An analysis of the 2006 Census by demographer James Newell has found that rural areas' share of total population growth increased from 7.2 per cent between 1996 and 2001 to 10.9 per cent in the past five years.
In the same period, the growth share of the main urban areas dropped from 96 per cent to 81.6 per cent.
Smaller towns changed from minus 3.2 per cent of the total growth from 1996 to 2001 to plus 7.5 per cent of the growth in the latest five years.
Mr Newell says technology will make it easier to live out of town and work from home.
Population Trend
* Population in rural areas is growing faster than main urban areas.
* Rural areas with a moderate urban influence grew 9.5 per cent.
* Rural areas with a strong urban influence grew 12.3 per cent.
* Main urban areas grew 8.9 per cent.
Life on the block
* The country has 140,000 lifestyle blocks of between 0.4 and 30 hectares.
* They occupy a total of 753,000 ha - or 4.3 per cent of total farmland.
The number is growing by 6800, or 37,600 ha, a year.
