Choosing a slower pace of life for family
To keep their children grounded and build a connected community, one Auckland family plans to move to the Manawatu¯ .
Chloe Kite said her family’s reason to leave Auckland was due to financial pressures living on one income. She said it was essential for her young children’s development that she be a stay-at-home mum.
“For mums in Auckland, there is enormous financial pressure to go out to work,” she said. “More and more kids end up in daycare or kindy.”
But that wasn’t an option for Chloe who wanted to be present for at least the first five years of her children’s lives, and so the financial pressure began to mount.
When the couple looked at relocating, it was Chloe’s love for permaculture that led her to the Society for the Resilience and Engagement of the Community of Ashhurst and Pohangina (RECAP).
So last week, Chloe packed up her daughters, Zoe 2, and Agnes 5, and made the six-hour journey south to Manawatu¯ .
Over three days she explored the region, connecting with RECAP, lending a hand at the Ashhurst community garden and visiting Olsson Community Orchard.
RECAP provides advance education in permaculture and is a volunteer-led charitable society for people from Ashhurst and the Pohangina Valley.
It aims to build a stronger sense of community through developing new skills and connections that can help make the region sustainable, resilient, and self-reliant.
It was these traits that Chloe desired and felt the City of Sails couldn’t deliver to her family.
“Things like RECAP, pull people down to Earth and bring us together,” she said.
In Auckland, Chloe felt meaningful connections tended to get lost in the hustle and bustle.
“You have to make an appointment to see people a week ahead, you can’t just pop next door for a play date,” she said.
Though they currently live in a street full of families, Chloe said they’re all too busy to connect with each other.
“I’ve tried to hook up play dates, but no one has any time, there’s a brick wall around people, a general feeling of guilt if you stop and just be.”
“People spend so much money going to events rather than connecting with one another, and that’s what I want to get away from, that pressure to go to all those “opportunities” you might call it, but then you’re rushing. You can’t enjoy life.”
So the Kites will leave Auckland for a slower pace life in a more affordable city, a move she said has left her feeling vulnerable but one she feels is necessary.
Chloe encourages locals to value and get involved with RECAP.
If you would like to connect with this permaculture community, you can contact info@recap.org.nz or head along to the Ashhurst community garden based at Ashhurst Library, Fridays 10am to noon.
+Permaculture is a whole Earth design that cares for the living environment and the local ecology.