Goodbye Auckland traffic, hello Taranaki peace
A family who got so fed-up with commuting in Auckland that they moved to Taranaki have found themselves dealing with a commute back to the city for work.
But Kiel McNaughton, Kerry Warkia and their three children, Vavaki, 11, Apeal, 13, and eightyear-old Noah, have no regrets about their decision and say the big commute is only temporary.
The family swapped big city traffic jams and high house prices for a four bedroom villa in Hawera - a town without a single traffic light - in January, and say a greeting from the mayor helped them to settle in.
‘‘When we arrived we got a card and a bottle of wine from the mayor saying welcome, but the Auckland mayor never sent us a farewell card,’’ Warkia joked.
‘‘Hawera is lovely and quiet. I feel we gained back a lot of time by moving here. We work from home, we can walk everywhere, life is great.’’
The couple have their own production company, Brown Sugar Apple Grunt, which has made Auckland Daze and Find Me A Ma¯ ori Bride.
The move came about because the family was growing out of their bungalow in Laingholm, west of Auckland, and tired of the congested roads.
Their story was recently featured on Labour politician and TV presenter Tāmati Coffey’s new show, Moving out with Tamati.
‘‘We were spending a lot of our time in our car in traffic jams going back and forwards to work,’’ Warkia said.
The family was not able to afford a larger house in Auckland. In the end they sold their bungalow for $800,000 and upsized to a much bigger villa for $399,000.
‘‘When we started to think seriously about moving out of Auckland, we couldn’t see any reason why we couldn’t make it work for us.’’
Both are fortunate to be able to work from home. ‘‘If we get hired for a job, we go to where the work is. We work together and we tag team and share all the responsibility,’’ Warkia said.
McNaughton is currently directing a show in Auckland so he’s away from home during the week.
‘‘When we do big jobs, we go out into the world and do the job, then it’s nice to come back to your own quiet spot, your own peace.’’
There’s so much space in their new backyard, that Warkia has come up with a project to turn it into a community asset.
She already had plans drawn for a big permaculture garden.
‘‘We’ll have a paepae [platform] space in the middle where teachers can bring children to learn about the environment, and we can have outdoor movies in the summer.’’