I woke up on a random Tuesday with a chunk of hair stress-shed onto my pillow, a pit of nausea in my stomach, and my mind already racing. This was becoming a daily routine.
I’d lived in Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city, for almost my entire life. In 2020, my partner and I had moved into a small unit in the city, which we loved at first — but now, after a few years, we were starting to feel hemmed in.
The city, the work, the noise … it was all too much. We had a conversation later that day and realized it was time for a change. She was feeling exhausted, too, and my anxiety was worse than ever.
Our finances were in the tank, and even though we were surrounded by people in a city of 1.7 million, we didn’t have the community we craved.
We started looking to greener pastures — literally — the next day, checking out other neighborhoods for a new place to call home.
After 6 months of searching, we found the perfect spot
We first visited a home in a neighboring suburb, but it reminded us too much of the issues we were having in our little unit. The space felt depressing, dark, and small, and the neighborhood was intimidatingly expensive.
After that, we knew we had to pivot our search and started looking for homes over an hour away from Auckland.
In late 2023, we found the place: an older, three-bedroom countryside home, sitting proudly on a huge patch of green grass. It was sun-filled, quiet, and rural, in a town with a population of under 10,000.
We didn’t even need to step inside. As soon as we pulled into the driveway for a visit, we saw all the greenery and looked at each other. We were thinking the same thing: This was exactly what we needed.
Nature worked its magic on my nervous system
Few things have tempered my anxiety more than moving within spitting distance of a 2,500-acre forest.
For years, I’d lived in units, split townhouses, apartments, or with roommates. I had little privacy and definitely no greenery.
Meanwhile, this quiet plot of tree-filled land invited me outdoors again. I wasn’t cooped up and avoiding too-close neighbors, so I started spending time outside every day.
My new normal helped me feel calm and learn to breathe again, and I found my mental health improving. I picked up the weight I’d lost to anxiety, and my panic attacks stopped.
Though we pay more to live out here, we spend less
Our new home’s rent is more expensive than our old unit, but the added cost feels worth it to have more space, including a sprawling lawn.
Plus, saving money feels much easier here, anyway. In just one year in the city, I single-handedly spent almost $4,000 NZD, or about $2,300 USD, on Uber Eats.
Here, local takeout options include a small pizza joint, a kebab spot, and fish and chips. We’re about a 10-minute walk from the town center, but without Uber Eats in our vicinity, we just don’t have the opportunity to spend unnecessary money — and as a result, we find ourselves cooking (and saving) much more.
Crucially, for the first time, we were able to save for an emergency fund, which has also eased my anxiety in countless ways.
Now, we know our community, and they know us
Even though we live outside town, we’re more connected to our neighborhood than ever. We know our neighbors, our landlord, and our mechanic. The community Facebook group is full of familiar names, and I check it like a newspaper.
My family had all moved out of Auckland years before we left, and moving brought us 90 minutes closer to all of them.
Now, quick visits and family BBQs — which we never could have hosted in our tiny place in the city — are regular parts of our lives.
We had to learn a lot about rural living, but it was worth it
Moving to a rural area wasn’t perfectly easy. There are huge spiders that wrap our deck and trees in their webs, and on our first night here, the quiet was so unsettling that I couldn’t get to sleep.
All it took was time. Now, those spiders catch stray mosquitoes for us, and the quiet lulls us to sleep. My partner can rest more easily, and says she feels more creative than ever.
I didn’t believe this kind of change was possible, and I’m grateful to have been proven wrong.
The realities of country living had always intimidated me; this wasn’t something I ever thought I’d do. In the end, though, moving out to a small town in the countryside has been one of the best decisions we’ve made.
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