Relocating to NZ. Questions for Kiwis!

Hagakure_Leofman

Greetings forum!

I'm a new visitor, without boring anyone, so a short introduction. My partner and I live about 65km north of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. We run a small farm and are developing sustainable practices using permaculture methods. We're very environmentally conscious. We're also expecting our child in March of this year, so exciting times!

Now to our question! - If anyone can help us.

My partner and I have been spending the last 12 months while setting up our garden, educating ourselves on the coming challenges associated with peak oil and global warming.

During this time, we've been researching a possible move to NZ. We're considering selling up the farm her in Victoria, and investing in a property in the south island of NZ. We're looking for a place with decent rainfall, good natural resources (rivers, wildlife etc), fertile land and not too flat (i.e. semi mountainous). We'd prefer a relatively remove place (i.e. outside of 10km to the nearest town, but that town being further from any city. We'd like to setup a sustainable permaculture farm to live and produce local produce etc.

Can anyone provide us with their views on the following?

- What areas match this description?
Perhaps several suggestions to research...

- Can anyone from NZ south island describe that climate in more detail? (we have an approximate idea as we live in a 'cold belt' north of Aus that actually quite hostile except our summers are quite hot). We understand the west is very wet, and the east drier.

Any other issues we should be aware of with the south island that people can think of?

That should do for now... We're just trying to narrow it down a little. Ideally, our perfect place would a sheltered against the edge of mountains, protected from extreme weather and wind, with fertile land and between 100-200 acres in size.

Many thanks and I look forward to sharing my own views with the rest of the forum.

Benjamin

essex

Welcome to NZ !
I suggest you try here.
http://www.bayleys.co.nz/enbayl/new_zealand_farms_for_sale.html

The South Island is beautiful and gets very cold in the winter the further south you go. Some day there will be the mother of all quakes along the Alpine fault, but you can build to withstand this.
Lots to explore here.
http://www.teara.govt.nz/EarthSeaAndSky/NaturalHazardsAndDisasters/ActiveFaults/3/ENZ-Resources/Standard/3/en

americandream

I'm in the Nelson region of the south island. The regional climate is fairly diverse from temperate in the far north around Nelson to wet and cool down the west coast, dry and warm on the east, cool and wet in Otago to cold and wettish in southland.

Remote locations that may suit you preference may possibly be the West Coast around Westport or Greymouth, both small towns, Motueka in the Nelson region, small again or Timura on the road to the city of Dunedin, a regional and smallish town.

Price wise the West Coast is the cheapest, the Nelson region is very popular with alternative lifestylers (big on buddhism etc) but is on the pricey side and Timaru I'ld rate as heartland New Zealand....middling price range.

For remoteness, the West Coast would be premium followed by the Nelson region. There's a huge drop out scene in Nelson so you'ld be amongst kindred spirit. Try the NZ tourist information website http://www.tourism.net.nz/ the real estate website http://www.realestate.co.nz/ and the regional newspaper website http://www.stuff.co.nz/ for further details.

Good luck in your search.
_________________
Bugger me, I hear oil's runnin out mate!

Hagakure_Leofman

Outstanding!

Many thanks for your replies. I've been investigating those sites you've recommended. It's always wise to ask the locals first.

There is a element of circularity in our move, as my great grandfather was originally from NZ, having lived near Taranaki. As a consequence, the place that we currently reside is titled 'Taranaki'. So there has always been a heart of NZ there.

The climate doesn't sounds problematic to us either. We're technically in a cold climate now, which experiences very cold weather by local standards, and with quite hot summers (AND FLIES!!!!), if anyones aware of the so called 'australian wave' they know what I mean.

Nina wants to know if there are many flies in a typical NZ summer?

We've recently seen a very interesting video that may interest those gardener types out there. It's produced by an austrian farmer named Sepp Holza who farms and amazing amount of produce at quite an elevation. For those familiar with bittorrent you can get it here...

Farming with Nature - A Case Study of Successful Temperate Permaculture avi CC

We're looking to create a sustainable farm and produce as much of our own food as we can. That video along with others have been an inspiration. Although I don't like to admit it, water is our main concern. In australia it's been particularly difficult to experience the drought we've suffered here, and while Nina and I have a wonderful bore that has beautiful spring water, it's not something we'd like to rely on.

And unfortunately, less concerned 'neighbours' see fit to pump this precious resource out of the ground by the megalitre and sell it as 'underground spring water' during a drought - and at everyone else's expense! So admittedly, our move to NZ cannot be disguised as anything over than an attempt to future-proof our existence, although we do recognize the essential need to contribute to our new local which we'll on a daily basis.

Thanks for your replies and hospitality, and others are most welcome to share additional info too! Smile

Lighthouse · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Mar 02, 2006 Posts: 1460

You should definitely look at Joe Polaisher's Rainbow Valley Farm in Matakana. I've travelled the world looking at permaculture sites. Joe and Tricia's place is the best permaculture site I've seen so far. It does not only offer sustainable living it offers also a very artistic lifestyle.

Have a look here: http://www.rainbowvalleyfarm.co.nz/

PS We are also considering moving from Northern NSW to NZ

Good luck.
_________________
I am a sarcastic cynic. Some say I'm an asshole. Now that we have that out of the way ...

Hagakure_Leofman

Nina and I just had a look at that site.

Lovely, and thanks for the info!

We'll certainly visit this place when we go on our 'location scout' this year!

essex

When I lived in the countryside in the Waikato the flies were pretty bad , but here in the Manawatu not really a problem. Did think of going to live in Nelson but as another has said it's expensive and for my taste a bit out of the way.

Lanthanide

Unfortunately I don't know much about NZ geography at all (computer nerd), but the Canterbury plains I think are probably going to be your best option. There are lots of rivers (good for river transport if you're ever facing a complete petrol shortage situation), and you'll always have a market for any excess food that you can grow in Christchurch.

Here's something I just googled which actually looks very useful:
http://encarta.msn.com/map_701558796/Canterbury_Plains.html

Unfortunately it seems you have to pay money to get access to the more interesting maps (rainfall, temperature etc), but perhaps $4.95 is cheap enough for you just to get the info quickly.

Hagakure_Leofman

That's encouraging Essex! I read your fly response with a drum roll to my partner. Flies really are a massive annoyance where we live in Aus.

And while Nelson sounds delightful (I read some extracts from the local newspaper about pick your own veges from local suppiers and a story about a horse trainer, it's still quite urban (?) from my understanding. We're looking for something with good fertile farmland, maybe backing onto a national park perhaps.

I read about Westport and Greymouth, but difficult to get a feel for them. I'll have to do more research for photos of the areas etc. Around Nelson sounds promising.

Regarding Canterbury Plains, isn't this area of the south lsland prone to drought? My understanding is that the west get a lot of rain, the east less so (some figures from the west amaze me being in drought myself). Although the arial maps of canterbury look intriguing considering the number of rivers, the last thing we'd like to do is trade one drought or another!!

Does anyone know what the regions on the east side (canterbury) of the mountains are like? At the foothills of the mountain range?

Mudpuppy · Tar Sands Joined: Dec 31, 2006 Posts: 30 Location: Japan

Just one thing about the Canterbury Plains.... They are beautiful, and flat as a billiard table, but also they are prime country for the dairy industry and so prices are rocketing at the moment due to the high price that our dairy products are getting (I`ll try to send you some news links). Also they can be drought prone as they are sheltered from the prevailing air streams coming from Australia by the Southern Alps.. I mean in ana avwrage historcal year they are fine..... but we have had more and more not average historical climate years.

West coats is cheap... and because of the wind streams coming in across the Tasman sea is also temperate (for its southerly place I mean), but gets far far too much rain for my liking. But if you don`t mind the rain (and by the sounds of it you want that) then it is good. Potentially too much rain though.. al that moist air sweeping in from the Tasman sea that the alps block from reaching canterbury gets dumped on west coast).

But it is rugged, cheap land, a lot of wild food on offer (pigs mainly, but also goats, deer, rabbits, and no season for them as they are considered a pest), and although I have never fished the West coast I am lead to believe it has a lot of opportunity. (there is a reason after all that the wild foods festival became so popular there).

angrysurgeon · Tar Sands Joined: Feb 20, 2005 Posts: 72

What other reasons are there, apart from earthquakes and hilliness that the west coast /nelson properties are cheaper than other parts of NZ?

Hagakure_Leofman

I was chatting with a Kiwi yesterday, and got some good supplimentary information. According to her, the West coast, particularly Westport and Greymouth are both *very* community orientated places. Her general advice was that you're either community minded, or you simply wouldn't fit in. This makes perfect sense to me, given that it's often described as frontier land. Lots of rain, tough sort of country.

Nelson sounds quite interesting. At the moment, I'll looking at places between Nelson and Westport. It seems from google maps there are a few settlements between these two places that might offer the kind of landscape that interests us. Does anyone know anything more about those areas?

I've cut Canterbury from our list. Just doesn't suit.

I did a lot of research about the weather patterns for New Zealands south island, and I'm not interested in living in a place where we'd be likely to have to irrigate even our small patch on a regular basis just to keep it alive! Sounds too much like her.

Thanks again everyone. The advice has truly been a gateway for us. Opened many doors!

Hagakure_Leofman

Also, regarding earthquakes!

I'd trade up the risk of a magnitude 8 earthquake that might happen once a 100 years any day, for the likelihood of a bushfire that might occur every year.

Also, I understand that even though the west coast is running right along a fault line, the last two major earthquakes occurred in the north island.

Here's a question : From a kiwis point of view, how do you feel about earthquakes?

I understand something like 15000 occur each year in new zealand, of which about 100 are perceptible?

TonyPrep

Try this page from GeoNet. Depending on the quake, if you click on the small NZ symbol to the right of each quake, the linked page will contain a map of either deep quakes or shallow quakes over the last 10 years. The Quake Resources link on that page has a more detailed picture of deep or shallow quakes for the last 60 days.

An area where there has been no earthquakes for the last 10 years might be a good area to choose.

Lanthanide