Meet my family: We are a happily married couple with two gorgeous fun packed energetic young boys. What brought us here: My husband and I have shared a dream to own a lifestyle block for a very long time. We used to have very well paid jobs in New Zealand's biggest city - Auckland. We had explored the idea of owning a lifestyle block there but due to over population and inflated property prices we
knew we wouldn't be able to do it without both having to work. With a young family and taking into account commuting distances the dream was put on the back burner. Until Christmas 2014 holidays when visiting Tauranga in the beautiful Bay of Plenty we said we could see ourselves living there. New Zealand's 4th most populated city - small enough to provide great rural opportunities close to the main city centre so we can continue to have easy access to everything. Yes we wanted to go rural but no I didn't want to be miles from civilisation. So we agreed we'd set in place a 2 year plan to relocate our family to a lifestyle block in Tauranga. Shortly after making that decision the property boom in Auckland was ramping up and we asked ourselves what is it we are waiting for? We had no answer so decided let's do it then. A few months later we were loading our belongings into two containers for storage as we had sold up, left our jobs but didn't have anywhere to live. We took our kids on a two week trip to visit family & friends before staying with my parents while we negotiated buying our dream property. In September 2015 we started living that dream. This page is to share those experiences with anyone who is interested. Especially those who might be thinking about doing something similar but haven't found the courage to do it yet. We also hope that some of our followers can provide help & guidance when we get stuck as all this is new to us city folk it's a big learning curve. There will be failures and successes that's all part of our growth. Where we want to go: We have great plans, some we have already realised and some requiring a little more funds before we can kick them into action. Here's our plan so far:
1. Have our own free range eggs - Achieved we have 10 chickens
2. Grow our own vegetables - Achieved we have raised garden beds which provide us yummy fresh organic produce
3. Grow our own fruit - Our property has in excess of 60 fruit tress growing pomegranates, persimmons, fejoas, nectarines, peaches, plums, apples, pears, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, passionfruit and blackberries - yield ranges from small to large quantities. The trees need love & care to get them producing at their best - once that happens then we will sell at local markets.
4. Build a fort - This is underway and on track to being completed.
4. Plant trees and grow commercially - where there used to be 250 olive trees we are looking to plant Avocados - the idea is to grow something we can make a commercial income from.
5. Erect holiday accommodation - we have amazing views of the sea & the rolling ranges which we think would be inspirational to artists, the bird life here would attract bird watches or travelers who want to be close to the city and great beaches but also get away to the peacefulness of the country.