5 Things Rural Living Has Taught Me

If you've been following us for awhile now, then you may know that I have moved up north to the bach/orchard permanently. Camille is still based in Auckland for the time being and we both go to and from all the time, so really not that much has changed. Except in some ways everything has. I thought it would be fun to share 5 things rural living has taught me.

Slow down

Why do we rush around so much in Auckland?! I honestly don't know, but everyone does it. As strange as it may seem, you don't have to leave early and rush to get somewhere before the crowds settle in. There are no crowds, and there's no reason to rush. Taking a deep breath and living a more relaxed lifestyle is what this is all about. This is something I'm still getting used to, and I'm having trouble letting that "Auckland rush" go. But I'll get there!

The bugs are on steroids

When you've got spiders the size of a mouse (maybe a slight exaggeration, but I wasn't sticking around to find out), huge beetles and an abundance of wetas, you know it's a problem. All I can say is that the bugs up here must be very well fed, and it disturbs me. What's worse is that I work from home a lot of the time, while my partner is out at work - so I have to deal with these bastards myself.

Wildlife is EVERYWHERE

Rabbits, hedgehogs, hawks, quail, frogs, moreporks, turkeys, wild horses, pheasants... hell even the odd kiwi can be seen and heard all around us. Even though I know some of these are pests (ahem, looking at you Mr Rabbit), it's such an amazing feeling to see so much wildlife. Don't get me wrong, you see & hear them in Auckland too - but not quite to the extent that you see them up here. It's amazing.

The off-the-grid lifestyle can be a little testing

Solar power is great, I love it. I can do pretty much everything I did back in Auckland on solar without having any worries at all. The problem is when you have a solid few days of cloud and rain and have to bust out the generator to charge the batteries back up - thankfully that hasn't happened much yet, but Winter could tell a different story! The only thing I can really complain about is the fact that I'm missing a proper oven. The temporary gas oven we have isn't actually that bad, but because it doesn't have the grill option, all my food doesn't brown and ends up looking anaemic.

Community is a real thing

Maybe it's just where I lived in Auckland, but there was absolutely no sense of community there at all. We've always gone out of our way to know our immediate neighbours, and help them whenever needed, but that's about it. Here, everyone knows everyone - and more importantly, everyone seems to want to help everyone! It's amazing, and is honestly a feeling I've never had before. We had barely even bought this section (where we're building the bach) before we had neighbours coming over and offering their water supply to us. It's like having a large, extended family - and it's pretty cool.



So that's 5 things rural living has taught me. I'm sure as time goes on and I settle in a bit more, there will be many more things I'll learn!

Are you living the rural life? If not, would you ever consider it?

Thanks for viewing!
oxo