People & Places
The appeal of Nelson
Once considered little more than a stop off point en route to the Abel Tasman National Park, in recent years more and more Brits have found themselves drawn to Nelson
Maike van der Heide, a former resident of the city, takes a look at just what it is that is attracting Brits the area. When the Holmes family arrived in Nelson, located at the top of the South Island, they were a bit suspicious of the place. "We could find hardly any pictures of Nelson anywhere. There was one of the cathedral and some of the Abel Tasman National Park but none of the place itself, so we thought, what are they trying to hide?" Mark Holmes recalls.
What Nelson was trying to hide was a "certain magic" which appealed to the Holmes family and once they got back to the UK, they found themselves homesick for the South Island city. So they came back, and 12 years on they're still there – along with plenty of other Brits. Once a small provincial centre favoured particularly by artists, the secret of Nelson's appeal has long been out, despite the lack of photos. Nelson, it seems, is these days a bit of a Brit-magnet. New Zealand's latest census, held a year ago, has revealed that Nelson now has the highest proportion of people in New Zealand who say they were born in the UK or Ireland – 3,774. That's nearly one Pom per ten Nelson residents.
Neighbouring region Tasman – which includes Nelson's next-door town Richmond plus outlying rural areas such as Mapua, Wakefield and Upper Moutere, areas that are reportedly bustling with Brits – has seen a 35 per cent increase in British migration since the country's last head count in 2001, and now has 3,333 UK or Irish residents. The Nelson region was third only to Auckland and Wellington in terms of the proportion of residents born overseas.
For Claire Nichols, Nelson Multi Ethnic Council coordinator, the statistics simply confirmed what they already knew. "We started up a year ago and the people who were joining up were mostly British." Nelson's appeal is simple, she says. "It's so beautiful. I think it's a lot to do with the physical appearance – just how lovely it is and the fact it doesn't have a very big population." When asked why they chose Nelson, some Brits I spoke to for this article paused in surprise. "Isn't it obvious?" they ask. They speak of walks by the sea, kayak and ski trips on the weekends, summer swims at the local beaches and scenic beauty. Coastal Nelson is framed by high mountains which in the east morph into the Marlborough Sounds and in the west end to the golden sands of the Abel Tasman National Park. Heading south, the sprawling Waimea Plains support vineyards, fruit orchards and farmland. An hour and a half by car will take you to Rainbow Skifield in Nelson Lakes National Park, while a ten-minute drive from Nelson's central city will see you on the white-sanded Tahunanui Beach.
Longer summers
Above all, migrants speak of Nelson's temperate climate which has earned the area its much-used nickname of 'sunny Nelson'. "It has four seasons but it's quite different to northern Europe," explains British expat Stan Holt, who until recently owned a bed and breakfast with his wife, Jan, in the Nelson suburb of Atawhai. "You get a lot more summer and spring time, and it does not get some of the awful weather that plagues the UK. It's a nice climate without being too extreme."
Stan and Jan moved to New Zealand 12 years ago and headed straight for Nelson. The plan was to stay at least two years, then leave if they didn't like it. Clearly, they liked it. Having recently sold their bed and breakfast, Muritai Manor, to another British couple, the Holts now enjoy meeting up with friends at local beach reserve Rabbit Island, having barbecues, visiting Nelson's vineyards and taking their dogs for a swim in the sea. Stan also enjoys Nelson's thriving music and arts and crafts scene which culminates in a colourful weekly Saturday market. "It's a very active community here in Nelson," he says. Mark is one of those active members of the community and a councillor at the Nelson City Council. He loves Nelson's weather so much that one day he decided summer should be longer. So he lengthened it! After 13 months of lobbying, including a petition that attracted 42,000 signatures, Mark succeeded in persuading the New Zealand government to lengthen daylight savings hours by three weeks, extending it to 27 weeks. "In New Zealand you've got this summer climate that goes on and on and then halfway through we start pretending it's winter when it's not," he says.
Used to the British bureaucratic process, Mark almost surprised himself with how easy it was to do. "That's one of the amazing things about New Zealand – someone trying to get the wheels of legislation moving, it's like moving a sports car compared to moving a juggernaut in the UK." Mark and his family, which includes two children who are now at Canterbury University, enjoy an active outdoor lifestyle which includes skiing, kayaking, sea swimming and more. He has a house in Nelson's Port Hills overlooking Tasman Bay and loves taking walks in the area. For him, Nelson's people were extremely welcoming and it had just the right balance of lifestyle and convenience. "The place is not overwhelming – big enough to have a choice of schools and go out at night and the shopping is good for a place of its size." Nelson and Richmond have five high schools, three intermediates and a sizeable scattering of primary schools. Most of New Zealand's major chain stores have also found a home there beside local businesses. Starbucks has recently slipped into town and, to the intense joy of some locals, Burger King is about to set up and challenge McDonalds to a burger dual.
Job problems
But despite fast food, ongoing population growth and constant building of new suburbs, in global terms Nelson remains a small, provincial town and its equally small job market is one of the tightest in the country. In May, the statistical area combining Tasman, Nelson, Marlborough and the West Coast had the lowest unemployment rate at 2.7 per cent. This was a whole per cent lower than the New Zealand average for the year to March, according to Labour Department and Ministry of Social Development figures.
It's something to be proud of but it also makes life difficult for new arrivals. Claire has seen cases where people come over for the lifestyle but find it almost impossible to get a job. Mark found this out the hard way 12 years ago when both he and his wife spent three years doing odd jobs that stretched from working in Nelson's information centre to driving van loads of paragliders into the hills. Eventually Mark decided it was time to get serious and set up a photography and mapping business. "I always wanted to work for myself. And we realised we had to earn some money," he says.
Expats Karen and John Lee were all prepared to move to Christchurch on the assumption Nelson had no work, but John landed a job in Richmond. The family loves the skifield, scenery and the beaches, but Karen says migrants must realise that Nelson's salaries are often about half of what people may expect to earn in the UK. "We don't see that as a deterrent as our intention was to change our lifestyle and spend less on things which we don't consider important, but it can be a real problem for new immigrants who aren't aware of this and suddenly find themselves struggling to make ends meet."
Housing concerns
But there's still plenty of Brits finding jobs and investing in the local housing market. Jeremy Matthew, a sales consultant at Harcourts Real Estate's Nelson office, says of his current ten hottest buyers – that is, buyers who will buy immediately should a suitable property pop up – six are Brits. The British influx has certainly been noticed, he says, albeit gradually.
Jeremy explains there are two main groups currently arriving with British pounds to spend: Kiwi expats who have lived in the UK for many years, made their money, and now want to come home to retire; and, by far the majority, British migrants. "Many say that Nelson is like the UK was 30 to 40 years ago," Jeremy says. "They feel welcome here – and they are." Small settlements such as tiny Mapua on the western side of Tasman Bay is proving a haven for many Brits who barely consider it a commute from town. "They are already used to travelling two hours every day to get to work, and Mapua is just a 40-minute drive from Nelson," Jeremy says.
However, many soon realise New Zealand's public transport leaves a lot to be desired – it barely exists – and some will find life in the Bay's scenic backwaters too isolated. "Initially, some of them like the lifestyle blocks – they'll get an initial rush of blood to the head and they'll head out to the country. But some find, especially if they have young kids, that it's too far from town. They get sick of being taxis for the kids." Back in town, Jeremy has also observed enthusiasm fading as new Brits take in the typical Kiwi weatherboard home. "They prefer brick houses, so newer houses built in the last 15 to 20 years – they don't like our wooden houses, they don't trust them."
Jeremy says popular homes are those with concrete cores which will hold heat and have an easy "lock and leave ability." Most of these homes are priced over NZ$500,000, he says. Some cunning Brits have noticed this trend in the housing market created by fellow Poms and are cashing in. Jeremy says many Brits have brought along their hammers and are now building houses which appeal to Brits. One British architect has even made it her speciality, he says. In the past Nelson's migrants, especially Brits and Americans, have been casually blamed by locals, sitting over a Sunday morning latte, for Nelson's skyrocketing property prices. "That's nonsense," says Jeremy, who adds that a lot of people from Christchurch have also been moving to retire in areas popular with Brits, like Mapua. "The competition is coming from everywhere. [Brits] can pay more, but they are not silly with their money – they're keeping their money in the UK waiting for the New Zealand dollar to fall," he says.
Home from home?
Houses and jobs aside, what do British migrants think of being surrounded by so many people from a country they worked so hard to get away from? Stan says that, inevitably, he's met English people around the place. "It's not that we seek them out," he says. "We have often sat down and given them the benefit of sharing our experiences," he says of new arrivals. The danger, says Karen, who set up a Newcomers Network in Richmond for immigrants of all nationalities, is that some Brits end up in little British enclaves and don't integrate well – something that may end in sad flights back to the UK. "I started meeting people who were finding it quite hard to make the adjustment." Karen says parents who stay home find it even more isolating and may miss contact with family and friends back in the UK. When she found herself with time on her hands, Karen started volunteering in the community and set up fortnightly coffee groups for migrants who needed a bit of help getting into things. "In an ideal world, I should only see them a few times," she says.
But not all 'Britishness' can be set aside, and Nelson has plenty of reminders of home. Even Jaffa Cakes. Nelson and Richmond each have an Eat UK shop which, as the name suggests, sells food missed by expats from 'real' marmite to Walkers Crisps, cereals and English-style Cadbury chocolate. Owner of both shops, Brit Larry Stanfield, thought he'd try the idea a year ago and it took off, especially in the more suburban Richmond. Larry and family moved from the Whangaparaoa Peninsula north of Auckland two years ago after the area's rainy climate lost its appeal. Larry says he doesn't mind being surrounded by people from his home country. "The more the merrier," he says. But Larry realises it's important for Brits to integrate with their new Kiwi neighbours. "We do have a lot of British friends because there's a lot of Brits here – you can't get away from them really. "But there's a danger that people expect it to be a mini Britain and live in a little enclave. There's one or two that go that way, but it's not our cup of tea," Larry says.
Carole Wallis works in Eat UK's Nelson branch. A newcomer to town, she has been in New Zealand for ten years, most of which was spent in Christchurch until the Nelson lifestyle called. "It's just a beautiful area. Christchurch was getting a wee bit busy and Nelson has always been somewhere we wanted to move to." She says 95 per cent of Eat UK's customers in Nelson are British but she quite likes seeing people from her homeland. "It's nice because while for me homesickness is not an issue, a lot of people coming in here get quite excited to see the British products."
But most, it seems, are happy to swap British food for the scenery and lifestyle of Nelson. Mark has met plenty of Brits at the airport, introduced them to the place and helped them settle into their first accommodation. He says Nelsonians are as accepting of the new arrivals as when he moved in, with nobody taking much note of something a bit different. "People accept you if for some strange reason you want go running over the mountains at midnight or if you are a bank manager." Word of mouth, says Mark, is probably a biggest factor that has led to more Brits landing at the airport. "There must be quite a few British people who send back such good vibes that keeps more people coming. "I'm sure some of them think it's a backwards place with tumblegrass blowing down the streets and old wooden buildings. But it's got the lifestyle aspect. A lot of people go to the big city and they find a lot of the same problems that people have tried to get away from. "You have to put lifestyle first."
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