It takes one hour to commute to Wellington from Wairarapa by either car or train and the drive over the hills is very narrow, windy and steep - literally a killer drive. For many years Featherston has been something of a joke - a hick town with ferocious wind and a few infamous child murders. While the Wellington property market boomed, people in Featherston couldn't sell their houses because no one wanted to buy them. When L and I talk about our dream it is not uncommon for people to react as if we had said "We're thinking about moving to Antartica."
The thing is that Featherston is changing. Has been for a while now. Property prices have almost doubled over the last two years. Wellington yuppies priced out of the market are moving in. A boutique Lighthouse Cinema has opened there. I think there may even be a delicatessen. It has begun the process of gentrifying like its sister towns, Greytown and Martinborough.
And Featherston is pretty. It is green and semi-rural and it has a small bush-clad hill running across its southern end and a vast blue sky. It has grown on me and the more I visit the more I find to like. In Featherston there is a street called Underhill Road, a classic hobbit name. In Featherston there is a fully functioning miniature railway that children can play on. And there is a community centre with yoga classes. And you can walk everywhere and people say hello to you on the streets. And best of all you can buy houses like this for $250,000.
And our dream in essence is about downshifting. L & I dream of working less or working in jobs that are more fulfilling but don't necessarily pay as much as the work we do now. (For example, I once looked at becoming a zookeeper, which I would LOVE but the pay range is about $25K - $35k.) And I don't want to have to work full time while we have preschool age children. In fact, I would like to have the option of us living on one income if one of us falls in love with being a full-time parent. Buying a house in Featherston could mean that our mortgage drops by 30-50%.
4 comments:
1. I don't get your heading - could you please reference?!
2. You wont find many lions in Featherston (if you still wish to be a zookeeper)
3.I have a little diffifulty about Wellingtonians attempting to replicate aspects of Wellington in the 'rapa. eg your Lighthouse reference. There's a lighthouse in Martinborough too. This is as much as I love the cafe culture etc
Surely the crunch is you move (if you do for exactly what you write about - the landscape and the lifestyle - because it is different - not becasue you wish to make it like what you know - not that I'm adverse to hybrid communities - because that's clearly what you get when you combine "Wellingtonians with the Wairapians@.
Hmmm. A topic close to my heart.
1. The heading is a reference to the fact so many people have recoiled in horror when I have told them about the Featherston dream.
2. Yes, I too am wondering if the zookeeper and Featherston dreams are perhaps incompatible - at the least it would increase the commute time by 50%.
3. Perhaps this reflects my slight ambivalence about a move to the country. I've never lived in the country before and it is comforting to know there are a few familiar landmarks around.
1. The heading is a reference to the fact so many people have recoiled in horror when I have told them about the Featherston dream.
2. Yes, I too am wondering if the zookeeper and Featherston dreams are perhaps incompatible - at the least it would increase the commute time by 50%.
3. Perhaps this reflects my slight ambivalence about a move to the country. I've never lived in the country before and it is comforting to know there are a few familiar landmarks around.
Hi there - just stumbled across your blog while doing a search for Featherston in googles blog search.
We moved to Featherston in November 06 after living in Wellington and the Hutt for about5 years. I could tell you all about it but it's probably easier if you read our blog which we (and by we I mainly mean my lovely wife) started in Feb last year.
We both work in Wellington and commute in most days (I work a normal week, Em works four days in town and one day at home) and the train trips aren't as big a deal as you might think. Costs about $750 for a quarterly ticket. The only hard bit is that during winter you leave Featherston in the dark and you get back to Featherston in the dark.
While there is a cinema (which seems to be struggling) I don't think there's a deli yet. There is a wierd Asian food store though that's open... some of the time. I don't think it will become another Greytown anytime soon - there's something decidely rough about the place that even a couple of swank cafes and a the-ah-tah (dahling) can't smooth over.
Tom - tomandemma.wordpress.com
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