When a family scout brought reports back from a remote Pacific Island just of the coast of New Zealand, Neil and Carol Wright had to come and inspect the discovery for themselves. They had not even completed their visit when circumstances conspired and they ended up making an offer on the idyllic Okupu home where they live now. “You don’t come to the island, the island chooses you.” Neil offered as a justification.

Of course, they soon enough discovered that island living can be lacking in amenities and facilities that one takes for granted on the mainland. And this in turn brought new challenges - “You can imagine that especially winter time encouraged us to >modify< our life style.” Carol said.

After leaving behind the very busy practice in Hamilton that she was coordinating, Carol finds it more agreeable to manage the small clinic in Claris. Here it does not need to be open 7 days a week until late. “It is a simple choice really – lifestyle for less income. But that is a worthwhile trade-off and we believe more and more people will come to recognise that.”

“But what was particularly nice, was how the community welcomed a dentist opening a practice here. There is less negativity associated with dentists than one finds in the city.”

“Making a living out of homestay and charter boats does not make one rich, but it can be enough to break even – sometimes.” Like many residents, Richard and Sandy Lintott’s connection with the island preceded settling here by many years. Owning their current property at Medlands Beach since the 1960’s, they finally moved across eight years ago after selling Richard’s Auckland–based business. “Only for a couple of years, we had promised each other ..” As a consolation they do retain a small apartment in Auckland, which gives a sense of link with family and friends who they left behind.

Because of their involvement with visitors, and no little thanks to Richard’s genial manner when he takes fishers and sightseers out on the water, Richard has become a prominent feature in different articles about island lifestyles and contentious issues that have been written in national publications. Whether that is due to reporters seeking an excuse to enjoy the spectacular coasts of this island, or because Richard offers positive insights into the island community, remains open.

“It is the community on Great Barrier that makes this island distinctive. It is small enough to get to know everybody, at least by sight, and to discover that there is an extraordinary number of people with really interesting backgrounds.”

It was time to choose between career and lifestyle, when in 1987 Anne Kernohan decided to leave promising prospects in a veterinary practice behind and tend to pets and farm stock on the island instead. She had had a chance to travel around the world, experience different cultures in remote regions and had been working in Auckland suburbs as a vet, but something was still lacking.

Two weekend visits to the island would arguably not be enough to prepare for the winter hardships that faced the family when they tried to establish themselves here. But memories of wading through mud to cut firewood, now only help to appreciate the small improvements that the years have brought.

Occasionally Anne meets colleagues she knows from study times that took different paths leading them to running “successful” veterinary practices in the Waikato or on the North Shore. Telling her story at the class reunions, made her realise the “James Herriot” lifestyle that she had with all its ups and downs, over the years getting to know the animal owners as much as the animals she treated. In return she heard how others worked long hours in suburban and rural practices with little time for leisure and family, although perhaps with more comforts and security.

For Anne, her less profitable practice had allowed her to find a better balance - to her mind at least - with time for raising children and realising her artistic side. “Living on the barrier is >richer< with more time for art and gardening – it is definitely a price worth paying.” There is in fact a higher financial cost for many aspects of life and the standard of living has to be lower. “But it is easier now than it was during the first years – they were hard. My mother was horrified. Here I was washing nappies for two kids in a bathtub every day; cutting firewood with a skill saw, and struggling to maintain a very basic home. They had worked hard all life to escape these kinds of hardships. Why had I returned to that?” Maybe because island life lets one discover the tougher sides of one’s character? “Yes, and being able to live in a place without fear is worth a lot, also.”

“Great Barrier Island is a place one can feel proud to be part of.” explained Helmut. “Sailing our catamaran here from Europe, we encountered many different attractive corners. When this island captured us, back in 1993, we had already circled New Zealand in the tracks of Captain Cook, making a figure eight around both islands. But while Great Barrier Island is exceptionally beautiful, it remains accessible from a nearby centre. And is the kind of place where yachties like ourselves can feel very much at home, because of the self-sufficient attitude that is needed for living here.”

 “But before we were granted residency, we had continued our circumnavigation, crossing our own path again in the Atlantic.” By 1998, Meryle Thomson and Helmut Bender had returned here, started building a house and celebrated their new home by getting married on the island the following year.

They did not consider that this sufficed to make the island their home, as they evoke in a song they are ready to play whenever the company is right:

We learned through the years - No paradise is perfect
But the secret to make a place your own - Put something of yourself in
Have a stake in its shaping - Then you’ve found your home

This attitude has seen Helmut and Meryle take part in island art, theatre and social issues. “But perhaps it is most symbolic, how we try to pass on the welcome we experienced here to any visitors that come our way. It is a welcoming place, this island.”