Corianne Holmes - South Island Tiny House: Our Journey Moving to New Zealand and Building a Tiny House on Wheels

Pat and Cori stopping in Malibu as they drove down US Route 101 to LA before flying to New Zealand in 2014.

It didnt take us long to discover the tiny house movement. It seemed to be within the same vein as shipping container homes but without needing land first. We were excited by the variety of tiny houses that people had made (which was fairly limited back in 2012) and the potential savings on rent. At the time we were paying for two places, and since we spent every free moment together anyway, it seemed extremely wasteful and expensive to us. Small living seemed so perfect for our circumstances.

Small spaces didnt scare us; we found them fascinating! Pat told me about his childhood treehouse in the forest behind the old ToysRUs building near the Manchester Mall. Pat, his twin, and their crew of friends built it themselves using tools stolen from his dads workshop. They pieced it together with free scraps they found behind the huge chain stores nearby and spent most of their free time after school in their private domain. I told him about the odd architectural features around my childhood home where my sister and I would hide, build blanket forts, and have puppet shows. Both our childhoods were spent in and out of doors enjoying small places, so naturally we felt like living in a small place would be easy for us.

As we contemplated the challenges of our living situations, we began to ask the big questions about where we wanted to live and whether the United States was even the right place for us. Did we really want to live in a tiny house during a harsh winter? We made a pros and cons list and started ranking and eliminating locations. The United States didnt make the cut. New Zealand topped the list, simply because it was the easiest country for us to move to. I was already a permanent resident of New Zealand thanks to my parents initiative when I was twelve. I knew it well, had a bank account there, and could get my masters degree for much cheaper than in the States. So, once I was accepted into the University of Canterbury for a one-year Master of Business Management program, everything fell into place.

In order to finance the move, we decided we needed at least $20,000 in New Zealand dollars ($15,400 US dollars) to comfortably start a new life in New Zealand. We contributed equally to a high-interest savings account, and after selling items we couldnt take with us, we quickly and easily got to our number after a few months. We purchased our tickets and Patrick secured his visa, and before we knew it, we were in Christchurch, New Zealand.

I was familiar with Christchurch before the 2011 earthquake struck, but I didnt really consider the situation beyond the earthquakes destruction. I had no idea that the price of rentals would be affected by the aftermath of the earthquake. We quickly learned that the majority of the housing stock in the city was either destroyed or in the process of being repaired. We had just picked up and dumped our lives into an expensive and competitive foreign real estate market. What a wake-up call! When we first arrived, we stayed with friends. Then after going to multiple viewings, we secured a room in a four-bedroom flat. It was cramped and on a busy road. There was one bathroom and laundry room for six adults and our room could barely fit a bed, let alone a deck. After a few weeks of misery, a flat at the university opened up. It was moldy, lacked insulation, and was horribly outdated, but at least we didnt have to share it.

Our experience with these two rentals showed us all we needed to know about New Zealands subpar housing. It was especially shocking because we had both spent our entire lives in warm, cozy, well-built homes in the United States. Neither of us had an interest in living that way for long. But what could we do? We couldnt afford much better.