Moving the whole house! Twizel, New Zealand

Location: Twizel, South Island, New Zealand (44° 15′ 0″ S, 170° 6′ 0″ E)
Date: 26 May 2009, 8.50am
Camera: Canon 400D with Sigma 17-70/f2.8-4.5

There is a distinct difference between dwellings in most parts of Asia and Australasia. In Asian cities most people lives in apartments, flats or condominium. The well-heeled will stay in landed properties such as what are known as semi-detached houses or bungalows. This is quite different from Australasia (and to some extent most of the Western cities) where low-rise landed-type properties still dominate. This is not to say that they are no high-rise apartments in these cities- there are, and more are being built to accommodate the increased urban population- except that single or double storey houses (what in Asia would have been known as bungalows) still predominates. Ironically two of the main reasons that there are more high-rise apartments in these cities are the increased number of Asians migrating to these cities as well as Asian companies- used to building such high-rise- are building more of these apartments to cater to the Asians. It is still very common in Australasian cities to buy the land and buy or build the house separately. In big cities such as Sydney and Auckland, it is not uncommon to see the whole house being moved on the road either by the owner shifting between properties or by the builder to the owner’s properties, like above. Traffic is always affected when this happens.