Why I’m selling my perfect block
I was on crutches the first time I stepped foot on our current block. Knee surgery a couple of weeks earlier meant I was still relying on them for balance. We had driven five hours north to look at a property that seemed to have everything we were looking for in a lifestyle block.
It was large, at 88 hectares, with no house but decent fencing and troughs. In places there were huge basalt rocks scattered across rolling paddocks, perfect goat country! One flat(tish) paddock was suitable for hay and balage. Most importantly, the block had no power to the site and in fact an easement that said Northpower were not obligated to provide power if asked. This suited us perfectly as after a bruising few years fighting Transpower’s unnecessarily obtrusive lines upgrade we wanted to be off-grid.
I hobbled in behind my husband and the real estate agent, then found a rock to sit on while they explored. They disappeared from sight, then reappeared as tiny specks on a far patch of green before disappearing again. I began to realise how big 88ha actually is…
My husband came back, raving about the paddocks and especially the bush block. Around 120 acres of native bush with streams, waterfalls, swimming holes and trees that were impossible to identify as the lowest branches were way out of sight overhead.
We signed the papers and moved onto the land and into a rented cabin and tent. LSB articles were uploaded from a tent enclosed within electric tape fencing as we continued the grazing arrangement the previous owner had with a local dairy farmer.
The first camp
Our first priority was power. We started with a generator and batteries while we planned where to build our off grid home.
There was a building on the block - what was known as ‘the smoko hut’ - a 2m x 4m wooden shed. We decided to build the house nearby as it was one of the few north-facing (very important for an off-grid home), flat sites close enough to the entrance of the property to make a house build practical. We moved into the shed, rented a portaloo and began planning.
The smoko hut with portaloo
We set up ground mounted solar panels, ran extension cords to the hut and built an outdoor shower. We used a bbq for cooking and shared the bunk beds in the shed with our three cats. Working with a designer, we planned a home that would be naturally warm in winter and cool in summer without needing power-hungry appliances.
Outdoor shower
Over the next few years we built the house, two large polytunnel sheds for the goats, a three bay shed and cattle yards. Once we were in the house we started on the extras, a hay barn, chook house and run, field shelters, an enclosed vegetable garden and a small orchard.
During Covid we formed a bubble with a neighbour who was a builder and completely renovated the smoko hut into a comfortable, self-contained dwelling. We renamed it 'the shearer’s hut' as we had to accommodate the shearer every six months when the goats were shorn.
Finally, the property is as we wanted it. The house is an oasis of calm, nestling into native bush and easy-care gardens. The vegetable gardens and orchard are flourishing and we’ve planted hundreds of trees, many of them fodder trees we can use in dry summers.
Now the block is on the market. Our friends think we’re crazy - why leave something so perfect for us?
Firstly, we sold our goats last year. The goats were the reason we wanted the property and the reason we loved it so much. But goats, particularly angora goats, need attention and when you have 200+ that’s a lot of attention. We loved it, but it was also a trap. Most of our neighbours would be more than happy to keep an eye on our cattle but there aren’t many people who really know what goats need and who can spot a ‘I’m not sick yet but will be dead in a couple of days if you don't treat me right now’ goat. Any holiday time we could get off the block was tempered by the worry about what was happening back home.
We are travellers by nature. We arrived in New Zealand after travelling around Australia in our twenties. We travelled around New Zealand, ran out of money, applied for residency and settled. It has been home for more than thirty years, but the world is still out there and we’re not getting any younger.
We’re now at the age (I sound like my own grandmother) when a decade can slip by very quickly and in another couple of decades travel may not be so easy for us. We decided to take a three month trip to Europe last year and after much heart searching we looked at selling our flock. We were very, very lucky to find an experienced goat farmer who lives locally who would buy the entire flock from us. I had dreaded people coming and picking out the best and leaving us with only bad options for the older animals. So off they all went to another large block and a happy life surrounded by the flock mates they’d always known.
We still have cattle. We always have. They are easier to buy, sell and manage, and much simpler for neighbours or farm sitters to keep an eye on.
So here we are with no goats and a strong desire to travel. A 88ha block, no matter how perfect, needs to be farmed. It’s time to pass it on to someone who can bring all the passion and energy we brought to it for 15 years. While we bring our energies to a smaller block. That we will make perfect for us. Just give us time.
I have added a few photos from the early days throughout the article, but if you would like to see the block as it is now, the sale video and a link to the farm sale page are just below.
