A Place in the Country

HERE’S A COUPLE WHO PROVED THAT ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND DIY EFFORT CAN EQUATE TO ELEGANCE AND COMFORT.

WORDS JANE AVERY  PHOTOGRAPHS AARON MCLEAN

FROM MANAWA RIDGE’S turret-like viewing room, the scene spans 360 degrees of dizzying hill-country and coastal vistas and visitors can feel like kings or queens of all they survey. To the north-west, the hamlet of Waihi sits quaintly at the foot of the rugged Kaimai Ranges and on the south-east horizon Mt Maunganui looks as if it could be plucked and added to a collection of notable landmarks. Tussock waves gracefully as the breeze zephyrs by. If there were a standard handy, visitors would plant it firmly and declare it all theirs.

But of course the reason they’re positioned high above this often-windswept hill is because someone else got here first and claimed it as their own. It’s a blessing that caring and sharing is a central part of the mantra of Manawa Ridge’s owners, Carla and Willem van de Veen. And never fear if the wind blows viciously during the night – this home won’t budge an inch. Its construction reassuringly conveys the feel of “I’ll be here forever” … the sort of forever that more than a thousand 90kg mud bricks, 600 solid straw-bale blocks and 80 jarrah telephone poles and railway bridge beams can convey. This has all the durability of a hilltop fortress … and a handsome one at that.

Manawa Ridge Luxury Retreat is the fulfilment of a long-held dream for its Dutch creators. Nineteen years ago this part of the country spoke to them as they campervanned around New Zealand with their three children. Willem and Carla remember standing above the Waihi coastline watching the sunset and imagining a life there. More than 11 years later, upon discovering and purchasing the 101-hectare block of farmland, they were struck with the realization that this was indeed a wish come true. “By crikey, we thought, this is the place, with the hills, the bush and so much beauty,” says Willem.

The only thing was that 101 hectares were far bigger and more expensive than they’d ever anticipated buying. The ex-dairy farmers had been looking for somewhere to establish a lodge on perhaps 12-odd hectares. But upon spying a small advertisement in the The New Zealand Herald they forged ahead. They offered all their savings and as cash buyers secured the land for a lot less than the asking price. Happy but broke, the couple moved into the only building on the property, the woolshed. Says Willem, “We were very poor, but very rich.”

They were no strangers to starting over. Having emigrated to New Zealand from Holland in 1990 Willem, an ex-mounted policeman and armed-defenders officer, returned to doing what he’d been brought up with, dairying. Carla, (pictured left) a sculptor, rolled up her sleeves too and the job of building a new life began. After 18 months managing a Waikato unit, the couple bought their own dairy farm at Te Aroha. Faced with New Zealand banks’ reluctance to lend to migrants, they were yoked with an 80 percent Dutch mortgage transferred to New Zealand (complete with a 30 percent difference in exchange rate).

Eleven years later, after selling the farm, travelling around the USA and Canada gathering ideas for their dream lodge and then spending all their savings on the land, they got down to the business of building from broke again. They rented their paddocks for grazing and Willem returned to the dairying industry, this time as an artificial inseminator.

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