How I became... a lifestyle block owner

Aged 55, Nikki Wylder has achieved her lifelong dream of owning and working her land.

"Alone and bareback on my pony at the age of 10, I trolled the woodland pastures of England’s New Forest for a day at a time, followed faithfully by my RSPCA mutt. From then on, I dreamed of owning my own piece of paradise. Four decades, three kids, seven jobs and three continents later, I now troll my own Northland paddocks armed with a spade for the thistles, followed by an army of border collies, six highland cows, three kune kune pigs and two goats.

"Remote yes, but not as isolated as Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates where I started my global hop. I’d leave the house boy with the ironing while my son, daughter, labrador and I would comb the deserted beaches for wildlife.

"A few years later, in Singapore, I replaced sand dunes for the jungle in between study. In 1987, I landed in Auckland with some computer qualifications, three children and a racing bike. I left my husband in Singapore with, alas, a friend’s maid!

"I was quickly moved from computer geek to computer sales. We lived with my new partner in east Auckland. The children became Kiwi kids and I ran, swam and cycled the waterfront. Life was rosy but after 13 years the walls came tumbling down and I found myself alone and no longer able to afford the St Heliers mortgage. When I write my first book, it will be called More dogs - less men. 

"With the kids grown up, the dog and I moved to a bush retreat in the Waitakeres. It was time to fulfill another dream to run my own business. I had become a stale account manager and the fact that my sales director was younger than my oldest son did not help. 

"So I threw in the laptop and PDA and bought a mobile dog wash business. Giving up the big salary was scary but after a couple of years, it enabled me to buy my own land, this little do-up in the wop wops. 

"But finding work in Northland? I could not be a share-milker, a lumberjack or a cardiac surgeon at Whangarei Hospital. But I knew I could sell. I saw an advert for a company called goodGround and liked the name; I had always liked good ground. 

"For the past two months working as a real estate agent, I’ve traipsed through blocks of rural and lifestyle land searching for boundary pegs and climbing hills to show buyers the views of the Kaipara Harbour or the Hen and Chicken Islands. The hours are long but flexible so I can still keep the thistles down and breed more animals. I’ve just had a litter of seven border collies! 

"My future dreams include short bouts of travel but my immediate reality is to de-strangle the weeds from the vegetables and work out a cunning plan to stop the rats eating my macademia nuts."

Interview by Rosalind Le Bas Walker; Photograph: Jessica Wylder