Mandy Robinson in front of Te Horo Farmstay.
A former milking shed on a slice of rural Kapiti Coast paradise has been transformed into a delightful farmstay.
Builder Jason Strahan spent more than a year creating Te Horo Farmstay for owner Mandy Robinson.
The building, about 30m long and 4.5m wide, comprises two large bedrooms, each with an ensuite, large lounge and kitchen area, and more.
A ramp leads into the house, to help people with mobility issues, and one of the bathrooms has been specifically designed for people with disabilities.
The farmstay is in a picturesque environment surrounded by rolling hills and valleys.
"It's comfortable, country living," Robinson said.
The farmstay, designed by Paul Lindsay, has been a long time coming as it was consented in 2009 but the build didn't startuntil the end of August last year.
"It has been a mighty build and Jason has done a magnificent job."
Mandy had wanted to do the build for a long time, on the site she has loved, especially as she knew one day her horse and pony riding business called Stables on the Park, which has been operating in Kapiti's Queen Elizabeth Park for many years, wouldn't be there forever.
Every two and a half years Wellington Regional Council re-tenders the lease for the site and in the latest round, this year, her business was "pipped at the post" by another.
Coming second was a bit of a "shock and a surprise" but she was "very enthusiastic" to move the Stables operation to her Te Horo farm where it will morph into her other venture, the Te Horo Equestrian Centre, which has been operating for many years.
Seven horses and two ponies have been relocated from the park to the farm.
Stables on the Park has been a well-known business in Wellington's most popular regional park.
It started out in 1986 as Golf Cottage Stables, in Valley Rd, Paraparaumu, before moving to the northern end of the park in the late 80s and then near Mackays Crossing in the early 1990s with its headquarters in a historic barn.
Mandy said she had loved her time operating Stables in the Park.
"It has been wonderful.
"We have had so many customers who have become friends and helpers who have become lifelong friends."
She would have continued Stables if the lease had been renewed but it was a "blessing in disguise" it hadn't.
Her focus now is to market the farmstay and enhance the equestrian centre.
