Jane Chetwynd: Cloud Farm

Reviewed by PHILIPPA JAMIESON

Escaping the rat-race and moving to a sanctuary in the country: it's the dream of many New Zealanders, but how many of us actually follow that dream, let alone write about it?

Jane Chetwynd left behind her latte lifestyle, and gave up the status and money of her job as a professor at the Christchurch School of Medicine, when she fell in love with a farm on Banks Peninsula.

Without quite knowing why, she began idly scanning the newspaper ads for livestock, then the Farms for Sale column. Gradually her fantasies became real, and she bought a 66ha farm above Akaroa, with 20ha of covenanted native bush, gorse galore, panoramic sea views, and a derelict farmhouse with no running water, power, or bathroom. Chetwynd's ever-helpful friend Dee dubs it Cloud Farm because, at 610m above sea level, it is frequently enveloped in cloud.

Apart from some timber plantings, native-bush regeneration is the main aim for most of the farm, as it is with the well-known Hinewai nature reserve next door.

For much of the book the author describes the transformation of the house from a rat-infested hovel to a warm and comfortable dwelling with solar power, a composting toilet, and spring water on tap. This she accomplishes with much help from a builder and various others — and her salary — but she's keen to muck in herself and know how everything works. This DIY story reveals Chetwynd's optimism and determination, but occasionally drags with mundane detail that could have been left out.

The style is honest and straightforward, with the odd humorous anecdote. What is inspiring is that she follows her impulses, and her dream unfolds as she keeps moving in the direction that feels right, however crazy it appears. She craves something more satisfying than her high-powered job: a deep connection with the land, and a deceleration of pace to match its rhythms.

The moral of the story: be true to yourself, and nurture those seemingly irrational yearnings, because they could take you somewhere wonderful and unexpected.

* Longacre, $29.95

* Philippa Jamieson is a Dunedin writer and a volunteer on the WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) scheme