Land of milk and honey... pity about the cheese, discovers Bruce Morris.
When Marlene Robert peered down from the plane at the rolling green pastures,cows and sheep as a 10-year-old on her first visit to New Zealand, she remembers that "something happened in my heart".
For a girl living on the edge of the Everglades in tropical Miami, this was a sight from the cover of the finest chocolate box and she would never forget it.
As she grew through her teens, Marlene returned with her family to New Zealand three or four times, every trip an adventure in a romantic era before flying became merely an efficient means to an end.
Her dad was an airline pilot and American friends in New Zealand drew them south through the Pacific. But, for Marlene, it was this little land of farms, rivers, lakes, mountains and coastline that took her heart rather than the comfort of American accents in faraway places.
As time passed, she was drawn elsewhere in the Pacific - with girlfriends, all fresh out of college, on a holiday trip to Tahiti in 1974. By then, the big jets were starting to dominate the air and some of the romance was disappearing. But it was still stirring in the uniform of Air Tahiti.
Jean-Claude Robert, a new pilot with the airline, was attracted to the young American and she and her friends accepted his invitation to dinner. The attraction was mutual: four years later, Marlene and Jean-Claude married and, after 25 years living in Tahiti (with the odd holiday in New Zealand) moved to France for better senior schooling for their two children. Now they're back here - this time with a house of their own.
The swallows have been missing from New Zealand's shores for the past three or four years and the Roberts' move doesn't suggest a fresh migration. Rather, it adds weight to the logic that one swallow does not make a summer.
When you learn the couple bought a Kerikeri home in two weeks flat, you could be forgiven for imagining they are impulsive. But they took nearly 10 years to make the decision - drawn here every summer since 2001 to explore the country and enjoy a rendezvous with their daughters,
now back in Tahiti.
Their holiday home-away-from-home for much of that time was a little Kiwi bach on a secluded beach at the edge of the Kerikeri Inlet. They were seduced by the pictures on the internet site.
"It was exactly what we were looking for," says Marlene.
"It was so authentic, overlooking the lovely inlet and beside a nice little beach, with dinghy and barbecue and all those things. It was so perfect I told the owner who met us, 'We will be return guests!'"
"All those things" included oysters off the rocks, pipi from around the bay, mussels a short row away, snapper 200m off the beach, fruit from the old orchard, along with charming and helpful landlords.
As Marlene says, "Our whole existence was built on tide timetables. For a few weeks each summer we became like true Kiwis with strange accents."
The Kerikeri township with its laidback feel also appealed, blending pleasing layout and a good mix of shops and restaurants with community facilities - such as library and cinema - and sporting and recreational clubs.
On top of that, the climate was warm and reliable - more pleasant than Tahiti's suffocating heat and humidity.
"That first year we looked into the windows of all the real estate shops and thought the prices were cheap," says Marlene. "Then each year we went back and had another look - and each year prices seemed to have risen, perhaps by 10 per cent or so."
After years of talking about it, the Roberts decided to strike last summer, happy to shift some of their savings from the uncertainty of Europe.
Their demands were straightforward - a smallish home in good condition, relatively maintenance-free with no grounds to worry about, on the edge of town with a sea view. Two weeks after making their choice, with just a little haggling, they had their Kiwi holiday home - a smart modern bungalow, freshly decorated, in one of Kerikeri's best streets with great views down the inlet to the open sea.
"We couldn't believe it," says Jean-Claude. "Back in France it would take two or three months. But here it was very swift and effi cient and the fees were very reasonable."
The Roberts love Kerikeri and, over the last decade, have built up a wide network of friends, several of them fellow swallows. They're blessed with great neighbours who keep an eye on things and keep in touch when it's time to head back to Montpellier or their Burgundy bed and breakfast.
But one thing does irk them, and they are sure more people would choose New Zealand for a holiday home if the Government changed the rules.
While there are no obstacles to overseas people buying standard residential property (unless it is regarded as "sensitive", such as a house on more than 0.2ha adjoining the foreshore), there are restrictions on how much time in a given year non-residents can enjoy the asset they own.
Initially, the Roberts were granted visas allowing them three months a year in New Zealand, then, nine months over a two-year period.
It sounds ample, and means they can arrive here at the beginning of December, say, and leave in mid-April. But they'd love to escape the Northern Hemisphere winter a little earlier and don't understand why New Zealand can't grant them a six-month visa.
"It's very frustrating," says Marlene. "We have spent a lot of money showing our commitment to New Zealand, we come with our own health insurance and we spend a lot of money while we are here supporting and contributing to the local economy. We would like to do that for a little
longer each year, to everybody's benefit. But the rules don't allow that, and it is very disappointing."
They agree similar rules probably apply to New Zealanders wanting to stay in France, but it is an irritant to them and others they have met.
The bureaucrats may say "c'est la vie" in response, and Marlene and Jean-Claude are certainly not moping. The sun's shining, and time is short. Kayak fishing for snapper at dawn, golf in the afternoon and dinner at a local café with friends ... almost the perfect life. Almost.
Jean-Claude raises just one mild complaint. New Zealand wine, food and beer is terrific, he says, but local cheese? Sorry, it's just something the French do better.
Still, as Marlene points out, there's a silver lining in every long white cloud. His weight drops nicely during those annual trips to New Zealand.
* From the New Zealand Herald's quarterly 'Property Report' - a guide to house prices and great places to live.
