"One year I fed them almost 500kg of sugar. I think we sucked all the tui out of this 300 acres of bush. We've had about 50 flocking tui at once.
"It's beautiful bush, with a creek and glow-worms and other birds, too, such as wood pigeon and morepork."
The resort-style home they've created bears little resemblance to the little 3-year-old Lockwood they purchased in 1982, the year Paul established the Albany Family Medical Centre.
It's now an expansive stained cedar home, extended and modernised to flow out to big decks and a heated swimming pool with automated cover. Along with other properties the couple subdivided off from their own it's discreetly set down a private road they named Hazel Glen for their English and Scots heritage.
"It's been so private -- everyone says 'we wouldn't have known you were down here'. And nowadays it's also close to everything you need," says Jenny.
The two-storey home in a haven-like setting has classic touches like angular roof gables and a front entrance adorned with leadlights.
It's set in lovely gardens they created from what Paul says was "pretty much gorse, clay and pampas".
The grounds include a separate sleep-out with single garage they call 'The Milton Hilton', a secure double carport, lawn, a fishpond and petanque pergola.
They're both particularly fond of sitting on one end of the deck overlooking the bush, which was a source of timber in the 1800s. The couple raised two now-adult children here, Sarah and James, who attended Kristin School.
Both were soothed as babies by the motion of being taken on bushwalks strapped to their father's chest in a front-pack. The children flourished growing up here, Sarah establishing a secret bush hut.
The home's multiple living areas are orientated to admire bush dotted with kauri. Today, border collie Jet and Yorkshire terriers Maggie and Jock are flopped near the gas fire in the living room.
The living room, a dining room, entertainers' kitchen and family room with another gas fire form a spacious outward-looking line-up with great indoor-outdoor flow.
The expansive decking outside housed 100 people for a seated surprise party Paul threw for a nurse who'd been with the medical centre for 25 years.
The polished kitchen, overhauled as part of renovations a couple of years ago, includes composite stone benches and a scullery. Rounding out this floor are the master suite with bush views, en suite and walk-in wardrobe, a study-craft room, laundry and powder room.
Gabled ceilings accent much of upstairs, where you'll find two bedrooms, the family bathroom, a versatile compact room currently used for storage plus access to under-roof storage.
Guests and teenagers appreciate the independence of the sleep-out with its gabled upper bedroom atop a bathroom and garage.
