KEY POINTS:
A New York-based couple created an idyllic New Zealand getaway, and helped foster the local kiwi population.
Fern Hill, Hihi Road, Hihi, Doubtless Bay.
A career in medicine has kept Dr Gordon Potts away from New Zealand for most of his life, but he was determined to have a foothold in his homeland.
Gordon, originally from Ngaruawahia, left New Zealand in 1955 to pursue training in neuroradiology - a career path that took him to England, the United States and Canada.
But always in the back of his mind he had a hankering to own a piece of Kiwi paradise. So, nearly 30 years ago, he took the plunge and bought a large plot of bush-clad land on Doubtless Bay that he calls Fern Hill.
"Everyone thought I was crazy," he says. "There wasn't even a road. We had to hike in from near the Hihi Motor Camp several kilometres down the hill."
While he might have secured his land, a burgeoning career prevented Gordon from visiting it very often. Apart from the occasional visit with his family and the odd camping trip by his sister's three children, the property lay empty.
But about 12 years ago, Gordon, who was then a widower, returned with his wife-to-be Professor Janet Roach, and they began planning to build a home at Hihi.
"We found a skein of rope that had washed up," they recall. "We unknotted it, found some manuka sticks and laid out the perimeters of a house we hoped to build."
That elevated site was a few hundred metres back from the pebbly beach, and when they returned to the property several months later the garage their architect had designed was finished.
"We meant to camp out in it while the house was built," says Janet. "But we discovered that living in the garage was like shipboard living - simple and uncluttered. We decided we liked it that way - it was in the tradition of the New Zealand bach.
So we converted the garage door into sliders, created a lanai [covered patio] and a herb garden outside and dubbed the place the Winter Palace. It's been a wonderful home for us."
The concrete building has an open plan living and dining area downstairs with the bedroom on a mezzanine floor. A stream meanders past the home and views of the pristine waters of Doubtless Bay are framed by pohutukawa.
There is also a shed to accommodate machinery such as tractors and boats, and Gordon built a gazebo for outdoor dining under one of the pohutukawa.
He also built a bridge across the stream and improved and metalled the track that meanders down to the house.
He has planted many fruit trees, including mandarin, lime, fig, apple and plum, to recreate the self-sufficiency his parents had enjoyed in Ngaruawahia.
But probably the couple's greatest achievement and pleasure at Fern Hill has been their involvement in the Whakaangi Landcare Trust, which aims to protect and promote native bush and the kiwi population.
Gordon and Janet return to the property every year from the States and during their three- to four-month stays they've been active members of the trust and helped in its replanting and predator eradication work.
After clearing gorse from his property, Gordon called in an expert on coastal native planting and since then has been putting in kauri, rimu, rewarewa and kowhai.
The couple's reward has been hearing the cry of kiwi at night, and seeing them too if they get out of bed and trek through the bush.
With regret, Gordon and Janet, who live in New York, have decided to move on but they leave happy in the knowledge that the new owners will have a true kiwi paradise.
VITAL STATISTICS
BEDROOMS: 1
BATHROOMS: 1
GARAGES: 0
SIZE: Land 42.5ha held in 2 titles, house 75sq m (approx).
PRICE: Local sales of large land holdings or substantial waterfront homes are in the region of $3 million. Auction December 6.
INSPECT: By appointment.
ON THE WEB: www.bayleys.co.nz # 43435
CONTACT: Dail Bidois, Bayleys, ph
09 407 9221, 021 451 301.
FEATURES: Open plan one-bedroom bach with phone and power on waterfront section. Bush setting with mature trees, stream and kiwi. Northwest outlook over Doubtless Bay. Several potential building sites.
