When you're advertising to buy an accommodation lodge in Britain, you don't expect to get a reply from New Zealand - much less to go there to check it out. But Ian and Maralyn Bateman were intrigued when they received a response to their ad from New Zealand, so whenthe owner suggested they come and look at the lodge in Puhoi they did exactly that.
"We had to," Ian says, "or we'd have always been saying 'what if ... ?"'
They spent nine days in New Zealand, looked at the property, paid a deposit and went home. "It wasn't so much that we chose Puhoi - it chose us," Maralyn says. "Ian fell in love with the Puhoi pub and I fell in love with the view out of the kitchen window."
They came back to New Zealand in March 2004, moved into the three-bedroom, three-bathroom lodge with its separate owners' apartment upstairs, and set about putting the finishing touches to the property.
"Back then we often had to tow the guests out," Ian recalls with a laugh. "Concreting the driveway was a priority."
They quickly realised they had to decide whether it was to be a business where they lived, or a home where people came to stay.
The idea of creating a homely atmosphere where people could have a luxury experience won out, and from then on Ian and Maralyn became expert at making their guests feel comfortable.
Maralyn made some decor changes to create that mix. She painted feature walls of pohutukawa red and teal in the living areas, and each suite has a feature wall with matching curtains, bed linen and furnishings. "I couldn't live in a grey house."
Maralyn often cooks for guests, specialising in three-course Mediterranean dinners matched with Matakana wines, all while enjoying the view from the kitchen window.
Image 1 of 6: 147 Greenhollows Rd, Puhoi.
The view from The Ridge is spectacular, looking out over native bush to the sea. More than 500 trees have been planted, and there are masses of cabbage trees, flax, ferns and what Ian laughingly describes as "sculptured kikuyu".
"It's not your typically neat English garden," Maralyn says, "so it blends in well with the bush."
Ian and Maralyn are not moving from the area. In fact their next step is just a stone's throw down the road, where they plan to build a smaller home.
