things we learned owning a lifestyle property in Raglan

We never saw ourselves as country people. We lived in Wellington, then Melbourne and we did a complete lifestyle change moving to the Coromandel. And somehow we became interested in owning acres of land, living off it and building an eco focused (as we could afford) house. And that ended up being in Waitetuna, Raglan.

It took two years to build Box on the Hill. We regularly visted the land for family picnics, sitting where the house would be.

The first thing we did was plan the removal of the pine trees. Having our own grove was pretty cool, but the thought of one of them landing on our house was a bit scary. We used the facebook community page to find a forestry company and we had no real idea of the value of those trees. Let's just say they got a darn good deal!

The land was subdivided from a farm and the pine had been planted as a carbon offset.

Designing and building our house and Box on the Hill took 2 years so we had plenty of time to plan the land. But our thinking was city size focused. The grazing paddocks were fenced too small and the house decks would look big on a city house but small on 3 acres of land. The fire pit was a good use of dug out dirt but it could have been 5 x bigger.

Box on the Hill, near Raglan. Elopements and Airbnb Accommodation

We spent A LOT of money on trees. 1000 natives we planted on the steep hill once the pines were gone, 40 or so fruit trees and about 25 'pretty trees' to create a garden. Who would have known that spending more on bigger, established trees was pretty much a waste of money. High winds, cyclones, frosts... many of them died. Lesson here was trees grow fast so buy when small and cluster plant them to ensure the first few years of growth are protected.

We thought you buy fruit trees, plant them and then year after year you get fruit. It didn't work out that way. Where we planned our orchard to be is where the frosts hit the hardest. We have lost so many citrus trees. We waited for years to get apricots and the tree has never produced any again. And even well established trees snap or randomly die. We are on our third lot of avocados.

Fruit trees going in. We did this a couple of years before the house was built.

Something lovely happens in the country. Lambs!!! Farmers give the boys away. We have a wholesome cycle of bottle feeding, Ag day (That is a pet day where farm animals compete for awards - very serious business in the country), grazing to keep the grass down and then let's just say Sunday roasts are delicious. Learning about looking after our sheep was full on. Staggers (we once looked out the window and literally saw our sheep fall over and roll all the way down the hill), fly strike, facial eczema, feeding every 3 hours when wee little ones...the list goes on. And when they are small they sometimes die. We learned it is good to have back up lambs ready for Ag day if you want to keep children happy.

Some things are best done by others. We thought it would be easy to shear our sheep. They are friendly, well handled. However, Mr Box on the Hill had an unfortunate shearing accident resulting in knee surgery. We leave it up to our neighbour now in return for a decent bottle of red.

We are happy to say that chickens have been the easiest animal so far. 12 chickens and 8 eggs most days. But there was the time we thought it would be super cute to get baby chicks. And they were cute for 2 weeks! Then they lose their feathers, poop non stop and stink. We gave them away to the neighbours.

Awww, cute chickens. Don't be fooled.

There is always something to do with the land, especially when it is an accommodation and elopement venue. Because we bought a step site we had to purchase a ride on lawn mower more expensive than our cars. Most days are spent gardening, line trimming, painting and pulling weeds. If you plan to own a lifetsyle property kiss your weekends goodbye.

The power goes out a lot. And when your tank water is powered by a pump that means water goes out too. There is no local shop and rising streams and slips may cut off the road. We learned to be well set up to live comfortably without power if needed. That lesson was learned during Cyclone Gabrielle when there were days without the coffee machine working and the road to Hamilton closed for months.

The best thinking about country living, which has been such a wonderful surprise, is the community. The neighbours might be km away but crop swapping, helping each other out, paddock parties and sharing kai is just the way things are. It's a funny thing when you have surplus tomatoes, courgettes, eggs, fejoa but so does everyone else so you can't even give it away.

Would we do this again - absolutely. And the best bit about all of it is we can share what we have created with our eloping and airbnb guests.