STAYING THE DISTANCE
After years of international commuting this family is moving to Hawaii – but their quirky Kiwi cottage will always be home
A family relocates to Hawaii, but their quirky Kiwi cottage will always be home
Uncommon devotion to a guest house project is paying dividends for Shae Martin and Clayton Matchett. All the hand-picked windows and sanded-back boards, scavenged artworks and spray-painted pieces of furniture were supposed to be enjoyed by other people – but they now book holidays in their own Oakura cottage.
The Taranaki abode has already housed oodles of overseas relatives as well as paying guests and the occasional friend who’s had a little too much wine. The owners certainly didn’t expect to be staying in it themselves.
But Shae, Clayton and their three children have just left Taranaki to start a new life in Hawaii, which means Oakura Pond Cottage will become the Martin-Matchett family’s New Zealand holiday home.
This trans-Pacific tale begins with another migration, in an earlier generation. Auckland-born Shae was 10 when her father found engineering work abroad and moved the family to Los Angeles. Shae collected her veterinary degree in California and her parents and five siblings remain contentedly in the US.
She, however, was never able to sever her Kiwi ties and in 2007 emigrated to the Taranaki seaside with fellow vet Clayton and their children. Over the years, the couple managed their respective veterinary practices in Hawaii with the aid of air travel and Skype (although Clayton sold his four years ago). >
Until recently, they couldn’t imagine leaving the 3.2ha riverside property north of New Plymouth. But teenage daughter Rylie is keen to step into the American education system alongside brothers Aiden, 13, and Arlo, three. So the family has sold the beloved, renovated villa (NZ House & Garden, March 2013) and part of their land and headed for the equator. When they return in December for a Kiwi Christmas holiday, they’ll stay in the cottage.
Clayton worked alongside a builder for a year to erect the four-bedroom guest house with its dual living areas and multiple idiosyncrasies. Shae spent considerably longer salvaging and scavenging, scouring Trade Me auctions, demolition sites and op shops to ensure the building was character-filled inside and out.
“I love going into antiques stores and going into the back room, where the stuff is all piled against the wall, dusty and forgotten,” she says. “That’s where the good stuff is.”
But it was builder Matt Hood who supplied the unusual peaked hallway door. Dubbed “the Hobbit door”, it actually originated from the set of The Last Samurai movie, which was filmed in Taranaki in 2003. >
The builders remained good-natured about Shae’s habit of handing them items to incorporate into the house, such as multiple leadlight windows and doors – many found for $5 – or pillars that wound up in the library. However, Rylie was incredulous when her mother invited her on a road trip to Paekakariki to fetch a pedestal sink for the purple bathroom. “She kept asking, ‘You’re driving four hours to pick up a sink worth $95?’ ‘Yes’, I told her. ‘Because it’s green and no one has a green sink.’”
The purple bathroom tiles were part of a haul that also included orange and mirrored black tiles, all deemed rejects by most of the tile-buying population. “I drove to Auckland in my minivan, went to the back of the tile place and said, ‘What don’t other people want?’ The guys working on the till thought I was a nut. But I bought two bathrooms’ worth of tiles for $180 – and they’re big bathrooms.”
Shae says her husband’s practical farming background assured his spot as builder’s labourer.
“He’s one of those handy guys who can tackle any job, though sometimes not as quickly as I’d like. When it came to the cottage, he was fantastic and his labour saved us a lot of money. He got a kick out of working with Matt, who’s an insanely creative guy and they bonded out there, doing their man’s work. Plus I was pregnant and Matt was probably more fun to hang out with than me.”
When guests stay for the first time, Shae likes to leave a note explaining the cottage’s quirks, like the back-to-front knobs on the stove. The automotive refinisher friend who sprayed the old refrigerator and stove bright orange accidentally mixed up the stove dials. “Now low is high and high is low. We love the imperfections because it’s what makes it what it is.” >
“I LOVE GOING TO ANTIQUES STORES AND GOING INTO THE BACK ROOM. THAT’S WHERE ALL THE GOOD STUFF IS”
In Hawaii, Shae expects to redecorate their home and install her long-held collections of coat hooks and purses, treasured photo albums and the hefty wooden butcher’s block she bought in Bulls. Their chickens are staying behind, as are most of their larger possessions and vehicles that will remain in storage in New Zealand, awaiting their summer return. One day, she says, they’ll be back for good. While Hawaii is lush and unquestionably beautiful, their piece of New Zealand land evokes something akin to motherly pride.
“My heart swells, that is the feeling that I get here. I’m going to miss that feeling.”