Style Insider: A laid-back Stewart Island crib and its nature-loving owners.
A remote Stewart Island retreat satisfies the urge for simple pursuits and unpretentious style
When the trip to your holiday home involves a seven-hour drive followed by a one-hour ferry ride, you have to be pretty attached to the destination. Ken McAnergney and Juliet Nicholas are certainly that. They’ve been travelling from Christchurch to their Stewart Island crib for nearly 30 years. Says Juliet: “It’s a great refuge. The island makes us feel far removed from our usual lives. It’s remote and relaxing. We have a strong sense of belonging, too.”
The island is in Ken’s DNA – a Waitaha ancestor married a European boat builder and they settled on Stewart Island in the 1820s. The island satisfies the couple’s strong interest in the environment. Ken belongs to the Rakiura Marine Guardians group, and a favourite pastime is bird watching – kāka, tūī, korimako and kererū as well as seabirds such as mollymawk, muttonbird, shearwater, fulmar and petrel. “The land birds appear fearless and quite tame. We hear kiwi calling at night and occasionally see them in the garden,” says Ken. They have planted bird-feeder trees and flaxes and added a small second storey some years ago for views of Paterson Inlet. “It’s like a glazed treehouse. We enjoy the elements, whatever they are.”
The crib is unpretentious and decorated in mostly nauticalthemed pieces, with old maps, sea charts and images of boats and ships collected over the years. Other pursuits include bush walking and fishing, catching blue cod and trumpeter, gathering cockles and diving for pāua, and watching aurora in the night sky. With Ken now retired from aviation planning, he visits the island about 12 times a year. Juliet, a freelance photographer, manages about six visits. “We feel well rewarded by the long journey – total immersion in nature.”
‘It’s a great refuge. The island makes us feel far removed’