Lavender lifestyle; side dish of fruit

BY MIKE SHAW

An affinity for land and the environment meant that Rex was always going to be particular when he began a search for a lifestyle property in Taranaki 20 years ago.

Rex’s background includes roles as area manager with DOC in Taranaki and operations manager at Scott Base in the Antarctic. An adventurer, Rex has walked the length of New Zealand and wrote a book about it. He’s chaired the national search and rescue organisation, and consulted on parks and reserves planning, and outdoor recreation projects.

‘‘I looked at hundreds of properties,’’ he admits. Which must make 804 Egmont Rd special. ‘‘This stood out head and shoulders above the rest because of its views and its size; one hectare.’’

A visit to this Hillsborough address just 15 minutes or so from central New Plymouth, provides an immediate appreciation of what Rex saw here.

Established trees and shrubs inside the roadside paling fence mask the house from passing traffic. Drive in and you discover the mostly flat setting is on a ridge and looks north down a wide, green valley to a sea horizon. There’s a sense of space and privacy and peace.

The privacy came with those trees and shrubs. ‘‘It was bare paddock except for the cherry trees,’’ Rex recalls. ‘‘Everything else has been planted since.’’

Naturally, with his background, Rex chose native species to create that border: flaxes, coprosma and cordyline to contrast with the cherries. Shelter plantings inside the property are hardy corokia.

Rex wanted more than a relaxing, rural lifestyle here; the property had to have the potential to generate an income. Its flat, fertile nature meant almost all of its twoand-a-half acres could become productive.

And productive it is. For more than 12 years, the major crop was savoury: row upon row of garlic bulbs. It was a highly successful commercial venture, and only a serious hit from garlic rust disease three years ago made Rex and partner Sally refocus on a sweeter future: aromatic lavender and fruit and citrus crops. They had already established a lavender crop with lavender planted as a windbreak option for the garlic beds. The oil distilled from those plants added value when it was processed into products like soap, shampoo, moisturiser, laundry ‘goop’, lip

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SEE IT: Open home on Sunday, November 3, from 2pm till 2.45pm.

balm and essential oils.

A business and website – lovelavender – was created to market the products, which are sold online and at New Plymouth’s popular Farmers and Seaside markets. That established business is available to prospective buyers of this property. ‘‘The lavender will produce about 100 to 150kg of flower heads and that generates about oneand-a-half to two litres of essential oil every year; that’s quite a lot,’’ says Rex.

The business has distillery equipment and they make most of the lavender products on site.

In the three years since the garlic finished, Rex and Sally have set up a fruit and citrus orchard, and a variety of tea bushes to complement the lavender crops. In the house garden is an avocado tree that produces a ‘‘huge’’ crop each season, two olive trees, and a 9m-by-3.5m greenhouse.

Behind the corokia windbreaks are 90 metres of lavender grosso bushes, 90m of raspberry canes in two varieties, 40 apple and pear trees in two varieties each for different harvesting seasons, and several varieties of citrus, including Navel and Navelina oranges, blood orange, Seville, two varieties of mandarin and lime. There are tasty jam and marmalade options in those choices, Sally points out.

In a small gully contour on the edge of the ridge, Rex and Sally developed their selection of herbal tea bushes; primarily green and black teas, and a few others such as lemon verbena and spearmint. The tea products can be enhanced with essences of rose geranium, chamomile, red clover, sage and lavender.

In this sheltered area, native trees are also grown for sale in the markets.

The five-bedroom, 1950s house on this property is a spacious, comfortable residence in which they can enjoy the long views and relax. It began as a threebedroom, plastered breezeblock house and has been extended and refined to create a great family home, says Rex. ‘‘It’s a house that’s been made to live in.’’

The original lounge became a fourth bedroom and the kitchen-dining area was extended to create a large sunny open-plan living space that embraced the views. A fifth bedroom, second toilet and extra storage space was built at the other end of the house. The generous rear deck was closed in to create a huge conservatory space, the family bathroom was refurbished, insulation upgraded above and below, the house was reroofed, much of the exterior joinery was double glazed, and an efficient freestanding woodburner was installed, complemented by a heat pump and heat transfer system.

‘‘It’s in mint condition now, there’s really nothing else that needs to be done, and it has these million-dollar views,’’ Rex adds, pointing out the wide lounge windows to the combination of valley expanse below and the sea horizon. Paritutu Rock and the former power station chimney are visible to the west and mark the location of Port Taranaki.

A telescope in the sunny corner can bring those distant features up close. New owners will be able to accommodate up to five cars here. The original single garage to the side of the house is complemented by a separate four-car garage. A caravan beside the latter adds more accommodation or storage space and is a negotiable element of this property’s sale.

Rex says there is provision under the present district plan for a second residence to be built on the property and there is a great position overlooking the valley if new owners want to do that. The existing house could then provide a rental income.

TSB Real Estate consultant Sally Cairns is marketing the property, which she describes as ‘‘lifestyle with a twist of lavender’’. The property is a rare combination of comfort, character and commercial interest, she says, that offers new owners the opportunity to create cherished memories of a country lifestyle.