A young German family creates their own idyllic country lifestyle in Upper Moutere.
There’s something about Upper Moutere that made this German couple feel right at home
With their hearts set on making a whole new life in the Nelson countryside, Matthes and Mascha Bender said farewell to Germany, with no inkling their dream would lead them to a community settled by adventurous Germans 175 years ago.
The pair were backpacking their way around New Zealand in 2003 when they fell in love with Nelson; so much so, they stopped travelling for six months and rented a house in rural Tasman. Remarkably, they never discovered the historic German-settled village of Upper Moutere, originally called Sarau, just 15km away.
They eventually headed home in search of their own slice of Nelson-like countryside, but lifestyle blocks are rare in Germany. “Unless you’re a farmer, you live in a town or in a city,” says Matthes.
“We got to thinking about Nelson and decided we’d come back and see how we felt about making a life here,” Mascha explains.
As they’d suspected, it felt right. Initially, with their two-yearold daughter Nunya and baby boy Finyas, the Benders settled in Wellington where Matthes found work as a video game designer. But the capital was always just a stepping stone.
When Mascha came across her “favourite kind of house” online, an old villa in the Upper Moutere Valley, she was smitten. Even its address, on Neudorf Road, translates to “new village”.
“As much as I loved the house, we really wanted a bush property, but I’d revisit it online just to look at it.”
Eight months later, it was still unsold. Mascha flew to Nelson to see it. The Benders realised that with two small children it wasn’t the right time to be living in a remote area, so they abandoned their bush property plans and bought the villa. It came with a cat named Hilda and, much to their delight, a stand of oak trees believed to be more than 100 years old, ideal for their soon-to-be three children. >
“Our children are tree-climbers and rock-climbers, and they also go to circus classes. Upper Moutere School is a wonderful country school. We’re lucky here because there are two great preschools, one right beside the native bush. The kids get as muddy as they like. They have ducklings and dogs and used to have Highland cows – it’s very much the country life,” says Mascha.
“We’re not the kind of parents who say, ‘No, that’s too dangerous.’ Our three have had plenty of bruises, but no broken bones yet.”
Planning began for insulation, double glazing and central heating soon after the house purchase. “When we first moved in here, it was so cold, I’d get up at 5.30 in the mornings to get the tiny firebox going in the kitchen coal range,” Matthes remembers. >
‘The kids get as muddy as they like – it’s very much the country life’
“Nunya and Finyas, who were four and two, would wear jumpers and jackets and we’d all gather round to keep warm.”
Mascha and Matthes put their heads together to plan a major extension. “We both love to design and create a nice home, and Mascha’s really good at designing and restoring furniture, too. We work well together.”
Satisfied they’d designed a seamless extension true to the original style of the circa-1910 villa, Matthes put it all into 3D computer plans and took them to a local architect Leigh Briars.
“I asked him, ‘Can you draw up proper plans for us?’ and he said, ‘Oh, but you’ve already done them.’ After that, I started learning a lot more about structural design. Instead of designing video games, I’m working towards qualifying as an architectural designer.”
Mascha turned her talent for interior design to sketching out projects that Matthes would then build. Together, they’ve created various pieces of furniture. Matthes surprised Mascha with a roomy day bed on the verandah where she escapes to read and enjoy the view she most loves – the ever-changing mountain ranges, reminiscent of her childhood in southern Germany.
Son Finyas’ bed is the most admired Bender creation. It’s reminiscent of an old-style country barn, with his bed in its loft. >
It’s so authentic, Matthes says, that swallows fly in when the verandah doors are open and attempt to nest in its faux rafters.
Mascha’s passion for finding and restoring vintage country furniture was fostered in her childhood by her mother Renate, who collected simple pine furniture known in Germany as bauernmöbel (farmer furniture). As a student, Mascha furnished her first flat with bauernmöbel finds, even buying herself an electric sander.
She has plans to open her own country furniture store, possibly in 2020. There’s a certain atmosphere that draws you in to a real shop, she says. It’s so much better than online shopping.
Incredibly, it wasn’t until the Benders moved into the Neudorf Road house that Mascha discovered the area’s history.
“I’d always come here by driving along the coastal highway, and never once realised I was bypassing a village. The first time I visited Harakeke Kindergarten, I saw a sign in the carpark about German settlers. They’d arrived on the ship St Pauli. Constant flooding in the valley drove them away, but some moved to higher ground and established Sarau,” she says.
Although none of the German settlers were Mascha and Matthes’ ancestors, she says knowing Upper Moutere’s history and seeing the German-style architecture of its old church is a nice feeling.
“Everyone in this community is friendly and very caring. Matthes has even joined the residents’ association.”
The little village and its surrounding valleys has a beautiful mix of people, she says; many who’ve happily escaped city life.
“I think just about everyone knows everyone else here, and we all look out for one another.”
‘Everyone in this community is friendly and very caring’