Own your own cape
‘‘Fairyland’’ is how Geraldine Marriott describes the unique 643 hectares of land she and her late husband Ron spent 30 years restoring.
‘‘Ron was always so passionate about the environment, his dream was for everyone to have a better world,’’ Geraldine said.
A thin finger-like peninsula of land at the end of the Queen Charlotte Track, Cape Jackson was their paradise for 27 years. Now it could be yours.
The couple bought the property, which has 20km of coastline, with the intention of farming it.
But within five years of owning it, they decided to regenerate the native bush and remove pests and livestock. They turned it into the Queen Charlotte Wilderness Park.
Long before it was mainstream they turned to carbon farming to earn carbon credits. In fact, Ron was the first person in New Zealand certified to trade on indigenous trees through the Kyoto Protocol.
Geraldine said Ron was the pivotal force behind Cape Jackson and the way it looked today.
Geraldine said the best thing about the property was watching the bush regenerate and to see the birds start coming back in. ‘‘It’s like a fairyland you walk around and there is these beautiful flowers coming out of the trunks. It’s just amazing, it’s just the most beautiful thing.’’
But with Ron’s death in 2018, and the fact she was now spending more time in Picton, she had decided to put the land up for sale. She hoped whoever bought it would continue to look after the land.
The land had a main property with 11 bedrooms, all with ensuites, staff accommodation with four bedrooms and a games room, a three-bedroom home, a two-bedroom cottage and a one-bedroom cottage.