The other cider life
Donna McIntyre discovers a coastal gem that’s family-friendly and comes with a hobby business venture.
When Philip and Lesley Lindesay started looking for a place they could escape to at weekends and holidays, they had a list of non-negotiable priorities.
“We were living in Auckland and had two preschool children,” says Lesley, “and we felt they were missing out on a country life.
“So we bought this place on the Omaha estuary as a weekend place. .
“We came to Omaha because we wanted to be within an hour of Auckland; that was our limit.
“We wanted something totally private; near the water and somewhere we could grow fruit and vegetables and go fishing.
“This was a safe place for our children to be able to roam with freedom. They could be out in their boats, go windsurfing and kayaking.
“We came here for many years as our holiday place and then, about four years ago, we came here to live.”
When the family bought the property nearly 40 years ago, it was bare land. “It was a grazing unit which was subdivided into horticultural blocks.”
They built a concrete-block two-bedroom home by the waterfront, added some sheds, one of which is now a sleep-out and the other their cidery.
“The cider business is part of the sale; it is really a minor thing that started as a hobby,” says Lesley
Their waterfront home’s layout is simple — the combined kitchen/dining/living room, and two double bedrooms and a bathroom between the two bedrooms.
A laundry is at the end of the carport, and there’s storage space.
Lesley says the home hasn’t dated. “You could certainly add on to the house, it is not that big but it is still quite stylish, and it has a Nelson marble floor and an open fire.”
A bougainvillea vine twists its way along the front of the home, resplendent in red flowers.
“And our views couldn’t be better. We look out to Ti Point and we see Little Barrier. On the other side of the estuary is covenanted bush which borders the Omaha golf course, so we are about a fiveminute walk from the golf course.
“And we get a lot of birds. Right now, we have about a dozen herons on the lawn; we have oyster catchers and pied stilts, and a lot of native birds.”
Philipe and Lesley have loved being able to launch their kayaks or catch fish in front of the home, first with their children and lately grandchildren, either sitting on the jetty to catch sprats or putting out flounder nets.
They have grown vegetables and planted fruit trees, and the land is graced with mature pohutukawa, walnuts, fruit trees, palms, and a grove of Australian blackwood trees.
“We have very fertile soil and that was important to us.
“The food source has been wonderful. Every week we would go home with a box of vegetables for our children, ourselves and our friends.
“We grow almost everything in the way of fruit. We used to have sheep, we were fairly self-sufficient for a while and that has been a great joy to us.”
As well as enjoying working on their land, they are three minutes from Omaha beach, and the Omaha to Matakana cycle trail is a few metres from their gate.
“Cycling to the shops, golf, windsurfing, kayaking, we can do all that off our lawn.”
Lesley says the waterfront setting and the privacy makes this place so special.
“But we don’t want all this land to look after now that we are in our 70s. It is time to downsize.”