A historic Kopuaranga villa being shifted from Wairarapa will leave behind the remnants of a garden that was once the envy of the district.
John Murray, immediate past owner of the Miller family homestead, said the three-bedroom, bay-windowed building had sat serenely on its Opaki-Kaiparoro Rd site for more than 100years.
Mr Murray, a rural real estate agent, is still farming the property that was originally settled by his relative Robert Alexander Miller at the turn of the 20th century.
It was Mr Miller's wife Eva who toiled a lifetime to create a ''magnificent'' garden, boasting roses, magnolias, camellias and flowering cherries set among rock work, a wending waterway and towering trees, which Wairarapa residents would stream to view, Mr Murray said.
''The garden is in a pretty parlous state today but in its time it was a wonder and people came from miles around to visit and walk around the property,'' he said.
A Wellington couple has bought the homestead, which will be transported in two halves to a lifestyle block at Makara, near the capital.
Mr Murray said he and wife Judy were today living in refurbished shearing quarters sitting behind the homestead grounds. The homestead is also surrounded by other buildings, including a sleepout, cow milking bay and a large stable that dates back to the settlement of the property.
The Kopuaranga farm figured large in days past for the Aitchison family of Featherston, from whom Mr Murray and Eva Miller descended and which comprised 18 children.
''I remember coming through the wrought iron gates and up the big curved driveway as a child and I know the Aitchisons spent a lot of time here as well,'' Mr Miller said.
''Eva was a very keen gardener but her sons, Robert and Hugh Miller, who took over the farm _ they didn't keep on top of the garden after she died. It's not so pretty now but it used to be glorious.''
Mr Murray said he and his wife were planning to build another home on the farm, which comprises about 50ha of land and supports almost 300 ewes and 25 cattle.
