990 Trounson Park Road, Dargaville. Photo / Supplied
Richard Bird's happy place is deep in the native bush surrounding his home and its "Birdsnest" guest accommodation.
For this Englishman, who grew up next to a farm and who worked on farms when he first came to New Zealand on his OE, his decade here has been one of a supreme connection with the land.
Beyond the walls of this renovated home and guest quarters with its original foundations dating back more than 100 years, Richard and his ex-wife Angela installed two more guest wings in the bush.
There's the 5m-wide glamping tent "nest" with its separate outdoor kitchen and bathroom and the "nest tin box" created out of a former shipping container, which both incorporate totara timber from the property.
Richard's most special connection with this land is his escape up into the bush to an outdoor bath with its heated, treated water from the nearby stream. "It's very therapeutic to relax in and contemplate life," he says.
Occasionally there is a beer to be had at the waterfall 200m into the bush directly behind the house.
The father of a family who lived here during the late 1940s managed without a fridge by hiding his beer in the waterfall. Richard learned of his story, and his wife's on-site shop here, when some of their descendants came to stay.
On their first visit, Richard gave them a page from the 1920s newspaper that he had pulled out from behind original sarking during kitchen renovations.
On another visit, they all made the bush walk up to the waterfall for old time's sake. "When I pulled out a beer for each of them, they all just burst into tears," he says.
For Richard, it has added to the magic of a property he and Angela discovered by chance in 2007.
During a weekend break in Northland, Angela picked up her usual pile of real estate brochures, but it wasn't until they were back home in Te Kauwhata that Richard, who was a contract share milker, spotted the item on this property.
He turned to Angela, who was a rostered midwife, and said, "When can you get another day off? We're going back." He says, "I don't know what it was about the property but it just drew me in. She loved it too."
Within days, they were sitting on the back deck here taking in the development potential of both the house, its 8ha of bush and 6ha of bare land, used for grazing.
The original house was extended by the previous owner and architect, the late Barry Rusden, who created the symmetrical frontage and added the decorative turret that came from a Mormon church.
From conversations with Barry, Richard also learned that the original house was built in the 1900s and extended during the 1980s.
The long narrow footprint of this home was ideal for creating two-bedroom guest accommodation alongside the three-bedroom family quarters at the original end of the house, for them and their two children, now adults.
Richard and Angela's interior renovations included recycled kauri flooring to match the original kauri under the old kitchen linoleum. There is also style-appropriate wallpaper throughout.
Richard fitted in renovations around his full-time job managing a local dairy farm.
He has not been able to realise his dream of building a path up to the waterfall and its glow worms. That is for the next owner as Richard moves on to new opportunities.