Taupo Bay provides idyllic lifestyle for couple

By COLIN MOORE

It might seem an idyllic existence: living next to one of the finest beaches in Northland, making a living from life outdoors in the winterless North and working to a clock more in time with the sun than Greenwich.

John and Jan Turner, of Taupo Bay, near Mangonui, are not complaining but they do put a slightly different slant on life at the coal face of the tourism industry.

As another long weekend approaches just about every one of the 80 bach owners whose lawns John mows expects to arrive to a newly clipped lawn.

Jan has a property-management business, renting baches on behalf of owners. The properties have to be checked and holidaymakers shown over them. When they leave, the baches are likely to need to be cleaned. Then there is the paperwork, the tenants who want John to launch their boat with his tractor, the blocked drains, the broken water pump ... well, you get the picture.

Life at the seaside began 10 years ago when the Turners put their Taupo Bay house and their home in Auckland on the market, intending to move to the South Island and buy a motel. When the Auckland property sold they moved north intending to stay for six months.

Turner, the archetypal Jack of all trades, had to earn some money, so he took over the lawn-mowing round of a resident leaving the bay.

Now he cuts 80 lawns and the council reserves, does gardening and property maintenance and cleans the public toilets.

When he started Turner used to run behind a large, powered mower. Then he fitted a small chariot on the back, on which he, and sometimes his dog, could stand while he mowed the lawns. Now he has a sit-on machine which he manoeuvres with the precision of a surgeon and the speed of a Formula One racing driver.

When there is a holiday weekend coming up it is not unusual to hear Turner getting in one last cut in fading light.

Jan's holiday-accommodation business started in 1994 after John noticed that a holiday home he had helped to build was never used. He approached the owner to see if he could rent it out on his behalf.

Jan now manages up to 35 properties and in summer has moved as many as 14 families in and out in a single day.

"It's a seven-day-a-week job, like running a 30-unit motel," says Jan.

But there are worse places to work, say the couple. They particularly enjoy meeting people. In February two middle-aged Italian couples arrived at the Turners', seeking a bach to rent. They had been sent there by the information centre at Paihia after asking if there was somewhere more typically New Zealand they could stay instead of at a motel.

I met them when John had taken them fishing and again at an impromptu barbecue at the Turners'. They stayed at the bay nine days, postponing their flight home three times.

The Turners, though, would say that dishing out a bit of Kiwi hospitality is just a bonus that goes with their lifestyle.

* Beachfront holiday homes range from $45 a night in the off-season to $280 a night, sleeping eight, around New Year. Contact: Holiday Accommodation, (09) 406 0943, e-mail Jan and John.