Rangitikei farmers Sue and David Sweet never dreamed they would be tour guides through France, Italy and Germany and develop their farm into a tranquil farmstay.
Son Matt Sweet is at the helm of the Mairenui Rural Retreat while his parents are taking tours through France for the next four months.
The glorious block of scenic land in the Ruahine Range 10 kms from Mangaweka has been in the Sweet Family for more than 100 years, Matt said.
However, the overseas tours and the farmstay all started when his parents organised a family holiday through France in an old combie van more than 30 years ago.
"I probably wasn't as impressed as I should have been... I was only eight. But we did have a great holiday and it was after that my mum, who speaks fluent French and German, and my dad who speaks a "farmer type French", decided they wanted to be in Europe every summer and take tour groups of six to eight people through France."
They work through the French travel agency Nouvelle Zelande Voyagers, he said.
Every June his parents fly to Paris, hire a van, pick up their tour members and drive to the south of France to Provence, stopping at amazing little villages. Then in Provence they stay at a villa for 10 days and everyone relaxes and soaks up the French culture, he said.
"The people that travel with my parents see the real France ... it's not like a coach tour that briefly takes in the main sights." At the close of the tour where they have visited all the wonderful markets and truly have enjoyed the beauty and pleasures of the south of France, the tour group leave by train or bus as the next tour comes in and my parents do it all again in reverse, he said.
In the late 1980s they sold 400 hectares of their 566-hectare farm so they could spend half the year in France, and run a farmstay alongside farming the remainder of the property.
Even though the Mairenui farm land is now on a much smaller scale it is still a small working sheep and beef farm, with a few deer and horses.
The farmstay has a villa, retreat cottage and the homestead has guest rooms and suites which has previously attracted mostly European tourists, he said.
They can accommodate up to 18 people.
"But we have a lot of New Zealanders coming here now because it is such a peaceful place and perfect for relaxing. And my mother is an amazing cook. There are a few guests booked in through the winter but they'll have to cope with my cooking."
Matt fails to mention that he actually is a chef and has been cooking at a local cafe on and off for years.
The surrounding grounds are totally private, with roses, rhododendrons and camellias, and stands of native trees.
A romantic cottage for special weekends is set in a glade across a small bridge over small ponds.
Guests can either stay at the homestead, or rent the villa across the road which was built in 1885 and restored in 1995 and has five bedrooms, or take the small retreat cottage.
Feedback from the guests is always about the wonderful meals, the beauty and the isolation here, he said.
"But really we're only 10kms from the state highway so we're not really in the middle of nowhere. As Dad always says, we are actually at the centre of the universe."