Things just couldn't be THAT easy...

Sorry I haven't posted any updates in a while. Not much has been happening. We've mostly been focusing on our house in Napier - finishing up all those jobs that you always said you wanted to do... but never get around to doing (You should see our amazing red door!) until you actually sell the house. Nothing much to talk about, really. The house does look fantastic, though. 

In addition to finishing off house projects, it was Art Deco weekend in Napier.  In 1931, Napier was completely devastated by a 7.8 earthquake.  Hundreds of people died, many (if not most) of the buildings collapsed, and even the geography of the area changed.  The town had to be completely rebuilt and Art Deco was all the rage of the time.  The end result was that Napier became the Art Deco capital of the world.  Each year the town celebrates this by having parades, music, air shows - all sorts of fun and frivolity to celebrate that which is art deco. We walked in to watch the parade of historical cars. 

There were other things going on, but the crowds were a bit much this year.  A huge cruise ship, the maiden voyage of the Queen Victoria, pulled into the port and added an extra 2000 people to the milling crowds. So, instead of fighting our way through the streets, we walked over to the port to check out the ship.  It was amazingly huge!  

Here is a picture of the ship as it pulled out of port that evening (taken from Burg's treehouse).

As far as the property goes... we had been talking with the previous owners about some equipment that they contacted us about. They had a tractor, mower, ATV, etc. - all in really great shape - that they contacted us about possibly buying. The equipment all sounded like it was in great condition. We told them that we were definitely interested and asked them to email us some pictures. Since we wouldn't normally be getting these things this early in the process (we don't even have a garage to keep anything in at this moment), we weren't on top of pricing and wanted to check that out also. Anyway, they emailed us the pictures on Thursday, we got back to the guys on Monday and then were told, "Oops!" Too late. They had already made an agreement to sell the equipment to another guy in the area. They apparently hadn't heard back (those 4 interminably long weekend days) and thought we weren't interested. Reality - these guys are complete spazzes! I mean what the heck?!

Greg fired off this scathing email. (Don't email angry, kids!) Nothing rude or mean - just very to the point and rather... terse. The sort of thing that pointed out in no uncertain terms how disappointed (disapproving) in the whole situation we are. It really made me cringe to read it.  ("I understand that it is difficult to pass up cash in hand, but it would seem as though a simple phone call would not have been asking too much..." etc., etc.)  It was just spot on. The guy ended up calling that night and apologizing. He explained that he was anxious to get rid of the equipment before they left for an overseas trip next week. They wrote it off as an unfortunate misunderstanding/miscommunication, but I still think that the guy is just a complete spazz! (For more insight on their spazziness, stay tuned for a future post in which we recount the process by which we ended up buying this bit of land.  A veritable study in capriciousness.)  I appreciate that he did the right thing by apologizing. Now we can carry on with whatever relationship we will have as neighbors. However, I can guarantee that we will be wary in dealing with them in the future.

In the end, it is a disappointment that we will miss out on getting some very nice, slightly used equipment, but we aren't going to dwell on it. The timing probably wasn't the best and something else will come along. All of this will be much easier to arrange when we can do it in person - not over emails and telephone conversations.

Building and bores

We talked with the TDC (Tasman District Council - those in charge of consents) about our property, hence the title of this post. Sounds like putting in a residential bore should be no problem - 5 cu meters a day. That's heaps of water! Plus, we are thinking that we would want to get a storage tank to fill up and use as a water bank. Running out of water absolutely sucks. I've been there (when a certain little someone left a behind-the-shed hose running... for days!) and would prefer to never do it again. Unfortunately, a bore for irrigation use might be more of a problem, but we'll get ourselves on the waiting list and hope for the best.

You don't need to irrigate grapes, but they would produce more quickly if we did. The expense of a bore would certainly pay for itself if we were able to get a decent harvest a year earlier. The other concern is water for filling the spray tank... and rinsing off equipment. Lots of water is good. Very good.

Now, for the building part... Because our site is zoned as Rural 1, we are allowed one residential unit and one sleepout. A sleepout is defined as 36m2 or less with no cooking facilities. The guy I talked to suggested that whatever we build initially, we add on to create the final house. this doesn't really appeal to us. We just don't want to be rushed into building our final house. We'll look into things with an architect (when we find one), but are trying to think up other solutions. In the end, we would love to have our proper house with an unattached office/sleepout/"man cave". Maybe we could build the sleepout, along with a lockable garage (for the extra furniture) and set up a separate kitchen unit that could be dismantled later on. Any ideas?

Getting to know the neighbors

The previous owners of the olive property (and our future neighbors) called yesterday morning. I guess they are getting out of farming completely. (Although, I don't know how much into farming they were. We heard that they are both doctors.) At any rate, they are going to be selling off some equipment (tractors, etc.) and wanted to know if we were at all interested. Uh... yes!

It sounds like they have taken very good care of their equipment - and I would believe it to look at how they babied their olive trees. So, it could turn out to be a great deal for us. Everything is suited more for olives, which would have larger spacing than vine rows. However, Greg said that traditionally, vine row spacing was determined by the tractor width. Since we are developing the vineyard, we could make the vine spacing fit our purposes... even though narrow-spaced vines are all the rage at the moment. It is something Greg will certainly look into at any rate.

They also offered to let us look at the house plans that they had designed for the site. They were planning on something like 6 bedrooms, 6 baths. (!!) A bit more than what we would want, but there is an off chance that it might turn out to be something we could modify. Again, definitely something to look into.

It sounds like they are planning to put in rentals on their land across the street. One of these units could be perfect for us until we get something to live in on our property. On top of that, they offered Greg a spare room in case he comes down early to get the ball rolling on our site. There is so much to do. We've been thinking that it might make sense for Greg to go down and get some things sorted before the big move. All of this is just so helpful. These guys seem so very nice - they will make lovely neighbors.

(Fortunately, someone seems to have told them that we are planning to put in grapes. We were feeling a bit sheepish about them finding out how we plan to pull out all the olives that they put in.)

40 lovely acres

Here's a few pictures of the property as promised.


This first is an aerial photo with the location and direction of the following pics noted. We're all of Lot 2, the house site is where following pics 2 & 3 (blue circles) were taken from.



This is taken from the lower NE corner of the property looking back up to the house site (the mound to the right of the lone tree). From there, there's a bit of a ridge running to the NW corner which divides the property into W & E slopes.




Taken from house site looking NNE at the E slope. The house on the far left shows the NW corner of the property. The ocean's just on the other side of the far range of hills



Also from the house site, the W slope looking along the ridge. (That's the same house from above, now on the right.) George Harvey Rd. runs through the bottom of the wee valley. Our land is the green bits. Anyone wanna' buy some baby olive trees?



We'll save the best shot, looking to the mountain ranges to the West, for when we get a shot on a nice clear day.

Starting a vineyard, starting a blog

We bought a property and are starting our own vineyard! 40 acres of gently sloping loveliness just a couple miles down the road from where we lived before (Upper Moutere). A lot is happening. It is extremely exciting and more than a bit terrifying at the same time.

Right now it has a bunch (2500) of year old olive trees on it and a small (useless) damn - no house. We currently have our Napier house on the market and will move down there to rent once we sell. The plan is to build a small (kit?) cottage to live in for the first 3 or 4... or probably 5 years. We want to focus more on getting grapes in and established. It will take around 3 years before they produce a harvestable crop. Once we start getting an income from the grapes, then we can build a larger house. The cottage can then become an office or sleepout for when family comes to visit. : )

Greg and I decided that it would be a good idea to start a blog so that family and friends could keep track of what was happening. Feel free to comment at will. Advice is always appreciated.