A Pull to the Country

In 2016, when we started trying for a baby, I was working in early childhood education as a kaiako in Te Puke and conceiving just wasn’t happening naturally. Life felt really unfair – I was doing everything right and I still couldn’t get pregnant. When I fell pregnant with my daughter in my first year of uni, I wasn’t even trying. But when I was in a space where I had my career, my home, my husband – like, why wasn’t it happening?

When I did finally fall pregnant through IVF, I always had this vision that I wanted to raise a more natural baby. Being a young mum with my daughter, I didn’t have a lot of money – we always got by, but I just wanted everything to be a bit more conscious this time. When our son, Nikora, was about three months old, we had a really traumatic loss in the family, and that made me look at my life and realise the life I was living just wasn’t for me.

One day, I opened a random real estate spam email, and it had a Pyes Pa lifestyle block. I just had this pull, so I called the agent straight away! The property was going to auction in three days. Our home wasn’t even on the market, but I just needed to go and see it. The house was super rundown and mouldy – but there was something pushing me to move to the country, pulling me to that land; it didn’t matter what our life circumstances were, we were moving.

Within three days we’d spoken to a lawyer and somehow got all the checks done. My husband was like, “Babe, what are you doing?” But I just knew I had to keep going. I googled what to do at auctions, and it said to be confident, set your budget and be first – so I went with those three tactics, and somehow, we got the house – for below the asking price. We just looked at each other and had a quick laugh – we couldn’t believe it!

Our son was only six months at the time, but he’s been raised here ever since – he’s a real country kid. The way he lives is just so free. We had to change our lives; it was a tough adjustment – but for him, it’s all he knows. My daughter struggled in the beginning, she was used to being close to neighbourhood friends and regular visits from friends and family. When you’re in the depths of it, and there’s money going, just boom, boom, boom, there were absolutely moments where we were like “That nice new house, that warm house would be so good right now!” But you’ve just got to hold the vision – trust the process.

We’ve finished the house now; we’ve done the big change over to rain water; we’ve cleared nineteen skip bins of rubbish; we’re in our third season of having our own lambs; we have a flourishing garden and we’ve planted 340 native trees. I knew how to garden – my mum and my nana always gardened. They didn’t teach me how, but I was always drawn to it. Last year I did a certificate in organic gardening, and that really helped.

I love it here, I’m obsessed with this place. We’ve been on this journey for three and a half years now, and for me, what started out as all so new, is just our normal life. When we moved here, I felt this was a place of healing, and it has been for me. I’ve been able to come here and just be.