New Zealand Life

Introductory Issue 2012

Emerald Vista Equestrian Ranch (EVER) is located at 2215 South Head Road near the town of Helensville, approximately an hour’s drive from the Auckland City Center and the Auckland International Airport. The property resides on the South Head Peninsula which lies between the Kaipara Harbor and Tasman Sea. The property is made up of 150 acres (65 hectares) of lush green rolling hills and seven ponds. The top of this majestic land reveals a stunning 270° view of the deep blue Kaipara Harbor and beautiful EVER estate. And this is where we intend to live happily EVER-after.

The earthworks for our farm (EVER) have just recently been completed. Though my mom is still working with the architect (Alistair Watt) on the EVER plans, the general excavation is finally complete. When we first immigrated to New Zealand, our property was a land full of grass and cow-tracks. Now, the estate had changed immensely. We have a scenic driveway from our gate to the house site. Then, directly in front is the house pad and to the left are the inset round pen and the barn site. Just behind the area for these buildings, yet in front of the small mound of dirt on the edge of the hill, is EVER Avenue. This avenue goes off to the left and passes a steep slope with shrubs planted on the side of the slope. At the bottom of this slope is a drainage area that borders the EVER jumping arena, that looks down on a magnificent view of the Kaipara Harbor. A small path to the left slopes down and away from the avenue into this arena. Even farther down the avenue is a larger path veering off left from EVER Avenue. This avenue leads to another passage to the jumping arena (to the left), or to the dressage arena (to the right). To the left of the avenue and only a few steps away from the dressage arena resides EVER Pond, which is planned to have a boat dock, gazebo, and row boat.

The avenue then continues through a gate and down a moderately steep hill, where it splits into two directions: left or right. To the left is the farthest paddock on the property. To the right, the avenue continues through another gate and down a slightly sloping dirt path. At the bottom of this path, the avenue fades into the grass giving the option of going left, to the orchard; straight, to the meadow barn, the meadow riding arena, and the duck pond; or right, to yet another different grassy path to a different paddock. This area is called "the meadow". The orchard contains nearly 70 fruit trees of various kinds such as macadamia, grapefruit, apples, peaches, oranges, limes, avocados, cherimoyas, etc. The area is tucked in between trees for extra shelter. In order to keep the animals out, the orchard is deer fenced and hot-wired. On the other side of the meadow are the meadow barn, riding arena, and duck pond. The barn is positioned about 2 meters from the fenced-in riding arena. The barn contains two horse stalls, two garages, a tack room, an office, and a wood veranda. At the far end of the arena, is the duck pond. This is the pond where the ducklings I raised are now living.

In order to keep the grass nicely mowed, we have a herd of cattle. They are currently being rebred in the back paddock. We started off with 30 cows. In August of 2011, we had one baby and in early September (2011), four more babies. One calf was dead when it was born, and another died at a few days old. The three calves remaining were all boys. Since we wanted to increase our breeding herd, we traded our steers for our neighbor, Don Nichols’, heifers (female calves that haven’t given birth). We then bought ten steers (heifers weren’t available) to help eat the copious amounts of lush grass down. These heifers and steers are now munching on the grass in the meadow area. The rest of our herd (the cows, a bull, and 25 calves) are continuing to demolish the grass in the back paddock.

Over the year, we have obtained farm vehicles in order to get around and maintain the property. Our first vehicle for the farm was much needed: a four-wheel-drive Polaris Ranger. The Ranger is red with black seats and a tipping trunk. We also have a red mower that we can connect onto the Ranger. Our next farm vehicle was our "ute" or silver Toyota Hilux truck. The truck, granted the name “Hile”, is occasionally used to help us get up and down the hills on the property when it’s either too cold or rainy to use the Ranger. We mostly use the ute in order to carry things that are too heavy or big for Mom’s little car or the Ranger. After the truck, we purchased a Kubota tractor that stays in the meadow barn. The tractor has a sunshade, connect-on forks, and a connected Fieldmaster mower. Lately, we have also bought two more mowers. One is a Husqvarna ride-on mower, and the other is a red FireBrand push mower.

On May 11, 2012 we moved from the Omana (Shelly Beach) rental home we were staying in to a new home we had recently bought. Our new home is located at 120 Webber Road (off South Head Rd), a few minutes down from EVER. The Webber road property has five acres and four different beautiful views of the Kaipara Harbor. The house contains four bedrooms, a medium-size living room that links to the kitchen; there are also a dining room, den, and two bathrooms (one’s in the master suite). A long hall way runs through the whole house and connects to the main rooms. Outside, there is a playhouse with swings, a garden, two water tanks, large flower beds, and fenced paddocks in the front and back. I weeded out the garden, and have recently planted vegetables. We also trimmed up the sloppy-looking flower beds, and planted some fruit trees. Currently, we have a barn being built in the paddock so we can house horses. The concrete and rafters have just been finished, and the builders are continuing to work on it. The barn will have two horse stalls, a tack room, and a hay/feed storage room.

When we moved to New Zealand, we decided not to bring any of our pets, except Jess Valentine Stephens. Jess is our 2 year-old Yorkshire Terrier. She was born on December 12, 2009, and we got her the day after Valentine’s Day. She was named Jess Valentine, because she was Mom’s Valentine’s present from Dad. Despite that “Yorkies” aren’t considered the smartest breed of dogs, Jess has shown that she is extremely intelligent. She very quickly learned the basic come, sit, stay, and roll over commands; she also knows crawl (she crawls on the floor on her stomach), and hide (she puts her paw on the nose). She is very affectionate and protective of her household and was surprisingly sweet with the next three furry family members.

These members are my ducks, affectionately known as my "duckettes". They are my three little Pekin ducklings Peanut, Butter, and Jelly (AKA PB&J) who were born on December 4, 2011. They were spoiled beyond a doubt and brought up on dog food rather than bird feed. Peanut turned out to be a male, and Butter and Jelly females. They now live happily “EVER” after at the pond by the meadow barn and riding arena.

The third pet we acquired was Jaynee. Jaynee is a beautiful black & white Border Collie. She was born on October 30, 2011 and was only 7 ½ weeks old when we got her. She is very smart and knows the commands sit, stay, shake, and roll over. We’ve begun to bring her to the farm just recently and have started training her how to herd the cattle.

After Jaynee, we got Callie, our Devin Rex kitten. Callie will be turning one on November 14 of this year. She is a special bred of cat in that she only has an undercoat, therefore she doesn’t shed. She is extremely affectionate and will sometimes curl up in someone’s lap, purring, and fall asleep as they pet her.

Jess, Jaynee, and Callie get along very well together. Jess is the boss and most spoiled; Jaynee is the most rambunctious and rough; Callie is the most troublesome. They play together very often and are all loved very much for their own special personalities.

Our last (but definitely not least!) pets are my five chickens. They were born on July 13, 2012, and are only a week old now. I got one gold- and four silver-laced Wyandottes for my birthday, and have decided to name them after gems. We’ve finally decided on the names Tanzanite (Tanzy), Citron (gold-laced chicken), Pearl, Amethyst, and Jasper (Jazz).

We are preparing for our next addition... I have offered to raise and bottle feed orphan lambs. It is a lot of work but very rewarding.

Check our website newsletter monthly as I will be in charge of keeping all our friends and family up to date on "New Zealand LIFE”!

~ Julia ~