About

We stumbled across this Ōpaheke property in early 2024.  It needed a bit of love (work), but we were not fazed at the time as the potential offered by the one year old barn opened the door to many possibilities. After a bit of deliberating Sherron and I decided to make an offer that was accepted.  

Then the rush was on to sell our existing home and take on the HQ project. We moved in on 14 August 2024.  Our initial enthusiasm was dimmed by the amount of new work identified in the house before we even got to start clearing the barn!  Thankfully after that season of house repairs passed, a few addicts turned up and helped (forced) us to get stuck into the deconstruction required, did some light cleaning and taped the floor - within two days we were playing game #1.

Having been the sounding board for many court building and resurfacing queries, the pressure was on to get this one as close to perfect as possible within the barn constraints.  A few regular addicts put up with sub-optimal (rough) conditions and played with enthusiasm as we worked out the best court placement while at the same time fixing the many issues that the space presented.

Early December 2024 Jules from Plexipave turned up and confirmed we had the place ready to go.  The Plexipave team started immediately and in two days the court was painted.  A seemingly long four days of no play and just looking at the surface followed - but it did give us time to sort out the small jobs that still needed to be done. The before and after pictures tell it all!

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Over the past few months, we have been hard at work turning around the garden by starting to add colour.  Prior to our move we started to take many cuttings from the established garden we had developed in Mission Heights.  This certainly helped as the number of plants needed to make an impact would have added a great expense.  Our appreciation to our friends who generously gave plants from their own gardens to help us get ahead.  The quick explosion of colour has certainly given us a boost to do more.

Putting and small orchard out front gave the space some character. Now that we have the trees showing good growth after these first 8 months, we can settle into the routine of maintenance for that area.

Our enthusiastic first visitors will remember - with no fondness - the driveway which initially looked fantastic, but quickly deteriorated into a challenging uphill exit all the way past the gate!  We always told our visitors to keep momentum, don't worry about the wheel spins and mind the large rock that poked out in the driveway like an iceberg!    One visitor in particular stands out as they required some of the players to push their car while they navigated the ruts and slippery conditions to make their way to the road!  Thankfully, that is all in the past.  Tony's team at Classique Landscapers produced an outstanding result in contouring the new driveway and parking space for our visitors.

The forest area behind the house remains a work in progress, but we were able to have an Easter egg hunt for the grandkids when we celebrated our first Easter at #67.  We're looking forward to some time to explore the beautiful stand of mature stand of Kahikatea trees that is full of birdlife.  This will require more than just Sherron and myself as there are no paths - we'll be putting the paths in as we walk (take this as an invitation)!