Kiwibloke grew up in the Hutt Valley, Silverstream to be exact. The Hutt Valley runs from the Rimutakas in the north and Wellington Harbour to the south.  When KB was young, on the weekends we would pack the family into the Holden Stationwagon and head over the Rimutakas into the Wairarapa Valley and visit the cheese factory and go fruit picking in Greytown. We would wind up picnicking in Cape Ferry  before returning back to the Hutt Valley with our spoils Sunday evening.

To get to Cape Ferry you need to go through the small town of Martinborough. Back in my youth it was a small farming town with literally one pub and a fish and chip shop. Today Martinborough is the hub of the wine industry in Wairarapa with such famous Vineyards as the Te Kairanga. It is here where Jared and his partner make their home.

Here is Jared’s Guest Post. You can read more at Moon over Martinborough blog.

Internationally there has been much said and written about expatriates buying old olive groves, vineyards and farm houses in Provence or Tuscany and making new lives for themselves. Less attention has been directed towards similar activities on the opposite side of the planet, in New Zealand.

In 2006 my partner and I, both expat American city boys, finally stopped globetrotting and landed on 20 acres with an olive grove in the Wairarapa valley.

We’d thrived for years on the city life of Chicago and then Tokyo, loved visiting Paris and Shanghai and Bangkok. But suddenly there we were, settling down outside the rural wine and olive village of Martinborough, somewhere on a remote island in the South Pacific, cattle and sheep grazing all around us.

Our friends thought we’d lost it completely. Surprised emails came from London and Tokyo and Sydney. “What are you thinking?” they asked. One friend wrote from Los Angeles, “Wow. It sounds so Brokeback Mountain.”

What the Wairarapa offers

When you drive up over the Rimutaka Hill Road from Wellington and catch your first glance of the Wairarapa valley, it’s obvious that this place is something special. Green farmlands spread in every direction, mountains to the west and rugged beaches to the east.

As you drive down into the valley, you enter South Wairarapa. It’s this part of the valley I love most, with its population of 9,000 people, 468,000 sheep, and almost 100,000 cows.

The vineyards started popping up in the 1980s after a government report indicated that the area had similar soil and climate to some of the renowned French wine-producing regions. The olive groves followed soon after the vineyards. Now, in the South Wairarapa alone, there are 594 hectares (1,468 acres) of grapes and 100 hectares (247 acres) of olives.

The towns in the South Wairarapa are small and charming. Featherston is a sleepy village at the base of the Rimutakas, and Greytown has great shops and an excellent baker. But it’s Martinborough that snagged my heart.

Our Own Slice of Heaven

Moving here was my partner’s idea, and I admit that at first I too was skeptical. Nevertheless, on a sunny spring day three years ago, I agreed to come and see the property he’d fallen in love after he spent time in the Wairarapa for work.

We were living in Wellington at the time, and we drove over the Rimutaka Hill Road for a day trip. As soon as I saw that olive grove, I was hooked.

Imagine this: someone stands you in front of the most peaceful olive grove you have ever seen, sheep grazing under the silvery-green branches, and they say to you, “Let’s take care of this. Let’s make this ours. Let’s live in paradise.” Who could say no? Certainly not me.

So here we are three years later, two American city boys in rural New Zealand, and we’re having the time of our lives. We’re learning about olive trees and what makes good oil, about how to raise our own chickens, and about how fantastic it is to have helpful, kind neighbours.

I can understand why the current economic downturn has been bringing overseas Kiwis back home. What I don’t understand is a bit more baffling. Why did they ever leave?

Additional Links

• I saw that olive grove
• Learning about olive trees
• How to raise our own chickens
• Helpful, kind neighbours

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