Hidden Oasis
At the end of a long, meandering, tree-lined driveway, past an eclectic collection of homes and well-established gardens, is a hidden oasis.
Words: Jo Bailey Images: Supplied by Essence Magazine
As you approach the property, the buildings appear first. A towering Mediterranean-style home, complete with turret, is linked by a covered walkway to a small, funky wooden studio. An atrium attached to the studio opens into the covered walkway, but all that is visible through the coloured glass in the front door is an external curved stone wall. It is immediately apparent this place is special. And when the promise of what lies behind that wall is revealed, it is breathtaking.
Grape vines hang off a pergola attached to the main house. There is an expanse of manicured lawn, leading to a pond surrounded by lush, tropical plantings and overlooked by ‘The Love Shack’ a small hut with a deck sitting right on the water’s edge. Pathways and streams wind around the extensive, native-filled garden, which includes a mini beech forest, hostas, and ferns, and has things like roses, hydrangeas, bird of paradise, and bright geraniums in pots, to provide pops of colour. Spiky cacti, braziers, bubbling small ponds, a fire pit and an outdoor bath add to the garden’s character and charm. There are many places to pause, reflect, and enjoy a new perspective on every aspect of this tranquil, private and calm space.
So where is this piece of paradise? What is almost impossible to believe is that this garden is right in the heart of Rangiora, with the bustling main thoroughfare of Ivory Street, just metres away.
The development of this magical garden is testament to a 35 year labour of love by Gerald Horton, and his late wife Rosie.
They came to Rangiora in 1985, as a young couple in search of “the good life”. What they found was a one-and-three-quarter acre property, which was bare land, apart from several tunnel houses filled with table grapes. Gerald had already started a signwriting business in Christchurch but planned to leave that behind to run the established table grape business instead. “We hadn’t done our homework very well and quickly realised that growing table grapes was a dying industry in New Zealand. I had to get back into signwriting pretty much straight away.”
Gerald and Rosie moved a bus onto the property and lived in it with their two young sons, Mat and Nick. “I told Rosie I’d build a house in six to 12 months, but it ended up going on hold because I had to build a sign shop first. The Love Shack was the first building we built on the property. It was supposed to be a studio for the business, but it was way too small, so I operated from a little shed down at the neighbour’s market garden, Costessy, instead.” For three years, the family lived in the bus while they built their first house on the property, a board and batten home, not far from the Ivory Street entrance to the property.
“It was amazing in the summertime, as the boys would pitch tents under the grape vines or around the property. In winter time we would all be back in the bus, which didn’t have a scrap of insulation. It snowed during our last winter and was like living in an ice box.”
The family lived in their new home for seven years, with truckloads of shingle brought in to form a driveway. “It was like driving up the Ashley River bed for many years, as we couldn’t afford to have it properly done at that stage.”
With the tunnel houses gone, apart from the ‘Grape House’ (later home to some of the Horton’s legendary parties) Gerald had a vision for the property, which included later subdividing sections off for other homes, and developing the north end of the section for his family. ‘I started working with John Archer of Earthworks to plan out the driveway and gardens around the house and to figure out where to develop the waterways, and plant mature trees to provide windbreaks around the property. Everything followed this landscape plan. I think it is important to have a vision, and not just plant a tree somewhere because someone gives it to you.”
When they sold the board and batten house, Gerald and Rosie moved into a small one-bedroom wooden studio they had built at the north end of the property as a temporary home, while their forever home was being built. “I told Rosie it would be a couple of years before we built our dream home. In the end it was 13 years before we moved in. She never minded and was so patient.”
The house, designed by local architect Robin White, is as unique as the highly creative couple. It looks like it would be just as much at home in Tuscany as in the middle of Rangiora. One beloved aspect is the ‘loggia’ as Rosie referred to it, the Italian word for a covered exterior gallery or corridor. The loggia houses a massive table where many big sheltered outdoor dinners have been enjoyed. A room at the top of the home’s turret and balconies off the upstairs master bedroom all provide sweeping views of
the garden.
While he did all of the ‘heavy lifting’ when it came to the establishment of the garden, it was Rosie who was the main gardener, says Gerald. Her love of gardening is never far from his mind during the many hours he spends each week maintaining and continuing to develop the property. “I still follow her advice, especially when it comes to weed control. I’d get told off if I pulled a weed. She always insisted on using a carving knife to make sure all the roots came out as well. Her mantra was ‘one year’s seeds, seven years’ weeds’, and it drove me on when I took over the gardening.”
Gerald also has a large vegetable garden, a glasshouse growing exotic fruits such as passionfruit, tamarillos and grapes, and a nursery where he propagates plants, mostly to give away. “So much of our garden has come from cuttings shared from other peoples’ gardens, and I’m continuing that tradition on.”
He is known by some neighbours as the ‘Frog Man’ due to the sound of the New Zealand native tree frogs on the property. “Sometimes their chorus goes on all night and what a beautiful sound it is. Makes you really feel that you are out in the bush somewhere.”
Gerald loves to share the garden with others, and it has been the backdrop to many impromptu gatherings, parties, and organised events over the years, including youngest son Nick’s wedding, back in 2011. “It was a thrill to host the wedding here and the place looked wonderful for it. Rosie did every bit of the catering herself, just like she did for all of the functions we held here. She was the best hostess. Like her mother, Rosie was also the matriarch of our family and was a stickler for keeping everyone together.”
One of Gerald’s favourite parts of the garden is on the steps of The Love Shack. “I love sitting there and looking across the pond – it’s so restful.”
A pepper tree in the east of the garden was one of Rosie’s favourite spots and is where her ashes were laid to rest. “Rosie was so wonderful and artistic, and it is sad she hasn’t been around these last eight years to enjoy our family, home and garden. I talk to her often about how proud she would be.”